Monkey class reunion (sort of)

Molly was invited to her friend Carson's (from UPK) birthday party at the Cinema Saver this past weekend. The movie they saw was 'Alpha and Omega' about dog packs. It was quite a cute animated movie, although the adults got more of the jokes than the kids did!! It was wonderful for Molly to see almost all of her Monkey friends from last year! After the movie there was pizza and cake, then Carson opened his presents. I managed to get the Monkey attendees to pose for a picture, although it looks more like a line up. Oh well, they are all cute and soooo much bigger than last fall!!

Carson opening presents while the others look on

Monkey kids: Molly, Elizabeth, Dante, Stephen and Carson. I <3 them all!!

Halloween night!!!

Minerva McGonagall, Mad Eye Moody, Princess Molly, Storm Trooper Caleb, Albus Dumbledore

The woman down the street (and her sidekick) always do a really cool display for Halloween. Last year, they dressed up as birds and had a nonstop loop of bird songs going (like Rockin' Robin). This year, the theme was JAIL!! They were dressed up as prisoners named Alca and Traz, it was hilarious, and they had the music to match it!!! The kids had been wondering for a week what they would be doing and when they saw this, ran up to collect their treats. I LOVE my neighborhood!!!!!

Jackson's Pumpkin Farm

Saturday afternoon, once Caleb had napped and the other kids had some quiet time, we put on heavy winter coats (yes, it was windy and it made it quite cold outside) and headed to Jackson's. The last day of the season was October 31st, so we were just squeaking in under the deadline. I had been promising the kids all season that we would go and enjoy the straw crawl, the jumping inflatables, and feeding the animals. We did all that and more, had a fabulous afternoon, and came home with pink cheeks and semi-full bellies!!!

The goats know EXACTLY where to be for the bits of corn that they get fed by us suckers!!!

Molly and Caleb both slide down the giant pirate inflatable......they LOVE these!!!
Potter is too tall for the pirate inflatable; goes on the giant obstacle course inflatable!!!!

Coming down at the end.....

They had this game where you take apples and gourds, put them in a ginormous slingshot, and try to hit this dummy on a tree about 100 feet away. I did it with Potter the first time, then Molly and Potter did it together. HILARIOUS!!! And we never hit the dummy.......
Caleb playing hide and seek in the straw crawl
Molly pops out.....
After all the games, bouncing and jumping, feeding goats-pigs-ducks-chickens, we HAD to have a funnel cake. We only slightly ruined our dinners :)

Pumpkin prep!!

After school Friday, the kids and I went to the Cider Mill to pick out our big pumpkin to carve. We have several smaller ones at home outside for decoration, but we needed one for a huge jack-0-lantern and we wanted to roast the seeds to eat! The one that everyone agreed upon weighed in at 27 pounds!! I cut the top off at home and then gave each kid a blob of goop from inside to pick the seeds out from. And, the roasting of the seeds was a huge success!!

Molly's Halloween party

Luckily, parents are allowed to go and help out for the kindergarten and 1st grade parties, so Caleb and I headed down to CFJ after we had some lunch at home. I had made pumpkin muffins, jello jigglers, and goodie bags for the kids in Molly's class. They scarfed down all the goodies and then excitedly got their costumes together and were ready to see/walk in the parade. She loves her new classroom and I am happy to be getting to know some of her friends a bit better.

Molly with a few of her friends: Jayden, Simplicity, Carissa, and Nevaeh

Close up of Jayden, Molly, Nevaeh

The whole class, all dressed up!!
Molly and Caleb wait with the class for the other classes to start parading by
The only picture I have of Potter, as his class walked by. He is Mad Eye Moody from Harry Potter.
Caleb paraded right along with Molly's class as the route took them outside and around the circle driveway.

Molly

Caleb's Halloween parade

Caleb's UPK does a cool Halloween parade. Friday morning at drop off, all the kids came dressed up in costume, we took some individual, class, and suite photos, then they headed outside to brave the blustery conditions and parade around the block! They are all so cute, it is hard not to go up to them all and give them big hugs!!

Caleb, the Storm Trooper, with his classmates

Mrs. Talley, the scarecrow!

Caleb's class is gettin' excited!!
The entire suite, dressed and ready to head outside
Coming out of school, heading down the sidewalk
Caleb, walking in line, not looking at Mommy!

Molly - Kindergarten book group night

CFJ has started a book club just for kindergarten this year and Molly and I attended the opening night kickoff/celebration. Mrs. Riddleberger (the principal who I love!) read the children a story, then there was a craft for them while the parents heard about the program from the school reading specialist. Then there was cake!! Basically, there are 100 bags, each with 10 books in them. The children are allowed to check out one bag of books at a time to take home and enjoy for as long as they want. There are prizes given out at different increments of number of bags read. It is a very thoughtful idea and Molly is even more excited about reading than before, if that is possible. We are already on our second bag (third will be tomorrow) and the program has only been going on for about 5 days. That's my girl!!!

Molly is sitting on the bottom right side of Mrs. Riddleberger, listening to a Halloween story

Molly makes her bookmark, right before she devours an enormous piece of cake!

Caleb at open gym

I had not seen Caleb at open gym this year in his new class; I have had tutoring for 3 hours on those days. I did see him this week, he loves the class, his teacher Kody who is awesome, and he has some talent too!!!

And, looks like this video might be small. Took it with my new phone, so live and learn!!

Safari Suite playdate at Jumping Jungle

Caleb is in the Safari Suite at UPK and we decided to hold a joint Safari - Farm suite playdate at the Jumping Jungle. It was a huge hit - I mean, what kid in his right mind doesn't want to jump around like crazy for an hour on a bunch of inflatables??? We had a super turnout, about 15 families total. I can see us doing this again as winter sets in and the weather outside gets nastier and nastier.

Caleb's favorite inflatable this time, the ball pit that has the *spiky* balls!!

He went so fast, I couldn't get a non-fuzzy shot
In the pit - Caleb, Frankie, Sophia, (I think Lily?), Preston
Madness!

Birthday swim party

Caleb and Molly went to Laurie's birthday party last Saturday afternoon (10/16) at the YMCA for some swimming then party time! The kids loved that they could swim inside, even when it was chilly outside. Molly had no trouble diving right in, quite literally, but Caleb took his time in getting in the pool; then of course, I couldn't get him out!! They had snacks, pizza, pumpkin painting, and the cutest cupcakes I've seen in a long time. It was a fun afternoon!!

Molly with the floaties, swimming the length of the pool - and it is a loooong pool!!!

Molly finally coaxes Caleb into going down the stairs to get in the water

Molly coming back from one of her many laps....
Mid - jump for Caleb
Painting their pumpkins - a very seasonal craft project to do
Monkey cupcakes!!

Monkey Mamas for Melons 2010

Friday night I joined some of my Monkey Mama friends (and mamas we adopted as monkeys) for an evening of volleyball at UEHS. We were raising money for breast cancer research. It was a ball!! There were all teams from schools in our district made up of teachers, alumni, students.....and then there was our team!! My friend Tracy's husband works at the middle school and she asked him to find out if we could form a team. I mean, it is for charity right, so why would they turn down the MONKEY MAMAS!!! We spent 2 hours playing 10 other teams and not doing very well, but having a lot of fun!! We are planning our comeback next year! But in the meantime, we had a lot of comments on our awesome shirts (Mamas for Melons) and saw a lot of teachers and students we all knew.

Dania, Vicky, Adrienne, Tracy, Kellie, Lin

Caleb's UPK goes to Fiato's

Wednesday morning, October 13th, was the coldest morning we've had in a long time. On our drive to the apple farm, my car said it was 36 degrees!! Yikes, and it was foggy and overcast, which made it seem, mentally anyway, so much colder. As we went up the hill/mountain, about 2/3 of the way up, the fog broke, the sun was out and it was blue sky, hooray!! Still cold, but that vitamin D can do wonders for you!! We all gathered together and then the group split into two; one group went to pick apples and feed the ducks first, the other group went on the hayride and saw the farm animals first, then we swapped. Afterwards, there was a hay maze, cider, doughnuts, quite a fun morning. Anyone local who hasn't been there should make the trip, especially if you have young kids.

Part of the Monkey class: Lilly, Caleb, Preston and Emily

Caleb picks the most perfect apple. (Notice we are wearing winter coats!!)
Caleb alongside the goats and sheep. They were desperate for apples and grass the kids would feed through the fence.
The tractor!!!!

Caleb and my friend Norma are feeding the ducks right from the hand.

Caleb got bolder and would feed them on his own.
Sitting on the hay bales, waiting for the tractor to take us on our ride!
This was probably his second favorite thing, the hay maze, next to the tractor ride :)
Cider and doughnuts. If you think he looks grumpy, it is because he is, he didn't want anything to do with that doughnut. Go figure!