Happy New Year!!

My New Years Resolution.......To Blog Again!
It has been awhile. One of the big changes for me in 2009 was to move from 8 children by myself to 12 children with someone helping me. At first I thought it would be hard, then I thought it would be easier with someone else around, and then I thought it would be hard again. It has ended up being a great decision and I love Korina who is our Assistant. It does get a little hectic sometimes, especially when the rainy days keep us inside, but we have figured out ways to seperate and conquer! My space is not huge, matter of fact it is pretty small, but we divide it into areas of play that give the children their 'own' space if they wish. Some days I just take the older kids to the kitchen table and give them a 'special' assignment to work on.
Another special thing we added to the mix.....babies! By mid February we will have 3 of them under 1! I am now trying to figure out how to safely block the front area off so we can still have preschool stuff out for the others. Right now we just block with boxes.

Before Christmas I asked all the kids (all of them celebrate Christmas) what they wanted for the playroom from Santa. I told them Santa was coming to preschool this year and we needed to give him a list. One of the boys said he would like to have a GOOD set of blocks...you know the kind where you can build things because they all go together. (I felt bad...no one has ever complained about the blocks before, but it was true, most the blocks I had were mismatched and hand made) So this is the block set that came and the shelving unit that goes with it. Yes it was spendy, but very worth every cent. I got them through communityplaythings.com The other items they wanted were new baby dolls, books, puzzles, cars...lot's of cool cars, flashlights, and an outside playhouse. I didn't get the playhouse, but we will have one built outside in the spring. The kids were so excited to come back from break and see all the new stuff!!We started off our first week with Ice, water, snow....I was trying to hold off with the snow until it actually snowed...and am still waiting! We did a white collage. We had White string, cotton balls, buttons, feathers, tissue paper, and stickers. They love the new flashlights...we are working on NOT shining in the face! :)Next day we painted on tinfoil with blues, purples, and white.....Here is Campbell enjoying her new friend Leigh! They are 3 months apart and will be great friends!! Oh my gosh....Quinn turned 3!!! I can't believe it!then we made snowmen...While I hung with the babies Korina observed this project. She talked about small, medium, large....and big, bigger, biggest....We set out popsicle sticks, poms, buttons, cotton balls, black felt hats, Q-tips, red straws cut up, and glue. Here are a few of the different snow men. Very Cute!They are very into the bottom of the fort lately....Here is Lexi coming out to say Hi for a sec.Dylan, Sam, and Bryan were all on the phone talking to family members :)