what color are your cowgirl boots?

Every year, the children
all make something
extra special
to give to their parents for
Christmas.

This year, we painted ornaments, and they have been a huge success.


















We took the tops off of clear glass balls and filled them with a few squirts of acrylic paint.The children covered the openings of the balls with cotton and shook them to make the paint swirl. After they reached desired swirly-ness, we put the tops back on the ornaments and let them dry.

Aren't they beautiful? What a quick, easy, and totally classy project!

Melissa at Chasing Cheerios made these ornaments with her sweet little girl, and she has some great pictures on her blog. Check them out here. :)

random information
part I
This is how cold it was out on the playground today:

That's right, -20 degrees (F)!
YIKES!

random information
part II
Hubs and I went to an ugly sweater party tonight.

I said,
"Are you sure it's an ugly sweater party?
What if we're the only ones wearing something weird?"

We went to the thrift store
and bought the most fabulous sweaters we could find.
The woman at the register said,
"Oooo... I think that's rabbit fur."
I was like,
"This aqua blue poncho is totally NOT made out of rabbit fur."

The moral of the story:

1. We were the only ones at the party wearing ugly sweaters.
2. The label says 100% rabbit fur. Eeew!
3. I have no shame.
4. I found these purple cowgirl boots
at the thrift store, too. ($5)

I think they totally make up for everything.

catch me if you can!

5 little gingerbread men on the tray.
One jumped up and ran away.
Catch me, catch me, oh catch me if you can!
I'm pretty fast, I'm the gingerbread man!
4, 3, 2, 1...

Zero gingerbread men on the tray.
I'll have to bake more some other day!

I made the manipulatives for this
gingerbread man fingerplay this afternoon.
They're quite simple little men. :)
I cut them out of felt,
glued on the buttons,
fabric-painted their faces,
glued their bodies to card stock,
and stuck magnets to their backs.

I used manipulatives for a Halloween fingerplay back in October,
and it was a huge hit with the children.
It's such a concrete way to sing a song,
and the children can still use their fingers if they wish.

the coldest day ever...

...maybe not EVER,
but it is extremely cold here.
It's 15 below 0 (fahrenheit).
Brrrr!!!!
Here are some pics of how cold it is in our house:

Hubs left his hand prints
in the frost on our back door.
Let me clarify, the INSIDE of
the back door.

Our frosty peephole -
once again, this is the inside
of our house.

Yes, another inside pic.
This is our front doorknob.

Frost on a window - doesn't actually look
too bad comparatively, does it?

ski day #8 & #9

These pics are from Friday's ski-venture with X-tine and the dogs.

Ross Peak looking fabulously ski-able,
but waaaay too far away.

Looks fun, huh?

X-tine in action.

Toby hearts X-tine.

Hub's and I skied at Bridger on Saturday - our first day of riding lifts this season. It was fun, but very cold. Like so cold, my bottom lost all feeling after 3 minutes of sitting. Today was even colder, so no ski day #10 yet. The ski report said that the lifts don't operate when the temp is below -25 (fahrenheit). It eventually opened at 10am, but it was still -18. We decided to stay home. :) Good choice.

bells on bobtails ring...

...making spirits bright!

Can you tell how much we're loving
this activity from
My Montessori Journey?

A LOT!

This little person bounced all morning long.
Good thing we're singing "Jingle Bells"

at the holiday performance.

our version

in action

Considering that this week has been

crazy with holiday cheer,

today was verging on
totally
awesomely
fabulously
productively
downright
good.

Christy & X-tine: You-Know-Who
actually put on his snow pants this pm
BY HIMSELF!!!

How, you ask, were
all these children able to
concentrate?

Not sure.

Possibly because
our Montessori classroom
environment is...

...so positively predictable

so consistently comfortable...

...so normally normalized. :)

The lessons never change...

...the teachers never change.
(Except when we get new jewelry for Christmas -
these earrings came from a mom
who seriously brought in a whole rack
of homemade treasure for us to choose from.)
lucky ducks, huh?

Anyway,
the children know what to expect
pretty much every single day.

The most unusual things around here
are all the pink trees. :)

The End