Week 51 - on time! :) (12.14 - 12.20)

I "stole" the idea for this year's teacher's gifts from one of my Scrap Mania friends, Jennifer. She made these adorable little tins, and let me borrow her die-cut supplies to make the materials for my own tins. They turned out so cute... I can't wait to give them to all the boys' wonderful teachers! (The final product will be filled with hard candy and chocolate!)

I went into Brayden's class today and decorated cookies with the preschoolers! Each child got to decorate three cookies with icing and sprinkles. They all had so much fun! By far the favorite part was the sprinkles... as you can see by Brayden's plate! And most of all, Brayden was thrilled I finally helped in his class!

Every year, the boys make little craft ornaments for their teachers, family, and friends. This year's ornaments are little foam wreaths which the boys decorated with foam stickers and glitter glue. I added a picture of the boys to the wreath's opening when they were dry. There is nothing better than stickers, glittle, and glue to these two!

An impromptu dance party broke out in our home tonight... dancing to the music on one of the old toy cell phones. Brayden's dancing was complete with wearing the toy goggles that go with our Snoopy stuffed animal. Wearing them, everything looks green. The faces he makes when he is rocking out are hilarious! The song selections were mostly classics they know from the Little Einsteins.

We took the boys to the Wildlife Experience tonight for their "Winter Wonderlights" display. It was nice because they had the lights outside, then activities inside too, to warm up after the cold! The boys wrote letters to Santa inside... here Jack is writing, "I have been very good this year." We finished the trip off seeing The Grinch on the big screen!

We hosted a pre-Christmas dinner for the Martin families at our house this evening. The kids all wanted to sit at our already-to-small table, so we improvised and had our infamous picnic dinner instead, while watching The Polar Express. Carter and Noah joined the big kids for a quick photo... Carter was so cute resting his head on Jack's back! All in all, we had a great family night!

During our get together last night, the kids all opened their gifts from their aunts and uncles. The boys love the play food they got from Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah, and the Shel Silverstein poetry books from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Pam. Jack was asking to read poems from "A Light In The Attic" all day, and Brayden spent his day "grocery shopping." He's carrying his bags to the checkout here.

Week 49 (November 30 - December 6)

Brayden's preschool hosted a "Preschool Science Night" tonight for the kids and their parents. There were three rooms with different experiments using water, gas, and solids. The boys' favorite was this one with a ketchup packet in a water bottle full of warm water. If you squeeze it, the ketchup packet sinks! Brayden had to use ALL his muscles to squeeze the bottle enough to sink the ketchup!

It's December! That means we can break out the Advent calendar and start the official countdown to Christmas. I made this paper craft Advent calendar a couple of years ago. Each day you take a tag out of one of the numbered pockets. Last year Brayden didn't really get it, but this year he and Jack already have a plan for Jack to do the odd days, and Brayden the even days, all the way to Christmas!

Rob's been working long hours lately, and when he gets home, the boys are all over him. Usually, the first thing they want to do is play cards. So they've come up with a "three way war" game they can all play together, so they BOTH get to spend time with Daddy, RIGHT NOW. Jack was quickly eliminated from the 3-player game tonight, and was very upset about it. After recovering slightly, he sat watching, not-so-patiently waiting to get back in the game.

The boys both love their dry erase "workbooks." Brayden did handwriting at school today (specifically the letter "C"), so he wanted to do more letters when he got home and busted out the workbook. He was holding his marker invertedly, and didn't want to correct it, but I finally talked him into holding it "right." He was very proud of himself! And then had to concentrate VERY HARD to trace the rest of his letters! (I think his mommy makes the same face when concentrating!)

Rob and I went on a date this evening... Christmas shopping at Target and dinner at Olive Garden at Southlands mall. We got a lot done and then had a delicious meal. We both tried something new off the Olive Garden menu, definitely two new favorites. We even got a free dessert because my meal was a little delayed in the preparation! After dinner we drove down Southlands Main Street to get a closer look at the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations. A great date night!

Saturday mornings are still basketball mornings. Some weeks are harder than others for Brayden, who has to sit on the sideline. Usually our neighbor Lisa is the on the sides with us because her son Marcelo is on the team, and Brayden likes to play with her iphone. She wasn't here this week so Brayden was sooo bored. It's hard to just sit and watch. Toward the end of practice he noticed the balance beam on the gym stage. That kept him busy and happy... for a few minutes, at least.

It's a cold and snow Sunday, so we stayed in and attempted to stay warm! The boys played some guitar hero, watched the Broncos win, and Jack had to do a little bit of homework in preparation for the coming week. We were sitting together thinking of "H" words when he put his pencil behind his ear, and doing so he just cracked himself up! He said he looked like "Handy Manny," thus coming up with his last "H" word, "Handy!"

Moo Moo (11.10)

Brayden absolutely loves everything about preschool. Right now they are learning about farms, and he reminds of these things over and over again. Today at school, he made a cow puppet named "Moo Moo." Moo Moo has gotten so much love in one day, he's already all wrinkled and falling apart!

Weekend Pal (11.06)

Jack came home from school today with the class stuffed animal, "Taffy," the Weekend Pal. Taffy is supposed to hang out with us and be part of the family for the weekend, doing whatever we do! Jack gets to tell his class about our weekend together on Monday. So far today he has watched the boys play cards, and he's going to watch Jack's basketball practice tomorrow!

Spelling (11.05)

New to Jack's already rigorous homework schedule this week is spelling! He came home with his first spelling list on Monday, complete with spelling activities and plans for practice tests. He has two weeks to learn the list before his actual test. Today he had his first practice test. It seems so intense for a kindergartener, but I guess he is ready for it. He got 11 out of 12 words right today on his first practice test!

Pumpkin field trip (10.15)

Brayden had his first school field trip today, to a pumpkin festival at a local nursery. Jack was supposed to have school while we went, but he woke up this morning with a fever, so Grandma came over to babysit. Brayden and I had a great time, it was our first ever fun outing together with Jack - hard to believe. He played in the bouncy castle, went through the hay bale mazes, played with the tractors in a corn sandbox, played bean bag toss, picked out (and cleaned) a pumpkin, and went on two hay rides. The hay ride was tractor-pulled, and Brayden said the hay ride was his favorite part. My favorite part was hanging out with Brayden. When he heard that, he changed his favorite part to hanging out with me. Love that little dude.

Nature walk (10.01)

I’ve started helping out in Jack’s classroom once in awhile on Thursdays. Today, his class took a nature walk on the paths behind the school (and our neighborhood) looking for signs of the changing seasons, and collecting leaves of different colors to make a leaf picture. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging with Jack and getting to know some of his classmates a little better. Here Mrs. Dougherty is showing the kids some brown leaves that had fallen off a tree. (That’s Jack in the gray hoodie!)

Homework (09.15)

At Red Hawk Ridge Elementary, homework starts in kindergarten. And there’s a lot of it! Jack and I spent about 20-30 mins every day working on homework before he has some quiet time. It’s overwhelming for me... but thankfully, he really enjoys it - so far!

The end of preschool...

Dang it, I'm going to cry just thinking about the last two days of preschool. Deep breath, trying to compose myself......

After school almost every day (well, every NICE day) we play on the school playground for a little while, or at longest until the big kids come outside for their recess. Not only was this a great time for the boys to run around and play with the other kids, but it was a great chance for me to get to know the other kids in the class, their siblings, parents and even some grandparents. One of those kids is Kendra. It's been so fun watching the relationship between Jack and Kendra develop and change over the course of the school year, especially the past few months. Kendra has always loved Jack and chased him and asked for hugs and tried to play with him. Jack would run away and yell "NOOOOO" to the hugs. Then he started to come around and he'd give Kendra a hug when she asked. Then he'd run around with her or chase her. Then came the yelling goodbye and the "Oh Kendra is leaving Mommy! I need to go give her a hug!" The two of them are so cute. When Jack calls, Kendra runs away from her girl friends and goes to him. Jack does the same when she calls for him. Last week after their usual chase and hug routine, Jack asked her if she wanted a kiss. She, of course, said yes! So he gave her a little peck on the mouth. Afterwards they were both so embarrassed. Jack told me he kissed Kendra because "they have love." The next day Kendra's grandma told me that Kendra decided she's going to marry Jack (but also that she got in trouble with her mommy for kissing a boy at school!). In any case the two are super adorable, so Kendra's Nana and I had the kids pose together for a picture before the end of school. We also traded info so that maybe the lovebirds can have a playdate over the summer sometime. :)

Thursday was Jack's last day of preschool. Oh boy... it's so hard to believe that this two year journey has already come to a close. It was a VERY emotional morning. (Not helped at all by the fact that I was leaving later in the day for my first solo trip since having kids, and also learned earlier in the morning of the passing of my best friend Castara's father). As I mentioned in a blog post earlier this year, Jack's first year of preschool was not an entirely positive experience. I ended that school year worried that he wouldn't be ready for kindergarten and that perhaps there was something socially or developmentally wrong with him. This school year was a completely different experience. Whereas last year it felt like he didn't really fit in in his class or connect with his teachers, this year Jack just jumped right in, made friends, connected with his teachers, and just generally made a great impression of everyone. His teachers has loved him, as have many of the parents of other classmates and the kids themselves. And we have truly loved all of them as well. He truly blossomed under the love and guidance of a wonderful preschool staff and I am honestly, eternally grateful.

All that said, the last day of school was a day I was not looking forward to. I've found myself wishing and hoping that I could just package up the group of people we've spent the past 10 months with and bring them with us next year to kindergarten. Since that can't happen, we had to say goodbye. I wasn't the only one who had tissue on hand. I think we all felt so blessed to be a part of such an awesome group. I thought I was holding together okay until I saw Ms. Joyce, Jack's main teacher, crying. Then I basically lost it - and I'm not, as a rule, a big crier. A couple of the other parents spotted me and shook their heads as if to say "Nooo! If you start I'll start!" And so it went. I very easily could have dissolved into sobs, but managed to pull myself together and say those difficult goodbyes. I will NEVER forget this year. Jack was not at his home school for preschool this year so we had a bit of a drive (10-15 mins) every morning and at first I was resentful and annoyed by this inconvenience. But looking back, I would be inconvenienced over and over again if it would guarantee such an amazing experience and group of teachers and kids and parents in school years to come. Ms. Joyce, Ms. Heidi, Ms. Padma, Ms. Stephanie, Ms. Sarah, Ms. Barbara, and Ms. Megan - we will miss you all so much - and thank you for EVERYTHING!

(Okay, another deep breath, I will NOT cry again!)