Preschool Halloween Fun

While Mark was gone last week Jared's preschool held their annual Fall Festival.  This is their biggest fundraising event.  I am still unclear as to why they need a big fundraiser when everyone is paying so much in tuition but I guess it's just nice to have so extra cash for things.  I am the classroom representative so I was in charge of our class booth.  We did a pumpkin patch walk (just like a cake walk minus the cake) and it turned out pretty well. Not many parents volunteered to run it so that was a bummer. Luckily there were plenty of volunteers from the church that sponsors the preschool and nearby private schools. Since I was in charge of the booth I had to set it up and take it down so I pretty much needed to be at the event the whole time.  Originally I thought this would really not matter but then I found out that Mark would be gone that week and couldn't bring Jared and Lydia later or leave with them but it totally worked out. My friend Laura offered to watch Jared and Lydia for me while I ran the game but it just seemed like a bigger hassle to take them to her house and then go back and find parking so we just powered through it and it went really well.  There were lots of fun booths and a blow up bouncy slide so Jared and Lydia were pretty happy and well entertained. It was the slide that saved us.  I let Jared and Lydia go on it as many times as they wanted and they loved it.  We made sure to check out all the booths too and had fun.  Tickets were 8 dollars per kid. I think it is more of a 5 dollar per kid event but what do I know.

Lydia was so silly with the slide.  She would slowly climb up the inflated ladder then refuse to go down till I either coaxed her from the bottom once she could see me or was given a slight nudge from the volunteer at the top. I am so glad there was someone up there. I made sure they knew it was okay to give her a little push to get her going. It's not like she hasn't gone on these slides before. I am not sure if she was really nervous or just wanted more time up there. Jared on the other hand couldn't get up the steps again fast enough.  He had a blast.

Needle in a haystack only you searched for prizes.  

The event ended at 6:30 and we quickly cleaned up and headed home.  I am glad it went as smoothly as it did.

Halloween Parade

Jared's preschool class had their Halloween parade and party today. He was so excited to wear his Pirate costume to school.  It is always fun to see little kids dressed up  The two Tues/Thurs classes did their today.  Jared's is the older 3 and 4's and the other class was the 2's. So cute.  It was fun to see how excited Jared was to not only be in the parade (he hasn't ever been in one before) but to also see us watching him.  He had a fun time at the party.  I have his parent teacher conference next Tuesday and am looking forward to meting with his teachers. My first one ever on the parent side.

Lydia loves hanging out at Jared's preschool.  She is really such a good sport. 

 I took this picture the night I let Jared sleep in the room with me while Mark was gone.  We have actually never had one of our kids sleep in our bed with us.  Before Mark left I told Jared he could one night and he was so excited!  The next morning when I told him it was time to get up he said "Mommy, my bed does not feel like this, I do not want to get up." It was nice to have him there.

Halloween experiments and pumpkin carving

We are having lots of Halloween fun around here. I sort of feel like Halloween snuck up on me.  We got our costumes so early and have been planning on going to "The Lawn" (old historic section of UVA) for trick or treating since we got here and heard about it that it seems odd its finally here.  To start celebrating we invited some friends over for some Halloween science experiments.  It wasn't quite a Halloween party but we were happy to have some friends over to enjoy the fun with us.  made our pippin pumpkins and bubbling boos like last year and tried out a new experiment. A spooky expanding ghost. They worked great.  We also did some pumpkin geometry and enjoyed some pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

 Before we started experimenting.

 Our spooky ghost. Jared and I are holding it. 

Laura, Abigail, Lydia, April, Jared, Joseph and Peter. 

Pumpkin Geometry. I have seen this done with toothpicks and marshmallows and thought it was fun to have a Halloween twist. 

 Lydia put a few together but pretty much just ate all her pumpkins.  

Jared really enjoyed it. This was a trail to the Pirate ship where the treasure was inside.  We talk about Pirates a lot at our house. It's kind of fun to think back on previous years and what Jared was into:  CARS, Trains, garbage trucks and workers thus far.  What has been most interesting to me is how Lydia goes with what Jared likes.  She does like different things but I think she really looks up to Jared. I am interested to watch their relationship. I so hope they will be each others best friends ( I know they will really dislike each other too at times).

Pumpkin Carving

In keeping with our Pirate theme Mark carved our pumpkin with a little help from Jared and Lydia. My job was to read Halloween stories while Mark did the dirty work. He did an awesome job and Jared had fun cleaning out the pumpkin, playing with the insides and doing a little of the stenciling with Mark. It turned our so great!

Arrrr!

In other non Halloween related news, the trees around town are amazing right now! Amazing!  It is so pretty here.  There are just so many trees around Charlottesville. There are beautiful oranges, reds, golds and yellows. This is our current views out our bedroom window.  It is so late in October I thought the Fall was sort of a dud but oh no. It's amazing!  I love that I don't even have to drive to the mountains to see amazing colors. I can drive to the Library or the grocery store and the leaves are actually better then the mountains!  Its so awesome. Like a dream come true. 

I am pretty sure the tree on the right is going to be very red in the next few days. I am surprised at how late it is to see these colors but am so glad they are here.  (And maybe it is the normal time for Virginia but it seems so late to me) Yesterday Jared, Lydia and I went on a walk/hike on the trail in our backyard.  We hadn't been in awhile and we had a hard time seeing the trail as there were so many leaves on it. It's crazy how many leaves are on the trail and yet many trees are still pretty full.  We stopped by the river and threw some rocks in (and saw a humongous super creepy spider) and played on some large rocks for awhile. We were talking to one of our neighbors awhile back (who also happens to be from Northern CA) and he said that sometimes the trees feel suffocating to him because there are so many and he is more used to a bit more open space. I see where he his coming from but Love all these trees.  I am so happy that we live somewhere where we can walk down the street and see awesome fall colors. It really is a big deal to the Autumn crazy girl! 

The Great Outdoors!

There are many great things about Charlottesville. One of them is the proximity to great hiking (like in our backyard).  My friend Laura really likes taking her kids on hikes and she is introducing us to all kinds of kid friendly hikes, most of them within 10 minutes of our current home.

2 weeks ago we went to Chris Green Lake for the first time. This area is right by the airport.  During the summer you can swim in the lake and there appears to be a decent beach and a playground. One really fun thing about this hike were all the trail markers made from stacked rocks.  Jared was so happy to be out with Peter and Joseph.  Lydia is really becoming a great little hiker.  I am not sure how much she enjoys it but she does well. It was fun to be out in the grew weather and see some colors appearing in the trees. 

 We counted over 20 of these markers along our way!

 Jared finds mushrooms fascinating. He is always looking for them.  We never really saw them in Colorado. I know nothing about how poisonous mushrooms are so we try to just look at them and then move on.

Made it to the lake!

Sunday Drive: 

So I am slightly super paranoid about missing the leaves changing color.  It's such a guessing game. What if they peak on a Wedseday? When Mark is in school? I know I can drive myself but I would rather be the passenger and get to see them without having to focus on the road. Mark is okay with this as he prefers to drive and does not care about Falls fun colors as much as me.  They have peaked now and we almost got it just right.  I find comfort in knowing that I now live in a great pace for fall colors (It's not New England but its pretty great) and can just keep trying! So last Sunday we went out a long Sunday drive to try and see the colors. We found some pretty colors but this year (according to the locals) was kind of a dud.  There was never a really good cold freeze so the leaves were not as vibrant.  I feel like the trees around town (and at the park) are better than the mountains which in a way is better because you can see the change and enjoy each day.  We did come over a hill and see this pretty sight  though an drove through some really nice green farmland with fun white fences. We drove out towards Elkton and Standardsville.  Park of the drive took us through the Shenandoah National Forest which was really nice.  I am so glad that Mark is willing to go on these drive and put up with my quest to see the trees change. 

Better luck with the cold weather next year.  

Shenandoah National Forest, Skyline Drive. 

Last Friday the County Schools had a teacher work day so all the students had a day off.  My friend Laura got a group of ladies together to go on a drive and then take a hike through the Shenandoah National Forest.  Sadly most of the trees had lost their leaves, at least on the hike part. We drove through some very pretty sections which was nice. Jared, Lydia and I rode with my friend Tara which was great! The hike was not too difficult but a little much for Lydia. There were 4 adults and 9 kids.  The youngest 2, who were 20 months and just over 2 were in packs their Moms carried them in but Lydia really had to work hard.  It definitely didn't help that I neglected to pack sweaters for Jared, Lydia and I.  I swear I checked the weather!  Problem was I checked the weather for Charlottesville and it was at least 10 degrees cooler on the hike and way windier. We found sweaters for Jared and Lydia (at least my friends were prepared) but I was freezing the whole 2.4 miles. Poor Lydia was still really sad and cold.  The hike ended up taking much longer then expected so we didn't finish until after 12:00.  Lydia was so tired.  We ate our picnic lunch and then drove home.  The drive was just over an hour so we didn't get back till after 1:30, too late for a nap.  It was a good attempt for some Fall fun but didn't quite turn out how I thought it would.  Again, better luck next year. I will pack sweaters no matter what the weather says!  The drive home took us a different way and while Tara was driving a large black bear ran across the road!  Tara had to slam on her brakes.  We were not close to hitting it but couldn't believe it happened!  I never would have thought I would see a bear like that in  broad daylight.  It was crazy.  Jared saw it too which he thought was great.  We were so surprised. 

 Half way point We stopped for a little snack.  It looked (and felt) more like winter to me than fall! 

 Jospeh, Lydia, Jared, Driggs, and Peter. Half the kids. 

Monticello Trail:

 Tara and I went back to the Monticello Trail this past week.  It is such a nice easy place to go.  Tara has a little girl who turned 2 in June so she and Lydia are just 6 months apart. We have story time together at the Library on Wednesdays.  She is really fun to visit with and Lydia enjoys playing with Lainey. We put both girls in their strollers and enjoy the 4 mile (roundtrip) walk.  It was fun to go back and see some more Fall colors. Mark wanted to go on Saturday so we went back and actually ran into Tara and her family.  It was nice to visit with them. 

 We are so happy to live somewhere so beautiful and so accessible.  I love how easy it is to find and get to kid friendly hikes around town. I will miss these options when it gets too cold all too soon.

In our Hood...Leaves, bikes, picnics, tree climbing

I have always wanted to live in a neighborhood that had mature trees that changed into beautiful colors in the fall.  I enjoy going on fall drives but I really just want to be able to walk down the street and have the colors right there.  Then you get to see the change and you don't have to worry about missing the "peak" days or driving an hour to see some leaves and having missed them or gone too early.  This neighborhood is certainly that way.  There is one street here that has the most beautiful trees!! The other streets are nice too but this is the best one. Not ours but just down the street. The park we go to most often, just up the street that I like to run around has some amazing colors too.  Fortunately, most neighborhoods here appear to have beautiful trees like this one.  We do not plan on staying in this town home after our lease is up but we sure are enjoying the leaves around here.

Today we went over to the park to rake up leaves and jump into the piles. Jared and Lydia have wanted to do this since they saw kids doing it in books (at least 3 years ago for Jared).  So I stopped at Lowes today and picked up a children's rake.  I loved jumping in leaf piles when I was little. We made a huge pile and then placed our mini trampoline in front of it to jump into the pile. My parents yard is huge with lots of trees so I got plenty of practice growing up and did not feel a need to buy myself a rake today.  They both loved raking and jumping in the leaves.  Jared and I also got in a leaf fight which was fun.  Man I love the fall.  I often look forward to the day when I will have a decent yard for Jared and Lydia to play in but really raking leaves at the park today was kind of perfect.  When we were done we just got in the car and drove home.  No need to finish the job or find somewhere to put the leaves.

 Our neighbor Portia joined us with her almost 2 year old and got this picture of us.

Fun times. 

There are some beautiful trees at this park (Pen Park)

Jared has also made awesome progress with riding his bike.  He had the pedals and training wheels off for about a week and was getting pretty good at balancing and Mark decided to put the pedals back on and see how he did.  He was nervous at first but built up his courage (and trust that Mark really would hold on) and now he can ride his bike while pedaling without training wheels!  I was in making dinner one night while Mark was out practicing with Jared and they came back in tell me I had to com see what Jared could do.  I was so impressed.  He really picked it up quick.  He is not super confident yet but with a little more practice he will have it down.  Sadly Mark is out of town this week so Jared may have to relearn how to do it when he gets back but I think he will pick it up pretty quick.  I went out with him one afternoon before Mark got home from school and he gave me my instructions on what I was supposed to do.  My job was to "Hold onto the handle bar while he did his job balancing up the hill, then stay right by him as he rode down the hill." I am not very good at it. It's pretty awkward but we did a few practice runs and will try to go out this week. He told me that at first that he was nervous to go down the hill but then he did it and realized how fun it was. He said he loved feeling the wind on his face as he went super fast. I even got a video of it. Way to go Jared!!

 He did not crash he was just tired from riding up the hill. 

 Lydia is rocking her balance bike and her helmet. She loves them. 

Mark looks so young in this picture! 

One beautiful fall day last week (Monday - Wednesday were not beautiful, so much rain and so cloudy!) I asked Jared and Lydia what they wanted for lunch when we came in from playing and Lydia asked if they could eat outside.  It was so nice out, I was happy she thought of it. I have been trying really hard lately to say yes more.  The is not the first time I have set this goal and it won't be the last but it has been going pretty well.  There is a lovely little book of quotes by Sister Hinckley (By Small and Simple Things) that I was given and she has a quote in there about this.  Something like" Whenever possible say yes, they are only kids once."

That now bare tree had such pretty red leaves.  Every time the wind starts to blow I almost panic thinking "No! It's too soon.  Don't blow all the pretty leaves away!" I know it will happen and am just enjoying it while its here.

Jared has also made great progress in his tree climbing skills. He loves that there are trees he can climb around here and that he is figuring out how to do it. I was happy he still had his helmet on!

It's so fun to be out together and enjoying the fall. I just love ti!