If I were President I would...

...build the White House in the middle of Wolf Road. 

Preschool Thanksgiving Party

Novak really enjoyed his preschool Thanksgiving party.

Last year of preschool!

Novak had his first day of preschool on Friday, September 11. This was just a one hour "open house" for the kids to meet their teachers and classmates. He is in the 5 year old pre-K class, and there are only 7 of them this year. Many of his preschool friends from last year are in the 4 year old class, which meets at the same time but in a different classroom. They share playtime, and so he was really excited to see his best friend, Lyla. He had been talking about her almost all summer. Turns out she had been talking to her mom about Novak all summer as well. 

Once those two found each other, they were inseparable for the rest of the open house. I wanted to try and take a photo, but couldn't keep up with them. Neither wanted to leave after an hour, and it was really hard to get them to go. It may have required a mention of the candy that was next to the door on the way out...

After the open house, as we were driving away, I hear from the back seat:

"Mom, I really love my school."

Dinosaur habitat

Novak made a "dinosaur habitat" at preschool this week. He was very excited to show it off. 

He carefully explained that he had water (with rocks), trees (stuck in clay), and land. Because his dinosaur is a triceratops and needed plants to eat. 

Preschool spring program

Novak had his first preschool program on Thursday. His preschool only does one program a year, so this was his first time "on stage."

At one point in the program his teacher came around with the microphone to let each child tell what his or her favorite part of preschool is. 

After five kids all stated some version of "playing with <insert best friend's name here>" it was Novak's turn.  

He promptly grabbed the microphone out of her hand and turned to the audience. 

"Well.  My favorite part of preschool is playing outside. On the slides."

We certainly don't have a shy boy. :)

First day of preschool!

Someone had his first day of preschool today. Today was an open house where the kids came with parents to drop off school supplies and get more familiar with the classroom. 

Novak and I arrived at 9 am, and left at 10:30 when the teachers were cleaning up. He might have been the last child to leave. 

Here he is in the classroom. He was excited to "find the N" and take a picture for Dad. 

He is going to love preschool!

kindergarten visit

Nile got to experience a little bit of kindergarten today. After picking him up from preschool a little early, we headed to Southwest to have lunch with Nate in the cafeteria.

After parking in the school parking lot, it was all I could do to hold Nile back.  Well, who am I kidding?  I didn't hold him back much at all.  He hopped/bounced/skipped/ran through the parking lot into the school.  If the front door hadn't been locked (it is always locked, you have to buzz in), he would have been in the cafeteria before I got onto the sidewalk.  Luckily I caught up with him at the front door.

As we entered the school, Nate's class was walking past on their way to lunch. I couldn't have timed it better if I had tried!

Nile quickly fell in line with Nate, and they went to wash hands.  Mrs. Strafford did a great job helping explain to Nile the process of getting a hot lunch.  (Nate was super excited to have us join him, in his excitement he forgot that he had to teach Nile what to do.)


We got our hot lunches (soft pretzel with cheese, cucumbers, rosy applesauce, yogurt, fruit crisp, and milk), and sat down.  I could tell that Nile was having a blast.  He was positively glowing all through lunch.  Then after lunch Nate headed out to the playground, so we followed behind.  Tom showed Nile the playground and we spent just a few minutes out there before I could tell we needed to get Novak home.

As we walked to the car, Nile asked me, "Mom?  When is summer?"  "In a few weeks, buddy, school is out in two weeks." "Then I'll be a kindergartner!"

All the way home Nile talked about kindergarten.

"Mom, next year Nate will be in second grade, Emma will be in first grade, and I will be in kindergarten."

"Mom, do 10 year olds go to Southwest?  I think 10 year olds are too old for Southwest."

"When Nate is in 5th grade I will be in 3rd grade."
"Novak will be in kindergarten then?  No way!"

This child is ready for kindergarten.

(sorry for the lack of pictures with this post, I had Novak in one hand and my car keys in another, so there was no room for a camera)

e-l-i-N

Nile has started to write his name backwards. The letters come out in the right order but he puts them on paper from right to left.

Power of the shirt

Nile was lying on the couch, refusing to get dressed for school. Until I reminded him we had saved his "brown number shirt" to wear today. Then he ran to his room to change.

Preschool orientation

Tom was at Nile's preschool orientation today, because I had to work. Orientation is just an hour where the kids play, meet the teachers, and get introduced to the classroom, while the parents fill out paperwork and get all the "logistics" info. At the end of orientation the kids always show off a song they have learned. I've seen this now twice with Nate, but it's still so much fun. Look how cute my buddy is in this video! (he's the one to the left, in the white John Deere shirt, right behind the teacher)

Last day of preschool

Next fall my little baby boy (sob) will go to Kindergarten. So I had to capture his last day of preschool, and I had to try and make it special.

Here he is with his last show-and-tell (his stuffed horse from Germany).

We went out for donuts before preschool as a special treat. I found out later from my mom that Dad used to take Becky and I out to the donut shop in Grimes for special occasions. I had forgotten that, but it must have been stuck in my memory somewhere since it seemed like such a great idea. We hadn't been there for a year, since last summer.

Of course, since we went out for breakfast we were forced to waste time before school started. For some reason the boys REALLY wanted to go to church and wait there for school to start.

Here's Nile checking to see if the sign was green - they have a sign they hang in the window that is red until 5 minutes before class when they flip it over to announce that you can come in.

And two goofballs marching around.

2009 Preschool Christmas Program

The annual preschool Christmas program at First Lutheran was a lot of fun, as usual. Due to a nasty bout of stomach flu, neither Tom or Nile was able to go. But luckily, Nate had already had the bug (see here) and I had yet to get it.

The program was full of the usual elements: singing, dancing, and crying. I think I've managed to have them all on this video - it's rather long but I think it was the one that best captured Nate's fine dancing skills. The crying is someone's younger brother who apparently didn't enjoy the preschooler's rendition of "Jingle Bells" as much as we parents did. (and no, it wasn't Nile - he was at home, sick, remember?)



After the program the kids all got a special gift from their teachers. Nate was beside himself with excitement over the small stuffed penguin. He promptly named it "Pen" and said it could be the "aunt" to Pete, his larger penguin at home. Later he decided that it really was Pete's son.



And then, after patiently waiting (in the photo above you see that he is sitting by Santa's chair. He didn't move from that spot until Santa asked him to come up), it was his turn to talk to the man.

He told "Santa" that he wants a Transformer for Christmas. Apparently Santa didn't know what a Transformer is (come on Santa, this is 2009!) so Nate had to explain that a Transformer is a robot.

I am still amazed that the kid who has to have me explain the details of everything (note) accepts Santa. Flying reindeer, presents for every child in the whole world, magic elves: this is all accepted without question. Oh, well.

Introducing...Brown Bear

Let me introduce Brown Bear. Brown Bear is Nathan's preschool "Indian" name.
(I cringe even to type it, I'd rather say "Native American," but I feel I should stick with what Nate and his teachers were calling it).

Oh, and by the way - that's not red paint on his nose. He hit his nose with the lid of his laptop last week...

Today we attended Nate's preschool Thanksgiving Feast and program. Again this year I continue to be amazed at the improvement Nate is making. At last year's program he stood with the group and, well, just stood there. This year, he participated! Yippee!

Here are a few photos I thought I'd share.

The class singing one of the songs. (Nate is on the right side of the photo)


The boys go to do a little drumming while the girls dance.


The boys then got to dance while the girls played the drums.


After the program the families got to eat a special Thanksgiving meal that the class helped prepare. Vegetable soup, cornbread, applesauce, chocolate chip bars, and apple juice. Nate proudly informed me that he "dumped the corn into the soup!"

It was a good morning.

Goofball

John Deere 5K 2009

This year the whole family went to the John Deere 5K on October 4.

Tom and I ran the 5K, I even had a PR of 27:33! Nile ran the 50 yard dash, and Nate ran the 1/4 mile kids' run. (There was also a 1 mile run for the older kids.) Although we did get photos of Nile's race, they are on my mom's camera, so I don't know when we'll get them posted (if they are even any good). Tom, however, had his phone ready and was able to get some photos of Nate.

After we were done with the 5K race there was a break before the kids' races started. Nate took the opportunity to carb-load.


The starting line for the 1/4 mile run. Nate is front and center, hands in pockets.


Nate proudly showing off his finishers' medal. Immediately after this photo, he took it off and hasn't worn it since. He did, however, take it to show-and-tell today at preschool.


Tom was even able to catch Nate on video finishing the race.

School days...

So...last year I didn't even think to bring the camera to Nate's first day of preschool. As the only mom who didn't bring a camera, I was not going to make the same mistake again. Here it is, the standard "first-day-of-school" picture: Nate outside church, right before school.



After spending an hour with their teacher while we parents signed a bunch of legal forms...they performed a song for us. ("If You're Happy and you Know It"). Nate is wearing a dark blue shirt on the right side of the class. For those of you who aren't familiar with the stories from last year, this short video marks a HUGE improvement over last year. Last year Nate refused to sing, do any actions, or pretty much anything during their few "performances." So seeing him participate made me so happy!




After the performance each child got a t-shirt. This, to Nate, was the best part of the day: "I won a prize!"


So far we're off to a great school year. Let's hope it continues!