Happy Inauguration Day!!!

Hello MOPS families! Today we celebrate an important day for America-- the peaceful transition of power from one leader to another. It only happens every four years, so we are celebrating in the Moppet rooms!

Today the kids heard the story "If I Were President" by Catherine Stier. She has some really great activities that go along with this story in addition to other works she's had published!The kids made a patriotic craft for your home today. You can either display it now, wait until 4th of July, or keep it up all year long!

If you have a little artist in your family, you might want to visit this site that has printable coloring pages for President Obama's Inaguration.

If that wasn't enough crafting I found another site that has a biography of our new president in addition to a paper plate craft idea (not the one we did in class), and some more pages to print.

For the history buffs out there, Our White House offers some great things to read for kids to explain about inaugurations in general and Obama's specifically.

Finally for those of you who want to go really over the top-- try hosting your own Inaugural Ball tonight for dinner. Serve your meal on your best china, dress up in your fanciest clothes, and then dance the night away. It would be a fun memory for all of you :)

Happy Holidays Part 2...

Well it's hard to believe that our first semester of Moppets is over. We have had a great time with the kids this fall and we're super excited to welcome them back in January!

Today the kids read the book God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa T. Bergren.


Lisa Tawn Bergren writes amazing spiritual books for both adults and kids. Be sure to check out her latest book How Big is God, it will help you answer some of your little ones questions about God.

The children finished up their gifts for you as well today. They wrapped them up and made cards-- but no peeking until Christmas morning :)

Due to the rain, the children were not on the soggy yard today. During the time they would have normally been on the yard they were watching Christmas cartoons. Their snack was holiday cookies, we apologize in advance for their sugar high.

As promised in the last installment this week I'll give you some New Year's traditions that your family might want to try. Enjoy!

1. Have the kids record an end-of-the year talk show. Interview them to ask about their accomplishments from the past year.

2. Check out how they celebrate New Years in other locations around the world. Try out one of their traditions-- who knows, it might be one you keep from year to year.

3. Forecast the future. Ask each person in the family to write down a question they have about the coming year (What will be the top news story of the year? How many goals will Hayden make this year? etc.) Then have each person in the family write down an answer to the question. Seal these away until New Years 2010-- break them open and see who was closest!

4. Make January 1 a "Day of Firsts". Try a new food, style your hair a new way, go to a new park you've never been to. See how many firsts you can cram into one day!

5. Make a memory jar for 2009. Take an empty jar or box, a pad of paper, and pens and put them in a place that your family can easily access. During the course of 2009 write down any nice thing that happens (a new puppy, a good grade on a report card, Grandma coming to town) and the date. On New Year's Eve 2010 you can review all the nice things that happened during the year.

6. If you have little ones who can't wait up until midnight, why not celebrate at noon? Do the whole countdown and drop your own ball--- maybe a basketball or football! Then there's no pressure to stay up and everyone can stick to their bedtime schedule!

7. Make pancakes in the number shapes for the new year. How fun would it be to wake up on January 1st to 2009 pancakes?

8. On New Year's Eve have the family decorate a box and place it in a central place in your home. Throughout the year as you go to the movies, school programs, Disneyland etc. place a small memento from the occasion in your box. At the end of the year you will be able to relive all of the wonderful adventures your family has had.

No matter what you do, I hope you have a wonderfully safe holiday!!!!

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!