2013_10_31 Thursday

Elise and I were just playing the Super Why game, and she can identify every single lower case letter and match it with the upper case...except for V!? how is it that she knows g/G, i/I, d/D, etc, but not v/V?! that made me laugh.

So, it's really hard to believe that we are actually going to celebrate Halloween this year. The last two years have been cancelled due to Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, so the kids really haven't had a true Halloween in their memory, for sure. Elise will be a purple princess (surprised, anyone?!), and Jonathan will be a home-made (important detail!) bat, which will look remarkably like Batman, minus the logo. Dave left the house with a mask and cape: Super Android. And, while I wanted to be scrambled eggs -- lots of E-G-G-S on a white/yellow back drop (haha), I just couldn't pull it together in time. Maybe next year. Elise didn't like her tiara or her pink elbow-length gloves (arg), and Jonathan couldn't breathe with the plastic bat face mask on, so all that came off. Good thing I was walking around with a glass of wine. One street over from us was absolutely insane; the homeowners go all out with decorations, etc. What a good time.

Purple Princess Elise and Bat Jonathan

Before we went trick-or-treating, though, Elise and I joined Jonathan for lunch at school. That was fun chaos. I brought in Lunchables, which are his favorite albeit disgusting, and we had a really fun time together. Then, immediately following, Elise has a class costume parade that lasted all of 15 minutes. What a day.

2013_10_28 Monday

Happy Anniversary to Auntie and Uncle!!! And, happy-finding-out-I-was-pregnant-with-Jonathan-seven-years-ago day!

From Elise's school:

We had a great all girls day today! Today we talked about money. We used  giant sized money to buy things from our classroom store. X bought two small drums and Elise bought two small pumpkins.  We also talked about the value of each coin and listened to Elmo's money song.  We also traced F's for review.  X Traced all of her F's with ease and X named all of the objects that start with the letter F on her paper. During circle time, our friends took turns being the teacher and calling their friends for the jump up and down song.  It was X's turn today and she called each of her friends and asked them to jump up and down.  We also made Halloween inspired art today.  X made a very colorful pumpkin.

2013_10_27 Sunday

What a busy weekend! Yesterday, Jonathan had a birthday party to attend. I dropped the ball and forgot that it was a costume party, but after seeing the bounce house and homemake haunted house, Jonathan promptly forgot.

Today, we had our class playdate. There were a bunch of things going on at and near the park, so it was really hard to get to our site. So, not a ton of families came, but we had about six, and that was good fun for mingling. We had plenty of food, and the weather was great.

Pre-bath time was dedicated to carving our big pumpkin:

Elise is not a fan of the pumpkin slime.

2013_10_25 Friday

It was cold and dark this morning!! I mean 35. It's warmed up enough since then, but gesh! I thought we were in the south!!

Her "cupcake" hat

I also explored town a bit more today and found a good consignment shop. Not like our old one (prices are generally higher), but it should serve its purpose!

Elise's school:

We had a great day today even thought it was very cold! Today we talked about how to compare and contrast. We started by comparing and contrasting apples and oranges.  X helped us compare and contrast by saying that apples are red, green, and yellow.  X told us that oranges are soft. We then compared the city and the farm and Clifford, Cleo, and T-Bone.  We also went on a treasure hunt to look for our animal friends.  X found Cleo behind the cabinet and X found Clifford in Ms. Rebecca's room. X followed the directions and took three big hops in order to help find T-bone, who was hiding in X's cubby.   We all tried to write our very own I's today.  X practiced writing his own I's and Elise told us that Iguana starts with the letter I. During circle time, we talked about Halloween yet again..lol. X told us that she is going to be a princess. 

2013_10_22 Tuesday

I had a work-related meeting that ate up much of my morning, but it was extremely useful and productive. Then I ran around gathering supplies for Jonathan's first STEM project of packing a pumpkin and launching it off a 10 foot cliff. I stopped by school twice to drop off goodies (packing materials, pumpkins, boxes, etc). The teacher was so grateful; it makes the whole thing worthwhile.

From Elise's school:

We had a great day today! Today was all about math in nature. We used natureprint paper to make imprints of objects we find outside. X found a twig in the nature can to put on the paper.  We also made animals found in nature.  X made a Tiger and X made a monkey.  In music, we danced to the beat and everyone had alot of fun, especially X .  We also played simon says with numbers today.  X asked everyone to sleep on one foot? and Owen asked everyone to play ring around the rosie.   During circle time, we used our number puzzle to count in three languages.  Elise identified the number 9 and X identified the number 4.

We've been playing with her hair lately; it's finally long enough for...

2013_10_21 Monday

Happy Birthday to my loving husband!!!

I have been on the go all day. After getting the kids off, I picked up a few Box Tops from school. They are only trickling in. Not quite the response I was hoping for, but I suppose it is better than nothing. I think Jonathan's class will win the contest hands down. Grabbed some cat food. And, then I got a nice, quiet break for myself -- a tour of Margaret Mitchell's home. So interesting. I really like learning about the history of where we live. I bought a cute Georgia cotton 'angel' Christmas ornament and a book about our neighborhood. When I flipped it open, there was a photo of a house on our street that really looked like our house, perhaps before renovations! whoa.

From Elise's school:

We had a great day today! Today we talked about numbers in nature.  In art, we colored a beautiful nature landscape and we also collected things from outside to count and share with the class.   X pulled a stick out of the nature box and Elise pulled out a leaf.  X colored and counted the trees in her landscape picture.  During music, we did the tiger shake and X  showed us all how it should be done.  During Mandarin, X had a lot of fun and repeated every word the teacher said.  Our letter of the week is I and X colored her I for ice cream.  WE made ghosts to decorate our door and X made a very scary ghost.

Tonight I'm taking Dave to a hotel restaurant that spins. I think it will be pretty neat to see the whole landscape from high above. Holy Moly, it was amazing. The food was great; drinks were flowing; and ambiance was perfect. Not a normal restaurant for our budget but really nice for special occasions.

2013_10_20 Sunday

What a fun day we had at a "pumpkin patch," well more like a farm. We were there for about six hours, and three of us fell asleep on the drive home!

We watched pig races. We petted a bunch of farm animals. We explored a corn maze, although not very well since we came out the entrance we went in. We rode on a tractor. We watched a mechanical chicken music show. We played with rubber ducks. The kids and Dave shot corn husks (some went really far!). The kids and I rode a cow train (made out of feed barrels). The kids bounced on a jumpy pillow, played in a corn box, and slid down a big slide. Finally, we picked up pumpkins and had some homemade strawberry ice cream and kettle corn. And, we bumped into Elise's school director!!!

They had a plywood cow that you could milk, but her udders were dry, and a little boy came up to me and told me that was mommy's milk. His mother was mortified, but I laughed and told her we called it the same thing.
Then, Elise decided to drop trow' right in the middle of the farm to pee and I whisked her to the potty, but en route she tried to go behind a tree. Both are excellent places to go if you must, but maybe not with a massive audience. She made it just fine to the portajohns (egads).

Dave and Jonathan decorated the little pumpkins with Oma's stick-ons. And, both kids showered off and fell into bed. They were pooped!

2013_10_19 Saturday

I bought tickets to a local hockey game through Jonathan's school. His choir sang the Canadian national anthem to open the game, but we were 10 minutes late and missed it! boo. But, we all sat in one section, and I even recognized a couple of faces. What a fun game (well, for me at least). It was exciting for the first two periods, but the kids lost interest pretty quickly. I talked Jonathan through as much of the game as I understand and compared it to soccer so he could grasp it. There were a few fights, and we laughed at how silly they looked and behaved...and that they had to sit in time out afterward. He nearly remembered what the machine is called: zambonia. And, it took awhile to remember that they are not on skis but rather ice skates. He was impressed with how well the guys skated since it was pretty hard for us last Christmas at the Barony. That said, Elise made it onto the jumbotron not just once but twice!!!! The second time, she actually stuck her tongue out and I had to chase after her to put it away. The whole place laughed, and two people stopped us on the way out recognizing her! OMG. We moved down to the second/third row for the third period and got a nice up-close view.

2013_10_18 Friday

I met a woman today who is moving here from our old town! We've been emailing a bunch, but she's here to house hunt, so we met up. Really nice.

From Elise's school:

We had a wonderful Friday! Today we talked about the sun, the moon and the stars! We began by painting a watercolor of Van Goh's Starry night. This helps us practice painting and exercising our wrists.  X and Elise painted their pictures very carefully and had alot of fun using watercolor paints.  We also learned a few words in sign language today.  X learned the sign for star and X learned the sign for moon.  We also talked about the letter H. X told us that heart starts with the letter H. X finished tracing all of his H's and did an excellent job. During music, we learned about shapes and X danced with the circle.  We also did the monster boogie and X showed us how a monster should Dance.

Today was "Hat Day" for her; she wore...a tiara, of course.

Jonathan got another Star Student progress report this week. He is rocking it!! We are so proud of him.

2013_10_17 Thursday

What a blah day; it's been raining off and on all day. There was nothing really on our agenda today, so Elise and I loafed around for most of the morning.

Jonathan came home with his mid-quarter report card! His teacher was so kind and complimentary in her text about him. And, the lowest grade he got was an 88% in PE. I'll take it!! Besides, he got two 100%s (one in Spanish). What does crack me up is that his reading tests in NJ were mid-2nd grade when he was in Kindergarten; here, he's right on track for his grade. Are standards that radically different by state? I guess they are.

So, I am freaking out just a little. I've been asked to give someone else's briefing for work to over 1,000 people. I won't have much time to practice, especially at the venue. The audience doesn't bother me much. This, in addition to taking on a full-time role while the analyst is on maternity leave. I'm actually very excited about the opportunity. I'm also, however, leery on how this will impact my family life. I think the newness of all this is what's really unnerving; with a little time to digest it, I think all will be great.

2013_10_16 Wednesday

Elise and I stopped by J's school today to find NO Box Tops for the school-wide contest that I'm running. ugh. That's unfortunate, but J's class is winning by a mile so far.
Then we returned a ton of books to the local library.
Then, E and I went to explore the Atlanta History Center. What a pleasant surprise. The first being that they offer free tix to the Margaret Mitchell House within 9 days of a visit, so that's pretty cool. Then, the property has many gardens, two playhouses, a "working" farm with sheep and chickens, an a 1920s plantation home that we toured, and an oldie diner of Coke and Chic-fil-a. We didn't even walk through the museum part of the Center! I'm really interested now in reading more about the Trail of Tears since it certainly involved the Indians of Georgia. And, I didn't realize that Andrew Jackson was the driving (primary) force behind the eviction of the Indians from this region. Will be interesting to learn a little of the geographic history here.

Instead of watching the stinkin' boob-toob after school, we made chocolate chip muffins. I had 2 packages that made 6 each. It was great. They both stirred up their mixtures and spooned them into Halloween cups. Once the muffins cooled, they each got to sample their work.

Oh, I just love it when my kids tell me they don't love me, especially at bed time. That's just my favorite. When I asked Jonathan to pick up a pillow in the "keeping room" (twice) and he ignored me willfully, I told him that we would not read his Uncle Remus book tonight. He glared at me and told me he'd put himself to bed and that he didn't love me anymore. daggers.

But, the night ends on a sunny side: Looks like I'm going to be working full time for about three months while an analyst takes maternity leave! I'm so excited to get more involved and help the office/analyst at the same time!

2013_10_15 Tuesday

First today's news:
From Elise's school:

We had a great day today!! Today we talked about counting our body parts, more specifically, our fingers and toes. In Art, we counted our fingers and toes. X counted her 10 fingers and said that we have 10 toes as well. Afterwards, we used our fingers to paint. X made a scary monster for Halloween and X made a city.  We used shaving cream to practice writing numbers.  X recognized all of her numbers and made the number 10.  X made a 6 in the shaving cream. We also talked about how  we use numbers.  We use numbers to measure how tall we are.  We all pointed to how tall X is on our class flower wall. Our letter of the week is H.  X colored all of his H words and Elise told us that Horse starts with the letter H.  

Now to recap our amazing visit from Oma:
Friday
Her flight was delayed enough that I picked Elise up from school (Jonathan had had the day off) and then we got her. On the way back from the airport, E decided to projectile vomit all over herself and the car seat. She had been complaining that her belly hurt, so I guess I had had fair warning. She continued to throw up a few more times, so rather than all four of us trying out the Atlanta Cheese Festival, Jonathan and I had a date there. I was really proud of him for trying so many different cheeses, including a blue cheese/banana ice cream cookie!

Saturday
E seemed to be better. So, we visited Fernbank for their Marco Polo debut party. They had food from the Silk Road that the kids basically refused to try (ugh), a  falcon/owl demo, and a Kung Fu demo, and of course, we hung out in the NatureQuest area for a long time. After lunch and a nap, we went to the Botanical Gardens, which E has been calling the Botanial Gardens. Oma really enjoyed that, and the kids had fun tearing through the Children's Garden. Oma and I stayed up until 2:30am chatting!

                       

Sunday
We spent the afternoon exploring Stone Mountain. We took the tram up/down and a train around the stone. The view from the top is amazing, especially on a clear day. While it was a little hot, we stayed on top for about an hour. There's still a lot to do there. We passed an Oktoberfest on the way there, but lost it on the way home.

 





Monday
Dave took Oma to the airport in the early morning, since he was off to CA as well. Departures are just no fun.

2013_10_11 Friday

From Elise's school:

We had a great day today!  We talked about shapes that have no lines and no sides today. X told us that a circle has no lines and no sides. During circle time, X helped to change the Calendar. We finished us working on our letter G packets.  Elise carefully traced her uppercase and lowercase G's.  During music time, X had fun with sandpaper blocks and X had fun playing freeze dance. . We watched a video about space and the magic school bus. X was amazed when the magic school bus turned into a rocket ship.  We all counted down and watched the rocket ship launch into space.

2013_10_10 Thursday

Elise and I visited the Wren's Nest today, home to Uncle Remus and Briar Rabbit. I never really got into the stories as a kid; I also didn't realize they were all passed down from slaves, nor had I ever heard the biography of Joel Chandler Harris. The tour guide piqued my interest in the whole shebang, so I bought the collection of his stories, although not in the slaves' dialect. I know I'd have a hard time reading stories that way. The Wren's Nest is just 15 minutes away, so it seemed like a local gem to view. The house is beautiful and kept as authentic as possible and has a lovely garden that we had a little snack in.

We had tried to visit the Center for Puppetry Arts, as they just opened a Wizard of Oz show. However, they're booked solid for the foreseeable future. I guess I should have called first. oh well. We'll keep trying.

Here are two pictures from Jonathan, and he was a Star Student AGAIN this week!!

Dear troops, Thank you for stopping the bad guy and fighting for the country. You guys are very cool. Bye, JD
(troop in blue: "come back now!" bad guy in black: "No!")

The Forest: anteater and ant (in bottom left); snake in left tree; gecko in right tree; and 3 cranes, his favorite bird.

2013_10_08 Tuesday

From Elise's school:

Today was picture day! Today we learned about counting down from ten to one. We made rocket ships in Art to blast off into space.  X colored his entire rocket ship.  We also blasted our rocket ships into space. In order to prepare for our trip, we counted from 1 to 10 and 1 to 20.  X happily counted from 1 to 10 and X counted from one to 20.  X and Elise counted down the loudest and when it was time to blast off, they shot into the air with their rockets.  We continued our letter G practice as well. X Traced all of her G's very well. During Music class, X planted his flower and watched it grow. 

I volunteered to help with the pictures at her school today. It's amazing to see which kids are total hams and which ones want nothing to do with a camera. Elise did great, although her hair was absolutely insane! I was a little concerned that she'd be a problem, so I stepped out of view and let the photogs deal with her. No problems at all. I guess her crazy hair was fitting, though. In the end, the company gave me a free package for helping them out. That's super since we have so many relatives to send photos to!

2013_10_07 Monday

My ankle feels better today. I had a really hard time sleeping last night since I couldn't really move much, and the brace was on a smidge too tight. I bailed on volunteering at school today and instead have been elevating as much as possible. I walked J to the bus stop slowly but managed. I drove E to school; I have to use my full leg rather than just my foot, but it worked pretty painlessly.

From Elise's school:
We had a great day today. Our theme for the week is the number zero. Today we learned that zero means nothing.  We made a collage of zero's in Art today. Elise carefully placed all of her Zero's on her collage. X had a lot of fun gluing all of the Cheerio's to his paper.  We also tried to make as many zero's as we could with out body parts. X showed us all how to make a zero with our fingers.  During music class, we took turns dancing with shapes.  X danced with the rectangle and X danced with the oval.  We also played a game of musical chairs and X was our special winner today.

2013_10_06 Sunday

Well, we had too much excitement this weekend. We were invited to a friends' family for dinner. On the walk home, I stepped off their sidewalk to the driveway, twisted my ankle, and dropped to the ground in pain. I walked home, leaning on Jonathan. But, the longer I waited, the more it HURT. So, at midnight, Dave took the kids to a friend's house and we went off for my first ER visit. Never again. The clientele was...different. Dave was a huge advocate for me. I did have one near-fainting episode. I was x-rayed and interviewed within an hour or so, but  I wasn't seen by a dr until 8am!! And, as it turned out, it was a severe sprain, so my ankle is swollen to a softball, is very tender, and is a lovely shade of purple, which Elise is fond of. But, nothing broken. He gave me crutches, but I may end up really hurting myself trying to walk around with them. Instead, I've been using some of Dave's braces and Motrin. I'm hobbling around alright now; I'm not sure how driving will go tomorrow afternoon, though. Jonathan has been completely adorable, trying to help me and be as gentle as possible.

2013_10_03 Wednesday

Happy Reunification Day, Germany!

Today was far more productive than yesterday, when we didn't really get moving until about 2:30...and that was only because we had to get ready to get Jonathan. I feel like I'm back on track again. Dave came home early to hang with us before heading out to the Braves' game. That was nice. I think I may have poisoned us all with an over-creative dinner, but I guess you win some and lose some.

Every so often, when I sit back an observe my kids, I get weepy. It's hard to believe that Jonathan is reading so insanely well. And, I posed a simple math problem: he's buying lunch 5 times this month. He's already bought twice. Each meal is $2. I already have $3 waiting for him. How much more money does he need? And, after a few seconds, he said, "mom, I need $3 more." like it was no big deal. gesh. I'm still checking my math.
And, Elise is pre-reading (definitely later than her brother, but that's our fault, not hers). It's partial recitation and partial sounds. But, she does recognize simple words like "and" and "the" and can certainly spell out STOP and ELISE with no trouble at all.

Elise and I went to an art store because Jonathan read a book with me that had some suggested art projects. We made love bugs out of plaster of paris They have googly eyes, one had legs, they're all painted and have magnets underneath. He's giving one to his teacher, who may have had to put down her cat today (or at best is pretty sick), tomorrow. We got some other 'disposable' art projects that they breezed through today (unfortunately, I thought they'd last at least 24 hrs!).

2013_10_01 Tuesday

From Elise's school:

We had a great day today! Today we continued our discussion about numbers and the number three. During Art, we made puppets of the three bears from Goldilocks and the three bears.  X colored all of his bears and even tried to write his name on the back of his paper!  X colored all of his bears and played with them with his friends nicely.  We also talked about small,medium, and large today. Ms. Tiffany used several objects such as blocks. play doh, and dinosaurs to show the difference between small medium and large.  X made small medium and large balls of play doh all by himself during journal time.  X made three cookies to share with the  class. During show and tell, Elise showed us her firetruck and her frog.  X showed us her fishy that makes a silly sound.  We also continued work on our letter F packets. X and X traced their uppercase and lowercase F's with a pencil with care.