christmas cooking frenzy

Mucho fun, mucho mess, and a bit of scoffing too :-) No-cook cooking enjoyed by all - yesterday was 'Malties' maltloaf christmas puddings and cakes. Dipped in icing and topped with all manner of sprinkles and silver balls.

Today was peppermint creams (though they disbelieved that the gooey mess was actually edible...) topped with melted chocolate and again, all manner of sprinkles and sparkles.

Photo's to follow, but needless to say Lauren enjoyed it, particularly having a spoon and a pot of melted chocolate....

the green man and a bouncing tigger

Fitting in our ongoing road safety topic this afternoon, we talked about pelican crossings, and experimented with the waterproofness of wax by creating our own red and green man in crayon and covering with black waterpaint. Couldn't see much of the red or green bit, so am sure the children thought I was mad...but in theory it should have worked! With a little bit of wet kitchen towel rubbing over their red and green circles, I was able to magic them back again, and thus turned the event around somewhat and myself into a magician :-)

It was clearly wet at playtimes today, as they were all a little wired this afternoon! Sitting round to play Bounce bounce tigger didn't help, so the solution to much niggling and getting at each other was a 15 minute musical statues competition. They all loved it, and amazingly even Lauren understood to stop when the music stopped. I also got to sing along to my old Bewitched album, which made me feel very old when I realised they (and probably most of you) wouldn't have a clue who they were! Still they didn't seem to mind and bopped away to them all the same.

friendships forming

Its so sweet. A told Lauren he loved her yesterday. Lauren wanted to give him a kiss when she went for her nap. Only she didn't nap...she lay there quietly for a bit, then called out for A! Clearly she felt she was missing out on something, and she has never been bothered before - but A has never been here at nap time before!! Thankfully she stayed happy all afternoon, but fingers crossed she sleeps next wednesday!!

So we fitted in a trip to the park instead. Later we had 10 minutes in the cold garden collecting up leaves to stick on as a bushy tail on a squirrel. The dining room looks very autumnal now, with squirrels and trees and warm brown leaves.

Today we did glitter fireworks pictures, we had running races, we made our own fireworks displays on the computer, and of course we played, and played and played :-)