Deep Into Autumn Activities!

On Wednesday of this past week Claire and Chloe's Kindergarten class visited a local farm and pumpkin patch, The Book Family Farm, and their teacher kindly invited me to join them. I am so glad I did because it was extremely enjoyable and I learned several things that interested me a great deal. Of course Paula was there and Nonie was also able to attend for a portion of the tour and the girls were very excited and surprised to see her. The children were complimented by Mrs. Book for their behavior and for their eagerness to learn. I certainly credit their teacher because she prepares them well, expects the best and seems to get the best out of these children. She is amazing!

Here is Mrs. Book talking to the children at the beginning of the tour.....

 

 

It was a bit of a chilly morning, and some of the children didn't bring a jacket or sweater....

 

 



 

 

Meeting and greeting and feeding the some of the chickens.....

 

 

 

 

Each of the children were given the opportunity to "gather" an egg from the unique rolling hen house. They move it each day, set up the fence and as Mrs. Book told us, the chickens have a new salad bar to feast on each day. Pretty cool.....

 

 

 

 

Time to meet Cinnamon, one of the four milking cows of the group they call the Spice Girls....

 

 

 

 

 

Feeding the geese....

 

 

 

 

 

 

After meeting the pigs it was time to venture to the pumpkin patch and choose a pumpkin....

 



Chloe made a fairly quick choice. Claire was the last in the class to make her choice....kept going from one to the other trying hard to decide..... I didn't get a picture of Claire with her pumpkin. :(

 

 

Fun in the hay maze.............Claire and Chloe......

 

 

 

 

Class picture....



 

Claire takes a minute to take a picture with Grandma....thank you Nonie for suggesting it!

 

 

Claire meets some new friends along the path.....

 



 

 

 

On Thursday when I arrived at school I found out it was crazy hair day and boy was there some crazy hair in their classroom....

 

 

 

On Friday we picked up the three C's to spend the night with us. As it turned out, I invited them to stay another night, and so we had a super weekend of fun at our house. Aunt Suzie, Miss Cheryl, Miss Connie and Mr. Wayne all stopped by for visits. The three C's baked cupcakes which I find I don't have any pictures of, and we happily shared some of them with our friends. Also the highlight of the weekend was the old (and I mean old) aviculturist magazines that Papa had cleaned out. We bought some children's scissors, glue sticks,  and lots of construction paper and you would have thought we had given them a gold mine. Even Chris spent quite a bit of time do art projects. The girls cut and pasted bird pictures off and on for hours. Chris isn't in many pictures because he tended to be hanging out with Papa more time than not, I guess. 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning Chris had found his way into our big bed when I came out of the shower..... on Friday night he slept with Papa and I slept on his camping cot. He preferred that arrangement but we talked him into the cot last night. 

 

 

Shortly after, the girls joined the boys in the big bed.....

 

 

We also spent some time at the park, read books, and the three C's listened to one of Papa's famous stories about Wyatt Earp. They love those stories and beg him regularly to tell them more. Fortunately I usually can busy myself when he is storytelling...they are a bit much for me!

 

Loved our weekend and loved hearing Chris spontaneously say, "I love you, Grandma", several times during his visit. He is beyond precious!

 



♪♫♪ Happy Birthday Aunt Suzie! ♪♫♪

The family got together on Friday evening to celebrate Aunt Suzie's birthday. The kids were so excited to see her and we all had a very good time at another one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.
Here's to a wonderful year and many more to come....!!! Love ya, Suzie!

 

 

Keeping Up With the Kids....in October

This week brought a couple of new adventures with the three C's. On Thursday I helped in Claire and Chloe's K class and was once again so impressed with the packed full morning of learning activities. The students are busy every minute with worksheets, projects, and learning from the big computerized screen as they sit on the carpet. I really love that as I am working on a project or helping another student, that suddenly I will feel someone at my elbow and Claire or Chloe are just stopping by for a little hug. This week, on Friday night, their school was having its annual fund raiser. We were invited to go and we enjoyed the "pig roast" very much. It was great to see the families and kids having a great and relaxed time and at the same time helping the school in a monetary way. It was also so neat to have the principal of the school tell us how much they are enjoying Claire and Chloe and the contributions they are making. Both are very attentive and verbal in their daily assembly times and she told us a cute story about something Chloe had raised her hand and said. Papa and I talked and chuckled all the way home about that, and the other observations we had made as they interacted with the other folks at the dinner.

Mike and Paula had to help with the set-up for the dinner and so we went to their house to spend a little time with Chris and then to pick up Claire and Chloe from dance class. Here are Papa and Chris playing with Chris' very, very, loud police car. Of course Papa bought it for Chris, so I guess he deserved to listen to the very authentic sounds that come from the car....I left to pick up the girls. :)

 

Here are Claire and Chloe after they returned home from dancing.... they were chatty and happy and must have had a great experience in their class.

 

 

 

Claire showing us one of the positions....

 

 

and showing us her new mermaid doll, Ariel....

 

 

Chloe on Papa's cell phone....talking to some imaginary person....

 

 

The are always so happy to see their Papa....

 

 

 

 

Chris and Papa being a little silly before we left for the dinner.....

 

 

At the dinner, Claire and Chloe wanted to introduce Chris to their sweet teacher....

 

 

 

Uncle Superman and Chloe at the dinner.....

 



 

 

As things go sometimes, Mike and Paula were experiencing some issues with their only car that holds all three car seats, so Saturday morning we returned to their house so Papa and Mike could do some work on the car. Mike actually fixed it and Papa added his two cents every now and then. The kids and I decided to take a walk and look for pretty leaves. That we did, for over an hour! Grandma was a little tired by the time we got home. Their neighborhood is quite hilly and I had already taken my three mile morning walk earlier that day.

 

Showing off their pumpkins.....

 

 

 

Claire finding a lovely leaf in their own yard before we take off....

 

 

Chris and Chloe having a yummy snack before the walk.....

 

 

 

 

When we returned from the walk the girls get right to work on making some art projects.....

 

 

 

Chris skipped the art making and preferred to play in the back of Papa's truck.....

 

 

 

All in all, it was a busy but enjoyable week. Fall is such a great time of year to be outside and the weather was just about perfect! Here's to another beautiful week ahead!





 



 





 











Grandma Goes To Kindergarten, Chris Has Fun in the Country!

On Thursday of last week I experienced something new to me, something I hadn't done since Suzie, our adult daughter, was in second grade.  I visited and volunteered in Chloe and Claire's classroom which led to a very enjoyable morning! It was so great to see how and why the girls enjoy school so much. I was super impressed with their teacher who never skips a beat, but seems to keep things right on track, stimulating, and interesting. Claire had met me at the door to tell me that she had been chosen Kindergarten Student of the Week in the daily school assembly for demonstrating the virtue of "friendliness". She was beaming ear to ear of course, and her teacher praised her once again when they began their morning classroom session for being a good friend to her classmates. Chloe quietly reminded me that she too had been student of the week a couple of weeks ago. :)

My role was to help two small groups of students when they started on their math worksheets, their first subject of the day. I also observed the math lesson presented (so I would know how to help them...LOL) and was able to go outside with the class as they did their PE, had their morning snacks, and later helped with other table activities geared towards math skills. It went well, and so for now, I will be attending Kindergarten each Thursday morning for a while.

Here are eager learners, Claire on the left in the blue sweater and Chloe in the flowered jacket.

 

Claire and one of the girls' sweet little friends, Allie, enjoy their morning snack. You have the option of bringing your own snack or purchasing something from the snack bar. Claire and Allie got popcorn.

 

 

Claire and Chloe wait in line to go back in to the classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

Chloe working hard during her time with the Ipad. She seemed to enjoy that very much!

 

 

 

Later in the day when Paula picked up the girls, she took a picture of Claire with her certificate and her coupons for frozen yogurt. I can tell you that I think those free coupons for yogurt are the primary attraction for being student of the week! I know Chloe loved her treat and Claire was super excited about stopping for yogurt after school.

 





 

 

A couple of Sundays ago, the children were invited to a birthday party where they would be riding ponies. All of the kids were excited and ended up having a great time. After the pony rides, the children attending PAINTED the ponies. What? Painted the ponies? That is what I said, and thought, too. I guess it was really fun and the only rule was you couldn't paint their faces. Anyway, I wasn't there but did see some cute pictures. This week Mike sent me this one of Chris at that party....makes you wonder what was on his mind...he is definitely giving something important some thought.

 

 

 

Yesterday, Claire and Chloe were invited to yet another party and this time Chris wasn't included. That was fine because he came home after church with Papa and me to spend the night. We were so looking forward to having him. Our good friends Miss Connie and Mr. Wayne knew he was coming and called to invite us out to the ranch. Chris got to sit on and in some farm equipment and took a long ride in the ATV Razor with Mr. Wayne and Papa. Boy did he have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

After our time on the ranch we came home to fix dinner. We tried a new recipe using chicken tenders and in the picture below Chris is shaking the bag to coat the oven baked tenders. He had originally told me he wasn't going to help because he didn't want to burn his finger on a pot. Apparently that has happened before, but we assured him he wouldn't be around anything hot. The chicken was pretty good and he ate like a trooper, chicken, smashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and grapes. Wow, we were shocked!

 

 

 

 

We all had a great night's sleep after making sure there were no dogs under his cot that he sleeps on in our room. He was positive there were some bad dogs below him and we had to get the flashlight and check everything out. Our room was all clear and he soon was fast asleep.

 

Enjoyed every minute with him and was sad to see him go when Mike picked him up in the early afternoon. Hopefully he will be back soon!