Jack o' lantern

Here is the finished product of Joe & Evan's jack o lantern!

Pre-K Halloween Concert and Parade

 That's a lot of kids! I am amazed every time how well they sing so many songs (10 I think) and behave so great on stage. I love his school!!

 Bowen is the Star Wars Ranger/Astronaut, too cute!

 Mrs. Smith & Mrs. Chase's Class

Evan is sitting with Stevie (Jango Fett) & Cael (Harry Potter)

All of the kids in Pre-K 4 had a Halloween concert and parade on Thursday. It was so cute seeing about 90 4 and 5 year old kids dressed in their costumes and singing their hearts out. They all especially seemed to love the parts where you had to scream things. After the concert they paraded around the outside of the school and then had class pictures taken at the pumpkin patch barn. Evan was a Jedi Knight.

Evan & Claire's Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

On Wednesday, the kids and I headed to the pumpkin patch to pick out their perfect pumpkin. Evan wanted a tall skinnier one so he could make a specific spooky face on it. We picked a rounder shorter one out for Claire. Evan couldn't wait to carve his pumpkin, but miraculously he waited patiently until Thursday night, when dad came home to carve it up. He ended up painting the small pumpkin he got at school because it was so thick, I could not get any type of knife into it. I love painting pumpkins for little kids, they can actually participate and it's fun!

It is so dark b/c we had to do this at 7am and it's still dark here that early in the morning!

Pumpkin Patch Class Trip

 Holding on tight to their pumpkins

Evan's class visited the school pumpkin patch for story time and a cookie on Tuesday. I planned ahead and made sure that I was working the patch at the same time so I could see Evan and his class at the patch. It was so cute to watch them listen to the stories, eat some cookies and pick out their very own pumpkin.

Darth Maul

Evan went to a Halloween birthday party on Saturday for his friend Lilly, which was a lot of fun. There was a kid there dressed in the Scream mask and Evan was fascinated by the face and they way it would "gush blood" if he turned it on.

Earlier that day we went to a wonderful fall festival, where he got his face painted like Darth Maul. So naturally, we just found dress up clothes we already had that would go along with the face. He looked very scary and got many compliments on how cool his makeup was.

Firestation Field Trip

 Stevie

 Cael

 

Kaila

 Rosie looking like a pro!

 Stevie & Evan with Mrs. Chase

Evan went on his first field trip this past Friday to the fire station. There are 18 kids in his class and I think 12 moms volunteered to chaperone. I was so impressed so many parents helped! The kids had a good time learning about being a fire fighter and were all really well behaved. I think that the highlight of the day for each of the kids was to shoot water from the fire hose and for some of them to see their moms do it too!

Looking very grown up!

We had a few chilly days last week, so it was the first time the kids got to wear jeans and long sleeved shirts. It felt heavenly!! Something about this outfit just makes Claire look so old. Not sure I love it. I don't want my baby growing up!

Pinktober

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Evan's school had Pinktober day last Thursday. Everyone had to wear pink that day to celebrate, but I don't own any pink for Evan. Thankfully Evan's friend Bowen had an extra pink polo he could borrow. I loved the pink on him so much that Evan may soon be the owner of a pink shirt.

Puzzle Mania

Evan is still loving puzzles and he has been doing a new one each morning. He likes them so much, that his teacher, Mrs. Chase let him borrow the Richard Scarry one for the night. He did that 100 piece Star Wars one in about an hour the other morning. He did not get his ability to put together puzzles from me, I would still be working on that one, a week later!

Evan's Reading Update

Over the last year, Evan's reading has improved dramatically. I am amazed daily by the words he can read and comprehend. He is dying to start reading chapter books, which is great. But, I'm still just trying to make sure he is very solid in his fundamental reading. And why should a 4 year old read books without pictures, that's boring! I want to keep the fun in reading for him. Today, he read a book that focuses on long vowel sounds. I don't ever video him reading, but today thought I would do it so I could just record it for the future. You can see at the beginning, he's not too crazy about being taped, but warms up to the idea rather quickly.

So, this is for Nani and Grandma (and any one else who cares) to see his reading skillz :).

I couldn't get it to upload to Blogger, so here's the link to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNf9x1ZxOMg

Weekend "Staycation"

This weekend we took a mini vacation to the Hilton Bonnet Creek, which is only 10 minutes from our house. But it's a million miles from laundry, cleaning and the same old routine. We were so lucky to get upgraded to a big suite, so there was lots of room for all of us. All four of us had fun playing in the pool and eating out. Evan loved going down the water slide over and over again, lounging in the hot tub and enjoyed going around the lazy river without a raft. Claire was so excited to go to the "pool, pool" and spend most of her time in the baby pool and running in and out of the water at the zero entry pool. Joe and I even kind of got to relax. It was a wonderful little getaway!

I had so much fun, I took a little time off from taking pictures. Here are a few I did get.