Happy Holidays Part 1....

Today we begin part one of our two part holiday series. The children were read the story A Small One about the donkey who helps Mary and Joseph get to the inn to have baby Jesus. I can't tell you about the craft because it's a surprise-- you'll find out on Christmas day.



There is also a video that tells this story-- you can find it on many DVD compilations like Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 9 - Classic Holiday Stories sold at Target or Amazon.com.

Holiday crafts are a dime a dozen, so instead of giving you links to craft sites I thought I might share with you some traditions that might be fun for your family.

Try sleeping one night under the Christmas tree or having a picnic under the tree if you can't be away from a cozy bed.

Wrap up holiday books and have the kids unwrap one every night as their bedtime story.

Bake cookies then take them to neighbors houses or a retirement home.

Choose a family and secretly give them gifts representing the 12 Days of Christmas (e.g. For 4 Calling Birds give the family a telephone calling card, for 6 Geese a-laying give the family eggs.)

Have a Birthday party for Jesus-- complete with birthday cake and balloons.

Join together with a few other families and have a progressive dinner. Have appetizers at one house, entree at another and dessert at yet another. You'll get to see how everyones house is decorated and you'll only have to cook one portion of the meal.

Next meeting I will have lots of ideas for New Years celebrations, so be sure to come back!

Thanksgiving Activities....

Hello MOPS Mommies!



It is the time of year to be thankful for all the blessings we have and I have lots to be thankful for. I would like to express my thanks to my amazing MOPPET team of Laura, Amy and Julia who make my life so much easier. My Moppet workers never get enough credit and they do so much for me and our children. I would also like to thank you and your adorable children-- we do this for you and we are truly blessed!

Now on to our activities for this week. We read Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland and made hand-print turkeys.
The author also wrote Valentines are for Saying I Love You-- so grab that book in February.

If you are looking for some fun activities to keep little ones busy while you're in the kitchen, check out this site. They have Thanksgiving Bingo cards, coloring pages, word searches for older kids, and lots more!

If you're more into crafty things check out this site where they give you craft ideas appropriate for 2 year olds and up. I love this site because they have crafts into not only age categories but thematic categories as well.

For some recipes to make with little hands try these ideas. My favorite is having them make butter for the dinner rolls-- how fun is that?

Our very own Christine Davis has a friend who has a wonderful newsletter/website with ideas for pre-school aged kids. Be sure to check it out-- you can subscribe for monthly ideas. Thanks Christine for bringing this to my attention!

I hope you and your families have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Happy Halloween!

Today we took a break from our traditional stories and we watched a story on DVD. Our story was about Spookley the Square Pumpkin.



We did a square pumpkin craft for the kids to bring home.


Spookley has an official site with lots of things for kids to do. There are coloring pages, activity sheets, and music videos to watch.

There are lots and lots of Halloween games to be found at the Family Fun website. If you want a really great parenting magazine, by the way, this is one of the best!

I found a new site with games for young and older children-- lots of really fun graphics and word games on this one.

One of our Moms made these cute finger cookies for the Lombardi bake sale. You can make them at home for yourself with this recipe.

If you are enjoying this blog, please send a quick note to hippolito@gmail.com

Have a wonderful, safe Halloween!

New pictures...

...are now on-line. Follow the link in the previous blog to view them. Thanks to Claudine, Tara and Lisa for sharing their photos.

Love,
Heather

Pumpkin Patch Trip...

We had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch at Underwood Farms. In this link I will post everyone's pictures so we can all share them. I am also linking some sugar pumpkin recipes, so we can all enjoy our pumpkins!!

Here are the pictures that Suzanne and I took.

There are lots of recipes-- here's how to process your pumpkin to make it usable for recipes.

In my new Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine they have several sugar pumpkin recipes. If you go to the "In Season" tab on this page, you will see several of these recipes.

If you have other pictures for me to share, please send me an e-mail hippolito@gmail.com and I'll stick them on here for other Mom's to download.

It was great fun to see you all today-- see you next week at MOPS!

Pooh's Friendship Week

Winnie the Pooh was published by A.A. Milne on October 14, 1926. This week we celebrate this achievement by reading some stories inspired by our favorite silly old bear. Each of the classrooms will have a different Winnie the Pooh story read to them (please note that these are the Disney versions, not the traditional or classic Pooh versions.)

The kids made a bee with their friends. If you look at the wings of the bee you should see the fingerprints of all the kids in their class. This shows that if we all work together we can make things better!

If you would like to learn more about A.A. Milne you can check out this site. It has a short, reasonably easy to understand biography of Mr. Milne's life. This site also has some neat games and e-cards featuring both classic and Disney Pooh.

For all things Pooh-- games, stories, and merchandise you can check out the official Disney site.


If your child would like to color some Pooh pages, try this site.

For those Moms who love to bake-- and show off their amazing skills-- there is a darling Pooh cake that you and the kiddos can make here.

We hope you take some time to enjoy a little time with Pooh and your friends!

Week 2

Today the kids read the book Papa Oblong by LeRoy Blankenship. You can check out his website by clicking here, but it isn't very kid friendly.

If you would like some other great books about Noah's Ark, check these out:

One More River: A Noah's Ark Counting Book by Joan Paley

Noah's Ark (Picture Yearling Book) by Peter Spier

Noah's Ark (Caldecott Honor Book) by Jerry Pinkney

The kids in the older rooms made a beautiful rainbow mobile and the younger kids colored a rainbow picture.


If your little ones would like to do more crafts, check out these links.

Make a Noah's ark out of paper plates, click here.

This is a great site for coloring pages that you can print at home. I linked it right to the Noah's Ark pages.

If you are feeling really Martha Stewartish-- you can bake your kids an ark cake. Here's how you can make it out of pre-made pound cake.

I also found some games that you can do in the Noah's Ark vein, click here.

Please let me know if this blog is helpful to you by sending me a quick e-mail at hippolito@gmail.com

Thanks!