Tot School – Christmas Time

I know, I know.  It’s January 9th.  But I have time tonight…so here’s the rest of Christmas Tot School:

We read about the legend of the candy cane, learned how the shape & colors of the candy cane help us tell the story of Jesus, and then we made candy cane cookies & fudge to share with a few of our neighbors – along with a poem that tells the story of the candy cane.

This was our first time trying a lacing card.  This one is from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  (We used a shoelace that was in Alex’s drawer…I’ve since bought something more appropriate.)  Honestly, Alex didn’t care…didn’t understand…didn’t even really want to try.

I did catch him attempting it later in the day, but it was still too much of a struggle for him.  I’ll include a lacing card in our activities every once in a while, but he’s not really ready for it yet.

Alex still found size sequencing a bit tricky, but he’s starting to care.  He wants to get it right, and he’s thrilled when he does!

Roll A Nativity Game – This activity came from Musings of Me.   He really enjoyed this game, and I think we’ll have a lot more of these “Roll a ____” activities in the future….good for number recognition AND for fun :)

 

I think this is from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Alex had a more difficult time with the prewriting than usual.  His circles?  UGH!  He seemed to be trying…just one of those off days, I guess!

Another page for our (unfinished) nativity book – this printout came from Musings of Me.  Alex really enjoyed making the angel (in our last Tot School post) and this donkey.  We used the donkey from my Willow Tree nativity to help tell this part of the story.  (Excuse my horrid donkey-shape-cutting skills…this donkey needs the Fit & Trim donkey food, I think!)  We read a really neat Christmas story about the animals at the nativity and (of course) we read from his children’s Bible, as well.  Wish I could get at the box of Christmas books right now to remember the name of the story, but everyone’s sleeping & I’d make a racket! I can’t remember if this one is from 2 Teaching Mommies, but I think it is.  You match the shapes to their shadows.  Alex did this again and again throughout the week! 

And that’s all we’ve got.  We just finished a FUN week of gingerbread activities – including making gingerbread cookies that we ran out of time to decorate! (But we ate the M&Ms, so that counts for something, doesn’t it?!)  

To see what other tots are up to, check out the Tot School post for this week!

Nice To Meet You!

Alex has been learning how to introduce himself to people.  He likes to act shy when he’s around new people, so I’ve been encouraging him to be friendly with others when Mommy & Daddy are with him.

Last weekend, while eating at White Castle, a woman at a nearby table came over to say how adorable and well-behaved our boys are.  (I think she had the wrong table, ha ha!)

Alex looked at her and said, “This is my bruvver Max and I’m me!”

Last night at church, the nursery worker was laughing when I picked up the boys.  Alex had just walked up to her and said, “What’s your name?”

She answered, “I’m Cindy!”

Alex said, “Well, this is my bruvver Max and I’m me!”

So, now that I’ve taught him how to introduce himself, perhaps I should teach him to share his NAME when he does it! ;)

Christmas with Grandma & Papa

December 26th was Christmas, rounds 3 & 4 – the P family and (later in the day) the D relatives joined us!

We started the day with church, then came home for snacks and a nap for the boys.  One again, Alex took a nice nap and Max had a hard time sleeping.  Go figure!

We started with lunch, then opened presents, the the D family joined us for more presents and dinner.  We finished the night with a birthday dessert for Alex – since this was the day he turned THREE!

Our boys sure got spoiled here!  I know I’m confused on who gave us some of the presents because everything was opened so quickly!  Hopefully I’ll remember all of the presents they received…

I know that Alex received a box of Life cereal (since he eats that every time he’s at Annie’s house), a Curious George memory game, a Diggity Dog (or “Diggy The Dog”, as Alex calls it) game, guitar, Cars, plate & bowl, Thomas train tracks and accessories, rain boots, and a remote control car.  We’ve been playing his new games EVERY DAY!

We had lots of fun watching Nana trying out the guitar!

Max received a steering wheel toy, Follow Me Max, B Toys musical instruments in a drum, Hokey Pokey Elmo (which has been a huge hit with both boys), and a “Poke A Dot” book (which Max plays with every day, and Alex enjoys too).  Something is missing from this list, and I can’t remember what!

The boys also received some toy dinosaurs – some small and one BIG one – from Aunt Annie.  (Alex opened the big dinosaur and said, “My really own DRAGON!”)  They also each got a pair of Chicago Bears socks from Grandma & Papa.

Kyle & Jess opened all of their presents, too!  Oh, and Jessica turned herself into a present! :)

The D family joined us for a few gifts for the small cousins.  Nana & Uncle Jim gave cash (and Nana gave the boys an early present of Christmas sweaters and pants, too), and the D cousins gave both boys LOADS of clothes!

Then we had a gift card game for the adults.  You never know what you’ll get from this one – restaurants are a commonly stolen card in this game!  We ended up with Applebees and Chilis gift cards at the end of the game – yum! 

I decided to try something a little different this year, and I printed an Amazon gift certificate for the exchange.  It turns out that great minds think alike, as Leanne did the same thing!

Oops – a few pictures didn’t make it to the right spots.  Here they are…

 

This was a busy, fun day from start to finish.  We were thankful to be close to home this time, so the boys could go home and get a decent nights’ sleep in their own beds!

Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa S

We anticipated that our kids would nap in the car on the way to Grandma & Grandpa’s house.  Alex did, but Max stayed awake the whole time.  Poor kiddo was totally worn out before the evening ended! 

After an early Christmas dinner, we always have the kids open their presents by the basement tree.  This way, they can stay downstairs with their noise & mess while the adults enjoy some time by the upstairs Christmas tree.

I didn’t take many pictures this year.  We started with birthday presents for some of the grandkids with November/December birthdays.  Alex received a Cars water bottle and a Curious George hat.

From the grandparents, Alex received a Lego (Duplo) tractor and barn set that gets played with EVERY day.  Mommy is very good at rebuilding it, since Max is constantly destroying it!

Max got a Weebles treehouse and a backpack diaper bag, which he proudly wore!  (We’ve since learned that Hot Wheels cars work equally well on the Weebles treehouse slide!)

 

From the cousins exchange, Alex received Wii Just Dance Kids from Derek.  He didn’t understand it at first, but now he loves to dance with it – even if he’s not really following the motions!  Yesterday, we had the neighbor boys over and danced together!  (In this picture, Matthew & Josh are playing Just Dance while Alex sits and watches…)

Max got a Sort & Stack toy with shape sorter and nesting cups.  He plays with it every day!  Matthew and Aunt Diane found it at a specialty toy store, and the store wrapped it with a sucker on top.  Max sure enjoyed his first sucker!

Matthew & Alex

Justin & Alex

Derek finished basic training, and he was able to be home for Christmas!  (Next up for him is border patrol in Texas.)  This is the best picture I have :(

A few upstairs pictures – I had a very sleepy Max in my arms for most of this, so I don’t have great pictures!    I got a breadmaker, and I used my Christmas money from Mom & Dad to buy a new camera.  Keith got a wireless router, and he used his Christmas money to buy a new winter coat.

It was pretty late by the time we headed home.  Both kiddos fell asleep in the car, and we had to be up for church in the morning…and then we had Christmas with Grandma & Papa.

Christmas At Home

We had the incredible blessing of having Christmas morning all to ourselves this year.  There was no rush, no scrambling to get casseroles put together, no craziness – just the pure fun of spending the morning at home together.  Nice!

Alex got up shortly after 7 AM, knocking on his door and waiting for someone to come get him.  Daddy went to get Alex while Mama woke a sleepy Maxwell.

From Alex’s doorway, you can see straight across the living room to the Christmas tree.  One very excited Alex didn’t take long to notice that Santa brought him a “twactoh just wike Chwoe’s”!

  When we called Alex to come see the Christmas stockings, he replied, “You can wook at the stockings.  I will dwive my twactoh!”

(I’d just like to note that I’m super-excited to fill that empty hook next year!) 

Alex got a little more excited when he started digging in to see what Santa brought him! (hot wheels, Cars toothbrush, M&M candy fan, smarties, Lightning McQueen socks, and tub crayons)Max dug in, too, and he found a wooden helicopter and airplane, a mini See & Say, smarties, toothbrush, Gerber snacks, and some kid-sized forks.

Alex & Daddy checked to see that Santa had found his cookies & milk.  Santa even left a thank you note – on a THANKSGIVING post-it note, ha! Each boy had 3 wrapped presents under the tree.  Alex received a “bwackbawwy just wike Daddy’s”, a magnadoodle, and a magnetic Dress-Up Joey.  Max got wooden nesting blocks to stack, a dune buggy, and a Hide & Seek Monkey.

Here’s the aftermath:

There’s no doubt which gift is the favorite around here!  Alex even attempted to try it out on the icy, snowy driveway.  It wasn’t a great success, but both boys were excited to give it a try after a yummy breakfast of french toast casserole and bacon.

In case you wondered, Daddy got a remote-control helicopter.  Alex chose to buy Daddy a Mater Wii game.  Mommy got a gift certificate for a MASSAGE (ahh!), and Alex and Max gave Mommy a laminator!  We also had some nice stocking stuffers, too – socks, candy, and CDs.

We loved this peaceful day at home!  We left around 2 PM to head up to my parents’ house for the S family Christmas…but that’s another post!