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.

University Covenant Nursery School Rummage Sale

This week wraps up a very busy week for me.  This past Saturday was the preschool's annual rummage sale. This is a HUGE fundraiser for the school and being a board member means I help out with the whole event.  All week long, donations were dropped off at the church's multipurpose room. We sorted and priced every item that was donated. By the end of the week, the MPR was packed with so much stuff to sell. On Friday I spent over 6 hours getting all the items ready for Saturday morning. Saturday started at 6:00 am with taking all of the donated items from the MPR to the church parking lot. People were lining up outside to be the first to get all the good deals. We even scored some awesome items to take home too! The school far surpassed their fundraising goal! It was a very crazy but rewarding week!

One of my main jobs was to sort, organize and price the toys.  We had A LOT of toys!

The whole church parking lot was transformed into an enormous rummage sale!

Our biggest score from the sale was this awesome Power Wheels Jeep for $25! The girls were super excited!

Each girl got to pick out a $1 item of their own. Maggie chose a really cute wooden toy kitchen mixer. Kate picked out this Easy Bake Oven.  It actually works!  Gramma helped create some cake mixes for the girls and they have successfully baked!

Before the official sale started I purchased this Barbie RV for the girls too.

I also scored $2 tap shoes and Gymboree sandals for the girls, a princess toy cash register and a fun Noah's Ark decor piece.  I actually wasn't planning on buying anything but I couldn't resist the good deals and supporting the school!

Firefighter Fun!

Tonight we headed out to dinner, expecting nothing out of the ordinary, but it turned into a memorable and very cool evening!  Right after dinner we let the kids throw coins in the fountain right next to the restaurant.  While we were at the fountain a firetruck pulled up right next to us and parked for dinner.  One of the firefighters stayed behind and invited Kate, Maggie and 2 other kids to come and tour the engine.  The kids explored the inside of the whole engine, including sitting in the Captain's chair and driver's seat.  At the end, the firefighter gave all the kids fire helmet souvenirs.  It was all very exciting!

No Training Wheels!

First Day of School

We have had a very busy couple of weeks!  Kate started kindergarten on August 27 and Maggie started preschool today!  Kate's first few days of kindergarten went well.  She is now attending our local neighborhood public school.  She has been enjoying her class and teachers, but she has already pointed out it is not as much fun as preschool.  She and I were both very nervous/anxious the first day but she has settled into a good groove and has already made a friend.  I feel positive that this will be a good year for her. 

Maggie is now officially a preschooler and has started her first year at University Covenant Nursery School.  She is in the same 3-year-old class that Kate was in...the Bouncy Bears with Ms. Kim and Ms. Beth.  She will be in school 3 days a week, for 3 hours each day.  She is excited and the first day drop-off went smoothly.  I am praying that she will continue to enjoy school and have no problems with me leaving her each day.

Maggie was very excited to make a fruit loop necklace with Ms. Beth.

By the way, both girls got to pick out their new back-to-school outfits.  They even got to pick out new headbands and nail polish.  I am thinking we have started a new yearly tradition!