Playground Fun

Jayden came with me one evening to school to finish up my progress reports. I told her that if she was a good girl, I'd let her play on the playground for about 15 minutes before we left. Here are a few pix of my sweet baby girl busy playing!

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Jake bought a butterfly house several years ago in Carolina as a souvenir, and we FINALLY got around to ordering the caterpillars that came with it. Jake told me all about the life cycle (Jayden too), as they both were learning about this at school/ daycare. In these pix, we were releasing them into the world. Jake was so sweet to place one on Jayden's fingertips for her. 4 of the 5 survived. Jake LOVES this kind of thing, so I am glad we finally did it. He was more than patient waiting for me to finally get around to ordering the caterpillars, that's for sure!!!

Play Day at School (AKA "Field Day")

Play Day was on Monday, June 15th, and once again I was in charge of running it. All was going smoothly until over the weekend a student was diagnosed with swine flu and another person with meningitis. Parents and staff found out on Monday morning and flipped out- pulling their students from school. The staff was frantically sanitizing the building and soaking playground equipment in bleach first thing in the morning, and I wasn't sure if Play Day was going to happen after all. It was utter chaos! Ugh... Well, after everything got cleaned, students were allowed back into the building at about 9:30 (the ones who stayed waited outside on their fire drill lines), and Play Day started about 20 minutes late, at 9:50am. I was busy overseeing everything, but managed to snap a few pix of Jakey with his class at some of the stations. This year there were 8 activities: rest, jump ropes/ hula, 4 corners, soccer, parachute, gunny sack races, bucket toss, and obstacle course. There were 11 stations for the older kids (3-5 grade) in the afternoon. The movie this year was Chicken Little (shown during the time you're NOT outside playing). Kids also got their yearbooks this day and enjoyed signing each other's books and looking at all the pictures.

Fishing at Rocky Point Beach

Jake and Jayden

Here are Jake and Jayden on one of the last days of school/ daycare for the year. Jake sometimes helps her get to the car in the mornings when she "needs" help. So sweet! She calls these glasses her "bug-eye" glasses. I can't believe Jake's almost a 3rd grader!

School Carnival

The kids had a blast at the school carnival. They spent most of their time on the inflatables and running around with friends. Jayden wasn't at all shy and ran from bouncy house to bouncy house full speed ahead. She's really growing up! Jake really wants me to be in the dunk tank next year. I told him to start saving because for me to agree to that, he'd have to pay me BIG BUCKS!

Night Owls!

So here's a cute story... at least I think so!!! As usual, when I pick Jayden up from daycare, she has a handful of art projects/ pictures to bring home. On this particular day, she proudly showed me the one posted here and announced, "These are 2 owls." I said, "Oh- I see. Very nice honey." And then she said, "These are you and me." "Oh," I say- thinking "well THAT was random...first they were owls, and then they were 2 people- interesting..." Then she said something that gave both Melissa and I a good laugh! "Cuz you and me are NIGHT OWLS mama!" I laughed so hard and will now keep this pix of me and my fellow little night owl forever! She definitely is her mama's girl- and definitely has been listening when I've called her my little night owl!

Jake's End of Baseball Season Celebration

Jake had his last game on Wed. It was a playoff game vs. the Rangers and his team lost (not surprising- they weren't the best!) He is SOOOOO happy to be done, so now he can "just relax"- ugh. The "party" was near the playground where his team played- very close to the pond of frogs and tadpoles, so I turned my back for a minute and he was (not surprisingly) in the pond- and filthy. Between the mud and the popsicle drippings and the cupcake smeared all over his face, he was a sight to be seen!

Jayden's April Art- a little late...

Games

We like Memory- actually Jayden calls it "Membory"- and she's quite good at it! Lately all 4 of us will sit and play a game or two at night before bed. This night Jayden, Jonathan, and I played "Guess Who" instead. Jonathan got a kick out of helping Jayden think of/ pick a question. He'd whisper the question she was to ask me, but then she'd answer his question- or ask me his question in a whisper. She didn't quite get it, so it was funny.

The Mini Golf Course on the Deck and Jayden's Sun Dress

Here's the creation. It is actually kind of fun! But the golf balls roll off the deck usually. Jake is so creative. He had a bucket full of balls at the beginning of the course.