Friday, October 31, 2008

Trick or Treating

Tonight was the last of our Halloween festivities. Ethan was Spiderman and Aubrey was Snow White. We went to some friends house from church for a little party and trick or treating. Aubrey loved it and kept wanting to get more candy. Ethan had a good time with his friends but unfortunately took a fall about half way through trick or treating. He tore his costume and everything and wanted to call it a night. We had plenty of candy which we will not each half of. My camera batteries went dead while trick or treating so I did not get very many pictures.


































































































Student Of The Month

This morning was the little ceremony at school for Ethan being picked as Student of The Month in his class. This was the first month doing it and they were honoring students who showed respect all month long. We are so proud of Ethan that he was chosen. Ethan was so excited about this morning that he woke up last night as Derek and I were reading our Bibles and came into our room just beaming. He said he could not sleep because he was so excited. The happy little guy getting his award.
Showing it off for us. He is also getting a pin that he gets to wear on his shirt every day to show that he is a student of the month. They have not come in yet, but I know Ethan will love that. What an honor. I will just have to remember not to wash it on his shirt!
Barry work up early on his day off to come to the ceremony. Thank you Barry, that was very special to Ethan.
The proud parents!
Ethan and Mrs. O'Grady - the principal.

Stay posted for a short video of his actually receiving his award - Derek is working on it!

Aubrey's School Party

Aubrey's preschool had a Fruit of the Spirit party today. Since Friday is not her normal day we could take her and do the activities with her. Again, Derek was a good Dad today going along as attending a preschool party was not probably what he wanted to do on his day off, but he was a good sport.Aubrey decorating her bag. It was really a neat idea. There was different flavors of Kool Aid in salt shakers to use instead of glitter. Not as messy and the fruit smelled really good.

The finished bag.
Aubrey with Ms. Tina. Aubrey loves Ms. Tina. She does music at the preschool and she also attends our church. Ms. Tina's daughter Emily is also a teacher in Aubrey's room, but sadly only works about a half an hour while Aubrey is there. Aubrey loves Ms. Emily too!
The photo spot. Aubrey asked what the scarecrow's name was and Derek named him Fred.


Aubrey coloring a pumpkin. She was very keen on the black marker for some reason. We would keep giving her different colors and she always seemed to go back to the black.

She decorated a cookie and took a quick bite to sample it. We ended up letting her eat the whole thing instead of putting it in the bag and taking it home.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Big Bark

Ethan gets to dress up tomorrow for school as his favorite story book character. When I taught First Grade I had the kids do this as well, not realizing how difficult it is for the parents. Oh, the things I would do differently now if I was still teaching since I have become a parent. Anyway, Ethan chose to be Big Bark from the book The Great Fuzz Frenzy. If you have not read the book it is one of our favorites. When I was the part time ESL teacher, the librarian gave me this book for Ethan as a thanks for helping with the book fair and we have loved it ever since. So, this was my task ahead of me this week. To make a costume that looked like this. Now, I am pretty creative, but not very good at sewing and such. The hard part is you can not just go out and buy a costume that goes with the book.
After many hours, here is our final product:


I was lucky and found green spider webbing at Walmart to be our "fuzz."
I casserole pan became our bottle cap hat. I hot glued it onto one of Ethan's hats so it would stay on better and not hurt his head. Thanks to my friend Jessica for the pan suggestion!
I sewed little ears to look like a prairie dog. I sewed in elastic so they would fit over his ears. I am not a seamstress, so those little suckers took over and hour to make. Obviously, a homemade costume, but I am happy with the outcome.

Ethan telling about his book in his class. The kids all really liked his costume and you could tell he was very proud to wear it. All the work was worth it to make him happy. The things we will do for our kids:)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Ethan's School Party

Ethan had his class fall party today and Derek and I went in to help. A big thanks to Ms. Linda for watching Aubrey for us. Ethan was very excited about his party.
He is making a monster out of food that they later ate for snack. His completed monster. He later told us that this was his favorite center.

Concentrating hard on a pumpkin. It was really a cute activity. Each piece was chosen by age, gender, what type of costume you are being for Halloween, etc. Derek and I started at this table helping the kids. We quickly ended up at the bat table with all the glitter, as this table needed some help.
Here is Ethan making his bat. We helped trace and cut out hands and monitor the glitter. Boy, do Kindergarteners LOVE glitter.

Ethan making a witches hand out of candy corn and popcorn.
Derek helping with a bat. I had to take a quick picture because he really is a great dad. There were are few other dads there, but gets the prize for actually helping. I love that he is not afraid to get right in there with kids and even get glitter all over him. He was looking very handsome today as well in his sports coat:)


Mom and Dad with a very happy little guy. I love that I am able to stay home with the kids and be available to do stuff like this. Ever since I was a teacher I thought of how great it would be to be involved in my kids class. I also had plenty of experience with parents so I am trying really hard to be the type of parent I would have enjoyed in my class. It truly is a dream come true!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

He Loves Me

Derek came home tonight from practice and brought some flowers for me. He arranged them all by himself. He stopped to buy ice cream and saw them on sale and thought of me. What a sweet husband!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Family Fun Day

Ethan was out of school on Friday and it is also Derek's day off, so we decided to have a family fun day. We went to lunch and then went shopping for the supplies to make puppy chow and tie dye shirts. We had a great day together and ended it with watching a movie.
Ethan measuring the peanut butter for our puppy chow.Aubrey sticking her finger in the chocolate. Ethan stirred and sent the cereal flying all over the counter. It is always an adventure cooking with them!
Mom took over with the stirring.

The best part - shaking the powdered sugar all over it in bags. They loved this part.

Enjoying the finished product.

Ethan helping with tie dying his shirt. My hands were stained the next two days.

Our finished product. They were very proud of their shirts.
Ethan is circling the toys that they liked in the Toys R Us catalog that came in the mail. It was really cute.