Gum drop tree

Yesterday afternoon, we were running out to the grocery store to pick up some much-needed gum drops for a craft project.  Our car battery died.  We were stranded in our car (thank goodness) in 34 degree weather for 48 minutes.  We were not in a grocery store parking lot, because I had (stupidly) made a side trip to another remote area first.  I called AAA, and was told it would be 35 minutes before a repair truck could get to us. I  usually put Bode and Gianna in their car seats without their coats on.  So I took everyone out of their car seats and put coats on.  We sang "Frosty the Snowman" several times, and played a car-naming game (or, a CARS naming game).  I took one of Gianna's shoes off to make sure that her footsies were warm.  They were toasty, thank goodness.   The tow truck arrived 48 minutes later.  In 10 seconds, the man had charged my battery up and sent us on our way.  I don't want that to happen again!  The children were so good while we waited.

We went straight home, and I left my car running for 30 minutes to charge up the battery.  I put Bode and Gianna down for naps.  I took Priscilla outside and my hands were freezing!  I need to find my gloves, or buy new ones.  I was so thankful again that we were stuck inside our car, and not outside.

After naps, we went to the store for gum drops.  And this afternoon, I introduced Bode to the fun activity of making a gum drop tree.  

Have you ever made gum drop trees?  My mom used to do this activity with me every Christmas. I used to love it.  I have wanted to do this with Bode since he was a baby. I think he is now at the right age.  

Materials:
one styrofoam tree form
a bag of gum drops (red and green for Christmas, but multi-colored would be festive, too!)
toothpicks

Add one excited child:

Stick the gum drops on the toothpicks for the excited child so that he doesn't poke his fingers (I cut the toothpicks in half) Then the excited child can push the toothpick into the styrofoam form.  Fill the form up with gum drops.  If you're a perfectionist like I am, then you'll want to redo all the gum drops that your child did. You'll want to make nice even rows to form a nice, smooth Christmas tree shape. I resisted the temptation. This time.

Eventually your child will start goofing off with the gum drops.  If he loves hats, like my child loves hats, he will decide that a red gum drop will make a nice Christmas hat.

And then, your child may wonder, "Hmm. Well what exactly is a gum drop?  Animal, vegetable or mineral? Is this sugar?" and decide that he must taste the gum drop. Actually, most children would probably just pop one in their mouths immediately. I know Gianna will, if given the chance.  It literally took this long for Bode to decide that he would try a gum drop.  He is so cautious and just not aware of candy right now.  (Note: when I talked about the project with him, I never stated, "We're going to cover this styrofoam with candy!" I talked about gum drops and never mentioned that gum drops are edible.)

He eventually snuck a taste:

We didn't finish the tree but it will be something that we'll work on over the next couple of days.   Afterwards, I put the babies in the bath.  And Gianna finally gave me a smile.  Please feel free to cut this photo out and paste it onto our Christmas card for your enjoyment. Fa la la la laaaaa!

Happy weekend, everyone.
xo