Kate's Halloween Kindergarten Party

This Halloween is a very wet and soggy day.  Despite the rain, Kate's kindergarten class did a little Zoo Phonics parade around the school before starting their party inside.  Zoo Phonics is a very clever way for the kids to learn how to read with associating each letter with an animal friend and the sound it makes...Ali Alligator says "Ah" and Vincent Vampire Bat says "Vuh", etc. The kids got to decide whether to make a Missy Mouse, Robbie Rabbit or Vincent Vampire Bat hats for their parade.  Kate chose the bat since it was the most "Halloweeny."

Starting their parade (Kate is in the pink).

Kate the bat

Party time!

Frosting Halloween cookies

Kate's class

Enjoying the cookies

Maggie and I hung out in the classroom while waiting for Kate's party to wrap up.

Let's hope trick-or-treating is not as wet!

Maggie's Preschool Halloween Party

Today was Maggie's special Halloween party day at preschool.  All the kids came dressed in their costumes and trick-or-treated around church.  Then each kid got to show off their costumes to their classmates, pick out pumpkins in the little school pumpkin patch and decorate pumpkin cookies.  

Today was Will's day off from work so he as very excited to join Maggie at school for this special day.

Maggie...our little bumble bee.

Meg and Zeke are our good friends from our neighborhood.  Meg (also "Margaret Grace") is in Maggie's class this year.

Trick-or-treating time!

 Class picture

Showing off her costume to her classmates...super cute!

Kate's Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Kate's kindergarten class took their very first field trip today...yellow bus and all!  There trip took them to the pumpkin patch at Impossible Acres where they went on a tractor ride, went through hay bale mazes, petted baby animals and picked out pumpkins.

Here is Kate's class with her teachers Mrs. Chicoine and Mrs. Nicholson.  (Kate is bottom, middle, wearing her pumpkin shirt.)

Hay bale maze

Brushing the pony with her friend Mileh

  Petting a bunny

 Snuggling a kitten

Tractor ride!

Kate took her pumpkin picking very seriously.  She was the last one to find the perfect pumpkin.

Perfect pumpkin found (despite me asking her to stare in the sun for a picture).

Pink Spectaculars

Kate is wrapping up her soccer season with AYSO.  She played last year as a 4-year-old in their gymboree program (no games or jerseys, just practice and scrimmages).  This year has been a totally different experience with real games (though no score is kept), real jerseys and real practices.  Kate has loved her time on the team, the Pink Spectaculars.  She is amazing at running super fast down the field and keeping up with the ball.  She is aggressive, non-fearful and high-endurance. She tries her absolute hardest every game with true intensity and at times has scored some pretty awesome goals.  Though our hope for Kate is that she will become a swimmer/water polo player like us, we still love seeing her athleticism on the field and will encourage her to play soccer every autumn until she grows tired of it.

I love her intense game face!

Best friend, Nicholas is playing this year, which helped encourage Kate to sign up too (though they are on separate teams).

This Saturday is Kate's last game of the season.  I am actually sad to see it come to an end and have no more games to watch on Saturday mornings.  It has been so much fun watching the Pink Spectaculars play these past 2 months!

Pumpkin Patch Time!

On Friday we took the girls to our local pumpkin patch, Impossible Acres.  They are not necessarily known for having the best pumpkins but they have the cutest baby animals the kids can hold and pet.

We started our afternoon off looking for the biggest and best pumpkins yet!

 We found 4 huge pumpkins...perfect for carving!

After our pumpkin search we headed to the animal barn.

Kate and Maggie loved holding the baby chicks.  Maggie especially wanted me to let her pet the blonde ones. :-)

The little kittens were the girls favorite...so soft and cuddly.

The girls did a great job brushing Burrito the Donkey.

Baby goats.

Peter the cow was only 10 days old!  He was super skinny.

Little piglets

More kittens

Chasing chickens.  Kate was so proud of herself that she petted 10 chickens.  In Kauai she tried so hard to chase and pet chickens but they were too fast for her.  These chickens were plump and slow.