First, our pastor's wife came over to do some scrapbooking. She is not a scrapbook person at all but was being asked to create a few pages about their family for a book for a grandparent. I got an e-mail with a simple message of "HELP!" (ok maybe it was worded with more words but that was the idea). Once I set her up, I just let her work. It was fun to watch my boys, especially Josh, because he loved having her here. He went into the classroom where she was working and sat on the floor most of the time playing with some stickers I had given him to put on paper. I would hear him singing (smiggle, smiggle, wittle star) and then talking to Angie. I always find it interesting to see how my kids act around others. When it is just us here, they are loud, run around, and are sometimes crazy. I mean, they are boys after all. When Angie was here, they were quiet, peaceful, and played together (and alone) perfectly. They listened and obeyed. Isn't that how we want our children to act? It's a good reminder that they DO listen when I drill into them about obeying and being kind even if they don't always do it when I ask them to. Throughout the day, after Angie left, Josh would ask periodically "Where did she go?" He really enjoyed having her here for the morning.
Second, I babysat for a friend a week or so ago. She had all day plans to host a Pampered Chef booth at a Bazaar where her husband works and needed someone to watch her girls. Adding two more kids to the mix didn't seem that big of deal, I just knew it would be a little crazier and didn't plan to get a lot done. Actually, I had two things I wanted done - our Christmas Cards ready to go in the mail and scanning in photos that belong to my sister-in-law. Both mindless and fairly easy tasks. (As a bonus - I figured I could do more organizing in the classroom if the kids were all playing) The kids actually all played well all day and I got the things done I wanted to get done which was really nice. I really need to get together more with my friend Julie and let the kids hang out. It's good for all of them to learn to play together. I did learn one important thing having both girls and boys in my house for a day . . .. are you ready? Girls are WAY busier than boys. Holy Moly!!!! Those girls never stop and the boys just look at them and are like, "Will you just sit down for a minute!" HA! Don't get me wrong, my boys are busy during the day but they tend to sit and play one thing for awhile and THEN run through the house screaming. Girls just never stop :-)
Third, are you ready for a fun Christmas Craft to do with your kids? This would be an easy craft to have supplies on hand to make over Christmas Break - older kids would enjoy using more things to embellish the tree :-)
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!!
Idea adapted from All Kids Network
We really all did have fun making this little craft as a family :-)
