WATERVILLE — Haddie Bickford, 5, and her brother, Eli, 3, climbed into chairs Saturday at Holy Cannoli downtown as baker Beth Lefferts placed sugar cookies spread with green frosting before them on the table.
With help from their mother, Rebecca Deschaine, the children spooned colorful sprinkles shaped like candy canes, snowmen and snowflakes onto the cookies to decorate them.
“Mom, I want a little more,” Eli said. “How about one of the mini-marshmallows?” Deschaine said.
The boy nodded in approval.
They were at Holy Cannoli on Saturday as part of Joy to the Ville activities, hosted by Waterville Creates.
The free, all-day community event, designed to celebrate the holiday season, included visits with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus at Kringleville, story time at the Children’s Book Cellar, story time and card-making at the Waterville Public Library, a screening of the movie “Elf,” a live performance of the musical “Annie” at the Waterville Opera House, and quilted card and ornament-making at Common Street Arts.
The opera house, the Maine Film Center, the library, Colby College and the Children’s Discovery Museum helped organize the day’s activities.
In a Common Street Arts classroom and gallery space at The Center, Inland Hospital hosted a free Let’s Go Family Fun Series — Healthy Holiday Activities event in which children got to make figures and characters out of fruits and vegetables.
Eli Bickford made a Santa Claus figure by using pieces of banana and strawberry and topping it with a tiny marshmallow. After consuming that – minus the toothpick, of course – he pressed a tiny marshmallow on the tip of a toothpick, waved it like a hammer and then ate it. Deschaine said she was enjoying the activity with her children.
“I think it makes healthy eating a lot more fun,” she said.
Baylee Doughty, community health program coordinator for Inland Hospital, whose primary focus is the Let’s Go! series, said the activity was a fun one for children, and a way to help make fruits and vegetables appealing to them.
“They love it,” she said.
Amy Calder can be contacted at 861-9247 or at:
acalder@centralmaine.com
Twitter: AmyCalder17
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