I mentioned this in a previous blog, but yesterday I had several babysitting kiddos here, along with my own three children. Well, how do you keep that many kids occupied? Besides bundling them all up and letting them play in the snow for awhile, you also bust out the arts and crafts.
I know I've said it before, but let me say it again. I admire teachers. I really, really do. You must all have the patience of Saints or something. Or have learned how to carefully conceal your own spiked water bottle, or something. Trying to organize arts and crafts is about as exciting as wrestling with a very angry crocodile. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE arts and crafts and all things creative, but the thought of throwing MULTIPLE children into the mix....eh...not so exciting.
Once I had everything prepared (which you know in hind sight, if I had organized everything the night BEFORE all my babysitting kids were it would have been MUCH easier, but then I probably would have been up till one in the morning, and that just didn't seem appealing to me)! So I just went with the flow and prepared things 30min before we needed them.
Regardless of how disorganized the craft started out, it was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast and created some really cute gingerbread people. I even read them a book called "The Gingerbread Girl" by Lisa Campbell Ernst This is a favorite book of my children every Christmas, and we always do a little Gingerbread craft. Usually it's an edible craft, but this year I decided to go with a different approach.
The kids had fun choosing the color they wanted their Gingerbread person to be, and then plastering it with glue, pom pom balls, googly eyes, and strips of paper and whatever else they could come up with. I loved seeing how creative each of the kids were. It kept them busy for about 45min and then the rest of the day their little art projects had to dry. Which when you use THAT much glue...can take awhile.
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| They were all concentrating very hard on creating the perfect Gingerbread person! |
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| K-ster stopping to be a silly goose |
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| Mars hamming it up for the camera! |
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| Little Miss Kams sitting pretty! |
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| The Gingerbread Army! Ok so I guess 5 ginger bread people don't make a very good army... |
The babysitting kiddos got to take their little creations home at the end of the day, and I hung my children's Gingerbread people up around the dining room table for us to enjoy during Christmas.
Our army of Gingerbread people were ready to go! Wuhahaha!! We shall take over Christmas with our army of Gingerbread.
After the kids had crafted for awhile, and the youngest kiddo was down for her nap, I let the older kids bundle up and go outside and play for awhile.
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| Mars in the snow |
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| K-ster and that big smile! |
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| Kams making a snow angel. |
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| Naptime in the snow? I think not. |
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| Gearing up for a snow ball fight, only to find to their dismay the snow was not snowball making material. |
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| RUUUUN!!!!!! |
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| Kams and one of my babysitting kids wrestling in the snow. |
After time spent in the snow, it was time to come in and enjoy some hot cocoa to warm up frozen fingers. You are never too old to play in the snow, it's always one of my favorite things to do!
Mae
