craft day with addie

addie had a turkey feather to decorate for school, so yesterday morning we got out the crafty stuff.

of course little sister gets to help.

every time there is a "family project" i have the debate - do i want it to be kid oriented, kid completed, and probably goofy looking or do i want to take charge, make them follow my rules, probably do most of it myself, and make it look nice. this time i chose to let addie take charge.

and you know what, it does look pretty nice. :)

after that we picked laura up and went to the church to put vt #'s in, dropped addie off at school, dropped laura off, dropped frankie off and then when darlaina offered to keep laney too, dropped laney off as well. (first non-family to watch her and she did great!)

then it was back to addie's school for me for parent craft day.

an afternoon doing crafts with mama?

heaven!

(for mama too:)

 

first we made mini apple pies.

they had pictures and step-by-step directions and this little baker loved it.

then we put those to bake and lined up for classroom crafts.

(warning: picture overload ahead. i just really love elementary school and seeing big girl addie in her element was so sweet!)

we were with miss jackie's group, who i really like and is much more warm and welcoming than some other teachers there. she teaches the special needs pre-k, but they really try to share all the kids and integrate them. i was glad to see a lot of addie's work in miss jackie's room.

now that i think about it, i'm pretty glad that our addie is the only addie.

i don't think that will always be the case, but it's nice for her first year of school.

as soon as they sat down for directions...

 addie put up a "w" with her fingers and miss jackie said "go ahead" and big girl addie came and got a drink. i love smooth classroom routines. :)

our first craft was to make a cute thanksgiving card.

then they looked through a large container of hay to find things and check them off their list.

addie proclaimed that was "so boring." and wondered when we could paint.

yay for her, painting was next.

they were supposed to be using stamps.

but this little rebel used her paintbrush too.

love the paint smock. love the look of concentration. love that she loves to paint.

girlfriend could paint all.day.long.

after the painting she went right over to the sink and washed her hands.

the whole time i kept thinking, where did this big girl, the one that knows all about school come from?!

then it was apple pie time.

she was one of the few kids that loved her pie and ate the whole thing.

they had a few minutes left so they had some free reading time.

then a group picture in front of their turkey.

shy addie...

and goofy addie.

 

i told addie to come for a picture with miss jackie.

i said "give her a hug and let me take a picture," and she went for the full hug.

then we got the hug that i really meant.

before we left i had addie point to her feather.

i was going to drive her home, but as we walked past her bus she insisted on riding it.

 the bus driver is so fun and plays music and sings with them, they love it.

 

for the rest of the night lexi hung out with eric, matt presented at school, and christian hung out with me and the girls.

at dinner frankie totally surprised us. we're dutifully trying to get rid of leftovers to make room for thanksgiving leftovers, you see. i was finishing off the last of my 7-layer-salad and frankie requested a bite. i never even offer them salad because last time i did addie gagged and almost threw up.

but that frankie girl finished off the whole darn thing!

maybe she'll be my good eater after all?

actually, all three of the little girls and the boy have been pretty good eaters lately.

also, laney slept all night last night!

yay-yay-yay-yay-yay!