How was your Christmas?? Ours was wonderful! We had so much fun! It was definitely my favorite Christmas yet! I will tell you all about it in an up-coming post. This one is about the Christmas Party in Haylee's class!
I was so excited when I was asked to plan the Christmas party for Haylee's class! So excited. The second I was asked I knew we were going to make gingerbread houses. My moms side of the family, The Goodmans, started doing gingerbread houses as part of their Christmas party traditions. We did them for a few years and for some reason we stopped. I loved seeing how creative everybody would get. We had some awesome houses. And apartments. And trailers. I think that tradition should be started again! (hint hint) So the last time I make a gingerbread house was about 5 years ago. I was planning on having the kindergartners build their own houses with graham crackers around their milk boxes. Boy am I happy I decided to make one the night before to use as an example... it was so much harder than I remember! After all the trouble trying to stick mine together and seeing the graham crackers were not the same size as the milk cartons I decided to hot glue all of them for the kids. I also hot glued them to the plates so they wouldn't slide around.
Its SO hard not having counter space! I was using every empty space I could find!
I wanted to let the kids go wild and decorate however they wanted. I gave them instructions on how to get the frosting on all the sides and the roof then set them free. You should have seen their eyes when I put the bowls of candy out on their tables! HUGE!
Of course Maycie was there also. She walked in the door and all the kids ran up to her and smothered her with hugs. She thinks she's in this class!
Here are some of the houses that were made.
This one is Haylee's.
When they finished with their house they moved on to have a snowball fight with a snowman.
The girls played with this for days before the party so I knew the girls in the class would like it. The boys on the other hand wanted to actually be the snowman!
I had a game for the kids to play. I wasn't sure how it would work because I've only seen it with older kids, but these kindergartners were awesome!
Its called the Penguin Run. The kids penguins split up in two teams. Each team had one balloon baby penguin egg. The penguin in front had to hold their egg between their legs, walking like a penguin across the room and back without touching the egg with their hands. When they got back to their line they passed the egg to the next penguin. The team to finish first one.
The kids were hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! All of us adults had tears in our eyes from laughing.
Haylee decided that instead of waddling she was going to hop. It worked out perfectly! Her team won!
After the penguin run we gave the kids snacks. I made these little string cheese snowmen. I wish I had thought these up on my own but I found the idea on Pinterest. Aren't they so cute! A couple of the kids didn't want to eat theirs because they didn't want to ruin their snowman.
The party was a huge success! The kids were filled to the brim with sugar and prizes! I just love this little class. The kids are so adorable and well behaved. Ms. Bellikka, their teacher is amazing and we're so lucky to be here!
After the party I realized how much leftover candy and frosting we had so I called my friend Jen and had her and her kids, Kennedy and Emma join us for more gingerbread house making. The girls wanted to show them everything we did at the class party so we basically had the whole party all over again!
Here are our finished houses! The girls added onto theirs and I made one for myself. I wanted a bigger house so I made it out of leftover cardboard.
Of course the bears needed a Santa Bear.
And a pile of wood for their fire.
And carolers by the front door!
Here is Maycie's house.
This one is Haylee's.
I'm definitely going to keep this as a family tradition in our family. It was sooo much fun!!