Recovering

Well, I don't know about you all, but I am still in the process of recovering from the hussle and bussle of Christmas! Today was a "free day" as my oldest likes to call it. We just hung out at my parents' not doing much of anything. I worked on some more of the ornaments (still need to get that "how to" sheet done), and then started to work a little on the TSG Newsletter. Drew spent the morning with my dad running around in the mud outside while Zach spent time playing with his new toys in the house.

When trying to come up with SOMETHING to talk about here today (sorry I have been such a boring hostess), I thought I would share a project I did with Drew's preschool class at their Christmas party. I few weeks ago I put out a plea in the TSG Forum for suggestions for an easy craft to do with 3 & 4 year-olds. You wonderful ladies came up with some GREAT ideas and I had a really hard time just picking one to use (I have put the rest in my craft box to use next year with my boys at home). I finally decided to do a handprint and footprint angel and I think they turned out REALLY cute!!! Here is the one Drew did as my sample

I was really trying to avoid having to use anything that would need time to dry since the party was at the end of their school day and they would be heading home right after it was over. I didn't want them to have to transport wet crafts home. Which means there was a lot of prep work for me. On the Monday morning before their party (which was last Wednesday), I went up to the school and traced all 13 class members hands and bare feet and also took a picture of each of them. I decided if we were going to spend all this time making the craft, that instead of cardstock, I would use craft foam so they would hopefully hold-up longer. I then went home and cut them all out and put their name on the footprints with sticky foam letters. Then, to avoid having to glue the pieces together, I used glue dots and stuck the dots on the pieces (leaving the backing on the dots that they kids peeled off during the craft). I also printed out a headshot of each of the kids, laminated them and stuck them to foam circles to use as the angels' heads. Then I attached the shiney pipecleaner halos on the backs of the head along with a ribbon to hang them on the tree (I used magnets in the sample pictured above so it could be hung on the fridge) with hot glue. I also printed out the following little poem to put on the back of the angel:

This little angel is special you see;
Because she is a part of me.
Her wings are my hands,
Her body my feet,
And on the tree she'll look very sweet.

(of course changing she/her to he/his for the boys in the class).
The final step was dividing the stickers to decorate them with up evenly and putting all the pieces in a baggie so they could be handed out quickly. Whew...my table in the midst of the mess

All the prep work REALLY paid off when it came time to do the craft though. I think it went really smooth and I received lots of complements. The teacher even requested to keep my sample so she could share it with the other teachers in the school and have it for reference to use in the future :)

Ok, I will leave you all for tonight. :) Tomorrow I will try to sit down with my mom and get her to give me the measurements for cutting the fabric to make those ornaments and get the instruction together for you guys. I also get to go to the theatre tomorrow night! Wooohoo!! My hubby bought us tickets to go see "Wicked" at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis. So we will be going there for dinner and the show tomorrow night while my parents watch the boys. I night out with just the two of us...don't remember the last time THAT happened! I will try to sneak my little Cybershot camera in with me and get some pictures of the inside of the theatre. If you have never been there, it is a GORGEOUS. So....bye for now.