Gingerbread time!!

 Lydia and Emily each made a gingerbread house in school this year.  When Ryan was in 1st grade he did the same thing and I got to go help in his classroom.  This year I was not able to, but my mom did.  They had so much fun making their houses and eating them!  Yuck!  Stale icing and graham crackers.  Yum Yum :).

Volunteering with the kids

I have this great opportunity of being able to volunteer in Lydia and Emily's classroom on sporadic Fridays (my day off). I help with the projects as well as doing various SOL activities with the kids. It is a lot of fun!!

Today I was scheduled to volunteer in their classroom, but I found out earlier in the week that Ryan's class was going to be making Gingerbread Houses (with ingredients that parents all sent in earlier in the week). Not only was this a great Christmas activity, but it tied into some other things they were doing in the first grade. As a result of my work schedule, I have not been able to do anything with Ryan's class this year. Unfortunately, the times I was needed in both classes was overlapping. Mike happened to be off today too so I asked him if he would take my place in Lydia and Emily's class as their parent volunteer so I could go to Ryan's class. Mike agreed!!
Lydia and Emily were so excited to see Daddy come into their classroom to help out!

I went down to Ryan's class where Ms. Downey, his teacher, had arranged all the desks in one long line of desks facing one another. This helped the children to be able to all reach the needed ingredients. Everyone had their own milk carton, bag of graham crackers and container of icing. There were bowls of various kinds of candy set out all down the long row of desks. Ms. Downey demonstrated some different ideas the kids could do with their gingerbread house and paperplate "yard." All the kids had such a great time!! After our volunteering times, Mike and I stayed and ate lunch with the kids and Ryan's friend, Ben. We sit at a "family table" which is easier to keep the kids from running from table to table. Ryan's teacher allowed his friend Ben to come sit with us as well.

This is a picture, once Ryan came home from school, of Ryan and his gingerbread house.

Our Gingerbread House

This past weekend we helped the kids build a Gingerbread House. They had such a great time making it, but an even better time eating it!! :)