Archive for November, 2011

Serenity in October

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

 

Here’s Serenity’s monthly post…  a little bit late =)  It’s been a busy month, but such fun!  School activities, her first sleepover with Grandma, and more!

Dancing like crazy at Uncle Bobby and Auntie Xiao's wedding!

10/5/11 She was watching a show talking about what people would be when they grow up and she says “Big Sister.”

 

She’s still loving school.  They’ve started a new unit in Science now that they’ve finished up studying the five senses.  They’re learning about habitats, and Serenity’s been singing one of the songs Mrs. McBride taught them.  Evidently habitats include shelter, water, food, and space.  She asked me Tuesday what I thought the letter of the week was, and when she got to school she dashed right into her classroom.  Then she popped back out, eyes shining, and said, “The letter of the week is X!!!!” and dashed right back in. =)  Today I used our big cookie cutters and gave her X shaped cheese and bread for lunch.

 

10/11

First Sleepover with Grandma!  She was so excited for this sleepover =)  Not nervous about being away from Mama and Daddy at all.  They’ve had a blast, playing outside, swinging, playing dominoes, watching Sleeping Beauty, and playing with baby dolls.  Mom called to tell me a few of the funniest details.  She was swinging in the swing and having a conversation with Maggie, one of Mom’s dogs.  “Ok Maggie, I’ll watch you run and you watch me swing!”  Then when Maggie just sat there and stared at her while she swung, she said, “No fair, I didn’t get to see you run!”  Later on she and Mom took a shower in Mom’s fancy new shower.  Serenity asked, “Grandma, why do we have to do this.”  Mom replied, “To get the dirties off!”  Serenity started looking at herself all over, and said, “I have dirties?!?”  Serenity also said that the shower felt so tickly, especially whenever it got her sides, and she just giggled and giggled.  When Mom started to turn off the shower, she said, “Oh Grandma, can’t we stay in the warm water?  It feels sooo sooo good!”  She finally got out with the promise of another shower in the morning. =)  Then, at bedtime, she said, “Grandma, can I watch a movie?”  Grandma replied, “Serenity, it’s time to go to bed, if I turn a movie on will you go to sleep?”  Grandma, if I close my eyes I can’t see very well!”  So true. =)  Mom texted me “You should see her squinting.  “I’ll try Grandma!”

 

She stayed all night and was happy as could be!

 

10/19/11

We had our first parent teacher conference today!  It went very well, and I was so happy to get to talk about what happens at school!  I can never get enough details from Serenity.
Ms. Parent told us when she was reading her words one day she got to Donovan’s name and she said, “I really love this one a lot.”

 

Overall the conference went great.  Serenity is adjusting to school well, and she loves it.  She has some problems with doing what the teachers say, for example leaving the playground, but she’s showing improvement already.  She wants to cooperate (if she doesn’t she loses a letter from the word cooperate, which is a tragedy.)  She will tell me when she gets in the car if she got to pick an eraser that day, and what kind she got.  And sometimes she said, “I didn’t cooperate today.”  Whoops.  She already knows her letters and can read so Ms. Parent works on her with spelling her words that she chooses for word work.  She’s also learning to write the words so I get to hear a lot about diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines.  So cute!  I try to get her to show me a little at home on our white board.  She doesn’t yet grip the pencil reliably, but she tries!    She is still always excited to go, and I hope that never changes!

 

10/28

I got to go into her class to work on the class art project, which was such fun!  I chose to make a handprint quilt, with the help of Thomas’s mom, Jenni.  So each child got to choose what they wanted their handprint to be, either a heart, a dinosaur, a butterfly, or a fish, and what color they wanted.  It was fun to see Serenity actually in the class.  When she had something to say, (like “I feel done” when she’d finished coloring) she spoke right up in her clear voice.  Not a bit shy it seems.  Ms. Parent says she seems to sit with Stella during circle time, and they often talk.  Although Stella seemed pretty quiet when I was in the class, so I wonder if she’s talking or if Serenity is talking TO her. =)  Serenity talks more about Lauren and Emerson though, and Kiev.

 

I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet a conversation it seems like I have a lot with Serenity.  She gets hurt, or is crying for something, and I ask her what happened.  “Why are you crying?  What made you sad?”

“I have a tear.”

I know, what made you cry?

“Because I’m sad.”

Why are you sad?

“Because I have a tear”

 

Repeat until I give up =)

 

She makes such interesting connections.  Like the other day she told me Ladybugs are ladies.  And her sippy cup is a Munchkin brand, and she read that word off the top of it.  Then she said, “It’s a kin that munches!” I didn’t even know that she knew the word munch, much less that it was a verb.

Using her bucket as a stool... she also uses this to climb on TOP of her little playhouse.

 

Jogathon at school! Raises money for science and p.e.

 

Jen did a few laps with Serenity and said the track created issues for her... she had to walk on all the numbers, jump from diamond to diamond, and from letter to letter. She couldn't just run of course! =)

 

Donovan now plays dress up with Serenity... whether he wants to or not =)

 

Making a cave out of couch cushions. Time for baby bear to hibernate =) Or watch Little Bear.

 

Making a jack-o-lantern out of tissue paper, contact paper and a face cut out of construction paper. It turned out cute with a green ribbon "stem" (handle)

 

Snow Princess needed a crown. She's getting good with glue!

 

Modeling an outfit Raegan gave us =) She's trying to show the boots =)

 

She loves gymnastics!

 

Flamingo Day =) After she ate some algae out of her sand box while pretending to be a flamingo, I decided to make some play food for flamingos. Shrimp! So we fed them, made them a lake and nests, and practiced our flamingo dancing! (Stand on one leg, flap those wings!)

 

 

 

Halloween

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Halloween

Another crafty Halloween!  I love this age where she doesn’t mind that her costumes are homemade =)  This year, she initially asked me to make a cat, but while I was googling ideas for something more than just ears and a tail, a picture of Lemon Meringue popped up.  She saw it and immediately loved it!  Lemon is Strawberry Shortcake’s friend, and she has yellow hair and blue eyes just like Serenity.  It was perfect!  I freely admit to funding this obsession, I got her the doll before she even cared about dolls, and continue to buy books every time we see a new one.  And we got a bunch of dollhouse sized dolls for her too from the Strawberry Shortcake set.  It’s fun to see stuff from my childhood that she loves so much!

The costume itself was easy, Lemon basically just wears lemon and aqua clothes!  You can see more about how I made it on my cleverfaeries site.  It was so much fun I made her two outfits, a purse to carry her candy, and a headband!

Donovan of course, had to be Curious George!  I almost did that for Serenity’s first costume, and thought about it ever since.  The only problem with it was that we already had the monkey sweater, and nothing I made could be as adorable!  But since I still wanted Donovan to have something made by me, I made his accessories.  George got a banana, and his friend the Man with the Yellow Hat.  Eric loves matching the kids. =)  Maybe next year I’ll give in and make myself something too.  I procrastinated a little too much this year to get anything else done =)

 

We took the kids to a Halloween Carnival at Whiteside Park.  Serenity loved it!  It’s just five dollars and they have a bounce house =)  So that’s money well spent right there.  She jumped at least half the time we were there.  She also enjoyed the games, and got a lot of her favorite candy.  The only sad moment was when Eric convinced her to try the “spooky lab”  They had that thing where you reach in and feel spaghetti… Eric even just told her it was something gross or yucky, and she said she wanted to do it, but then she cried.  The girl showed her it was spaghetti, but still, tears.

Donovan and Eric were a big hit =)  So many comments and compliments!  I’m so glad I went ahead and made the bright yellow pants.  I wasn’t going to, but then I figured out how to do it with fleece I had on hand so I went for it.  They are a terrible fit but I learned from the care bear costume that fleece doesn’t stretch much, and I wanted him to be able to get them on!  The belt makes it work just fine though.

 

We did our actual Trick-or-Treating in California, and I’ll have another post for that trip coming up!  But we had a blast. =)  Far Far dressed up like a card and went with us, and then Vanaema dressed up as a witch and went too!  Andrew, Marilyn, and Evan the chocolate chip muffin came by too!  Serenity’s goal was to get twenty pieces of candy, and on her first trip out she came back with exactly that!  They made a second little foray to visit one of Ann’s friends and she got a few more later.  Counting it was fun though, I haven’t done the candy pile in a long time.

Pumpkin Patch

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Pumpkin Patch

 

We visited our traditional pumpkin patch in mid-October!  We always go with Mike and Kelly.  Doing Fall things with Kelly is such fun because she actually decorates and does cool stuff!  Plus all the kids have fun climbing on pumpkins together.  This year the Palfreymans joined us too!  I spent most of the time experimenting with my new lens, and managed to get a couple good pictures.  Serenity climbed on all the pumpkins, and rode the horses TWICE!  (Carson was going to do it, but changed his mind so she got to go again with his ticket.)  She also went all the way through the hay maze this year!   Donovan mostly just enjoyed riding around the patch on the beautiful fall day. =)  After many pictures, including family pics for everyone, we headed in to try some more new fudge.  This year’s favorite was cookies and cream.  Yum!

 

In case I make it seem like he never cries... here's proof =) Just doesn't last that long. 😉