Halloween 2011

Max's school had a Halloween carnival. It was a lot of fun!

From October 2011

Max's teacher sang to all of them and they told her what their costume was.

From October 2011

Max's class

From October 2011

Face Painting (Ryan got a spider and Max got an airplane)

From October 2011

From October 2011

Nom Nom

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

I manned the booth where the kids got to pull a lollipop out of a fake pumpkin. If their lollipop was a lucky lollipop and had black on the tip, they got two lollipops. Yep, they all had black on them. I love rigged preschool carnivals.
And tonight we went trick or treating for the first time because we missed the ward trunk or treat. I think we went to 8 houses in our neighborhood and that was more than plenty. Then we hurried home to hand out candy and share and that was just as exciting to the boys.
My boys are not exactly posers, but they're cute anyways!

From October 2011

Pumpkin Time!

From October 2011

The boys told daddy how they wanted their jack o'lanterns to look and, voila!

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

Simple Pleasures

This is Tony spending time with Max last night. He got to stay up a little because he had been such a good listener and helper all day. And of course they talked airplanes.

From October 2011

Sleepover!

Aunt Stacey saved the day/night for me. Tony had to work. Grandpa was out of town and I was invited to a party that was the same night as our church party. No available baby-sitters! So, I took the kids to Stacey's where they were entertained by Stacey and her friend/roommate, Jen, and I got to party with some great friends. Then I crashed at Stacey's where the boys were already asleep and we left the next morning after watching a few cartoons. Here are the boys enjoying Saturday morning cartoons with Stacey.

From October 2011

They had so much fun!

Joy School--Nose and Ears

We learned about two more senses: smell and hearing.

Here are the kids testing their sense of smell.

From October 2011

From October 2011

And here they are posing in some Halloween costumes.

From October 2011

And a Halloween costume parade with instruments. We got to HEAR their beautiful music!

From October 2011

Helping Out

I volunteered in Max's classroom today and it was so fun! I already love his school and teacher but I got more of an inside peek as to how wonderful it is. I loved being able to put names to faces to all of his friends as well. I got to see some of the things he excels at (playing, participating, generally following directions) and some of the things that need improvement (could he please stop picking his nose for the love? Oh, and he said, "I'm so glad that ______ isn't here today" What? He said that so he wouldn't have to share the big wheel with him during free time, but we had to talk about that :S)

I'm also excited to help out with the Halloween carnival next week!

Randomocity

My kids are fun. Max asks questions all the time. It's not always fun, but I try to be glad that he's so inquisitive and likes to learn. He's gone from always asking why to always asking how. It keeps a mom on her toes. Ryan has the funnest belly laugh. I love to tickle him all the time just to hear it. When I tickle him or make him laugh he says, "That silwy" or "That tittles (silly and tickles).

Right now they are exploring the artic. Well, they're flying on a prop plane to the arctic. Wait, hold that thought. They're now flying to the north pole and Max is telling Ryan that there are a lot of bad guys there so he needs his sword. I love how the goggles squish Max's face.

From October 2011

I am now the second counselor in the primary presidency which I love. I got to teach sharing time today and it was fun. I absolutely love being with kids and their different personalities.

I think this weekend we are just tired. This is a working weekend for Tony so he's tired from being gone so much. I'm tired because he's gone so much. I know I've said this before, but we're incredibly grateful for his job. I think we're just never going to take family time for granted.

Field Trip!!!

Max's first field trip ever was to Remlinger farm in Carnation, WA. I've been wanting to go there since my friend, Jodi, suggested it, so I was glad that it was on the preschool calender. Ryan and I got to go as well. This is seriously the cutest place. I don't think pictures will even do it justice. There is so much to see!

From October 2011

The hay jump.

From October 2011

Ryan was a little more cautious.

From October 2011

The hay maze!

From October 2011

They learned about pioneer life and Max told his teacher (loudly of course), "I'm glad I'M not a pioneer."

From October 2011

We got to ride a little steam train.

From October 2011

Some Vietnamese pigs.

From October 2011

Learning about bees.

From October 2011

They got to see a little show with Eric Ode.

From October 2011

From October 2011

They got to feed animals.

From October 2011

And pick pumpkins!

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

And a lot of the kids were fascinated by this puddle at the end.

From October 2011

Joy School--The Five Senses

We decided to do joy school again this year even with Max being in preschool because it's just fun to get together with friends. I'm teaching the first round so I picked the 5 senses. Today we did an overview and learned about sight.

We did a Mr. Potato Head Craft Actvitiy to go over all 5 senses. The boys were laughing so hard at their silly potato head.

We went over the calender. We talked about sight, how some people can't see and how some people need glasses to see. We also read, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" by Bill Martin and "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister. Then we played Red Light, Green Light.
Here are the boys during one of the free play periods.

From October 2011

We also did a Ghost Handprint activity and watched the ghosts appear. I got this from Aunt Dorothy's blog. Thanks Dorothy!
We did a little letter tracing and some bead-stringing as well. It was a fun day and the boys played so well together!

From October 2011

Puddle Jumpers

While others had snow, I was grateful for good old rain. My boys loved puddle jumping.

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

From October 2011

A Little Glimpse

On Monday Ryan started gymnastics. He is an incredibly funny kid. Whenever we go on walks,he always wants to do the "balance bean" (curbs). So now he's in gymnastics and he gets to do all kinds of fun stuff. I love the expressions on his face, like, "mom, why are you taking my picture?"

From October 2011

From October 2011

This tickled me yesterday. I was getting ready for a crockpot cooking class I was teaching and I needed Max to entertain himself. He found some books that my parents gave me. The Childcraft Library is something I would look through as a little kid and I love the pictures from the fairy tales, different countries, etc. Well first Max brought me a picture of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir because he recognized it from Conference. Then he showed me something from the cartoon "Little Einsteins". It was the Mona Lisa but he had seen it on this little cartoon. So cute. Every minute he would exclaim, "OH WOW" or "COOL" when he saw something (Niagra Falls, Mt. Everest, etc.) I think this kid is going to take after me and my culture loving, travel loving self. My opinion is let's go see all of these cool things instead of reading about them! I've been pretty blessed with opportunities to travel and I hope my kids are too.

From October 2011

From October 2011

Today we had a playdate to plan joy school and we made ice cream in little baggies. The kids loved it. They wore gloves and everything. All you do is put 1 cup of chocolate soy milk and 1 Tbsp. of sugar in a sandwich baggie. Then you put ice and salt into a gallon size baggie. Put the chocolate soymilk baggie inside, cover with more ice and salt and shake and toss from hand to hand for 8-10 minutes (wearing gloves ; ) Easy peesy. I just recommend using freezer bags just in case the ice punctures the baggie and you end up with a bit of salty ice cream. ; )

From October 2011

Conference Weekend!

Sometimes things can turn out quite differently for two people. Tony woke up with hives and had to miss a day of work but then he got to make up for it by working Saturday and Sunday for his mandatory overtime weekend. I'm really wishing the overtime didn't have to happen.

I had a really wonderful weekend. Stacey came to stay the weekend with us. She even said she'd watch the boys so I could go to a girl's night/sleepover. It was awesome but I got NO sleep. Well, I might have snoozed for 2 1/2 minutes two different times but other than that, no sleep. Totally worth it though! Then I was able to listen to the prophet and other church leaders via General Conference . I love being inspired! Also, Stacey helped me paint my family room! Wahoo! The walls badly needed paint and well, now they have it and Stacey was the one to stand on the ladder because I hate ladders. What a gal! Then we went to get free stuff at Deseret Book for ladies night. Then Grandma Kate came to visit for today. Stacey and I also cooked Latin American food that she got to try on her mission.

Here's Stacey stirring the sugar for the flan (the first one cracked one of my glass pans, the second one spilled out all over my oven) which did turn out yummy in the end.

From October 2011

Here's Max playing with a learning activity (intended for other purposes). The kids did pay attention to some of it but 8 hours is a lot for two small kiddos. My favorite was Saturday when Ryan stated loudly, "NO, I SAY IT" during the opening prayer.

From October 2011

From October 2011

Eating our cultural feast! Peruvian steaks, Pupusas, rice and flan. Yum!

From October 2011