Monday, October 26, 2009

I love fall.

What more is there to say? I love fall and wish we had more of it here in Florida. Instead, we just pretend like we do and make up for it with decorations. This was a very fallish weekend for us. Here's a recap.

Pumpkin Party
Friday morning started off with a pumpkin party in Kaity's class. Next Friday we have a Halloween party, so this was just a warm-up for the pre-k kids. They were so cute. I got roped into carving a couple pumpkins for them. Here was the party table. One of the grandma's made a pumpkin cake and cookies. I made pumpkin pie (most of them only ate the cool whip - go figure!) And, we had pumpkin candy to give them also.


They had a couple snacks and crafts that were really cute.




Sadly, no one took any pictures of my awesomely carved pumpkin (not really - John had to come help me finish it after he finished reading in Will's class). The kids had an absolute blast and it was super fun to help in Kaity's class. This Friday, I'm taking off for the Halloween party/parade at school. It should be a lot of fun and I'll probably migrate between their classes.

Coon Hollo Corn Maze
That afternoon was Wii time. And, then that evening we headed back to Coon Hollo Corn Maze. John and Will hadn't been yet and we took my friend, Georgia, also.

The corn maze is actually made out of sorghum. It did really well for the maze. We went through it twice - once when it was still light out and again with flashlights. Will met up with his friend, Little Danny, who was there with his family and they led us through the maze. It's a little disconcerting to be led through a dark maze by two 6-year-olds with flash lights.


Coon Hollo has lots of great photo op spots. This was one of the better ones of the kids.


Georgia took this one of us. The kids wouldn't stop making faces, so it's a funny picture and not a good family one.


Georgia, the kids, and I all rode the train. It was bouncy.




They had water buckets filled with a little bit of corn. This was a big hit with the kids - both during the field trip and at night. They played in it for a LONG time.


Kaity posing on the hay fort.


On the hay ride.





Christ Community Fall Festival
Sunday evening was the church fall festival and chili cook-off. We didn't take very many pictures, but it was super fun! John won second in the chili cook-off. First place went to our friend, Brenda. We also had a pie-eating contest and John drove the tractor for the hayride. Lots of smores, face painting, etc.

I'm really looking forward to next weekend. We've got parties at school, the Micanopy Harvest Festival, the UF-Georgia game, and Halloween!! And, it should be beautiful weather-wise.

Wii are Family!

(Disclaimer: Sorry for the blurriness! All the photos were taken with my phone!)

After 18 months (18 months is a really long time in "kid" time by the way), Will and Kaity FINALLY had enough money for their Wii. The deal was that they had to save half and we would pay for the other half. Roughly about $150. Here is Will with $110 in change.


$300 in cash.


And, the Wii!!


We played all weekend. He loves the bowling game. We also got Wii Play with the extra remote, a Disney princess game for Kaity (which is pretty fun), and a Rapala fishing game (which doesn't work so well so far). I think we'll have to set some limits with him for playing it. Maybe half an hour with a book for half an hour of Wii time. He doesn't readily pick up and look at books, so this might be a good bargain to get him a little more interested in them (and keep the game time down a little.)

So, the question is what do we save for next?

Friday, October 09, 2009

Playing Around with the Camera

I was playing around with the camera tonight and took some good (at least I think they're good) pictures of the kids. I thought I'd share some with you. They need a little touching up, but they're kind of fun.





Kaity's First Field Trip

Kaity had her very first field trip today. It was awesome, but really, really hot. Since it was her first one, I took the day off and chaperoned. Luckily, at this age, it's really cool to have mom come on field trips. Since we don't have school buses at Micanopy, parents drive for the field trips. I was in charge of three little girls - Kaity, her best friend Hannasha, and Samantha. Hannasha's mom met us there, but she had her baby and 3-year-old with her, so she couldn't officially be a chaperon.

We headed out about 10 to Coon Hollo Corn Maze. Coon Hollo is a new corn maze that's run by one of John's old friends from 4-H and college. It was totally awesome. They did an Ag in the Classroom pumpkin lesson, carved a pumpkin, and painted mini-pumpkins. There was also a cow milking station (with wooden cows), a hay bale fort, and a little bit of corn in big water troughs. And, then there was the corn maze. It was awesome and the kids loved it. Oh, and they had a tractor hay ride and a cute train ride.

Unfortunately, it was really hot - like heat index of 105 hot. Very unusual for October.

A group picture right after we got there.

Before the kids carved the pumpkin.


All of the kids got to pull the goo and seeds out. I got some really good pictures of kids' faces with the slimy pumpkin guts. Kaity's a pro at it since we carve pumpkins every year. I was surprised at how many kids had never carved a pumpkin before.


The mini-pumpkin craft - they glued stuff on them and painted faces. Very cute.


The "Coon Hollo Fort." This was also really difficult to get the kids to stand still for this.


At the start of the corn maze. Not a great picture, but it shows how big the corn really was.


It was one of the best field trips I've chaperoned even with the heat.

Soccer Pictures

Last night was the team soccer pictures event. It was the most stressful and unorganized thing I've seen in awhile. Trying to line up 21 six and under kids by height AND having them stand in line (while not touching each other) is next to impossible. I had the photographer take pictures of the two of them together. Hopefully, they turned out okay.

But, Kaity looks really cute in her uniform. This is a very good example of how she plays soccer. Luckily, she does it while looking really good.


Here's Will and Coy. Coy's one of Will's best friends and Kaity thinks he's her boyfriend. Coy is the youngest of three kids and always includes Kaity when he's over playing. It's a super cute picture of the two of them.


The whole team trying to smile, working to not touch each other, and maintaining their poses. It was difficult.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Meet Luna

Luna is the newest addition to our family. She's a very sweet kitty probably about 11 weeks old. Erin suggested Luna and I really like it, but her name may change still. Luna Lovegood is a crazy character from Harry Potter and it was a full moon yesterday. So far, she's adjusted really well to us. And, she seems to be really tolerant of the kids. Kaity's been carrying her around all day. I'm so excited to have a kitty back in the house.



 

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