Ellie and Abby

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Ellie giggled and giggled Friday morning because she was sooooo excited about her big field trip. The Martin students got to ride the school bus to Brookhaven Elementary to perform in a Christmas program!

They practiced Christmas carols with Mr. Nick, a parent volunteer, for several weeks leading up to the big concert and it really showed -- they sang beautifully and with so much enthusiasm.

Up on a housetop. . . ! Even the hand motions were great! Thank you, precious children, for a wonderful program! We loved every minute of it.

More class crafts!

Last week, Annie's mom and I visited Ellie's class for another quick Christmas craft. This time we made snow scenes since there was a 20% chance of snow that day (it didn't snow, much to our dismay!). We gave the children a quick lesson on cutting lacy paper snowflakes. They glued the snowflakes to construction paper and decorated around them with crayons and foam snowmen stickers.

Ellie's letter to Santa is posted outside her classroom. All the children in her school wrote letters and they're going to be printed in the local newspaper soon!

Milk & Cookies With Santa

We look forward to Milk & Cookies with Santa every year! It's one of our favorite Christmas traditions and such a fun night for the children. Ellie and Abby made snow, reindeer food and nativity scenes.

Abby was NOT loving Santa. Poor thing. Ellie was such a sweet big sister to hold Abby's hand while they posed with the jolly guy.

They wrote and mailed their letters to Santa.

They loved the snow machine! And the personalized balloons!

We finished out the evening with cookies & milk, of course. Anna joined us for the tasty treat.

A quick hug from Elf Ansley on our way out.

Christmas prep!

Ellie made this adorable gingerbread house Wednesday night at church. My favorite part is the archway over the front walk. So creative! She carefully carried it home and it's in a place of honor in our living room (and it just might be missing a few pieces -- I caught Abby very closely admiring it and she had gumdrop breath!).

The girls and I so excited for a month of fun Christmas activities and crafts!!

A group of crafty ladies in our church got together to do a Jesse Tree -- each of us made 26 ornaments. I chose the Nativity. Ellie helped me come up with the design for my ornaments. Then there was a party to exchange their assigned ornament so each crafter ended up with a complete set for their trees. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the Jesse Tree party but I do have my whole set of ornaments. They are all beautiful and creative!

Our home is beginning to fill with Christmas cheer. We have 3 trees -- our family tree in the living room and a pink tree in each of the girls' rooms. Here Ellie is helping Abby with her tree. More decorating photos to follow soon. . .

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Class Crafts!

Yesterday, Annie's mom and I had fun in Ellie's class doing a little Christmas craft. We helped the children create fancy (and tasty!) Christmas trees! They were ice cream cones, upside-down, covered in green icing and decorated with skittle and M&M 'ornaments'.

Isaiah, Trey and Mia

Mmm! Yummy! Pherrell and Cassidy

Annie & Jacob

Ellie's finished product

Abby's tree

Josie

Isaiah

Abby's an honorary member of Mrs. Cox's class. She even brought her backpack! She realllllyy wants to go to school.

Amelia concentrating!

Cutie pie

A few fun shots of Abby . . . because we think she's just sooo cute. . .

Artist Abby!

Recently, Abby discovered Ellie's art easel in the basement and asked me to bring it upstairs so she could paint. (Side note: she said "Mommy! You sooo strong" when I carried it upstairs! Ha ha! So funny!) Painting is now her very favorite activity!! She loves it. The easel is now set up in the dining room and she would paint all day long if I let her. These photos are from a few weeks ago and she's created about 10 works of art since then.