Chandler's Class Party

Today I got to spend the morning helping out in Chandler's class.

It was so much fun!

I haven't gotten to do as much volunteering this year like I did last year due to Jamison.  It's just hard for me to leave him, and the times I do have childcare for him, I usually working.  Oh well.  I was glad to have the morning "free" to come and help with Chandler's Christmas Party!

There were several parents that came and helped out with a "station" of crafts that the children rotated to.  I opted for the edible station, and I went with "Cone Trees" which is something I've never made before, but thought it would be more interesting that just decorating sugar cookies.  

Chandler's school is age 3 till 8th grade, so the older kids' choir came and sang Christmas songs to the kids as a fundraiser.  I'm not sure if this is the middle school only or what grades it is.  It was very cute.  They had coordinating hand motions and everything.  I remember these singing-grams from when I was in school.  Some of the girls in Chandler's class were very popular!  Chandler just got one from Mommy, Daddy, and his brothers.  

I was able to snap a quick picture of the kids decorating at my station.  Self admittedly, I'm OCD about certain things and this certainly tested me.  I had to have control of the icing by scooping out just enough to cover the cone on to each child's plate.  Then I allowed them to take 3 spoonfuls of toppings (out of six choices) for decorating.  There was only one child who licked the knife (which I then replaced) and one cone that fell on the floor and broke, and another who thought they could take 3 spoonfuls from each bowl.....

This was my first rotation and I was starting to hyperventilate, but luckily it got better from there, and really...that was the worst of it.  

Here's another classroom shot.  I love how open the classroom is and all the natural lighting.  Note: no lights were on in this picture and look how bright the room is.

I carefully stacked the cone trees on a shelf out of the way for the children to take home later.  I'm not really sure how well they transported.  The children weren't allowed to eat them at school, which was kinda a bummer, but I understood.  

First thing in the morning, while the children were arriving and settling in, the teacher started reading one of her beloved Christmas books.  It was so sweet to see all the children eagerly gathering around her and patiently listening to the story.  I could tell they were all excited for Christmas and the fun day ahead of them.  She read this beautifully illustrated book and in it the elves were called "brownies"---how fun!  It was just precious, so I made a note to find a copy of this book for my Christmas book collection, which I adore.  

It turns out this book was written about 1961 and this is an original copy.  I could get one for myself if I had an extra $250-$500 lying around as that was the going rate that I saw online...  Boo :(

It was republished sometime in the 90's but with the brownies now called "elves" and the illustrations were lacking the same quality.  What a bummer.

So if any of my readers find a copy of this book in their grandparent's house and want to pass it along....I'd be much obliged :)