Artgarden's Christmas Party 2007

It's time for another fun Artgarden Montessori gathering! When the children filed in, their voices rang out with a rousing song of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."
Then Mamma and Daddy received a very special card that said, "TOMOM ANDDAD LEIA LEOVE" with some really neat paint stamps on the front in the shape of candy canes, stars, and snowflakes.


And inside the specially decorated gift bag, topped with a really neat shrinky-dink Christmas ornament, . . .

. . . was a beautiful loaf of orange cranberry bread!
And then it was time for a very special craft: Gingerbread Houses (for which we helped supply the candy canes). : ) When I first heard what they were going to do, I leaned over to Brian and whispered, "This is going to be a disaster!" remembering how hard it is to get the sides to stay up with frosting and seeing they were using the store-bought kind and graham crackers. But it turns out that the teachers are, of course, geniuses and created the absolute best activity that I have ever heard of! . . .
The kids each got a tiny milk carton, broke the graham crackers in to squares and then "glued" them on with the frosting! What a great idea!!! (And a great picture of the result is in my next post.)
Here's Leia Rose with Mrs. McDowell who told me another fun tidbit about Leia Rose and her use of language. One day, Leia Rose was watching a flower petal fall and said, "That flower petal fell automatically." Price rolled his eyes and said, "Leia, do you even know what 'automatically' means?" And Leia replied, "Of course I do! It means it fell very quickly!!!"
I had to stick this picture in there, too, . . . this is Ava who was sitting right across from Leia Rose. Ava didn't put a single thing on her gingerbread house. She ate all of it. I couldn't help standing there just laughing while Mamma tried and tried to get Ava to do the craft. She must have a sweet-tooth just like me! Sometimes sweets are just too tempting!

Here is a traditional Artgarden Christmas game all the way from England. It's called "pass-the-parcel" and it's done like hot-potato, with the one who is holding the parcel when the music stops unwrapping yet another layer of wrapping paper. Guess what? Leia Rose got to unwrap the actual gift! It was a new work for the classroom: a magnet work!
And everyone immediately gathered around to see.
Then it was time to snack on the yummy pretzels that the extended day class made. Leia was especially excited that she got to eat one that she actually made! And, of course, here are the three special friends: Leia Rose, Sophia, and Jessica.
And here's a really cute picture of Leia's extended day friend Jessie, and her mom Amy.
And as soon as we took Annie out of the stroller, all she wanted was Mamma. I love Daddy's expression of frustration here coupled with Annie's whine.

And what Artgarden party would be complete without loving your little sister?
Annie had a fun time at the party too (as soon as we let her out of the stroller). She especially enjoyed the ballet studio mirrors.
. . . And looking at other people's shoes, . . . especially these sparkley crocs.
. . . And practicing standing, wanting so much to walk. But the entire time she would stand and flop down. Stand and flop down. Again and again. I still say by Christmas!

And sometimes it's just fun to roll around on the filthy floor. ; )

And finally, here's the example of Annie's standing/flopping, . . . and a special dance from the Sugar Plum Fairy . . .