Merry Christmas 2011

The Christmas season has come so fast this year. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families this past weekend. I, for one, have truly treasured the down time with my family. I want to thank everyone for making this years daycare party a fun filled evening. Thanks for the wonderful food that everyone contributed and I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the parents of the children whom your child calls their friends. I would also like to express my gratitude for the wonderful and thoughtful gifts and encouraging words that you have given to me.... thank you! Having such great kids to love, nurture and help mold into thoughtful, caring and smart young people is such a privilege. Thank you for letting me part of their lives!

Inside day Marching band

This past Thursday was so terribly awful outside that we did a vote as to whether we should clean up all the toys and go play outside to play in the cold rain or stay inside and NOT clean up and have a musical marching band instead!

As you can see.... we chose the marching band option!
Mateo was the only one who DID want to go out. So he put on all his rain gear and went outside for about 2 minutes when he finally looked around and saw that he was alone outside in the cold wet backyard, he then decided the loud musical instruments was a much better choice!

Everyone took a turn to be the leader of our marching band and led the parade of sound down the hall, around the table and then back to the play room.

It was a great way to spend a wet cold rainy day!

Birthday Baby!

Happy First Birthday Rosie!

I am so glad we got to share the day with you!

Happy Halloween

This year we tried Grants Pumpkin field, not quite what I wanted, but we could not ask for a nicer day!

We had a great time walking up and down the rows of pumpkins looking for the biggest ones. Evelyn found the smallest pumpkin they had as soon as we got there and decided that i was the only one she wanted.
They also had a kid area with smaller kid size pumpkins on the grass with a few Halloween displays.

Chloes Jack-o-Lantern

Nathan loved to try to pick up every pumpkin.

Where as Drew didn't even really want to touch them.
Kai only wanted to try to climb them all

Halloween day is always fun on a daycare day... any excuse to play dress up ALL day!

Nicks Jack-O-Lantern

Glad everyone had a fun filled safe Halloween!

Mud

Today was the day that I have learned to embrace the mud!

I decided that there was more value in watching the kids discover how slippery wet mud can be then trying to save the few sparse pieces of grass there is left.

Because really....... if you cant beat it.... then you might as well join it!

The kids spent most of our rainy outdoor time squishing and scraping the mud into a giant pile and then jumped into it.

After all..... it is one of my favorite sayings......

A dirty kid is a happy kid!

Blossoming buddies

Getting everyone dressed for outdoors on a rainy day always takes a while. I always start with the big kids and work my way down. When I made it to the babies I dressed Kai first and plunked him outside the door where he always waits until I am ready before he crawls away. Next I dressed Rosie and put her just outside the door beside Kai while I put on my boots and coat. The two of them just sat there and stared at each other.

Kai sat and watched while Rosie poked at his hat, hair, nose and finally poking him in the eye.
That's when she leaned over and gave him a kiss! It was the cutest thing ever.
This could be the beginning of a beautiful thing!

Apple Farm 2011

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Wonder

One of my favorite parts of my job is sitting back and watching children explore, learn and grow.

It truly is a privilege to watch young children as they develop new skills and become aware of the world around them.
One of my favorite moments is when you can observe the growing sense of wonder in a child.

On this day I loved to watch as Kai discovered the buckets of water in the sand box. He stood in the sand adding one handful and then one scoopful of sand at a time.

It was as if he was amazed at how when he put sand into the bucket of water, the sand just disappeared. You could almost hear the gears in his little head clicking as he wondered " where did the sand go?"

I love my job!