Cherry Cheer

I love when my family is on a schedule (doesn't happen very often).  I love spontaneity, but I also love predictability.  Recently, we have added something to our week that has become such a wonderful part of our schedule.  Every Thursday afternoon Dallin, Claire and I walk to the Cherry's house.  They are fabulous people, friends and members of our ward.  There is a trail that goes from our house to theirs and the kids love running up and down those hills (getting really dirty).   We arrive at the Cherry's home where Donna has prepared a wonderful afternoon for my kids.  She was an elementary school teacher years ago and I can tell from our visits with her that she was an incredible one.  Each Thursday has a theme...last week she taught my children about Noah's ark.  She mentioned the beautiful rainbow at the end of the account and we then got to watercolor our very own rainbows.  We then proceeded to have our traditional "tea" party with orange juice (spiked with Sierra Mist:)) and animal crackers to follow the Noah's Ark theme.  Yesterday, we learned about farm animals.  Donna (ie: Sister Cherry) read us an "Old McDonald had a Farm" book, we then sat around the craft table and drew a specific landscape of the farm.  Dallin colored a vegetable garden and a place for the dogs to run wild.  Claire was in charge of coloring the horses trough and chicken coop.  I made a field for the sheep and goats, and Donna made a great place for the pigs to roll around.  We then placed a whole bunch of plastic animals in their correct "home" on the farm.  The kids sure loved this.  It was then time for our "tea" party (Claire adores this part with Donna's little tea set).  We had jello jigglers in the shapes of cows, ducks and chickens with some goldfish crackers on the side.  Our "tea" was chocolate milk (from the chocolate cows of course :)).  Such creativity and I am so grateful for the time and effort she puts into helping my kids enjoy their Thursday afternoons.  It is a part of our schedule that we all look forward to!

*As you can see, Claire also adores the Cherry's dog Shadow!