Graduation!

Well, at the end of May, we had our final day of preschool for the year. It was at Mrs. B's house and she did a TERRIFIC job putting together a special day for the girls. She really went overboard.... but that's Mrs. B! First they made their own visors. Then there was an awards ceremony where they received certificates for completing the year. It was signed by all our the mom-teachers and had a picture of the group in the background. It was so cute. Then, as gifts, they received a bag and pink cup with their NAME on it! Inside the bag were tons of goodies including a purse and candy necklace, book of puzzles, and smelly lotion. We then had a wonderful picnic lunch with flower shaped sandwiches. It was a very nice way to end a very fun preschool year.

Spring Has Sprung

I love Spring. I love the feel of the sun on my face, the smell of the dirt and the growing vegetation. - Love it. Today is the first day of Spring. The Vernal Equinox. I think you were supposed to be able to stand an egg on it's end today. I told that to John last night (all excited-like.) He wasn't too impressed. He said, "I can do that any day." (It's a good thing that I always know he is only trying to drive me absolutely crazy!)

Anyway, today was my day to teach preschool. Here are the cute things we did. Their snack was a "bird's nest" made of those La-Choy chow mein noodles coated in melted chocolate and butterscotch chips. Inside were M&Ms that look like little eggs (I think those are new this year) and a Peep starring as the mommy bird.

The second pic is their craft - more bird's nests and newborns. (PS don't think I'm that clever. I got the ideas from the web).

We Love Preschool!

Here are some pictures of our Valentine's party at preschool on 2/13. We read some stories about love, played a heart-hunt game where the girls had to find hearts hidden around the house BUT they could only pick up the hearts with their initial on them.

Next, we worked on a special project for each child to give to someone they love. They glued conversation hearts on a picture frame then put hand prints on card stock inside a heart shape. Here are some pics of the girls working on them and some pics of the finished products. (Well, my girls' finished products. Everyone else's are a nice light pink, which I preferred as I felt it matched the hearts better. Nat preferred the bright hot pink and insisted on painting hers and Julia's that color. I figured that it was HER project for HER daddy... so I let her go to town. ) As you can see, Nat would rather not be bothered with pics..... she's got a job to do.

Then, the girls enjoyed some Valentine decorated donuts. You know MY girls love donuts, so I thought it would be a good treat and accepted by moms for this special occasion. I will say, there were some comments on how rapidly and how efficiently Nat ate HER donut.

Finally, they exchanged Valentine's with each other and posed for a final picture.

Preschool Halloween!

Here are pics from our Preschool Party! The twins were a bride and a witch. I found that so funny. Miss K was Dorothy, Miss C was a lion, Nat was a duck.... Yes, just like last year. And we had a special guest, Miss Ky, join us for the party!

We decorated cupcakes, made decorations, played "pin the nose on the pumpkin," did a relay race to fill buckets with candy corn and read stories. I think we all had a pretty good time.

The night before, I had to "punt" on the craft for class. I wanted to make these decorations from Martha Stewart (right). I pre-folded all the pieces of paper for each girl, but when it took me an hour to make the sample, I knew we needed something different! HAHA. We made these instead:

I cut out all the pieces, they just had to count the pieces (3 triangles for jack-o-lanterns, 8 spider legs) and glue them on. The one on the left is Natty's work. The one on the right was the example. We hung these up on our doors for decoration.

Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Last week, we went on our annual trip with friends to the pumpkin farm! Daddy was able to go again this year, which is always so much fun.

We had an informative presentation on pumpkins and gourds

Went through a corn maze

Took a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our very own pumpkin (The joy of finally finding just the right one can hardly be described haha).

We finished out our trip with donuts and cider!

Back to School

I know, I'm late with this, but its back to school time. We are again participating in the preschool co-op with three other moms. Two of the moms are the same from last year and we have one new family with twin girls participating!

We are teaching a variety of concepts like shapes, colors, letters and numbers using various book-based themes. Hope you like the pics. The top is our lesson based on The Little Red Hen. The pic on the left is of the girls making apple turn-overs during our apple lesson. The next is me with my lazy eye and beautiful Nat during my lesson on Rosie's Walk. The final pic is Nat decorating a pumpkin during our lesson on Pumpkins.

Bounce U

Today our preschool class went on a field trip! A group of about 30 kids we're acquainted with (and their parent(s) and lots of baby siblings) went to "Bounce U." Remember those big blow-up jump rooms you used to see at fairs when you were a kid? Well, this is a huge building with 2 rooms filled with 4 or 5 giant bouncy things in each. There were slides and basketball and a boxing ring and obstacle courses. We got 45 minutes in each room and then a pizza party. She had a blast...once she got started.

In typical Natalie fashion, she was completely overwhelmed when we walked in. I had to go into each bouncer with her and still she wasn't too sure of the place. After about 20 minutes in the first room, she put her shoes back on we went back to the lobby. "Let's go out there, it's fun out there." She ended up sitting on one of those cars that shake when you put a quarter in it. ..and no, I did not put a quarter in it. We went into the second room and she did MUCH better. Jules and I went through a big obstacle course with her ending with a giant slide. She whined, but once she slid down, she was hooked. I went into the other bouncers with her, but she did her own thing. Finally she just went off and bounced herself. All night long she asked if she could go back. Thanks Mandy!

Wild Imaginations

We participate in a pre-school co-op. Today was my day to teach. I taught about "imagination" and used the story "Where the Wild Things Are." It's one of my favorites. We made wild-thing puppets and ate wild-thing pizza bagels =) Dad said Nat talked about imagination all night long =)