Preschool Social Calendar

 

Warning: Prepare to be exhausted after reading this blog post, as we recap all of the activities on our Preschool Social Calendar over the past 5 days:

Friday evening: St. Giles Fall Festival. 

-Adorable games, prizes, and pizza party in the gymnasium at Luke's preschool.  My favorite part of Fall Festival is the joy and anticipation that the children have as they look forward to and attend this event.  The festive decorations and sweet games live on in their memories all year long, and the love that the teachers and staff pour into the Fall Festival is palpable. 

 

 

Fall Festival highlights: 

 

-Our farmer decides that "Ring the Ghost" is his favorite game and plays it at least 10 times.  Leah realizes that she looks so cute in her costume that she can walk right up to the treat bowls placed beside each game and grab handfuls of goodies to put in her bag without actually waiting in line.  What a smart little girl!   

 

We use up all of our game tickets and spend several hours playing games and enjoying treats.  Glassy-eyed and full of chocolate, we waddle home and collapse into bed:

 

Saturday:  After Mommy's 5K in the morning, we attend a Halloween costume party at a preschool friend's house.  Luke has fun playing "Mummy Wrap" with his best friend (and somehow talks Caleb into being the mummy) and bobs for about 20 apples.  I also notice that Luke keeps disappearing into the room that contains the food, but returns empty-handed each time.  On our way out of the party that evening, Luke points to a gigantic and almost-empty bowl of candy corn and whispers, "Mommy, I ate ALL of those."  So, of course I let him have his lollipop favor on the way home in the car, because at this point, what's another few grams of sugar going to do?!

Sunday:  (No photos) Birthday party at the gymnastics center for another friend in Luke's preschool class.  Parents joke about how we haven't seen each other in so long and are thrilled to have an activity that burns off some of the preschooler's recent energy/sugar highs... that is, until it is time for cupcakes.

Mark and I also establish a special "Parent Only" bowl of Halloween treats on the top shelf of our pantry due to the abundance of candy that is pouring into our house on a daily basis.  Luke is permitted to have one piece/day for dessert from his treat bowl on the lower shelf if he finishes his dinner, while Mommy & Daddy decide that we are entitled to unlimited quantities of sweets as long as no one is looking.  Hey, we can't get away with this for many more years before we encounter a major protest from the littles, so we are going to take advantage of it while we can!

Monday:  Mommy starts to get a bit anxious about the upcoming Halloween party at preschool that she is leading and starts preparing treats.  Mommy completely redeems herself for the dinosaur Rice-Krispie treat disaster of last month by successfully making these cute candy corn-shaped creations, and all is right in the baking world again:

Tuesday:  Uh-oh!  Somehow, we haven't had time to carve jack o' lanterns yet, and Halloween is less than a day away.  Leah doesn't nap for the first afternoon of her life for some reason, and we rearrange our schedules, dinner, etc. to have expert-carver Daddy home early from work to help.  Suddenly, we realize that: A) Today is recycling day and we no longer have any newspapers in our garage to line the table and B) The pumpkins have been sitting outside for weeks and today is officially the coldest day of the year = freezing hands for our scoopers/carvers.  Potential disaster ahead!

Luke, who is beyond tired at this point and so confused about which day is "Real Halloween" because of all of this excitement, has a complete melt-down when we get out a knife to carve his pumpkin.  We salvage the situation by placing stickers on our pumpkins instead this year, saving ourselves a lot of tears, mess, and effort:

 

 

 

 

Exhausted kiddos are in bed by 6:45 p.m. Mark and I give each other high fives, begin scooping out the innards of $25 worth of navel oranges required to create my now famous preschool snack-o-lanterns, and realize that we didn't really avoid carving things tonight after all.

Wednesday:   5:22 a.m.:  Mommy wakes up to a little finger tapping her on the shoulder and voice whispering, "Is it Halloween today?"  (What did I expect with that early bedtime?).  Luke is dressed in his costume and ready for school hours before we need to leave this morning.  The preschool party is a huge success, thanks to my friend (the other mom who signed up for the party), who is equally as obsessed with holidays/Martha Stewart as I am.  What fun we have had over the past month texting and planning our snack, craft, game, and Halloween story for today's party!  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this morning: 

A preview of our Halloween snacks.

A spooky story came first...



Halloween Bingo was next, followed by a puppet-making craft.

Then Luke's class sang to the parents.  As usual, my farmer added his own special touch to the musical number and covered his face with his hat for the entire song.

Finally, the preschoolers were able to sample all of the tasty treats!

 

With a neighborhood dinner/party at our clubhouse tonight and Trick or Treating afterward, we've almost made it through the overwhelming excitement and busy social itinerary that has made up Halloween this year! 

Run, Mama, Run!

 

I ran my first 5K this morning, and had the cutest little cheering squad that you can imagine:

 

  Completing this race was a personal goal that I decided to pursue this fall after realizing that I have spent most of the past 5 years either pregnant or breastfeeding and functioning on very little sleep.  Now that I have my body to myself again, I wanted to set a reasonable, measurable short-term goal and so I decided to participate in Greenville's Spinx RunFest.  This annual race is a huge event in our city, with almost 5,000 runners.  Mark has been a wonderful and supportive partner who has taken over so many baths, bedtime routines, and childcare over the past few months while I have trained. 

 

Still smiling at the last mile!

 

 A few interesting tidbits that make my successful completion of this morning's 5K interesting:

 

The last time I ran in a competitive, timed race, I was exactly half my age (and those days on the high school track team are very fuzzy to me).  Yikes!

 

When I last ran on a regular basis, I used a Sony Walkman, with cassette tapes... remember those big, yellow, waterproof monstrosities?!  Somehow I skipped an entire decade of discmans, MP3 players, etc. and progressed straight to an IPhone with music and GPS that keeps track of my mileage, pace, and workouts.  Wow, technology has changed!

 

Almost 3 months ago, I first proposed the idea of my running a 5K to Mark (during a date night out for his birthday dinner).  He almost spit his drink out across the table at me in the middle of the restaurant...That's how shocked he was!

 

I was initially worried that I would come in dead last, despite the fact that people run this race wearing Halloween costumes, push strollers, etc.  That's how out of shape I felt when I started training.  But I ran a personal best today, did a great job, and am thrilled to cross this off my bucket list.

 

Luke has been talking about jobs at school, and he has been telling people that I am: "a mommy, a doctor, and an exerciser!"  We'll work on that accuracy, but he's adorable and often wants to "exercise" with me.  He'll run toward me, arms outstretched, and grab my hand, holding it for awhile until he determines that he is faster than me and needs his legs to take a rest. 

 

Luke "running" at RunFest this morning.

Luke kept asking me this week if I was going to win the race, and I tried to explain that I was not going to come in first place like Lightning McQueen, but that I was going to win just for me.  Today, as he stood on the sidelines of the race, he shouted, "I love you, Mama!".  What could be better coaching & encouragement?!  And as we got home after the 5K this morning, he handed me a dozen red roses and sweetly said, "Mama, you won!"

 

 

Leah was also excited to cheer me on, and after we put her down last night, we heard her talking in her crib.  She kept shouting, "Run, Mama, Run!"  and "Doh, Mama!"  (She can't quite pronounce the "g" to say "Go!").  Sweet girl sat on the sidewalk with a big smile on her face, watching all of the runners, excited to watch her Mommy run past:

 

Here are my loves: My inspirations for running and being healthy, giving me a victory hug.  It was a great morning and I felt very supported and loved!  Thank you, family and friends!

Pumpkin Patch

 

Here are a few cute pictures of our sweet little pumpkin at the pumpkin patch last weekend:

 

 

 

Leah was delighted to be surrounded by so many pumpkins, and loved running races in the field with her brother:

 

 

A preview of their Halloween costumes:

Luke has loved this tractor ever since he was a baby and drives it every year:

Luke also enjoyed leading our family through the corn maze and was very interested in the pumpkins growing on the farm:

 

 

Happy Fall!

Boo in the Zoo

 

The children debuted their Halloween costumes last night when we attended Boo in the Zoo, and I wanted to share the background story involving their coordinating outfits:

 

Many weeks ago (because some stay-at-home moms who shall-not-be-named start thinking about things like Halloween costumes in August), I proposed to Luke how fun it might be for him to dress up as a farmer this year.  We put together his costume and I excitedly told him, "You can even have your very own cow!" (My entire costume vision hinged on an adorable cow costume that I had for Leah...)

 

Luke immediately ran upstairs and grabbed his stuffed animal cow, ready for Halloween: 

Mommy:  "No, buddy, you're missing something...":

 

 

Luke: "Oh yeah, Mama, you're right.  I need my hat (and a baby chick apparently).  Now I'm ready!":

Mommy:  "No, this is what you are missing!":

Leah wasn't so sure about her costume at first, and told us: "All Done Moo Cow!" before we even set foot in the zoo yesterday:

 

However, with a little distraction and the introduction of her first Trick or Treating experience, our little cow quickly decided that this whole costume thing was totally worth the goodies:

 

She even examined her loot to check out what in the world all of those people kept putting in her bag:

 

 

Once she found a lollipop, Leah was convinced that Halloween may be her new favorite holiday:

Farmer Luke, who is an old pro at Boo at the Zoo, agreeably posed with some of the Halloween decorations, and gently led his cow to the displays for a photo op as well:

 

 

 

Below is my favorite annual shot of Luke at Boo in the Zoo.  Each year, he runs joyfully down the same ramp.  Here he is last night, and also dressed up as a giraffe two years ago, at age 2:

 

 

Of course our little farmer and cow stopped to feed the animals in the barnyard section of the zoo:

 

 

Here's our only family picture from Boo in the Zoo.  As usual, it's impossible to have all four of us looking at the camera/smiling at the same time:

 

 

After a successful evening of fun, our happy kids headed home, bags heavy with treats: 

 Howdy Do, Y'all!