Traveling Gingerbread Men

As most of you know I returned to teaching this fall. I work as a special teacher, teaching 4th grade resource in the morning and and integrated preschool in the afternoon. In December I did activities that focused on the Gingerbread Man instead of traditional holiday activities in my preschool classroom. As part of our activities we mailed off traveling gingerbread men to our friends and family around the country. We asked that our friends and family send our class a postcard or pictures of the area of the US where they live in so we could learn more about the different places in our country.
Our gingerbread travelers have been slow in arriving so I thought I'd ask for a little help from the blogging world. If you are willing to mail a postcard to my preschool class telling us about the area you live in, we would greatly appreciate it. You can e-mail me or leave a comment and I'll give you the address information you need. Thanks!

Pixies and Magic

This is a photo Nature Girl took of the fairy dust she got as a favor from a friends Fairy themed birthday party. Nature Girl is a believer in all things magic and mystical. It's one of the things that I find so endearing about her. She firmly believes in magic and thinks that everyone else should believe in magic too. During the holidays we had lots of conversations about Santa, elves and magic. She wondered why not everyone believes. I've always thought that in this world all things are possible and who's to say if magic is real. I've not seen it first hand but if you believe in magic doesn't that make it real?! Nature Girl is a believer! For true believers in Santa and magic, a belief in pixies and fairies is also within the realm of possibilities.


Missy was kind enough to leave a note here letting me know about her pixie children's wand swap. I checked it out and immediately signed up, after all it's destined to be full of magic! If you're interested in signing up visit Missy here.

A Couple of New Year Swaps

The new year has arrived and we're getting into the swing again after 3 weeks off from school! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that the new year is full of wonderful surprises and adventures for you!A new year means more swaps and bloggy fun! Here are two swaps that Nature Girl and I are signed up for. Beth from Wee Pereas is hosting the Be My Valentine Kid Swap. Nature Girl loves her swaps and I love Valentine's Day so I couldn't resist signing up. Sign ups are open until Jan. 14th. Sign up here.


And what would 2009 be if it didn't include an owl swap. The talented Apryl from Meridian Ariel is hosting an Owl Swap. I love Apryl's painted book pages, aren't they lovely! I can't wait to see what everyone creates. Sign ups are open until Jan. 14th. so sign up today.

Holiday Book Swap Thank You

I signed Nature Girl up for the Holiday Book Swap hosted by Holly. Nature Girl loves her swaps! She was so excited when the box arrived! No wonder look at all of these goodies!!


The package included a gingerbread cookie kit, cookie cutters, her own rolling pin, sugars & sprinkles for cookie decorating , a snowman craft, a snowman softie quickly named "Snowy" and Toot and Puddle's Let it Snow book. There were even some Toot and Puddle paper ornaments to hang on our tree. Snowy traveled to Vermont with us for a family Christmas gathering and Santa enjoyed the gingerbread cookies from the kit. We had a great time baking and decorating them.


The book is adorable and sweet. Who doesn't like Toot and Puddle?!!! We appreciate the book and all of the goodies! Thank you Angela and Valerie!

Here's Nature Girl getting into the snowy Christmas spirit!

O Tannenbaum

Before Christmas, we were riding in the car listening to a Kids Bop Christmas CD when Nature Girl who had been happily singing along stops and asks me "What are frenches?" Wracking my brain to figure out what she's asking me I say "Frenches?" Nature Girl says "Yes, Oh Tannenbaum how lovely are your frenches." Oh!!! I explain that they are talking about a Christmas tree in the song. Trees have branches." She argued for a bit sticking to her guns that it was frenches till my husband came to my rescue. We had a good chuckle over that! Frenches! Lol!
Today she's happily listening to the same CD with her friend. She even gave her friend a lesson on Tannenbaum as a another word for a Christmas tree with green branches(not frenches.) Now they're singing All I Want For Christmas is my Two front teeth. Very appropriate as her playmate just lost her two front teeth!


* This is one of the trees Nature Girl stamped for last year's Christmas card.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Nature Girl drew these pictures of Santa and Ruldolph for our Christmas card this year. I love them, they just make me smile! Each year since she was one Nature Girl has helped create our Christmas cards with her hand prints, footprints, art work & drawings. This years card is my favorite of all time! Nature Girl loves the holidays! Her drawings reflect the magic and love she sees in the holiday season. Christmas is so much fun when you see it through your child's eyes!! We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a new year filled with good health and happiness!

Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope you have a bounty of things to be thankful for too!
On this Thanksgiving we have so much to be thankful for! We're thankful for our family, friends(near and bloggy,) our health, and the good life we live.
This Thanksgiving we have new aprons to wear thanks to Regina. She made Nature Girl and I matching Tea For Two aprons in the One Hot Mama Apron Swap hosted by Yarni Gras! Thank you Regina! We love them! Nature Girl so so excited to be included! We've enjoyed our mugs but Nature Girl still won't try the hot chocolate even though pink is her favorite color. She's been drinking milk instead. Thank you again Regina, the aprons are lovely!!!
To see the apron and goodies I sent for the swap check here. It's the brown and blue apron and goodies.