First Field Trip

Jeffrey had his first field trip this morning. His class went to an apple farm where they had a ton of things to do. Jeffrey has been pretty excited about the trip for a week or so as he LOVES apples.

The first thing they got to do was have a short lesson about the farm and the types of apples and animals they had there. They then talked about seeds and different varieties of seeds. They were given a bowl of seeds to sort according to color, shape, size. I was impressed to see Jeffrey paying attention to what was going on.

Next came the hay ride to the orchard. Given that there was a tractor involved, Jeff decided that this was the best part of the trip. We got a 5 minute ride into the orchard. It was a gorgeous morning up in the mountains. Almost all the varieties of apples were fruiting so we had lots of options for picking. Each person was given a bag and shown how to pick 5 apples each. Jeffrey wanted sweet ones so we picked red delicious. I wanted more tart ones and I think I ended up with Stayman (which he helped me pick too).

Then we got another hayride back down the hill to the apple shed. The kids got to see where the apples are stored (A GIANT refrigerator) and how they are sorted and stored and shipped. Again I was impressed at watching Jeffrey pay attention and really listen to what the guide was teaching about.

Finally we rode back to the shelter where we ate out picnic lunch. After that we got a chance to explore the animals and the hay activities (A hay mountain and maze). Jeffrey was really interested in the chickens for some reason so we went to the chicken house and saw a whole bunch of roosters. He also thought the bee house was cool. There were also some sheep, goats, cows, pigs and even peacocks. He got to pet a few of the goats...something I snickered at since I have this "goat issue."

Jeffrey had the most fun playing on the hay mountain and in the hay maze though. He climbed around. Got lost in the maze. Chased his friends. Jumped off the mountain. All the kind of things a hyper little boy loves.

So his first field trip was a super experience. I'm really glad that I got to go along and share his special morning.

The Day Has Come

Jeffrey has been LOVING preschool. He enjoys playing, apparently really likes circle time on the carpets, sings the Cindy Circle Song all the time. One of the things he's really been looking forward to is eating lunch at school. Yesterday was Lunch Bunch day at school and he finally got to pack up his Cars (would it be anything else) lunch box with his own lunch. Most importantly he got a juice box - generally reserved for Erin's snacks at school. He also chose several varieties of crackers, a can of mandarin oranges, 5 peanut butter cookies. I enforced my will slightly and re-arranged his choices. He ended up with 1 Fluffernutter sandwich, a Lightning McQueen yogurt (yes there's even Cars on the yogurt), one variety of crackers (goldfish) and ONE homemade peanut butter cookie. And yes, the juice box.

School runs an extra hour on Lunch Bunch days so pick-up was at 1 instead of 12. When I arrived the teacher was explaining to one mommy that her son was wearing shorts (it was a balmy 65 here in Central VA yesterday) because he had a very large poop accident at school. She called Jeffrey over to me. He had a t-shirt on that I certainly didn't recognize. Apparently Jeffrey had been playing in the sink and SOAKED his beloved Little Einsteins shirt. And then proceeded to pitch a fit when they made him take it off. One last mom showed up to pick up her son (this is all within about 2 minutes) and the teacher explained that he was in shorts because he. . . . fell into the potty. I couldn't help but break out laughing . . . and remarking that it appeared they had quite an exciting day at school.

She turned back to me and said "well Jeffrey had to sit in time out again today because he hit Will." Apparently not just swatted him but all out decked him. I had feared this day would come. And today was the day. I made sure that he had apologized and then brought Jeffrey to the car. I repeatedly asked him why he hit his friend and couldn't get a coherent response. Actually he wouldn't admit to hitting anyone at all.

After his nap, I tried again.

"Hey bud, can we talk about school today? Why did you hit your friend?"

"I had to sit in time-out."

"Well yes, because you made a bad choice and hit your friend. Do you know why you did that?"

"I had to sit in time-out."

Clearly this conversation was not going to go anywhere. After dinner I decided I really needed to know what had happened so I called his teacher. She informed me that Jeffrey actually spent most of the day fighting, hitting, stealing toys and being a potential juvenile delinquent. Apparently there are a few toys that he has decided are "HIS" and that no one else is allowed to play with. I had a hunch...."Might one of them be a dump truck?" "Yes, he's very possessive of the dump truck on the playground." The same type of truck that gets taken away at least once a week here at the house because it "runs into" Erin's/mommy's/daddy's leg/foot/back.

So the focus at home base for the next few weeks is sharing and taking turns- child No. 1 is not the best sharer either. Wish us luck. At least we're still welcome back at school.....at this point.

Star of the Week

Last week at school Erin was the "Star of the Week". They pick a student each week and make a little display for them. I sent in several pictures of her doing her favorite things and with some special family members. Then throughout the week the kids can ask her about her pictures and on Friday she gets sharing time where she gets to talk to the whole class about her pictures and what she answered on her questionaire - All about Me. She decided that:

her favorite color is blue

her favorite book is Brown Bear Brown Bear

her favorite TV show is sill Dora

her favorite thing in school are puzzles (haven't heard about puzzles in school before)

her best friend is Rylie (not sure if this is her cousin or someone from school)

she wants to be a chef when she grows up (quite a change from wanting to be a butterfly last spring)

She picked out a picture of her from soccer last spring, one of her at gymnastics, and a family picture from Hershey Park. I added one of she and Jeffrey and one of her kissing Jeffrey when he was newborn. She also brought in a picture of her and Oma. She had a hard time explaining who her Oma was as the concept of "great-grandma" doesn't really mean much. She also wanted to share a picture of Drake and Kleo.

She was very excited to share everything with her class. She still really loves school. Every night she brings home a reading "book" to read to us and has mastered writing out her numbers 1-10. I'm going to start volunteering once a month in the classroom so I can see what's going on and be able to help out too. Maybe then I'll learn who all these kids are that Erin comes home talking about.

Camping: Take 2

After our first disastrous, and very wet, attempt at camping in June we decided to give it another go. Friends of ours were going to a camping rally at a nearby campground and invited us to go along. They even had an extra tent we could borrow since we haven't sealed the leaky one yet.

We headed up a little after noon and got settled in. We met up with our friends and decided it might be nice to take a little hike. Their teenage daughter and son came along with us. We headed out and took a little nature trail that had several signs pointing out interesting things about the forest. The trail was nice and relatively flat so we could let Erin and Jeffrey just run ahead. They got very excited about the signs, but not so interested in what they said.

At the end of that trail was a waterfall spur. The hike to the waterfall was a little under a mile but relatively steep. Since there were 4 big people (5 actually) and 2 little people we decided it would be worth taking the hike to the waterfall. Jeffrey walked mostly with Mr. Jonathan and Erin headed off the trail a little ahead of everyone else. After a long week at school it was apparent that she really just needed some Erin space. We stopped part way down to splash a little in the stream. At the bottom of the hike we found a wonderful waterfall. The kids climbed around (holding hands) the rocks at the bottom of the falls. Jeffrey proceeded to get his bottom totally soaked but hey - he had an entire hike back up the mountain to dry out.



By the top of the hill both kids were being carried and hiking back the nature trail they were dragging pretty hard. Back at the campsite we insisted on some quiet rest time. Erin headed to her little pink tent with her kitty and my MP3 player. Jeffrey sacked out on the mattress in the bigger tent. Erin stayed quiet for about 30 minutes and Jeffrey eventually crashed. After Erin came out we played a game of Uno and then she and Tom went down to socialize and play with the other campers. I hung out at the campsite while Jeffrey rested.




By dinner time (they were having a pot luck) I had to wake Jeffrey up - always a bad idea. It took him almost 30 minutes to really wake up and stop being a grump. All he wanted was his Miss Kim (his babysitter) so he hung around with her for a while. Dinner was nice and everyone chatted together. During the middle of dinner 2 large bucks just wandered through the campground stopping at the site across from ours to graze around. It was amazing that they were just there in the middle of a large crowd of people not 10 feet away.


As it got darker everyone broke out glow sticks/necklaces etc.... The next hour was filled with little kiddos running around waving their glowing sticks, sword fighting, throwing them in the air. Erin and Jeffrey had a blast with this.

Tom had to drive me back home for church Sunday morning, so he brought me back late Saturday night. I did get some campfire time and lots of fun watching the kids play. They got to hang out and make Smores while Tom was out. By the time he got back they were definitely ready to crash. All 3 of them slept in the borrowed tent.

Sunday morning Tom and the kids made breakfast and hot chocolate -- and served them up for the whole campground. Then they went for another short hike before packing up and heading home.

Tom was so glad that both kids had such a great time. They spent most of Sunday catching up on sleep but it was worth it to see them having so much fun doing something that means so much to their daddy.

Nostalgia

I've been feeling nostalgic lately. Maybe it's part of watching my baby girl be so excited about heading off to school. Maybe I'm seeing more and more of me in her every day. Maybe it's because through the beauty of the Internet I recently caught up with my best friend from kindergarten - someone I haven't talked to in over 15 years. Anyway, I've been looking back at old pictures. Remembering silly things that happened in school. Hoping that my daughter can make as special a friend as I did in school. I also wanted to share this with everyone here.



Erin on her first day on kindergarten




Meghan's Kindergarten Pictures

Think she's her mommy's little girl?

He's Been Waiting a Year

Well Jeffrey's been waiting a year to go to pre-school and yesterday he finally got his wish. He had his first day at pre-school and was super excited. Ever since we started taking Erin to school last fall he's been wanting to stay there. He loved when I let him go to 'camp' over the summer. For the past 2 months he's been telling EVERYONE that "I'm going to pre-school". And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Grandma over the phone. Noni. His friends at church. His "teachers" at mommy's gym. Strange women at the grocery store. To say he was a little excited would be the understatement of the century.

Back in August Jeffrey picked out a new backpack (Cars of course) for school. They had orientation last week where he met a few of his classmates. He's going to the same school Erin went to last year, so he was pretty comfortable with the atmosphere. He knew where all the cool toys are, where mats for circle time are kept. He had a bit of a foot up when he got there.

We had a nice morning breakfast together after dropping Erin off to the school bus. He wanted oatmeal and gobbled it down. He got dressed without a fight - something I'm truly grateful for. We had snack for the week and brought "bear cookies" (Teddy Grahams), Cheeze-its, a bag of mixed fruit, strawberries and some juice.

Once we got there I lost him right away. He ran off to find his cubbie, play with toys, find his name on the table etc... He just felt right at home - and that's exactly what I expected from him. When I left, he was finding a space on the carpet sitting calmly and waiting for circle time to start.

I picked him up and he was excited to tell me about the day. First important thing - snack of bear cookies. Second important thing - playground time. Third item - painting (something we don't do a lot of at home). The did a project with the kids' hand prints and a poem about his first day of school which has a proud home on the refrigerator. He was devastated to have to go home, very sad that he would miss all his friends. I'm sure he'll be super excited to get back tomorrow.

Now.....what am I going to do with all MY free time?????