First Week of School/ Garden Craziness

Hunter started school this week - a big first grader! He was wwwaaaayyyy more nervous for this year than he was last year (not sure why). His teacher has been doing a lot of testing, procedure setting, and just getting the year off to a good start this week, so thankfully he has had no homework. Each day, he has had good things to report, so I think we are off to a good start.

Ready to head down to the bus.

The rain over the last few weeks has turned my lack-luster garden into a sudden bumper crop. Today, I snapped and canned a batch of green beans, made a batch of spaghetti sauce, and made a batch of dill pickles to use up all the crazy cucumbers. I'm exhausted, and tomorrow I get to pick beans again and make another batch of spaghetti sauce with all the tomatoes ripening in my garage that will rot over the weekend if I don't get to them.

A good day's work - man, was I tired!

Last Day of Kindergarten

Today is Hunter's last day of Kindergarten, and he is actually sad about it (yay)!  He has had a wonderful teacher, and though it took him a few months for things to really click, he has progressed a lot.  I was looking at a writing sample from the first of the school year and a recent writing sample.  I can't believe the difference! 
Since it is the last day, his class was going to celebrate all of the summer birthdays.  So while he wouldn't let me take a last day of school picture, here are some pics of the cute pirate cupcakes, he is serving to celebrate his summer birthday.

Also had to throw in one pic of our girl in pigtails.  Even though she HATED having them put in, isn't she cute?!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

What kid hasn't grown up having Suess books read to him/her?  Yesterday, March 2nd was the great Dr. Seuss's birthday.  So, of course, kindergarten must celebrate.  Hunter's teacher told the students to dress as a Seuss character and be ready to make whamburgers for snack on Friday.  At first, Hunter wanted to be the 10 footed lion from If I Ran the Zoo.  I was so stumped as to how to do that one that I suggested he choose a different one.  Thankfully, he chose Max the Grinch's dog from How the Grinch Stole Christmas... much easier.

Yes, it was a real deer antler which made it all the more cool in his mind and brought the boys running over to check it out when he walked into his classroom.

Taking his own picture showing his sad puppy dog face.

Fall Party

Friday I got to go into Hunter's class to help with the fall party.  Both he and I had a fun afternoon.  The kids got to rotate through stations of fun and educational activities. 

Hunter's teacher, Ms. Finley, making "spooky hands" at one station

Mrs. Shearer, classroom aide, at the pumpkin carving station.  Hunter's best buddy Lucas is the one with his hands full of goop.

Hunter's turn, and he is loving it.

Hunter at the pumpkin bowling station.  He totally missed on his first turn but got a strike on his next time up.

It was also the end of red ribbon week, so the school had an assembly with a special speaker, Eric Stults.  Eric was the pitcher for the LA Dodgers for a number of years and played for the Colorado Rockies last year.  He grew up near here and became good friends with the principal of Hunter's school when they both attended Bethel College.  I was pretty impressed, and I'm not even really a baseball fan. Too bad the principal didn't know anyone from college that got drafted to the NFL and played for a certain team from NY.  Just saying......

The Frog Prince

Hunter has been insistent that he wants to be a frog this year for Halloween, and of course, with all of the dress-up clothes we have, we don't have any kind of frog costume.  Then a note came home from school a week or so ago stating that today is the Kindergarten fall party, and all the kids can dress up as long as it is as a fairytale or folktale character.  They could not wear any masks and must be able to go about the day independently to recesses, bathrooms, etc. with whatever costume they wore.  This makes it a bit harder.  However I thought I  ought to be able to figure out something.  Since Hunter still wanted to be a frog, I googled the story of the frog prince and read it to him.  I actually liked this original version better (and so did he) because the frog gets the princess' ball out of the deep pond, so she lets him sleep on her pillow for 3 nights.  This breaks the spell and turns him back into a prince.  No kissing involved which made the 5 year old boy quite happy. 

So I just searched through his everyday clothes to see what we could find.  With some styrofoam balls, felt, craft foam and lots of pins (so we didn't have to sew and ruin the shirt or hat),  he and I put together this outfit for the day.  I must say I thought it to be quite cute!

The pink pipe cleaner is his tongue with a fly on the end.

Every frog needs a good pair of feet for hopping.



He really loved the whole outfit.  Just hope the kids on the bus don't tease his enjoyment away!



First Day of School

Wow, it has been forever since I posted!! Family came to visit and garden and fruit needed harvesting.  I do have to mark this momentous day in history though.  It was Hunter's first day of Kindergarten.  Last night we went to the open house.  We got to take his supplies in and find his cubby and his desk.  One of his best buddies from church is in his class, and while we were there L walked in and said, "Hi, Hunter!".  From that point on, there was nothing but excitement.  I got a little teary-eyed as that big yellow bus pulled away with my little guy waving out the window to me.  I'm so excited for him, but, man, I will miss him a lot, at least for awhile until Shelby is able to carry on a conversation.

Going to Open House

Yes, this was the best shot - crazy kid!

Waiting for the bus