Founder's Day Parade

It's hard to believe that this is our third time through the preschool rituals (here is Bean's parade, and here is Bugs last one). And even harder to believe that this is our last time. Peanut got to celebrate the school's beginnings this last week.

 

It's funny to me that what is really such a small parade (about 30 kids and their teachers with hats and musical instruments) and short ceremony is such a big deal to them. It really is all in the perspective, and to Peanut, this was a large event.

 

He was so excited about making his hat and that he was going to get to wear it in the parade.

The scale of it all was probably perfect for him--he gets a little overwhelmed by large groups of people and noise, so for him, this was big, and I could tell he felt a little nervous about it all, but also pretty excited to participate. 

We absolutely love his teachers.

They are both phenomenal with the kids and so fun.

We will forever be grateful to these two women who started this preschool about 15 years ago. All of our kids have thrived in the environment they created.

The kids got to mulch and water the "school tree".

Then, they sang a couple of their favorite class songs for us. Some of the kids sang. A lot smiled and looked cute and let their teachers carry the music part.

And that was it. Yay for simple and sweet and letting the kids be a part of something that is fun for them and doesn't go on long enough to lose their interest.

Fall is Flying By

 I can't believe how fast this month is going.  I love fall--love the weather, love the activities, but I'm not loving how busy its been.  I want more time to really enjoy it.  But better too busy than bored, right?

So here's a peak at some of what we've been doing the last week or so:

 Bug had Founder's Day at the preschool last week.  I missed it last year (we'd just started at school the week before so I hadn't heard about it and that morning, I think I was still in my pj's when I dropped him off and was in a hurry to go back home so I could throw up again.), so he's been reminding me of it for a month.  And he still panicked that morning when he thought I'd gone home and wasn't going to make it back in time.

 The kids made hats the day before, and then do a little parade out to the tree they planted in honor of the two women who started the preschool 10 years ago.  It's very lowkey and fun--just right for this age.

 At home, we've been working on Halloween decorations.  Thanks to pinterest (my new-found obsession), I found a couple fun decorating ideas I wanted to try.  The kids were skeptical of the jack-o-lantern in the window ("Why aren't you cutting out a round pumpkin?  They're always round!"), but once they saw it up, they were really excited.  (Except then the bulb burned out in that room, and I only think of it at night when its too dark to change the bulb, so we haven't had it on for the last couple nights).

 This wreath was more of a solo project, although Bug did help out for about 5 minutes before declaring it was too hard.  Also found on pinterest.  It is the product of a two naptimes and two romance novels that have somehow found their way into my house that I had no intention of ever reading, a little ribbon and a piece of black paper. Oh, and a half price straw wreath.  Pretty simple

 A little tee ball action.  Bug is not the most teachable ("I don't need to take lessons, I already know how to ______" Fill in that blank with anything that he's even been introduced to.), so we've struggled with learning how a tee is supposed to work, but he's getting the idea slowly.  He's actually doing okay hitting balls pitched to him, too.  His stance is pretty funny, but its cute and maybe someday he'll be willing to listen to us, or even look at us as we try to demonstrate.

 We've also been doing a lot of baking.  Fall is always baking time in my mind.  Only problem is that this year, I can't eat any of it.  But that hasn't stopped me from making homemade everything, including these pumpkin shaped "Ritz" crackers.  It's hard when I start researching all this food stuff, and completely overhauling my diet for one kid, to then keep feeding the other two a bunch of processed junk.  So we haven't been.  But they also don't want to just eat meat and veggies, which leaves me baking and cooking way more than normal, trying to keep the houes stocked with snacks and things that I feel good about giving them.  We've made granola bars, lots of muffins, an oatmeal bar (that's really a less-sweet cookie, but I pretend that its healthy), crackers, and lots of breads.  I haven't been able to taste any of it, but I hear most of the things have been pretty good.  And these crackers, while not exactly a Ritz, have been enjoyed.  Especially the ones I used to serve up some monster faces (I'm telling you, I should have named this post Pinterest Obsession).

 We've also been doing a lot of reading.  Magic Treehouse is the series of choice these days.  I love it that Bean can read to the boys (and love that Henry is fascinated enough with the kids, no matter what they are doing, that I can plop him down for a few minutes.)

Finally, you know how people always say that someday you'll miss the finger prints on the windows and the toys strewn around the house?  Well, I don't know if I'll really miss that stuff, but as I was cleaning the other morning, I did realize that I'll miss coming across notes like this that turn up  randomly all the time because my little boy loves me :)  Maybe Daddy-o will have to leave me love notes around the house at that point.  He's really going to miss these kids, too!

Founder's Day

Bean's preschool celebrated Founder's Day today. The kids have been working on these hats for the last couple days and got to march around the school with their musical instruments and singing (what, I'm not sure--lets just say that 13 4 year-olds don't exactly make a great chorus).
They ended with a couple songs by the tree that was planted two years ago in honor of the founders, one of whom was there today and gave a little thank you speech to all the kids and parents.
Bugaboo has gotten to know a couple of the younger siblings who we have a playgroup with every Tuesday.
And of course he wanted a chance to wear the hat.

The whole thing was nice and short. Or it would have been if Buggy and I hadn't been playing in the car before it started, which led to a team effort of locking the keys in the car. This is my second time in the last month--I think that means that I need to change some sort of habit. Or I need to stick more closely to my habits because my normal routine of exiting the car doesn't lead to this problem, but obviously any variance does. Thank goodness for AAA. And those really handy little inflatable pillows they use to open the door a crack--if you haven't seen them do this, it might almost be worth an "accidental" locking (maybe at your own house where you can just hang out in comfort)--they can have the car open in less than 30 seconds.

I asked the guy how much those cost, but he pointed out that it won't do me any good if its locked in the car along with everything else.