a boy. his sister.: October 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N

The preschool in the fall is one happenin' place... teacher conferences, play dates with new friends, fun on the playground after school, treats for Duke Children's hospital, Harvest Moon baskets, and of course - HALLOWEEN! The kids get so excited about showing off their costumes and playing games and making witch crafts - it really is one of the cutest, most entertaining places to celebrate Halloween.

This year was no different. We started off with the parade around the school right after drop off. I was so busy running around the school and dropping stuff off where it needed to be that I almost completely missed Kate's class "parading." Then, while I was taking pictures of Brett's class, I missed Kate's class performing their songs. Hopefully I can get a copy of someone's video, or at least some pictures!

After the parade, I met up with one of the other moms to work on our basket for Harvest Moon. I have to say, it might be the best Harvest Moon basket I've ever seen, and there are some GREAT baskets this year - 14 of them to be exact. How am I supposed to choose where to put my raffle tickets? If I leave it up to Kate, every last one of them will go into the princess basket, whih I have to admit, kicks my princess basket (from last year)'s butt. It's pretty stinkin' awesome. I'll post pictures of the baskets next week. Erin has already requested that I put some raffle tickets in the NC State/Hurricanes basket, which happens to be done by Kate's fabulous room parents.

Anyway, after a little fun with the baskets, I headed over to Brett's class to help with their "party" which was really just some Halloween-themed centers. I helped the kids decorate their pumpkins. It's amazing how detail-oriented and creative these 4 and 5 year olds can be! After finishing in Brett's class, I headed over to Kate's and helped with their pumpkin craft and pizza party. Let's just say that there's a BIG difference hanging out with the very sweet (yet very hyper) 3's compared to the 4's... I'm not blaming it on the kids at all, but I had one SERIOUS headache when I left the school that day!

Ready to go to school for the costume parade - our fireman and our Fancy Nancy

Waiting to go to class - Kate & Brett with Brett's friend Kippy and her little sister, Ali

Less-than-stellar photography - Kate and her friend, Lilliana

Some of the boys from Kate's class

Brett's class parading

Almost the whole class - too many parents, too many cameras, not enough space...

Kate with her friends, Hannah & Izzy

Room moms in action - Ximena playing Bingo with some of Brett's friends

Ms. Aimee making Frankenstein crafts at her center

Ms. Aimee's daughter helping the kids frost and decorate cookies

My first group of pumpkin decorators - they did great!

Ms. Kris helped them make shape-witches

We worked on some sequencing with Halloween pieces

Worked on cutting skills

Talked about shapes

Practiced writing names

This was the kitty-cat group, definitely

More fun with scissors - don't they look cute concentrating so hard?!

This group was the most creative!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Happy Birthday!

Brett and Kate have a brother and sister in their classes - the sister is in Brett's class and the brother is in Kate's class. They are also 13 months apart, so the kids were invited to their combo birthday party at a local indoor park. Most of the climbing was too advanced for Kate, but she had fun running around. Brett was a climbing and jumping machine by the time the party was over!

"Fancy Nancy"

"Fireman Brett"

Blue Jay Point

While Grandma & Grandpa were here, the kids had a random teacher work day, so we took advantage of a beautiful day and headed up to Blue Jay Point. There is a short little hike down to the lake leading off the playground. The kids always have a great time playing on the big rocks and throwing little rocks in the water.

State Fair

Well, here we are - about 2 weeks late. Sometimes real life just gets in the way of blogging, which is a good thing, mostly :)

As we've done the last several years, we decided to go to the state fair bright and early on a Sunday morning. Todd's parents were visiting, so they came along, plus my parents and sister came along too. We had a big crowd to say the least! Add the fact that it was the most beautiful day EVER and it was crowded, with a crowd, which made it a little chaotic, but I think everyone still had a good time. We all ate some delicious fair food and the kids conquered some fears and tried new rides. We saw some animals and saw some crafts and gave high fives to some policemen. What else do you really need?!