Preschool subscription smack down

I wasn't too impressed with day 1 of our "Berry Best Preschool" subscription.  I haven't looked ahead at all so I can only judge day by day....and today, day 2, was another bust.

It starts out so exciting, two activities organized into a little pouch with a theme...

Unfortunately,  the activities are just kinda dumb. The instructions say to have the adults cut out all the pieces - now I'm understanding why they sell a "pre cut" set for more $$$. I suppose I could try to have TC cut her own,  but scissors haven't gone well so far and I'm spooked. The learning activity was a worksheet - count the items and glue the number in the box. The cutting and gluing felt like unnecessary complications to make it a bigger activity. ..but it wasn't real educational or much fun. The artwork so far looks just like the mimeographed worksheets of my youth, these are NOT computer assisted I guess. Maybe that's whimsical.  It feels kinda slipshod.

Activity #2, the craft, was embellishing a snowy owl. Worksheet, 3 feathers, and a stick + feet to cut out and paste on. Eh. Meh. 

I felt like again this was more work for me than my preschooler, didn't occupy much time, and was very low quality.  It's not refrigerator gallery work. It came with just a couple facts about owls,  not enough to teach anything from, so I can't even really give it credit for being more educational. Carefree Crafts includes a set of facts about the month that are much more interesting and we'll curated.

and speaking of Carefree Crafts, they are KILLING IT this month. So much win. We're gonna do everything the first week and then be sad to wait for more. 

First up we stuffed a little teddy bear!  We were sent a bear "skin", fiberfill, and a little heart to stuff inside (like at build-a-bear workshop).  That went pretty smooth, then we didn't even have to stitch her up, it was velcro! Finally there was a little scrap of felt and a pattern to cut a vest, I did that and let TC color on it with markers for some additional mileage out of this craft. Her name is Pinky and she was a a hit:

2nd craft was to decorate a ladybug mailbox for Valentines.  This is exactly what I prefer in crafts right now for TC - stickers she can independently take the backing off (small motor skills + phenomenal practice with patience) nothing messy, no scissors or glue - and again TC loved it. Neither of these are projects we will keep forever but they will be played with some and ready to go once next month's projects come. 

If you are keeping track, Carefree Crafts is winning by a mile. I should be rationing the projects better since we only get 1-1.5 per week, but they are WAY more fun and interesting so far than the 6 per week we are doing with BBP. 

My Ipsy Glam Bag and Bijoux Box should arrive mid month, so we are just starting our subscription box odyssey.  Gotta do something to pass this long crazy winter! 

Berry Best Preschool Subscription + Other Crafting Meltdowns...

We had an utter craft-tastrophe this morning with at least a dozen mega meltdowns and a river of snot and tears, all caused by various craft frustration. Egads. It actually started with milk on the cheerios (I want it! No I don't! Now it's there! World is ending!) Three year olds are far from sensible (or maybe it's just mine who thinks the world is ending if I ask her to slow down, pause, or listen at any point), but this was a bit over the top. Scissors, stickers, coloring - it all just fueled the fire. Ugh.

Now that we've all calmed down (chocolate milk for her, Dr. Pepper for me, chocolate chunk cookies for all), here's a look back:

We're trying out a new monthly subscription sorta like our crafting one, this is from Berry Best Preschool and includes art + curriculum, supposedly a learning activity and a craft for each day. We ordered the 3 day a week subscription for February, and started it today. The "learning activity" was a worksheet to trace and practice making #9s. Sounds easy enough, and I'm pretty sure they do similar things at TC's daycare, so I didn't think twice.

Cue first meltdown.

I'm not sure what I did wrong here, but TC didn't want to follow directions, listen to directions, or allow me to demonstrate. It pushed her well over the edge into toddler tantrum territory. Not awesome. Also, she's terrible at making #9s, so I feel like I kinda failed too. Hmmm....

The "craft activity" was much more benign and one of the few things we accomplished today without tears (ahh, parenting....). It was a "puppet" to celebrate groundhog's day (which was yesterday, so kinda odd to make it today...). The package contained the groundhog printed on brown paper, and a paper bag. The instructions said to pre-cut the head and body of the groundhog, and allow kids to affix the pieces to the paper bag. I used some leftover glue dots (which I still hate, but were easier to use/cleaner than actual glue) and it didn't really feel like TC did much for this. Also, here's what it looked like:

Um....isn't the point of a puppet that the MOUTH looks like it is moving? this "puppet" splits head from body...WHY WOULD WE WANT TO DO THAT?!?!?! It makes no sense, and wasn't real fun to put together.

So, it's pretty early to judge this subscription, but day 1 was kind of a bust. I would guess we'll have a lot more tracing worksheets for the "learning activity" and I'm okay with that since it is a good thing to learn, but we'll have to come to a better working relationship with them (and each other). As for the crafts...very dubious so far. This one was sorta a dumb product AND not real kid-involved to make, so I give it pretty low marks.

Fingers crossed it gets better!

Carefree Crafts - subscription box update

Well I think we might be officially hooked on crafts. TC has become militant on getting at least one craft each day. Her policy is enforced with tears, temper tantrums, and what amount to toddler sit-ins. While a huge part of me LOVES that she took an interest in creative stuff, it's often not the most convenient. So I think the Carefree Crafts subscription is here to stay, since it means we have more easy projects on hand.

We have almost finished our January projects, and I'm bummed because it was really convenient to just grab a pre-packaged craft from the pile and jump in. Nothing required set up, or much clean up. I'm not sure if this happens every month, but everything also color-coordinated, so our little "gallery" was even cute. Here's a quick review:

Project #1 was a snowman "coaster." The coaster was silly, but it's fine as a wall hanging. We actually mailed it off to help decorate Lucy's hospital room, a little Midwest scene setting to go along with the hearts and princesses. Next we did the "stained glass" mitten sun catcher, which was the messiest because it involved glue, but not too bad overall. The snowflake lacing mobile was kind of over TC's head, but she colored the snowflakes and I did the lacing and she was not bothered by my contributions.

This little guy (well, below is a stock photo - ours is already missing in the tidal wave of toy mess that is our livingroom during this polar vortex) we assembled and were supposed to use to play "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk" which is a form of hide and seek where you hide an object, or sort of like "hot and cold." My favorite part has been listening to TC try to say Huckle Buckle Beanstalk, which she thinks is his name. Totally worth the price of the subscription. It comes out something like "hickle hickle beanpot" usually.


Then we did what was probably my favorite project because it was mostly peel & stick foam (no glue dots!), a little penguin measuring stick. This was also fun because we worked on counting when deciding which number to stick on which line, and TC decided that Huckle Buckle is the penguin's mom. So now they have earnest conversations and live together in a princess suitcase.

We have one more project that involves water colors, so I've saved that for when I feel particularly caffeinated and patient, though TC LOVES to paint, so I'm sure it will be a hit. We actually did the first step - coloring on coffee filters - and it was a bit of a mess, since TC decided she was going to give herself a "cat-too" and the so-called "washable" markers have decided not to wash off even after a soak and scrub in the tub. Oh well.

We went ahead and signed up for February's box, and I can't wait till it arrives! With the harsh cold we've had this month indoor activities have been particularly appreciated, I wish we had them today. We burned through several slapped together craft projects and could have used many more.

Verdict: feeling pretty good about Carefree Crafts, can't wait to get the next shipment!

The Cupcake's First Haircut

TC's pigtails had gotten so long, they sometimes dipped in her lunch. Her PIGTAILS! That's some long hair! It was baby fine and a little scraggly around the edges, so it seemed like a good time to clean it up a little with her first haircut. I didn't know how she'd take it, but it all went well! Here is the before:

I thought we were going to one of the fancy kid salons with chairs shaped like dinosaurs and unicorns, but it turned out to be pretty plain. I hesitated for a moment, but it was completely empty and that seemed like a bonus, so we just went for it. They did have monitors at each station showing videos - TC's was playing Tangled, which is a favorite!

The stylist was patient and clearly used to dealing with toddlers, though TC was unusually stoic. She sat very still and quiet, and followed directions for the most part, it was completely out of character :) She only blanched for a moment when the hair dryer came out, but she let out nary a peep during the whole production!

They took off four whole inches, and it looks GREAT!

Happy little goon.

 They even gave her a bonus braid, and it stayed in the whole rest of the day, including a celebratory trip to McDonald's and a rowdy afternoon in Playland! I might have to try that one again, I'm stumped for styles that can last all day at preschool - she often comes home with her hair clips in a baggie when I try something new. Fresh look for a fresh year!

Carefree Crafts Subscription Review

 My first subscription box came! Actually, it was a bubble mailer, but still. Very exciting. And very quick!  I'm impressed by the turn around time, as the other boxes I subscribed to I had to wait for February. Carefree Crafts was able to get me on board right away!

The package included a color page showing all of the projects, the theme, and some trivia applying to the theme at the bottom. This month it's "Winter Wonderland," which works for me. There are 6 projects in this package with a variety of mediums - one is lacing, one is a little figure to assemble, one is painting, etc.

Inside the package are all of the supplies needed to make each of the projects, separated into packages, so you can just pull out the bag for what you are going to make and not have to sort it yourself  (all time saving is good when toddlers are involved!)

We decided to start with a "snowman coaster." Apparently to put beverages on. So...I'd never use this as a coaster, but The Cupcake is unconcerned with such concepts as "practicality," so "Frosty" was quite exciting for her. This seemed like the simplest project, and we've been doing a lot of foam sticker work lately, so I figured we could handle it. We did...but it wasn't quite as easy as I had hoped. It relied heavily on Glue Dots, which I have to believe are made of pure evil. I generally can't get them off their backing without significant trouble, and I have some crafting experience, so I don't know anyone who would think a toddler could do it. That meant I had to place all the glue dots and just let TC assemble, which was okay, but neither of us really had the patience for it. But you wouldn't know it by the end:

I asked her what we should name him, and she replied "FROSTY" in an exasperated tone, it definitely would have been followed by "Duh, mom!" If she knew the word "Duh!" :) 

Later that evening TC begged for another "cwaft!" so we tried the "stained glass" mitten. It was an acetate sheet that you covered with glue, then tissue paper squares, and a foam border. When finished it is a mitten shaped sun catcher. It was one of the messier projects, so I should have known not to try it at the END of the day when I was already tired, but the glue was the least of the problems. The tissue paper tiles had to be separated from a stack, and the instructions warned that there were just enough to cover the project, so after my hands were covered in glue I spent awkward and tense minutes trying to separate thin layers. It turned out that there were plenty of tissues so I didn't need to be so precise, but still...after the glue dots, this experience left me wondering if these boxes were for me.

But someone is a big fan so far. 

We still have 4 projects left, and so far some positives are that the kits are all inclusive, curated around a theme, and sized for just one kid. A lot of the projects seem to come from Oriental Trading Co, which always has dubious quality, but it is somewhat of a plus to be able to make just ONE of something, rather than ordering at least a dozen through OTC. There are a lot more glue dots included...but I'm wondering if I could just switch those out for double sided tape or something. I haven't yet decided if the projects are a great age fit - TC seems very interested, but she also want's to jump right in and these crafts so far have required patience and sequencing, which can add stress to a messy situation. The foam stickers are way easier. 

I got a great deal on the first box with a coupon code, but I can't decide yet if this is worth a monthly renewal. If I took the same amount of $$ to the craft store, I'm not sure I could get 6 different projects (since usually things come in packages or fancy kits), and I do appreciate not having to think about the projects and just having them on hand, having the experience and displaying things for a while but not feeling like we need to save them forever, and having TC get excited about it. Oh, and getting mail. I totally love getting mail. But man, I hate glue dots :) 

Stay tuned for more! 

Hearts for Lucy

We've been messy craft machines around our house lately, and yesterday we made some pretty special pieces - Hearts for Lucy:

The Cupcake with her creations

Lucy is the youngest of 4 children in the Marlett family. Lucy is dying. Soon. Her parents have realized this and made the difficult move to comfort care, and part of the comfort they want to provide to their daughter (and their 3 other young children) is to fill Lucy's hospital room with hearts and cards and love.

I found out about their request from a Facebook link to a blog link to a different blog link - I hadn't read the family's blog or heard of them before I saw it, and honestly I haven't read much beyond the most recent posts even now,  but I knew immediately we would be on board to send some love. I can't imagine these circumstances, and I hope I never have to, but I can do crafts and I too have a love of mail. I can only imagine that a Santa-sack full of sparkly envelopes just might perk up the family's feelings, if only for a brief time.

We had just picked up some foam hearts and princess stickers thinking they might be useful around Valentine's Day, so I rationed a few out to TC and just let her go to town. I did the letters in Lucy's name and centered one of the hearts, otherwise it's all 3 year old chaos and excess. I think that works. It's sparkly and happy, and that's what we'd like to send to Lucy and her family. A few moments of sparkles and happiness.

We're sending them per the instructions on the family blog:

Our hope and prayer for Lucy in these final days, weeks…is that we'll surround her with love, wrap her in it, bathe her in it, saturate her with it! 
So...I have an idea.  Not unlike any other admission in which our girl celebrated so many holidays in the hospital, we need to decorate her room.  It's time to take down the Christmas decorations, and bring on the LOVE!  For the love of Lucy send hearts, send cards, send love notes to Lucy, affirmations of love…help us surround her with love.

The hospital address is:

Nemours A. I. DuPont Hospital for Children

℅ Lucy Marlett Room 3708

1600 Rockland Road
Wilmington, DE 19803  

You can read more about Lucy and her family, or their request at AllTheMarletts

Up Up and Away (from yesterday at least)

Yesterday was a "death by paper cuts" day with a million tiny things going wrong which felt after a while like torture and absurdity. In the middle of it all I was able to accomplish the one fun task on my list-balloon shopping!  I love balloons. TC loves balloons. Balloons make a party instantly festive and make everyday days into parties. Also, we've been watching the movie "UP" a lot lately, so TC and I are pretty much experts on balloons. I rented a helium tank and am looking forward to filling the house up with happiness. If it doesn't work, we're blowing up even more and heading off to Paradise Falls.

Toys for Other Tots

I've (hopefully) started a couple of holiday traditions for our family: the annual ornament, setting up the tree, and donating a toy each year to charity. The latter is still in it's formative stages - in theory we would all go together as a family and pick something out that was meaningful, but time was against us this year so in the final days before collections ended I grabbed something on my own during a rare solo shopping trip. I still tried to make it meaningful by picking a doll that reminded me of The Cupcake:

 

It was barely in our house for 24 hours before I remembered to grab it on my way to a meeting at a school that was collecting for toys for tots, but it was just enough time for TC to see her. And go completely nuclear when she was not allowed to "had it! had it!"

Guess we have some work to do on the "Christmas Spirit", eh?

The doll made it to the charity, the kid eventually recovered from her blubbery puddle on the floor, and has since started to play with her own dolls (which are more age appropriate and have less hair to destroy).

Cupcakes for The Cupcake - 2nd Birthday

 

The Cupcake turned two in January, and we celebrated with a small gathering at a local ice cream shop. It was a smashing success - though TC wouldn't be tied down in her high chair or pose for any non-blurry photos (2 year olds, sheesh), because she was much too busy mingling.

I chose a very small location (max occupancy 12) and just a few projects to keep the party personal but manageable. Elmo HAD to be the theme, as TC is nuts over him, and I didn't mind the bright fun color scheme the little monster brings. One of the projects I decided to do early on was Elmo cupcakes:

 

They turned out great, and were so easy! Chocolate mini cupcakes were baked from a mix. Red frosting was made from 2 cans of white store brand frosting and a whole bottle of Wilton no-taste red. Yeah, that's a lot, and will probably stain clothes, but I didn't want pink Elmos so I kept adding more and more, and in the end it turned out GREAT (this would totally stain clothes I'm guessing, and will make mouths red - but it's a b-day party, and a toddler - we knew stains would happen).

 

 

Here's the process - I used a mix to make mini cupcakes in foil liners. Then I piped stars as a base (or "fur" for my little monsters), added candy eyes by Wilton that are available at a lot of grocery and Target stores now, an orange jelly bean nose, and a chocolate piped smile. I didn't try to hard to make anything perfect (monsters are messy) and I cranked them out really quickly.

Should I really give Santa Credit for This Anyways?

The Cupcake visited Santa, and can pick him out of a photo (though sometimes she calls him PaPa), and if you ask her what he says, she will give a hearty "Ho ho ho!" But TC doesn't know what Santa "does" yet.

 

Thank goodness.

 

Nor does she have any sense of time, or dates, or holidays. Which is very convenient. I decided to put together her big present, purportedly from Santa, on December 23rd, since it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and we had no obligations, and we'd be out late on Christmas Eve for sure. I had no idea what I was in for. I couldn't even lift the box (which could double as a pauper's coffin with no trouble).

 

 

Everything was packed nicely, all 7.5 million pieces in one huge brick...

 

With 400 pages of IKEA-ish sketched directions.

 

I called in reinforcements - power tools are one of man's best advancements. Though I could have used some elves too (maybe Santa knows what he's doing?)

 

The pile of foam wrap, cardboard, and styrofoam was bigger than the original box. The physics are baffling.

 

But somehow, 3 hours + 6 broke nails later, it was done. And adorable. And sturdy (so far). In fact, this thing is WAY nicer than any of our kitchen cabinets. And since our kid has no concept of Santa, or days of the week, or dates on the calendar, we just let her discover it when she got up from her nap instead of trying to hide it for 2 more days (did I mention it weighs as much as a small car?).

 

It was a hit! The Cupcake loves her "chicken." Especially the "seenk!" It has a ton of storage, the oven and dishwasher open like cabinets (instead of opening vertically, at which point the kid steps on the door and breaks it immediately after assembly), and even that "tile backsplash" is heavy wood, not just cardboard. She won't leave the shelves in the oven or dishwasher, but otherwise she has been loving it for hours, talking and cooking and amusing herself just as I had hoped.

Definitely loves filling everything from the sink, I'm so glad we got this sturdy set with a heavy duty faucet! The phone has to be her second favorite, and she even points out the big numbers on the "base" of the phone.

 

 

I'm not sure what we'll do next year when she has a bit more awareness of the world (probably buy pre-assembled gifts?) but there still seemed to be plenty of Christmas magic this season, even if some of it came a few days early.

P.S. This is the KidCraft Urban Espresso kitchen set via Amazon. It was about $180 (I think) and right now I'm super happy with the choice. While it was a bit of a bear to put together (not necessarily hard, I did it myself in about 2-3 hours, and didn't do anything wrong, it was just a lot of steps), it seems really sturdy, everything is smartly designed for real kids (i.e. the oven door thing), there are no noisy buzzers or sound effects or flashing lights (we have enough toys that yell at me), and I can definitely see this lasting for years to come. It's not terribly huge either, we're going to keep it in the living room for now since that is where we spend most of our time. It says 3&up on the box, but there are no small (removable) parts and my almost 2 year old, while pretty tall for her age, is able to interact with everything just fine.

The Ornament Tradition - 2012

One of the holiday traditions we are starting is to pick out an ornament for The Cupcake each year. Something that relates to her life during the year we get it, and once she is all grown up and decorating her own tree we can give her the whole set of memories to begin her own collection of holiday decor (in theory...I'm not necessarily convinced I'll be ready to part with them, but for sure she can have them in the will).

 

Two years ago, when I was pregnant, we started with this one.

 

Last year, her first Christmas, I picked out a monkey in a ballerina costume which looked almost identical to the little monkey on her first birthday invitations, and suited our little dancing (and running, and climbing, and wiggling) monkey just fine:

 

 

This year I was pretty sure we had to find something that represented her FAVORITE guy in the whole world, and no, it's not Daddy or PaPa...

 

It's Elmo.

 

The first thing TC asks for in the morning is Elmo. Sometimes it makes me feel like a massive failure that my almost 2-year old knows a TV character so well, but I swear it was love at first sight - Elmo was one of her earliest words, PaPa P got her a stuffed Elmo doll when she was pretty little, and some days a little Elmo is just the lifesaver we both need to make it through another long day (the years are short, but the days are looooooong). This past week we volunteered at a gift wrap booth for 3 hours a day 4 different days. How, I ask you, does one entertain a toddler in an 8' X 8' space for 3 hours? Elmo makes the impossible possible. Instead of beating myself up over it, I'm going to accept, acknowledge, and heck, even celebrate it. Elmo is a big part of our life right now.

 

This was the best likeness I could find of the officially licensed ornaments. We wanted to be sure the money went to Sesame Workshop, without whom I could never get dressed or pee during the day. I like the idea of getting a glass ornament each year, while she can't play with them, it will feel like more of an heirloom to hand over eventually.

 

Here's hoping you're building family traditions of your own today & all year round...

The Cupcake meets Santa

We never made it to Santa last year, I had good intentions but froze up whenever I saw the price list for photos, or didn't like the outfit she was wearing, or the mood she was in, or just in general thought I could do better and so I ended up with nothing. This year could have very well been the same, but we took advantage of several happy coincidences and ended up with a sweet snapshot:

 

 

I'm not very happy with the low resolution (we bought the file, for $35 or whatever ridiculous amount I paid I should get a good resolution file) but the pics are cute and made for some adorable holiday cards (cropped a bit). We didn't intend to see Santa that day, we were just wandering the mall and admiring the lights when we came across his cottage with no line. And then we realized The Cupcake was wearing a red plaid tunic, and I had the weekend off to work on Xmas cards if we could get it together, and really wouldn't it just be the perfect opportunity...

 

And then she freaked out when we tried to send her to the big guy, ugly crying and all.

 

So maybe not...

 

We took a detour to the food court, ate some fried rice, and I combed her hair with a fork (where my Little Mermaid fans at? Dinglehopper FTW?) and bought a couple quick hair ties and some bows at a Claires.

 

And with the help of Santa's special bribes (stuffed animals, cookies, patience) we got a few good memories.

 

And I ordered my Xmas cards that night.

 

Mom wins. Claim them when you can.

 

Thanksgiving

We had a fairly low-key Thanksgiving this year, just a traditional meal at my mom  ("nonnie") 's house. The Cupcake has been hit by a 2nd round of this horrible cold, she had about 2 days of reprieve and has otherwise had a drippy nose and cough for TWO MONTHS. Awful. But she still managed to look pretty cute in the fancy pants Janie & Jack outfit Grandma Deb bought her when she was in town last year - it fit PERFECTLY!

 

The adorable little tam was tolerated just fine in the car, but flung as soon as we walked into the house. Sigh.

Somehow, after much convincing, she put it on for a few more snapshots:

Food, family, and a few good photos - what more can a mom ask for?


I also had the rest of the weekend open to tackle some holiday projects - Christmas cards are in the mail!

3....2...1...ZOMG CUTE

 Our final Halloween celebration, that of "actual" Halloween, Wednesday evening the 31st.  We went to the "new zoo" (we have two zoos nearby, the "new" one is at least 20 years old but I've always called it the "new zoo" so it's hard to stop now) for their members-only "HallZOOween." I warn you now, The Cupcake's grand finale costume might be the cutest thing ever to occur on this blog:

 

 

Yes, she even wore the "at" (hat)! In fact, we finally took it off of her halfway through the trick or treat stations fearing she was broiling and knowing she kept walking off the path when it bunched up over her eyes, but it was maybe even cuter off, so that's okay.

 

I didn't make this or anything, I obvs have no time to try creativity lately. I found it on a rack titled "boy costumes" which seemed pretty weird for 2012, but whatever, I wasn't deterred. I knew my little space"man" would be adorable. If I could get her to wear it. We tried a few practice runs ahead of time and it was unclear what would be tolerated, so when she actually seemed delighted (or just distracted enough) on the big day, I was overjoyed.

HallZooWeen was really nice too, it was all indoors (score!), the kids got pretty good treats (cheese its, goldfish crackers, animal print sunglasses, a little fur print coin purse, and a ton more) and it was definitely better than being outside, and the lines weren't long until the end. TC enjoyed seeing a few animals too, and  afterwards we went to dinner and called it a night.

Halloween 2012 is in the books. I still feel like I missed something because I didn't dress up in something grand (I wore my alien hat again with Ms. SpaceMan) but all in all, it was a good time and we accomplished a lot considering I'm STILL battling a cold (this has been weeks).

Halloween Morning

While we didn't make it to all of the Halloween events I had wanted to, in hindsight we still did quite a bit. It feels a little anticlimactic that I didn't wear a grand costume for anything, but I had a few minor ones, including one for Halloween Morning.

 

 

We were matching monarch butterflies! I found the wings a while back at Joann's, clearanced out well before October, I think they were $9. They were a glitter nightmare but I just waited till I was out of the house to open them up, and they got a little floppy as the day wore on, but the effect was still cute. We made quite a splash at the nursing home we trick-or-treated at Wednesday morning.

 

 

It was a really cute event, I'm so glad we went. I'm generally uneasy in nursing homes and at mom-group events, and this was both, but it was pretty fun and low stress.

 

The Cupcake loved running up and down the wide hallways and there wasn't too much trouble she could get in along the way. At the end of each hallway were a couple of residents handing out candy, and again TC picked up on how to take it and put it in her bucket pretty quickly.  

 

Afterwards we gathered in a community room for cookies (sugar cookies - the messiest of the cookies, and least toddler-friendly. Oops.). TC sat down to dig through her candy (other than Kit-Kats, I don't think she recognized any of it) and there was one little old lady sitting alone by the TV. TC picked up a little box of pink Nerds and walked over to her slowly, and sheepishly set the candy on the arm of her chair. I melted.

 

Then she mashed a Crunch bar and a whole bag of M&Ms all over my car, so it's not all rainbows and lollipops.

 

But it was pretty darned cute.