Happy Halloween!

Both kids woke up this morning with the same comment "I wish today was still Halloween". As you already know, Halloween is one of our favorite holidays! They've been waiting a month to trick-or-treat to the "spooky houses". Somehow Dylan ended up with the most candy. His bucket must've weighed 10 pounds! Once again, Eva says we need bats, spiders and webs for our house next year. She also wants a fog machine.

Here's Jewel from the movie Rio:
(She's already planned her next costume. Since she was two yrs old, Eva has planned her costumes and birthday themes 6 months-year in advance ....and she has never changed her mind!)




Arrrgh...Capt. Jack Sparrow:






All dressed up:




The kids posing with "The King" (my mom)



Pumpkin Parties:



Now, bring on the stuffing and pumpkin pie!

What's new with Eva

Eva started her ballet/tap class this week and was thrilled to have some of her friends from pre-ballet in her class this year. She couldn't wait to use her new tap shoes! Her dance room has no windows to peek, so I have to rely on her showing me what she learned. From what I could hear they were all having a great time.

After almost four weeks of kindergarten, Eva's favorite subjects are recess, lunch, and specials (computer, art, music, PE, spanish). The highlights of her first month have been the fire drill, a bear scavenger hunt, someone bringing their dog to school and buying her lunch this week. As much as she enjoys seeing her friends and going to specials, she looks forward to the weekend to sleep in (until 7:30...yay) and not having homework. As it should be. Isn't kindergarten too early for homework every night? Even if it's writing Aa 10 times? I could go on about my elementary education philosophy, but I won't bore you today.

Here's Miss Eva before heading off to dance class.

After three weeks of Kindergarten....

I have reached the following conclusions:

• My night owl habits must come to an end...no more blogging and photoshopping at 1am.
  
• I am a borderline "helicopter" mom. (for those who may not know...the education/parenting term used to describe parents who "hover" over their children...NOT a good thing. )
• Parents really do trust teachers!! I guess we don't have a choice, but now I understand why the 6th grade parents looked more anxious than the kids.
  
• While Dylan loves having my attention, he misses his big sis and best friend. It's no coincidence that his imaginary pet spider, aptly named "Pider", surfaced on Eva's second day of Kindergarten. Thankfully, Pider wears his seat belt and is very well behaved in public.
  
• It's amazing how many stores are open at 8am. (Having the grocery shopping done by 9am is wonderful!)
• no matter how early I wake up, I will never get everything done.

and lastly

• Kindergarten should be Mon-Thurs 7:50-12:50. I mean do they really need two recesses, lunch, snack, rest time, etc, etc?? (like I said...helicopter mom)

11pm, time to turn in

Back to School

Dylan was sooo ready to head back to Son Shine School. He walked in with the biggest grin, waved to his friends, sat down and started coloring. Such a stark contrast to his first day last year(and many others), when his teacher and I had to literally pry him from my body. We're so proud of him, but I must admit that a small, teeny part of me wishes he had pretended that he will miss me...sniff, sniff. The staff is so AMAZING and nurturing, and super patient. So as I drove away, I knew he was in excellent hands! Here's our little man getting ready for school.

Eva's First Day of Kindergarten

No surprise she had an awesome first day of kindergarten. She was so excited to be at a big school. When I asked her what she thought of kindergarten, her reply was "it's even better than Sonshine School. We get to be at a really big school and have Spanish class and music. I bet tomorrow will be even more fun!" She and her new friend Sierra have already exchanged stories about their vacations and bad dreams. (Eva recently had a nightmare about a Curious George episode where he thought a cow mooing was a ghost. Who woulda thought Curious George would cause a nightmare!?!?) As we were driving to school today, she asked if i could just drop her off and not walk her into the school. I told her that we'll gradually progress to the 'drop off'. So, tomorrow I will escort her to the end of the hall...just in case she needs me. (right) Here's our baby girl getting ready for her first day of Kinder!

Posing in the outfit she picked out from head to toe.




Showing off her giant backpack.

Moving

We're not completely moved yet, but who needs 'stuff' when you have stairs, a few of your favorite games and a pool. At least that's how the kids see it. Never-mind we're sleeping on air mattresses at the "old" house because the downstairs AC in the new house isn't cooling properly...they think all of this is F-U-N. But, it's their excitement that motivates me to keep packing those boxes! We're really so blessed and thankful to have everything work out the way it did. Our house selling so quickly and finding our ideal new home. And all in time to register Eva for kindergarten at the same school that her cousins attend/attended, which happens to also be where I did my student teaching 10 years ago! We kept telling ourselves if our buyers backed out, the new house just wasn't meant to be. Well, I guess it was part of God's plan for us. We're looking forward to watching the kids 'grow up' in the new house and creating lots of fun family memories! I'll be posting pics soon. I can't believe I haven't picked up the camera in weeks! I think I might be having withdrawals. :P