Halloween

Due to it being Halloween, we had absolutely no children (except for Josephine, of course) at the Children's Garden this afternoon. But I did go to school to watch the Halloween parade, and in doing so, I got photos of most of the kids that are in our program. The 5th grade DI class came over to Ms. Bonnie's kindergarten class to help them change into their costumes and then to escort them during the parade. Here are some snapshots of the day:

Anna gets into her costume.

Ms. Bonnie dressed up as Ms. Frizzle from Magic School Bus.

Eden the cowgirl:

Claire (David's big sister) dressed as Belle and Josephine as Dorothy Gale in the parade:

Princess Monica

Jacob dressed as Julius Caesar, of course:

Marie as a renaissance princess and her mother, Nozomi:

Dylan the pirate and his pirate mother Sandy:

Orianna, more beautiful than Cinderella herself:

Georgia, appropriately enough, was Pippi Longstocking:

Pirate Katie:

And Lucas was a bat:

Check out Katie and Lucas' teacher, Mr. A:

The principal, Carmen Mizell, was the Cat in the Hat.

And could there be a better photo of Ryan as Anakin Skywalker, with his future self approaching in the background?

Picnic Snack, Sidewalk Chalk, Ring-Around-the-Rosie

First, Katie, Josephine, Orianna, and Lucas enjoy a picnic snack outside while the weather is still beautiful (gorgeous sunny days still, but with a crisp touch of fall in the air).

Orianna and Josephine work on a princess with very very long hair.

And at the end of the day we were joined by Samantha, former neighbor but current very-good-friend. The girls played ring-around-the-rosie together.

A New Little Friend

First I must explain how I got so far behind in my blog posts, which I am now trying to remedy. I do all my posting on weekends, and the first weekend of November, we went out of town, so that put me a week behind. The very next weekend, we had company from out of town staying with us, so that put me even further behind. Then, to make matters oh-so-very-much worse, my digital camera simply stopped working. Fortunately one of the parents has since allowed me to borrow her camera until we find a replacement (my hubby is an electrical engineer who cannot simply buy a new camera, but instead has quite the checklist of requirements and must thoroughly research products first). So last weekend, my first "free" weekend, I spent my time emptying out the memory card of the broken camera (200+ photos on it!!!) and then uploading pictures from the borrowed camera. Now it's time to catch up on the blog . . .

Quite a change from my usual school-aged-children-in-the-afternoon scenario, Mondays now consists of two one-year-olds: David and Ria. David's mother is working in her daughter's kindergarten classroom (which is also my daughter's class), and Ria's mother is working in her son's preschool class, which happens to be the same one my daughter was in last year.

In the afternoon we were back to school-aged kids. Here are Marie, Josephine, Lucas (no longer scowling into the camera), and Anna working on a very long sheet of paper.

Playhouse Walls -- Building Paper

Playhouse construction continues, and here Josephine helps out Sven with the next step--putting up building paper. First, they took down the old temporary building paper, which was only up to protect the house from rain while Sven finished the roof.

There were staples in the wood, so here Josephine helps Sven to pull them out with pliers.

Once the new paper is up, it's time to cut out the doors and windows. Here is Josephine, carefully supervised, cutting out a window . . .

. . . and with a little help from Pappa . . .

. . . there's a window!

School Time and Tool Time

Eden has let us borrow her wonderful doorway puppet theater. I set it up in the hall today, and Marie gave it a try.

Soon, however, they changed their minds and played school instead. Eden, of course, was the teacher. She had her three students, Josephine, Orianna, and Marie, lined up on the bed, and she read books to them.

And where was Iain during all of this? Why, walking around the house looking very necessary and important (and tough, as you can see from his facial expression) wearing a toolbelt.

Later in the afternoon the girls all decided to make crowns. Here is Marie showing hers off . . .

. . . and here are Orianna and Josephine working on their crowns.

Today we received a bunch of notched popsicle sticks from a friend of mine--what fun for building!

Here is Ryan with his creation:

Eden worked away at a sort of rainbow tower.

And here she is, finished and proud:

Orianna wanted to build her own rainbow tower, like Eden's, and had a lot of trouble. It kept collapsing on her, but she was extremely patient and determined and would rebuild each and every time. Here she is with her tower, both relieved and proud:

Earlier this week I bought a bunch of mini pumpkins and assorted gourds for fall decorations. Josephine and Orianna helped out by arranging them in a bowl.

And here's what happens when you let two five-year-olds play with a digital camera . . . comical photos.

This morning we had a larger crowd than usual. Here's snacktime . . . first the boys' side of the table (Diego & Dylan):

. . . and then the girls' side (Josephine & Orianna):

We made another batch of spider soaps today so that Dylan and Diego could each have one.

I bought a battery-operated pencil sharpener because I've gotten several blisters from sharpening colored pencils. Little did I know that the pencil sharpener itself would be far more fun than the colored pencils. Here Orianna gives it a try . . .

. . . and then Josephine has a turn.


Update on Rosie the June bug:

We temporarily donated Rosie and her habitat to Josephine's kindergarten class, as they were studying insects at the time. Miss Bonnie, the teacher, actually found another June bug which she added to the habitat, so that Rosie could have a friend. We recently got back both Rosie and her friend and decided we should let them go. One of them, however, was not doing well. We don't know which is which, but we like to think that this is not Rosie. Its legs are a little damaged and it doesn't move too much. Rosie, on the other hand, (or what we like to think is Rosie) flew happily away.

Eden and Josephine look at the two June bugs before we release them.

Since the injured June bug didn't move very much, we could not release it. Everyone donned gloves and took turns holding it. Here is Ryan:


. . . and Josephine:



Finally, the kids all moved into the still-unfinished playhouse and set up an insect hospital.