Here is Part II (which occurs chronologically earlier than Part I) of my series of posts recording some of the activities the boys and I have done with our church playgroup. As I mentioned in my first post (which you should see below this one), we have done a variety of activities such as playing at someone's house, swimming at Angie's, taking a walk at Turkey Creek, going to a local museum, kite flying, Easter Egg hunting, decorating pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies, and much more. It has been a great year, and looking at back at all we have done I once again realize--I live in a great place! (Thanks again to Angie for keeping the playgroups going from week to week.) [Pictured here at our house in September: Sam and Ryan]
Going on a nature walk at Rocky Bayou State Park in September. [Pictured here: Curtis, Ryan, Angie, Claire, Sam, Todd]
The kids enjoyed getting a close-up look at a butterfly (which was, unfortunately, found dead--but better found dead than having been killed by one of our group). [Pictured here: Curtis, Ryan, Claire, Sam]
I think the kids were looking for the perfect piece of deer moss in this photo. [Pictured here: Makayla, Claire, Sam, Curtis]
One of our favorite annual activities is going to the pumpkin patch sponsored by the Methodist Church in Niceville for the whole month of October. On the weekends they host a petting zoo and a bounce house. You can also reserve story times for groups. Our playgroup went for a storytime and had a lot of fun. Todd and Ryan especially enjoyed being able to pick our which mini pumpkin they got to take home.
[Pictured here: Curtis]
Instead of decorating gingerbread houses, which we felt would be too messy, too overwhelming, and too time-consuming, our group decorated graham cracker Christmas trees. It was a hit, and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to do a candy-related decorating activity with young children. [Pictured here: Todd, Sam, Claire, Ryan, Curtis]
Fun for adults, too.
One of the best parts--playing with the candy. [Pictured here as Rudolph: Curtis]
More reindeer [Pictured here: Sam, Todd]
Simply playing at someone else's house is guaranteed fun. They always have cooler toys. The boys caught sight of this riding dump truck as we were leaving Sam's house in December. It took a while to get them into the car to go home. [Picture here: Todd, Ryan]
In December we took a trip to a local nursing home to sing Christmas carols. Because the kids had not been able to learn many carols (we only came with three prepared songs), we had extra time and filled it in with an enthusiastic rendition of "Once There Was a Snowman" and "Popcorn Popping". Our melting snowmen were so popular with the residents that I think we actually sang it the song twice. Here, the children sing "Jingle Bells."
What a great way to get ready for Christmas. [Our singing Santas pictured here: Sam, Todd, Curtis, Jaden, Ryan, Claire]
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