Playing (& Eating) With Colors

Tonight Charlotte asked if we could play a game before we read stories.  Thinking quick and with dessert on my mind I told her we could play color sorting!  I happen to have a stash of Sixlets candies in my baking pantry so we grabbed those and some small colored bowls and were off…

We started doing straight color sorting – orange, red, green.  Then we each choose a color and sorted only those colors.  Then we tried to show her how to make patterns but that really did not interest her – at that point all she wanted to do was EAT as many as she could fit in her mouth.  :)

 

Wayne came up with a great idea to have Charlotte find things in her room that were green, red and orange.  She did a really good job with this and we could tell she liked the adventure of looking for things.  At one point I told her that I was going to give her some clues to find something that was orange.  We went through all kinds of clues: it was orange AND white, fluffy, pretty big, polka dot…she was so excited when she discovered what I was talking about was her orange pillow.  Charlotte jumped up on her bed, grabbed it and started waving it around. 

Finally, we turned her attention to cleaning up her room and found one of Charlotte’s spoons from her play kitchen.  With that discovery Charlotte started using the spoon to scoop Sixlets from one bowl to the other.  Sometimes we had her do this trying to fill the spoon up, other times we challenged her to do it one at a time. 

It’s funny how a made up game on the fly can turn into something educational AND fun!  Plus she got to eat A LOT of candy…what’s not to like.

Then it was story time….

Giddy Up Ducky

Tonight after dinner, while Wayne and I were still sitting at the dinner table talking, Charlotte decided she wanted to take a ride on her rocking horse.  After a while we looked over and she had Ducky (now known sometimes as Lucy) riding the horse and she was telling him/her to “Hold On, Hold On”.  She then took the bridle and dragged him/her around the kitchen for a ride.  Every once in a while Charlotte would stop to adjust Ducky and tell him/her again to “Hold On”!  It was too cute.

You may notice the bandage Charlotte has on her knee.  Yesterday she fell (while running away from Nanny – when Charlotte was supposed to be walking WITH Nanny!!!!) pretty badly and ended up with some scrapes and her first real injury, a skinned knee.  She has been whiny and milking it a little but also pretty brave considering this is new to her.  Last night after Wayne cleaned her knee up with some hydrogen peroxide, she told us it was “stinging” but didn’t cry….then anyway.    

Message From Santa

Check out this message to Charlotte from Santa

Grandma’s (Annual) Christmas Cookie Party

This afternoon Charlotte and I headed over to my mom’s house for a cookie decorating party with my sister, Sancha, and my nephews, Jacob & Brennan.

Grandma started the party by giving the kids Christmas aprons she made for each of them. They loved having their own baking gear and the aprons are SO cute.

Next she got Brennan and Charlotte involved in separating the mini M&Ms by color….quite a few never made it to the separating stage as these two were eating them faster than we could stop them!

While that was going on Sancha and I were rolling out the dough that our Mom prepared and making icing. Once we had individual trays ready the kids sat down with Grandma to make Reindeer Cookies.

All the kids did really well making their cookies, adding eyes, noses and antlers. My favorite was a cookie of Jacob’s that had no less than seven antlers. :)

When the cookies were ready Jacob, with help from his mom, put his in the oven to bake.

Then we got the kids started on the Melted Snowmen cookies. Sancha and I melted the marshmallow heads then Jacob was able to help me with the initial icing of the cookies.

We then let each kid add eyes, noses, buttons and arms to each cookie.

Charlotte got A LITTLE (that’s an understatement) preoccupied with the gumdrops Grandma used to make the noses! She was eating them SO fast that she had one in hand ready to go before she’d swallowed the last one!

After many hours of decorating fun, the kids (fueled with candy energy) ran around Grandma’s house turning her Christmas decorations into toys. I am not sure she ever found all of her Nesting Santas (think Russian Nesting Dolls). The kids really enjoyed discovering the next smallest Santa and then hiding him!!!! They also each took turns treating her very extensive nativity scene like a GI Joe war camp. At one point Brennan and Charlotte had the camels (with riding Wise Men, no less) tromping ALL OVER the house – luckily Grandma was a good sport about this injustice!

Don’t even ask about the tree ornaments….

Somewhere in the middle of all of that madness my amazing sister managed to make dozens of cookies for her friends and Neighbors!

I am so glad my Mom decided to do this for her grandkids, Sancha and I. Baking with my mom is such a huge part of Christmas for me and I am happy that it can now be part of Charlotte’s Christmas memories too. Everyone had a GREAT time; I hope my not-so-subtle hits to make this an ANNUAL event were noted! Thanks Mom!

Preschool Christmas Gifts

Tonight, after dinner, Wayne and I let Charlotte open gifts she received from her teachers and classmates. She had a blast and we had to have quick hands to keep her from eating everything in site! What a generous class she has, and so creative! Although, she LOVED all of the gifts I have to say her favorites were the candy canes and gummy Christmas tree pop! Thank you to her teachers and classmates, Charlotte was thrilled to receive her gifts and was so excited to say “Daddy, this is from Jackson” etc. as if we didn’t just read the card to her! :) It might surprise you to know that even in a candy frenzy, Charlotte was very generous and made sure that Wayne and I each had some candy too!

One of her teachers, Mrs. Cannaday, gave the kids puzzles for Christmas so we decided to work on that while we ate candy canes. Charlotte did a really good job and needed very little help, Wayne and I were both so surprised and impressed!