H is for Halloween

We got some good use this week with this special paper.  It is like a dry erase board that you can put anywhere.  The sheets stuck right to the glass with static, and worked well for writing practice.

I laminated the spiders with blank bellies so I could use dry-erase markers on them.  We played games to review letters and used them as shown above for counting and number practice.

The kids loved tossing pumpkin balls into the buckets.

Pretty much everything we ate for the week turned into a jack-o-lantern.  I have a pumpkin cookie cutter, so we had pumpkin sandwiches for lunches.

and lots of jack-o-lantern tangerines

G is for Grandparents

So, I'm way behind on my preschool posts.  I'm just going to do a quick entry for each week so I can remember what we learned about.


Apparently I didn't take pictures this week.  At least I can't find them.  I know we made family trees and talked about relationships with-in the families.  We played some games with the letter G.  We also worked on making cards for grandparents and great-grandparents.

We are lucky the kids get to live close to some grandparents and great grandparents.  We wish we could see the rest of them more often!

Tour de Foothills-Metric Cenury Bike Ride

James and his Dad decided to check out the scenery of our local neighborhoods by biking about 63 miles.  There was a organized bike ride started only about 30 minutes away.

It was a windy day and especially cold as they went up and down the steep hills on Mt. Baldy road.

We were able to meet them at parks a long the route to cheer them on.  They have some pretty impressive endurace to bike for so long.

Fly on the wall-A Monday

I kept track of a Monday in October, but can't find my notes.  I thought about trying to re-create it, since it would be pretty much the same, but decided I would just do it again to keep it more accurate.  James is in Minnesota at a Conference, so once again it is not quite a typical day, but pretty close to it.

Monday, November 5, 2012

6AM-Finishing Run
James is out of town, so had to run on the tred-mill.  Got in 45 minutes this morning.  I try to finish my running by 6 so I can get breakfast and lunches made by 6:30, when the rest of the house needs to get moving.

7AM-Getting Brielle's hair done
Got everyone fed (Monday Muffins--today was pumpkin muffins with hard-boiled eggs), dressed, teeth brushed, getting Brielle's hair done so we can all be out the door by 7:10.

8AM-Picking up Elise
Brielle has been dropped off at school.  I bike with the kids in the trailer behind me.  As long as I leave before 7:12, I have time to bike past the school and through the neighborhood so I can park the bike at the Warnick's while we walk over the school.  Today Elise gets to come to our house for preschool time, so she rides in the trailer back home.

9AM-Getting Ready for the Day
It's my turn to take a shower, make bed and get ready.  Elise and Ethan are playing dress ups in the kid's room.  Then I start a load of laundry, clean out fridge and take out trash before starting the kids with school time.

10AM-Sending YW e-mail
Kids are involved with a project, so I'm taking time to send weekly update for Young Women Presidency.

11AM-Preschool Time
Working on I for 'Insect' this week.  Kids are making insect jars so we can use them for collecting during the week.

12PM-Lunch
Peanut butter sandwiches, grapes, snap peas and cheese for kids.  I'm having ravioli and broccoli leftovers.

1PM-On an Insect Hunt
Finishing School projects with Elise and Ethan.  Getting things together to leave to get big kids from school.

2PM-Picking Up Brielle
Brielle gets out sometime around 2.  The rest of the school gets out at 2:02.  The kindergarten is supposed to get out 10 minutes earlier, but they are always late coming down.

3PM-Costco
Running errands getting ready for our Thanksgiving Dinner the Young Men and Young Women are putting on for the Golden Ager's this week.  Lots of samples cover after school snacks pretty well.

4PM-At Finlay's
Brielle is having a piano lesson from Aunt Annie.  With James out of town we are having family home evening with Brad and Margaret.

5PM-Homework
Brielle loves doing homework.  We have a new packet of homework to complete in the month of November.  Kindergarten homework is fun draw pictures, collect leaves, make patterns, etc.

6PM-Eating Dinner
Great dinner with the extended family.

7PM-Getting Home
Kids are supposed to be in bed by 7.  They got showered and ut Jammies on before we left the Finlay house.  Just need to brush teeth, read scriptures, say prayers and read stories.

8PM-Talking to James
He is having a great time at his conference.  Nice to get to connect by phone for a bit.

9PM-Getting Laundry from the Line and Watering Grass
Usually James waters the grass, but since he isn't home I'm taking care of that while I get the laundry down from outside.

10PM-Watching Show and Folding Laundry
finishing up laundry before heading to bed to start again tomorrow.

Halloween

After changing his mind numerous times about what to be for halloween, Ethan then decided he DID NOT want to dress up.  He just wanted to be a normal person.  He seemed scared of dressing up.  My sister brought a spiderman costume for him, which I thought he would love, but he was afraid he would need to cut off his hands to put webbing in so he could be spiderman.  Even after explaining about it all being pretend, he still wasn't interested.  The week before Halloween when I told him he needed to decide so I could get costumes ready, he settled on a pirate.  I had everything we needed and pulled it all together, but then he changed his mind again.  The night of our Ward's trunk-or-treat he told me he thought people would laugh at him.  He dresses up at home all the time, but something about it being for Halloween made him nervous this year.  We had a couple costumes on hand that he decided to be at the last minute   For our Ward trunk-or-treat activity he dressed as a red crayon.  For Halloween night he decided to be a dragon (he was excited he could wear all green, his favorite color.)

Decorating halloween cookies with Aunt Annie and Uncle Ian.  Annie said Brielle decorated (and ate the frosting off) the same cookie about 5 times.  

Pumpkin carving.  We had lots of stencils, but it takes a lot of adult help to get them done.  Elise and Gavin really wanted to have the princess and pirate which Danny and Megan were nice to help them with.  I convinced my kids to carve their own so I didn't get caught finishing the stencil carving while they ran around to play.  Brielle wanted a cat, Ethan wanted a jack-o-lantern with a sad face and hair, they did them almost all on their own and were happy with their results.

Ethan as a dragon, Elise as Repunzel, Brielle as the Tooth Fairy and Gavin as a singing cowboy (inspired by the musical 'Crazy for You).

The kids are lucky to have extended family around.  Aunt Alana and Cousin Allison came out to take the kids trick or treating.  We went to a few houses in the Finlay's neighborhood.  There are not many trick or treaters on the Mesa, and the kids get special treatment at these houses with individually wrapped presents (toys, puzzles, games, notebooks, etc.) and king size candybars.  Their buckets were filled quickly by our nice friends.

Elise was NOT happy when James borrowed her Repunzel hair.

Pumpkins and Apples

At Gopher Glen Apple Orchard up near Morro Bay.  Ashlie and Nathan's family got to come with us before they started back for Utah.  The Crump family was also with us that day; we had a fun time with our extended family.

We enjoyed the apple tasting getting to try some of each of these apples they had available before choosing which kind we wanted to buy.  Fresh apples are yummy!

After the apple orchard, we headed to the pumpkin patch.

There were lots of animals to be pet and fed.

Including, donkeys, goats, sheep, and emus.  The beaks of the emus were intimidating as they ran toward you to get the lettuce leaves, but the kids seemed to enjoy feeding them.

There was a hay maze.  Ethan got nervous while inside and was very glad when we found the exit.

It was a hard decision to pick out a pumpkin.  So many to choose from.

Fun with the Allison's

The Allison family got to come to California for a fall vacation.  We were excited that we got to spend some time with them. Here is a VERY brief account of some of the trip...

We had a day with them at Disneyland and California Adventure.  We were excited to try out Cars Land, which was a lot of fun, but crowded!

It was a warm day, so Splash Mountain was a relief to cool off a bit.

Matterhorn has new Bobsleds, which changes the height from 35" to 42" since they are now individual seats.  

We then drove up to Morro Bay to spend a couple days up there.  It was GREAT beach weather and we spent a lot of time playing in the ocean.

The kids loved burying themselves.

While up in San Marino, (we were playing at the beach with all the kids while Ashlie and Nathan were at Hearst Castle) James went over to check out a mobile veterinary clinic.  He found out they were doing research on otters.  He was able to take Brielle in with him to watch a surgery.  Brielle was excited she got to touch an otter.

General Conference-Perspective of a 5-year-old

Endeavour on the Streets

After getting to see the shuttle fly over, we were excited to be able to see it closer to get a better perspective of the size.  We'll be able to see it closer at the California Science Museum where it is now displayed, but seeing it on the streets was another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we didn't want to miss.