Preschool Teacher Appreciation Party: Cookies

At Charlotte’s preschool the parents throw an appreciation party for the teachers during December. One of the events at the party is a cookie exchange with cookies provided by the parents. I thought I’d share pictures of the cookies I donated for the party.

I made supersized chocolate chip cookies and Smore Bites for variety. I’d come up with Smore Bites for the Teeny Tiny Toddler Thanksgiving Party and since they received such rave reviews thought I’d share them with the teachers too. Anyway, here are some “in the making” and final pictures!

The Sanford Night Parade

Tonight Wayne, Charlotte and I met up with our friends Justin and Holly in Sanford to watch the night parade and have dinner. We did this last year and had an amazing time so we were really looking forward to it!

We decided to have dinner first at our favorite restaurant in Sanford, The Willow Tree. Yummy German food and beer, how can you go wrong? Charlotte does really well with eating the authentic food, as long as we can distract her from the Gummy Bears the serve with kids meals… EVERYONE pitched in to help keep Charlotte on task! Just as we were finishing our dinner the parade started so we quickly settled up and headed out.

The night parade is fantastic and I think the marching bands, and there were several, were our favorite part. I was particularly impressed with a huge middle school band, although I can’t remember which school it was. Charlotte spent much of the parade on either Wayne or Justin’s shoulders clapping, bouncing, waiving and saying Merry Christmas! It was so sweet! She also really liked to point out the dancers that were with the marching bands. I tried to get some pictures of her but she was camera shy and just kept using Ducky up to cover her face! Toward the end of the parade Justin treated us all to hot chocolate from a local vendor that had a neat chili kick. As you can imagine, Charlotte was not much of a fan! :)

What a great night! Since this our second year watching the parade and having dinner at Willow Tree as a group…looks like a tradition the making!!!

M&M: Frosty's Fiesta

This morning Charlotte and I headed out to Chapin Station Park in Winter Garden to celebrate the holidays without M&M friends. Kristin, Maite, and Monica outdid themselves again this year with Frosty’s Fiesta! The kids had a fantastic time playing in the two huge playgrounds, making ornaments, decorating cookies and exchanging secret Santa gifts. The party was really well attended and we were able to see many of our group that are not always able to join us. However, I spent a good portion of my time chasing after Charlotte and did not get many group pictures….




I just loved Charlotte’s independence on the playground equipment, nothing scares her and she HATES for Mama to help her or even stand too close “looking” like I might step in!


However, I really MUST thank Christiana’s Dad, Jamie, for stepping in on two occasions and saving Charlotte’s life before I could get to her. As we all know she is FAST and before I even knew it was almost to the parking lot before I could get to her!!!! Heart attacks aside, we both enjoyed the cookie decorating – my favorite – and although Charlotte would let me direct her a bit, the decorations were all her own and very seriously applied. :)

Story Time Countdown to Christmas

This year, now that Charlotte is old enough to understand, Wayne and I really intend to ramp up the holiday cheer and teach her more about Christmas. One way we are doing that is by creating a Countdown to Christmas Book-A-Night tradition. I started just after Thanksgiving gathering all of the kids Christmas books we have, wrapping them up and numbering them to count down to Christmas. Cheep Dollar Store wrapping paper, books we already own..okay I did buy a few more to round us out, and TADA a tradition is born! As you know, we read to Charlotte EVERY night but this will add an element of fun to each evening.


Tonight, after working on decorating the house, we pulled out the first book (from a basket under the tree, of course) and Charlotte just LOVED opening her present. I don’t think she even realized that it was a book she had read MANY times before! :) I especially liked that we moved story time so that we read by our Christmas tree instead of her bedroom like we usually do. Anyway, we will continue to do this throughout the month…happy holiday reading to everyone!

Christmas Decorating

I am so happy to say that this year we picked out our Christmas tree BEFORE December and, so, it was trimmed and in the house ready to decorate today!!!! For the last few years, with Wayne working holiday hours and the end of the year being a busy time for me at work it seems like we quickly get behind in our decorating. This is always sad for me because everything is rushed and then you don’t get to enjoy the decorations as long as we’d like.

Anyway, this year we made sure to get on the ball and, so, here it is December 1^st and we are already decorating the tree!!!! I really wasn’t feeling well tonight so I mostly wrapped gifts (yep, we even purchased some of our gifts early!) and helped keep Charlotte interested in the process while Wayne worked on the tree with Charlotte. We watched Christmas cartoons, sang some songs and explained the Christmas traditions to Charlotte while we worked. They had a great time and she was SO enthusiastic about getting the tree ready for SANTA.

Best parts of the night for me were:

How seriously Charlotte took helping her dad with the garland and ornaments

Charlotte whispering to her stuffed toy Santa and making him “walk” around the tree saying “Ho, ho, ho”

Charlotte “helping” me wrap gifts

Watching her trying to feed her stuffed toy reindeer a “candy” ornament…and trying to eat it herself!

It really was a great night, Merry Christmas!!!!