Giving Thanks, part 1

Caroline's class had their Thanksgiving Feast on Friday. The two year olds in the early childhood program at Harding wore Pilgrim hats and the three year olds were indians. Caroline wore her hat most of the meal which was so cute. The Early Childhood program has a long tradition of serving formal Thanksgiving dinner to the parents. It is very nicely prepared and very enjoyable.

Crazy Caroline

Caroline had quite a day at school on Tuesday. She went through 3 shirts due to yummy snacks of yogurt and applesauce so she came home in a classic white t-shirt. Then, she decided she did not like her hair up any longer so basically she looked like a ragamuffin when I picked her up from school!! The picture below shows Caroline proud of putting her three "dolls" in time-out. Why, you ask are they in time out? Caroline ALWAYS replies, "Because they hit their friends!" She is hilarious. We never make it through a day without a good laugh from her.

Midnight Madness (eastern time)

My friend Laurie invited me to join her and two others at the Tigers game on Monday night vs. UMass. The catch was that it tipped off at 11pm!! The Tigers were the first game in a 24 hour college basketball marathon on ESPN which started at midnight eastern time. There was a great crowd of about 16,000 (even though they announced over 18,000) and much fun was had by all. Some people showed up in their pajamas and most people stayed until the end, which was 1:30 a.m. Surprisingly I made it to work around 7:45 on Tuesday morning but by mid afternoon the 4 hours of sleep had hit me like a brick. Great time and I hope to attend more games this season, only next time during prime time!!

Anna, the reader

Anna is doing a fabulous job this fall of learning to read. While she had picked up on some of it this summer, she has exploded with reading since beginning kindergarten. Each week her teacher sends home sight words which we keep in a Ziploc bag and review every night. She is now up to about 50-60 sight words. Her class started the Accelerated Reader (AR) program a few weeks ago where the kids check out a book and read with their parents and then take a short test on the computer at school about the book. The kids earn points for each test they successfully complete. Right now Anna's class does one book per week. Each Friday she brings home a new book and this week it was "Are you my mother" by P.D. Eastman. She can read the entire book on her own which not only makes her very proud of herself but Gary and I are super proud parents. Caroline helped tonight by holding the book and turning the pages!! By Monday of each week Anna is ready to take her test and wants to bring home a new book....maybe after Christmas she can do more than one book a week! Such exciting times for us as parents of our new little reader. No more "spelling" words out to avoid Anna knowing what we are saying.

Secret Reader

Every Friday Anna's class has a "secret reader" that comes in the morning and shares several books with the class. This week was my week and I was excited to be the surprise of the day. Anna was shocked when I walked in and was very glad it was me! I read three books to the class and received applause...one book "Caps for Sale" they knew as a favorite and had such fun imitating the monkeys in the book. Anna's class is learning to read very well and were a lot of fun to be around.

Trick or Treat

The girls had a blast trick or treating on Friday night.....they lasted for 2 1/2 hours!! We were pushing them around in the double jog stroller and around 8:30 Anna just could not get out any more. By then Caroline had the hang of it and wanted to continuously ring people's doorbells. We filled and emptied the girls trick or treat buckets 3 times, so that was PLENTY!! I told Anna on Saturday that the candy was only going to be around for a week and then we were going to throw it out. That of course brought tears and pleading from Anna.....Enjoy seeing the Auburn Cheerleader and the South Dakota Buffalo (costume sent by Gary's mom when Anna was 2)....

Fell prey to Facebook

After hearing just about everyone I know talk about how fun it is to be on facebook, I joined tonight. I already have seen so many people I knew from high school and college. I'm excited to catch up with these folks but have been warned that facebook can be addictive....must show restraint!! I promise to update the blog this weekend with some trick or treat pictures!! Have a great rest of the week.

Fall Festival and School Parties

We have definitely gotten our use out of our costumes this year! The best part of it all is that we spent no money on them. We already had Anna's Auburn cheerleader costume from going to the football games and Caroline wore the famous buffalo costume that Anna wore when she was two. We started the festivites on Friday the 24th by attending the fall festival at church. Lots of games and candy were enjoyed by the family. We progressed into Caroline's class party which was on Thursday. They wore their best "wacky tacky" outfit. On Friday the kindergarten classes enjoyed their annual Pumpkin Patch festival at school. Anna especially was glad to have a free day from uniforms!! I've attached a few pictures below.

Caroline posing in the early childhood pumpkin patch. They got to pick one to take home and carve. They threw out "magic pumpkin seeds" the day before and the ground was covered with pumpkins the next morning!

The girls before church getting plenty of use of their fall smocked dresses!

Anna at her pumpkin patch festival at school.

Caroline enjoying craft time during her class party.