Do-over week, please???

So, I am asking for a do-over week. I don't ask for them often but I would like one now.

The week overall has gone by slow.
I had a huge grant project due this week- planned certain times to work on it, didn't happen.
My scale broke, I have such high anxiety because I can't see how I am doing, good or bad.
My Christmas shopping isn't finished.
I finally submitted my grant project and I still feel no sign of relief.
My daycare inspection could be any day now.
We seem off on our daycare routine this week.
I always try to volunteer at out Church's light show (love doing it) and it looks like I can't do that this year.
Kendal is cutting 2 teeth- which isn't a huge deal, she just wants to sit and cuddle more.
The dryer isn't drying.
And the peppermint art project failure is still bugging me!

And it is only Thursday...

more Christmas fun...

Getting ready to make some more Christmas decorations...

We made awesome smelling cinnamon ornaments. Everyone had a turn and picked out their favorite Christmas cookie cutter for the project. Even the little ones had fun... after the big one stopped showing her how to do it!

"You do dis mom, like dis".

Everyone was in the kitchen adding the flour, cinnamon, and water... very easy to do and smells so good when they are baking.

And they make such cute ornaments for the tree..

Another thing I am just not good at (see Epic Fail post below) is making gingerbread cookies. I just can not get the dough right for using the cookie cutters. So, I will admit- I bought all ready made to go Gingerbread cookies. The kids helped me make frosting and decorated with candy and sprinkles (before sprinkle stage). They had a blast- we made some for snack and took the extras home... what a fun week of baking we have had!

epic fail...

I will be the first to admit that not every art work or craft project that we do comes home. Why is that? Sometimes it is just a big fail of a project and we throw them away... and that is okay- most of the time it was the process behind the craft that made it fun and educational.

My daycare bestie Dawn (lilbitofnothin.blogspot.com), came up with wonderful holiday lessons... we alternate months and share the load... team work! Everything this week (and last) has been awesome. We have enjoyed baking cookies, decorating the daycare area, making ornaments ect. All wicked cute ideas... except for that tainted peppermint wreath. On our lesson plans, it looked so easy, beautiful and a keepsake for years to come.

Wrong, wrong wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!

This was our first try... so fun, cute, lil peppermints...

After 2 bags of candies, 1 cracked pie pan, 1 stuck on casserole pan...

I declare this project an Epic Fail...

All the girls in their Pj's... Mia calls footie pj's, "wooties".
Every year we get dressed in our warm pj's and hit the Topeka Bible Church light show...

it looks a little something like this. Best thing is that you don't have to get out of your car to hear live musicians play and an awesome light show. It is this weekend if you are interested in taking your family- it's not too late!

This is Kendal's first year to go the Christmas tree farm... (she's even wearing the coat that each Fluke child has worn)

We had to go to a new farm this year (personally wasn't my fave but it'll do). The girls had a fun time running around, picking tress, and helping Dustin. This was our tree... ever since I have been married to D, we have never had a fake tree! Fun traditions for sure!

Day 2: Christmas goodies

Our morning started out in the kitchen... we made our cake mix cookies, frosting, and picked out our sprinkles.

The kids had a blast frosting and decorating their own cookies. By the time we were finished, you could barely see the cookies. They were covered in frosting, candy, and sprinkles. Of curse we had a fun time eating them and laughing when our teeth turned red.

We have also been learning about the heart shape and the color pink. Today we made heart shaped (paper) cookies. We started off with only a pink crayon but then were able to add more "frosting" by using other colors.

Our last activity was a fun experiment. We made ornaments by melting peppermints together! The kids unwrapped the mints and placed them into fun decorations on the pie pan. Then we baked and the melted together!

Christmas goodies

This week we started our theme by talking about and coloring gingerbread men.
Once we started talking about cookies, the conversation went on and on.

Of course, one of our stories this week is... "The Gingerbread Man".

Today we also did some prep for another art project this week... we dyed noodles red and green. The kids love helping with fun projects like this.

We also started making the cookie dough for our gingerbread cookies we are doing later this week. It will be a fun week of making and sharing Christmas goodies.

yellow day...

We took a break from making holiday decorations to work on our color and shape of the week. We went around the daycare and found lots of yellow items... toys, fruit, and maybe a purse.

We used our yellow flashcard to sort items, today we used cars and teddy bears. After the sorting we made a very cool yellow beaded bracelet that became "best friend" bracelets.

As our morning continued, we tore yellow paper and glued it to our shape, the crescent... not moon, crescent. While the kids worked on covering their shape (crescent), we read "Good Night Moon", just to confuse them a little more.

It has taken us a little while to get to this point but we are finally getting to the point we can have table time activities. I introduced this concept to the kids about a month a go. It is pretty much center time but diving up in groups of 1-2 kids. Normally when we are doing center activities we are doing it as a group. Now, we are splitting up, setting a timer, and rotating.

Today's table time was magnets and linking toys.

Thanks for checking in and check back to see what is next on the decorating fun!!!