holiday party, preschool style

Maya had her holiday party at preschool yesterday and, just like when Ella went there, it is the cutest thing you ever saw.

They sing Rudolph, some lip syncing, other shouting, some with their arms folded pouting.  They have coffee can lids with bells attached and sing jingle bells.  They run all around the room, dragging you from place to place because it is so cool to have a parent stay at school.

Unfortunately, Sandi had her last final in Portland that afternoon so she couldn't come.  To ease this pain, she had been able to drop Maya off last week for school and the teachers had Sandi stay while they practiced their songs.  Naturally, I also video taped but it kind of just sucks to have to miss these bigger things in a child's life.

Maya and her friend Jackson:

The kids do a "finger play" which uses the hand to mimic the chimney and goes, "Close up the chimney, put on the top.  Open up the top and UP! Santa pops."  But Maya likes to say lid instead of top and it doesn't quite rhyme. 

Just like Ella, Maya made us a hand and footprint reindeer.  Now we have a 2008 and a 2011 one.  HOW CUTE.

For the party, I made these pretzel snowmen.  I even was the mom who let the four-year-old help instead of just doing it while she was in bed.  I swallowed my Type A neurosis and let the eyes be cockeyed and the buttons askew.  I am trying...

The really ridiculous part, though, was that I was talking with some moms at gymnastics and let them convince me to make snowbanks out of rice krispy treats to poke the pretzel rods into to hold them up.  This I did after the girls went to bed.   I drilled the proper diameter hole in the snowbanks, let it harden, dusted it with confectioner's sugar and voila!  It was a complete disaster.  The snowmen tipped precariously, the rice krispy bank was too shallow and couldn't hold them.  So I made a second batch with less holes and more structural integrity.  That bombed too.  Finally, at 11 PM, I rooted around my pantry and found this silver pitcher and called it good, wondering all the while who spends 2 hours making an edible presentation for preschool grade snowmen??

Snowbanks or not, they were a huge hit.

There was even an appearance from a special someone.  (Which is not the same as someone special as his red costume was not of the negligee variety.)

Maya simply adores her teachers, who were Ella's teachers, and we feel so blessed to have them.  I can't help but think they have a soft spot for her having had her toddle around their rooms just a few short years ago and crying wildly when I had to drag her out of there every drop off.