Story Time: On the Farm

So, here is the long awaited for update from our storytime on Wednesday. Yes, it has taken me a long time to update, but it has been a LONG week! Whew!!!!! Funny thing--I spent Monday and Tuesday preparing for my story time (well, not all day, obviously--just the evenings). Tuesday Josh and I got to do some school together and that was so nice. I'm going to miss those times with him! I suppose that just means it's time to start doing that stuff with Claire! :) She needs some one-on-one attention, too. Poor kid.

Anyway, Wednesday was our storytime. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera until after the stories were all over--but I did get the craft and the activity after! :) Our theme was Animals and we read some stories about different animals (Never Tease a Weasel, Harriet and the Fox, No Matter What, and Going to Sleep on the Farm), we did a felt board story (Peter Rabbit), and sang some action songs between each story to help the kids stay sort of focused (the music was thanks to my mom and her gift of a lot of Janeen Brady cds...we hopped like rabbits and stood like flamingos and pretended we were lots of different animals). I think the kids really enjoyed it. Then we painted on giant pieces of packing paper on the floor of our dining room (gotta love tile!)--we made big red barns (which really ended up being animals instead) and they could glue cut-out animals if they wanted to. Then I gave the kids animal headbands, and I thought of doing an animal charades, but it turned out the kids just wanted to run a lot, and I'm ok with that! :) But it was nice to be with lots of little kids, read stories, and chat with moms! :) Rejuvenation! :)

Here is some of the work space. :) Crayons, paint and fun abounded! Ha!


Josh is painting his 'barn'...which ended up being a cow inside a barn, with a chicken on it's nest of eggs up above it! :)


Josh as: A Duck!


Claire, the big purple bunny:


Elijah is a duck, too:


Ivy is a piggy:


The back of the piggy...I have to admit, the curly tail was a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself! Ha!


Louis the sheep! Love those fuzzy ears! :) (He refused to take it off--which was SO cute and so different from all the other kids who pretty much tore theirs off after the first few minutes!)


Andrew only looks happy here because I'm taking his picture and he knows that when you get your picture taken, you smile. He was actually a very unhappy camper and screamed at me. He wouldn't let me put a cute little headband on him, but ran away screaming. Oh well. He's still cute. I think he was just super tired.


Here are a bunch of the kids playing. For some reason, everyone loves to stand on this table. Probably because you're not supposed to stand on tables.


I have to admit, I joined in on the fun, too. I rather liked my horns...I made the cows sort of purple because of the poem:

I've never seen a purple cow;
I never hope to see one!
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!!

So, I was a purple cow. And a good time was had by all.