It is an amazing thing when your little gets along with your friend’s littles. It means the stars have aligned and you get to enjoy playdates without worrying about what will you speak to the other parents about. Let me say that JustaBXgirl lets me know when she is not interested in hanging out with my friends’ littles. She is never rude, is always polite and will include the littles in things but will clearly tell me she’s not interested in hanging out again. The first time we hung out with a high school buddy of mine‘s littles I held my breath because my friend and I were already planning a million things to do and I knew if JustaBXgirl wasn’t enamored all of my plans would be ended before they began!
Cue the singing angels because JustaBXgirl completely loves these critters. Now when we are going places she asks me if they’ll be there too! With our December schedules looking crazy my friend and I decided to plan a morning playdate between other activities. Trust me keeping four littles all under the age of ten occupied and happy can be a struggle. Or at least we thought it would be. Oriental Trading Company made it a breeze and so much fun.
Since we were on a schedule we only planned for two organized activities and then left the littles to have some free play time. Our first activity was Snowman Snow Globes. Each little was able to color their own snowman snow globe. My favorite was the candy corn snowman but don’t tell that to JustaBXgirl because it wasn’t the one she colored! They enjoyed the activity but as with littles it didn’t last long. Each child was finished with their snowglobe in less than five minutes! We made it last a little longer by taking boomerangs of them shake, shake, shaking their snow globes.
While the adults prepared the second activity of the day the littles had a dance party in the other room. After they got their sillies out we brought them back focused on activity number two, DIY Ceramic Holiday Ornaments. These are a perfect winter activity for littles. They come in six different designs. Rather than deal with everyone wanting to do a Christmas tree we put the ornaments in a box, had the littles close their eyes and select one. It added to the excitement that nobody knew what they would get.
Not one child complained because each of the ornaments was super cool. Even the adults got in on the fun. That’s the things about arts and crafts. You never get too old to enjoy it. Confession time, this activity probably kept them busy for only another twenty minutes because we only let them paint one ornament before sending them back to free play. We wanted to keep the ornaments manageable and the ornaments identifiable. Have you ever let a little paint freely? You normally end up with something brown and unrecognizable as they mix colors while layering up the paint until it is thicker than a Snickers! Our little artists did an amazing job of keeping their ornaments and their colors nameable!
Our littles played a round, (or seven of hide and seek) then we did some rock painting (bonus activity) before it was time to say tata for now. The littles (and adults) are already planning the next get together.
