J was super excited this year about Halloween and carving the pumpkins. Daddy did the drawing on them, J picked out a kitty cat face for hers, and mommy did the carving. J was my helper and had no problem digging right in and getting dirty and slimy! Later that afternoon we trunk-or-treated with my Mom's Group and Anna and Elsa made their debut. Deciding on Halloween costumes was a mission in itself this year and they went back and forth on what they wanted to be. J finally chose Anna, it had to be her coronation dress and she had to have the matching hair with ribbons, mommy had to YouTube how to make her the "perfect" hair. While their roles were mixed up (but their personalities matched which sister they were) they made a cute sister pair and we got many compliments.
Halloween morning our day started with running Anna and Elsa to
school in their sled (AKA my jogging stroller). They had their costume
parade at school and trick-or-treated around the playground, later that morning their class had their Halloween party where they got even more sugar, by pickup time the kids were bouncing off the walls! Later that night we went to McDonald's for
dinner with some friends and then came home and trick-or-treated in the
neighborhood until the mosquito's came out in full force. Unlike last year where J as still a little timid and shy this year she led the pack and couldn't get to the houses fast enough!
Mommy won tickets to see the Kellogg's Gymnastics Tour so we headed with our friends up to Tampa one night. Of course I had a mommy fail when I came back from getting food (after the show started) and saw J sitting there with her fingers in her ears, I guess I need to take her ear muffins every where we go, I'm not used to these sensitive ears. Thank goodness I had brought her a jacket, I stuffed some napkins in her ears and pulled her hood up over her head, she sat in my lap for a good potion of the show mesmerized at it. I was pretty impressed for how well she did, besides a few hour and a half movies this was her first time sitting through something this long, she did well, well that and I kept feeding her! The show was great (I had a little selfishness in wanting to see the show) and we even saw a few of the girls from Rio.
Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit and to stay with the girls while mommy and daddy went to Disney to run our race. Of course they didn't miss us, heck they didn't want to talk to us on FaceTime, the only interest they had was when I called them so they could see Mickey at the finish line. They had many meals of "steakie" while we were gone and wore Grandma and Grandpa out!
The last month or two I have really noticed a difference in J and her eagerness to learn. She has always been full of questions but they are becoming more (many more) of late. She wants to know about everything and anything and she is as nosy as the come (she doesn't miss a thing). Our days of spelling things out so that she does not know are few and far between, she is trying very hard to pick up on the spelling and is starting to show interest in trying to read. She is starting to want to write things out and have you spell them to her instead of coping from a piece of paper. Her writing is getting much better as is her coloring, she is constantly coloring/drawing new pictures for the fridge, I feel bad I don't keep it all but there is only so much room. While reading books she is spelling out words as we read and is also into trying to rhyme things, we really need to read more Dr. Seuss, easy to read rhyming books, right up her alley!
I had our first parent/teacher conference with J's teacher to go over the first two months of school, she had nothing but great things to say and show me. J is above average for her age (I think we all knew that) and is really excelling. I was most impressed when her teacher showed me some of the journaling and book reports she has done so far, her teacher is keeping them and will be compiling them at the end of the year for the parents to keep, every few weeks she posts pages in the hallway, I can always immediately tell which is J's before even seeing her name, hers is usually the most elaborate and realistic of the drawings. Two of her favorite things from this month in class were working on their passports (she saw me going through our lock box and saw my passport and immediately wanted to see my stamps) and holding their class election on Election Day (she also got into who she wanted to win for president, we won't go there, no politics on my blog). The two VPK classes got together and had a family Thanksgiving feast before break, she was Princess Candy Corn, daddy worked from home this day and got to partake in the festivities which she was happy about. They also had their trike-a-thon at school, she did much better this year than last and zoomed around the track making funny faces at me as she passed me by, she had no accidents which was a miracle as most of the other kids did!
We headed to Miami the Sunday before Thanksgiving for an extended stay. We hadn't spent much time there since August and it was nice to be able to relax a bit and not have a rushed trip. The girls were pretty good in the car but the last 30 minutes is always the worst, I played DJ to keep them entertained, J's new favorite song is Move by Luke Bryan. We went to the park, out to lunch and the girls spent lots of time in G&G's backyard picking weeds and playing in the dirt! Of course if we were outside we had to BBQ and had lots of "steakie". J went with Grandma to get her nails done and got to get hers done too! She laughed as her toes got painted purple, her nails were a bright pink and she got little stickers put on her index fingers, she thought she was hot stuff when she came home and showed us! She came with me to help Aunt Boo cook the day before Thanksgiving but wasn't any help in the kitchen. As soon as she saw Aunt Boo got her a new sticker book we lost her! Later that night we went back for pizza and she was so excited to see her cousin and how big he had gotten since we saw him last, he can now keep up with them!
Thanksgiving Day was J's last day as a four year old, every year I ask her if she can skip growing up and I get the same answer "no". Five years ago I had spent this entire day in labor only to over cook my turkey, this year I spent the morning baking birthday cakes, watching the girls take an interest in the Macy's Parade (I must have told them Santa was coming soon over 10 times) and drying their hair so that they looked perfect for the day (and mommy's pictures). We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of chaos, great good and most importantly with lots of love and family. Before putting her to bed I got my last four year old snuggles and kisses, she has grown up way too fast!
No comments :
Post a Comment