Preschool Snacks

Last semester at Brianna's preschool I somehow got away with only doing snacks one time (not to mention all the things for parties they had all throughout the year). But it's my turn again, so I got to thinking last week what would be cute, delicious, and at least somewhat healthy for these 2-year olds.


First of all I made blackberry oatmeal bars, which my kids love, so I'm hoping the other kids in class will as well. But I wanted to do something fun as well, which is why I turned to the Internet!

 Super easy and TOO CUTE!!!  This was the easiest little snack craft ever! You will need:

• Snack size storage bags (I got a box of 50 from the Dollar Tree for $1.00)
• A snack to put inside (I used Cheerios (well, Food Lion brand!) because we always have Cheerios around here!)
• Clothes pins (I had a few but not enough so I bought a package of 36 from the Dollar Tree for $1.00)
• Markers
• Googly eyes (Again - $1.00 at the Dollar Tree for a bag of assorted sizes; you can also just draw on the eyes)
• Pipe Cleaners (Mine were given to me by a friend who didn't have a use for them, but these are also at the Dollar Tree for $1.00!! See a pattern!?)

I recommend coloring the pins and gluing on the googly eyes (I used tacky glue) and then filling the snack bags. This way the eyes will dry by the time you're done sorting snacks.

Fill the snack bags with the snacks. I used about two handfuls so the bags weren't quite full all the way. Remember, you're still going to have to scrunch them. Press all the air out of the bags and zip them closed. Put the clothes pin in the middle of the bag and clip the pipe cleaner at the same time (no gluing necessary). Twist the pipe cleaners into antennae shapes.

I saw the picture for these here. I mean, how easy is that and I think the kids will think they are so fun!

New Camera

I have a new camera and it's called My Phone and I love it. It's much clearer than my "real" camera and just as easy to move pictures to my computer. Here are the first set of pictures I am clearing from my ca

 

Do you see the foot underneath the pantry door? I guess I have a monster in my closet.

Christmas Part Two

Alright, here is part two of our Christmas vacation to Georgia!

We had our annual Christmas party at my Grandpa Loyd's house. The kids were enthralled with everything this year - the knick-knacks, decorations, and pipe organ especially!

But we were able to drag them away to open presents!

Well, some of them.

Brian and Hunter make beautiful music together! (See what a multi-tasker Hunter is??)

Hunter is totally happy with Lindsey in this picture. Although I think he'd be happy with anyone as long as he has food, haha!

Now, on to our party back at Oma's house! This is actually for my birthday, so Brianna hands out the party hats to everyone!

When I saw her doing this, I was thrown back in time to just a few years ago...

when her Aunt Juju was doing almost the same thing!  Hahaha!

We had a BLAST! We love our Georgia families!!

Christmas in February

I absolutely cannot believe I just found Christmas pictures on my camera. These pictures are from our vacation to Georgia - the first half. I'll post the second half in a separate blog. Only two months behind. Go me!

 Stephen and I were very anxious (i.e. nervous) to see how the kids did on this long drive. The last time we made the drive was about six months ago and as you know, kids change a lot in six months, so we weren't sure how much they were going to need to stop, or be entertained. Also, first trip to GA where Brianna is fully potty-trained, so we wanted to stop every 2 hours for her to go to the bathroom.

The trip went surprisingly well and we had a bunch of fun in the car! The kids were great at entertaining themselves and Brianna even helped herself to a morning nap, which wouldn't have happened at home.

Upon our arrival in Georgia, we settle in to open presents. It takes a while - Brianna and Hunter still aren't totally interested in presents and there are a lot to go through! But within a couple of hours we have opened all their cool new stuff!

We are still enjoying these awesome sticker activity books from Josh and Jenn. They are huge books with so many activities. It might be possible that I enjoy them more than the kids...

Hunter got his very own horse! This is the first toy like this for the kids, so Bri was excited to get it as well.

It doesn't get much better than your own table and chairs set!

Unless you get your own tea set to go with it!!

Within seconds, we have been invited to a tea party.

Hunter gets a huge tub of building blocks!

One thing the kids were old enough for this year was to go driving through Life University's "Lights of Life" display. It was gorgeous and the pictures don't do it justice. Brianna loved it of course, and so did I. There was so much to look at. Sorry some of the pictures are so dark - my camera is so old!

Granny and Granddaddy gave Brianna a gift card to Claire's for Christmas, so one day we took the opportunity to go to the mall and hit up Claire's. She had a ball picking out new stuff! In the end she picked out way more than the amount on the gift card so she had to go through everything and pick the things she loved the most. She ended up with a Barbie necklace, a 3-pack of bracelets, and a 3-pack of rings. She was so excited!! I loved shopping with her.