Three Years Ago Today...

Our lives were changed forever.
No one could have possibly explained the love I would feel for someone I only just met.
That love has grown and grown.
Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl.  Eva, you are our star!

New Look for the New Year

I hope you have all enjoyed the holidays!  We are taking this week to unwind from all the excitement, unpack the gifts, pack up the decorations and get back into a regular routine.  As you may have noticed, we've been doing some renovations around the lounge.  I hope you like our new look!  There is now a button for you to grab and you can become a fan on Facebook.
We have some changes coming to our theme organization as well for the new year.  Rather than having just weekly themes, we will now have an overarching monthly theme including a new sensory bin each month and a science unit.  The weekly themes will fall under the monthly theme.  Being the crazy planner that I am, I'm excited that I have the entire year mapped out and ready to go!  2011 should be a great year full of exploring, investigating, creating and learning.  I hope you will join us for the adventure!

Merry Christmas

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

May all your Christmas dreams come true!

Reindeer Feed

It takes a lot of energy for reindeer to fly all over the world on Christmas Eve so today we whipped up a snack for them when they stop at our house.  We mixed together some oats, bread crumbs, diced carrots and apples along with some fresh parsley in a container.   (Basically, throw together anything animal-friendly that you have around the house!)

Cover it, shake it up and put aside for Christmas Eve.

(Notice the sticker on her nose?  Ever since she got to dress up like Rudolph at dance- picture above- she has been finding red stickers to put on her nose so that she can be special just like Rudolph.)

We will be sprinkling the feed on the lawn before going to bed so that the reindeer have something to snack on while Santa is busy delivering our gifts.

It's Christmas Time!

We are in the home stretch- it's Christmas week!  We'll be finishing up some of the things we didn't get to last week and trying to squeeze in a few more holiday activities before the big day arrives.

Crafts
Laced Stocking- this will be Eva's first attempt at lacing- we'll see how it goes!

Hand and Footprint Reindeer- Eva's little prints will be transformed into an antlered friend

Cotton Ball Santa- how many cotton ball will we need to make Santa's fluffy white beard?

Activities
Bow Sorting- we'll have fun finding various ways to sort our big collection of gift bows

Jingle Bell Rock- it's not the holidays without some music- we'll have our own Christmas dance party

Cooking
Reindeer Feed- this snack isn't for us but rather for Santa's hoofed helpers

Books