Kindergarten Halloween

I had such a great time being the Halloween Party Mom for Brookey's Kindergarten class. I always imagined I would be able to do stuff like this when my kids were in school! But I have to admit, it was A LOT of work being "Halloween Party Mom!!" I am secretly glad I am not "Christmas Party Mom" or "Valentine's Day Party Mom!!"I will let another sucker take over those duties!!! :)

Some of the cute costumes!

A beautiful bride MUST wear her backpack!!


Brookey and her Irish Step Dancing Buddy, Audrey..they have the same hair ties, same backpack, and they were both brides!

Hopefully that's not the bride picking her nose...

The class

Pumpkin Patch with Buddy's School

We took our second trip to the Pumpkin Patch. This time with Buddy's Mommy and Me school. Brooke had the day off school so she got to come along, too. A few of her friends from school were there, too. We had a good time but it was sooo HOT. Buddy got sunburned because who thinks of bringing sunscreen to the pumpkin patch??!! Brooke's Kindergarten class will be going to yet ANOTHER pumpkin patch on Wednesday. I am hoping the temps will drop below 80 by then!! I'm done with Indian Summer!

Brooke loved the "bean" pool


Brookey and her friend, Brooke

Brooke and her Kindergarten friend, Adam

Hayride through the vineyards

We lost Buddy in the Hay Maze!!!

Brookey finally found him and dragged him out!

Room Mom Project

The Room Mom job is no joke. I think I spend more hours on this non-paying job than I do on my real, paying job!! One of the main room mom duties is to plan, design and create a fabulous class project for the school's annual auction fundraiser. These fundraisers are amazing. The last one I went to auctioned off a fire pit that went for over $2,000. So I decided that would be a great project for our Kindergarten class. Luckily I had some help from an art studio who knew that they were doing...because I sure didn't!

We just purchased a plain old fire pit from Target.com. Then we had the kids all paint a different "tile" to represent the 4 seasons...leaves for fall, suns for summer, butterflies for spring and snowflakes for winter [note: after leading that project with the Kindergarten class, I felt the intense need to sleep for 3 days]:
Then I glued all the tiles onto the edge of the pit with some kind of cement glue:
I delegated another mom to grout the sucker and voila! A one of a kind fire pit...which will be auctioned off with 2 very nice bottles of wine and a fuzzy blanket with all the kids pictures on it! After seeing the pit, Scott says he's entering the bidding next Saturday night at the event. $2,000 later...we set the neighbors house on fire because our backyard is so small!! Ha!! I told him it wouldn't be a wise purchase but his heart is in the right place :)

Parent Teacher Conference

I definitely stress about some things more than most normal people. I'm working on it, really. But I felt like I going to throw up before Brooke's parent teacher conference! Why....I have no idea! What was the WORST they could say in Kindergarten?? She needs a little help with her ABCs? She needs to work harder on counting? I guess my worst fear was that they'd tell me she was extremely young and not as "advanced" as her peers. Anything academic-related I know I can help her with, at this point in her school career. [Come 4th grade and I might have to turn her over to Daddy for math help!!] But I always wonder about our decision to send her to Kindergarten at age 4, even though 98% of me thought it was the right decision for her.

You always feel warm and fuzzy when you're child succeeds at something. But I think the best feeling is when your child is successful at values and traits that you have been working so hard to parent them on. The things I heard from her teacher--hard worker, polite, friendly, has a lot of friends, gets along well with others, joy to have in class, she's happy to be here--those are the traits that I have always wanted to hear from her teachers. And academically she's right on par. In fact, her teacher told me to stop stressing about it so much. :) I think I will. And I finally know that we 100% made the right decision to send her to Kindergarten this year.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

We did our annual family trip to Stanley Lane Pumpkin Patch in Napa today....one of our most **exciting** outings of the year!! :) It's hard to believe last year we were wheeling an immobile Buddy around in a wheelbarrow and this year he was running around all over the place!

Our trips to the pumpkin patch have been different every year, but always beautiful. This year was the first year I remember not walking around with a sweater and coffee...this year we were all sweating to death!! Something about an 80 degree pumpkin patch trip isn't quiiiite right :)

But we had a great time on this annual family tradition!


He was right at home on the tractor!

Sooooo many beautiful pumpkins!

A ride on the wagon!

Lost in the corn maze! Where's Buddy??!
Enjoying the sunny day...while Daddy gets a workout :)

No Training Wheels!

A couple of weeks ago Brookey decided she wanted her training wheels OFF--no more "baby bike" for her! I was very reluctant because the kid doesn't have the best balance or athleticism in the world, but after pleading and begging, her dad finally agreed :)

She's been doing GREAT! She can't ride very far on her own yet, but she's making good progress...and she keeps wanting to practice until Daddy's back is broken!

Man, first swimming, then Kindergarten, now this. Checking off milestones left and right. Very sad!!! (for me!)