Visiting Santa

I'm not quite sure where the photo went, but last year I had to be in the Santa picture with the kids because Kellyn was too scared.

This year I didn't have to be anywhere near Santa.  Kellyn was so excited to visit Santa she was jumping up and down in the line and could not contain her excitement.

The excitement makes for a much better picture.

Neon Day

Last Friday was Neon Day.  Grandma was in town and helped me find something for Aric to wear.  There were no doubt about whether he was wearing neon or not.

Ryan put on his neon shirt just to meet Aric's bus when he came home from school.  He's a good dad.  And I have a break from school spirit this week, I think...

Veteran's Days

It all started with a turkey.  Aric's class read the story, 'Twas the Night before Thanksgiving.  Aric had to bring in a turkey in some sort of disguise.  The only requirement was that we needed to use things around the house.  We weren't allowed to purchase anything for the turkey.

At first we had planned on using camoflage to turn the turkey into a hunter, but Aric quickly changed his mind and wanted an Army turkey.

Last Monday Aric brought home something for Ryan from school.

Ryan seemed touched and a bit embarrassed by their appreciation.

Their thankfulness didn't end there.  The kids had another school project to make a pilgrim and find something to be thankful for.  Aric's teacher told me to check them out while I was at Aric's school last week.

Notice the similarities between Ryan and Aric's turkey.  I love kindergarten spelling.

One of Aric's classmates was thankful for Ryan, too.

I think it's great that Ryan will stand in front of a tank to keep all of us safe.

This week Aric is Star of the Week in his class.  Ryan, Kellyn and I are supposed to go in on Friday to visit the class.  I told Ryan he should keep his uniform on, because all of the kids will be really impressed by it.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Things Heard Around Here

Kellyn: Mommy, I'm using my imagination to pretend these cars don't talk.

I like that she's using her imagination to pretend her cars aren't talking.  However, I'm a bit concerned that she thinks she has to pretend cars don't talk.  Do cars talk to her?

Crazy Hair Day

After missing the memo on Pajama Day, I have been careful to pay attention to all of the silly days at school and allow Aric to participate.  He wore silly socks, brought a stuffed animal, and yesterday was Crazy Hair Day. 

Laura was happy to help me spike Aric's hair straight up.  I'm not sure how long it stayed that way.  By the time Aric got off the bus in the afternoon his hair had gone from crazy hair to messy hair.  He liked having it spiky and crazy for a day.

Next Friday is neon day.  I'm not sure what we will do for that since the only thing neon in the house is this shirt:

...which happens to be a bit too big for Aric.

Go State

On Saturday we went to our first football game of the season.  We usually stay home; Ryan watches the game and I sew while the kids play.  We have some wonderful friends who invited us to join their tailgate.  They even procured extra tickets for us, allowing Ryan and the kids to go inside and watch the game.  I neglected to take any photos of their "party bus", but I think I had the best seat in the house.  The bus is clean, has a bathroom, food, no crowds, and four TVs allowing anyone to watch the game from inside or outside of the bus.  I'll watch a game like that any time.

On the way to the game, Ryan allowed the kids to bring some Halloween candy as a snack.  If you are ever driving down the road and you hear, "I'm going to pretend a tissue is a napkin.", turn around and look.

We could not have asked for a better day or better friends to share the day with.  They always make us feel welcome and our children are genuinely loved.

Ryan and I were able to sneak off and see the new stadium.  It was quite impressive.  We returned to find our children sitting in the middle of the parking lot eating cake for lunch.

I've already been informed by several sources that it's my job to make sure the kids eat healthy, while it's other people's job to make sure the kids have fun. 

Ryan and Aric watched half of the game inside the stadium.  They had a pretty good view.

Kellyn watched the game day activities and part of the first quarter and then she was done.

There's no better place to act like a wildcat than inside stadium.

We left at the end of the third quarter.  We wanted to beat the traffic and get the kids back home. 

It was a fun day, and it made me glad to not live there anymore and deal with game days.

Learning

Aric is an avid learner.  As he was getting ready for school this morning, he asked me when his math flash cards would arrive in the mail.  I don't know any other kid who is excited about math flashcards arriving in the mail.

Aric's world was rocked today when we realized we did not carefully go through his new sight words last night. He was certain this new word is pronounced "now".  I've never seen him get so angry and refuse to let go of a flash card. 

It took some time and a phone call to daddy, but we finally got him past the word and onto something else.  Tonight we will have to go through the words again to make sure we are past this mispronunciation.

Note to self: Always look at the flash card even when it seems Aric is pronouncing the word correctly.

Trick or Treat

This year on Halloween we had a fun dinner with friends.  The menu was German food: spaetzel and schnitzel.  It was good even if we had a slight problem making the spaetzel.

After dinner we dressed the kids.

Aric was Darth Vader and Kellyn wanted to be a pink cheetah.  The Darth Vader costume was pretty easy to procure.  The pink cheetah was a bit harder, but we were able to make it happen and Kellyn was quite pleased with her costume.

Laura and I dressed up with the kids. 

My costume was a last minute decision and I made use of what I had.

The kids had a great time and I am glad to be done with Halloween.

Kindergarten Parade and Party

I didn't grow up acknowledging Halloween and I'm okay with that.  Ryan and I have made the decision to allow our children to participate in Trick or Treating and I'm okay with that.  It still strikes me as weird, though.  I'm just not used to it.

On Thursday I attended my first ever school Halloween party as a room mother.  I brought food and helped with the party.  It was fun to see Aric at school, interacting with his classmates.

The kids had a Halloween Parade through the school.  I was able to catch the tail end of it. It was fun to see the kids in costume and so excited about the parade.

After the parade, the kids came back and played games: toilet paper mummy wrap and hot pumpkin. 

The party was definitely a hit and I enjoyed being there with Aric.

Pumpkin Carving

This past Sunday Ryan and the kids carved pumpkins.  This year Ryan made the kids clean out their pumpkins before he would carve them.

 They didn't like that so much.  They found help.

After they were cleaned, the carving began. 

We had carving templates leftover from last year.  The kids were excited about them.  Aric picked a Clone Trooper and Kellyn picked Boo from Monsters Inc.

Ryan was a good sport about it, but said next year he will only make simple Jack O' Lanterns.

Those kids are never serious.