Pre-Halloween festivities...





The Tuesday/Thursday Kindergarten class had their Halloween parade today.   The parents were invited to come into the foyer to watch the parade.  The rest of the school will have their festivities on Halloween of course.  Paige's class along with the 3 other kindergarten classes paraded through the school to show off their costumes to the parents and some of the other younger kids who were watching in the hall.  In the video above the first "witch" at the beginning is Paige's friend Katie, followed by Paige's teacher, and then Paige in the beaver costume.  Later on in the video in the white dress is Paige's friend Rebekah.  The boy in the Thomas costume is Yusef from our street who we walk home with sometimes. I'm hoping Paige can tell me who the other kids are. 

While Paige was at school I took Rose to her Thursday morning class, where the kids were also allowed to wear costumes, although only a few did. 

Check out the similarities here....Paige wore the same costume to the same class 3 years ago.  Rose kept her costumes on the entire time, including the hat.  She loves hats, so she wasn't phased by it at all.

Dance Class

So far Paige really likes her dance class.  Although she said it "isn't very long" (only 1/2 hour), she seems to really enjoy going.  Putting her in her bodysuit, tights, and smoothing her hair into a bun and getting out the door actually takes longer than half an hour, but it is a nice Saturday morning activity.  We haven't had that many lessons yet where we've all been home, but the general plan for the future is for me to take Paige to the lesson giving Daddy and Rose some time to hang out at home together and get ready slowly.  At first there was a window for parents to view the kids in the class which was nice, but now the blinds are closed over the window, leaving the moms to text message and browse the internet on their phones.  I wish I could watch her class, but the lady who owns the studio mentioned that it was too distracting for this particular class.  I understand, as they are supposed to be learning and not looking at the mob of parents peering in the window. Some kids were crying, etc. As this is a private blog and I feel I can vent, I am quite irritated by the liberties that some parents are taking with the dance costume!! I went to the dance store they recommended and bought the specific shoes, etc that were required for the class. There was a long note about how it is important to have the proper attire, matching, etc.  Some people clearly are not following the rules which irritates me.  We also have random dress up clothes and sparkly slippers, but that was not what was on the list!! I am definitely all for following the rules and I hope to teach Paige to follow the rules by example.  Anyway, this is her all dressed up and ready to go to her lesson. 

Her friend Rebekah from school is in the class after her.  I'm glad they aren't in the same class as I feel Paige is a better listener and all around better student when she is by herself! And she will make seperate dance friends over the year, I assume.  As part of the "tuition" we had to pay for the costume which she will wear at the recital in June.  The recital is at Hamilton Place....a big deal.  Huge stage, big theater etc.  I am definitely looking forward to that.

Dino friend...

This morning Mike, Rose and I went to check out the new Toys R Us by our house while Paige was in school.  We just wanted to look around and ended up finding these large squishy dinosaurs.  We thought Paige would love one for Christmas so decided to just buy it.  I made the mistake of letting Rose hold it in the car.  She kept saying "thank you" over and over.  She clearly thought it was hers.  So when we got home I tried to hide it, but she was asking about it after lunch.  We couldn't take it away from Rose at this point, nor could we tell Paige that we went to a toy store while she was at school and bought Rose a present!! Mike decided to go out and buy a second one for Paige.  We told them they each had one and they could share.  Lesson learned!! Can't shop with Rose any more!

Good thing we bought another one because Rose loves this thing.  She wanted to hold it while Mike read her books, and then she refused to put it down and hugged it under her arm in her crib when he put her in there to sleep.  

I checked on her after she'd fallen asleep and the dinosaur's head was on her cheek.  I took it off which caused her to wake up a bit and cry.  Hard to sleep with a big rubber dinosaur in your bed though!

Owl suit...

I ordered Rose a one piece fleece suit from MEC for those cold walks to Paige's school.  It's nice because it's roomy enough to allow for layers underneath, cozy enough to wear with jammies in the morning walk to school, and lightweight enough to wear in the car.  I wish I had one myself...

Here she is modelling it after wearing it to pick up Paige yesterday.
She seems to like it and likes the owl picture on the front. I don't know if it will hold up on its own in the middle of winter, but I think she could wear a jacket on top to be ultra warm, and could cozy up under some blankets. The fabric in the feet and hands sections flip over to cover her feet and hands so she doesn't neccessarily need mitts or boots. 
Love it!!

Picking up some pumpkins...

Annual Springridge Farm pumpkin retrieval and Harvest festival (October 10)...

 

After our pumpkin extravaganza, we went home and got ready to go to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's...

 Mike's heaping plate...

Beautiful fall weekend up north...

Everyone agreed it was the best weather we'd ever had for a Thanksgiving weekend up North....

In addition to spending time outside and eating meals on the patio, the women (Maura, Mary Jo and myself, went shopping and had a nice lunch in town).  When we got back the men went hunting.  How stereotypical.

Christmas...

I am obsessing over Christmas already.  Making shopping lists, googling Christmas villages (would like to start a small christmas village on the sofa table at home), actually bought Christmas candles, and mentally planned the Christmas cards.  I really don't know what is up with me this year.  I would normally have bought Halloween candy at this point, but instead have been thinking about Christmas decor and baking.  What the heck? Both girls are set for Halloween costumes this year, and our front yard was too new and nice to mess up with dollar store decorations this year that I really didn't need to do anything.  Maybe that's why I have moved onto Christmas.  I don't know.  I can't wait for November 1 when I feel like I can get a move on.  So odd....

Growing up...

I notice a bit of a change in Paige since she started school.  Although she looks a bit older recently (see above photo of Paige in stylish outfit on big kid swing casually brushing hair out of eyes and watching the big kids).  She's now anxious to get in the kindergarten area to see her friends, barely saying goodbye to me.  She walks with confidence into the group of friends and begins to have excited and hushed conversations with them as I watch on trying to listen in.  "Don't hear me!!" she says as she is embarrassed to let me in on their little secrets.  There is no longer the excited "Mommy!" when she sees me at the end of the day.  She's happy to see me, but not super tired or anxious to get home. She comes home reciting poems and songs that I don't know and talks about new friends.  Leaving the school she'll boldly call out to a friend.... "Bo! hey Bo!", she said one day, "I have a bike too and mine has pedals!".  As much as I see her growing up and acting a little different she's also far from the day she won't want to be seen with me or yell out to a boy while I'm around.  I'm soaking up every minute while she's still such a kid.

She talks a lot about how she doesn't want to grow up.  I asked her if mommies do anything that is fun.  "No", she said.  She is adamant that she will never have a job and will always live at home.  I asked her how she plans on not growing up.  "Stopping eating" she said.  Yikes! Actually, correction, she wants to stop growing at 5.  She is really excited about being 5, but nothing beyond that.

Physically I have noticed she has grown recently as well.  At home we measured her at more than 37 inches (finally!), and her shirts are all getting short.  Also, I tried to put her in a baby swing the other day, as some huge kids teenagers were on the regular swings (annoying) and I almost couldn't do it.  She has definitely gotten heavier and taller.

Pretend...

I read a few other mommy blogs and have noticed that lots of moms really have trouble with the "make believe" aspect of playing with their kids.  I am definitely one of them! Although I do remember hours and hours of pretend play as a kid with my friends I find it so difficult now! Paige is really into playing unicorns and puppies.  Either scenario involves her popping out from behind the couch or out of a box and me having to say "oh, i didn't know there was a puppy over there". I can play along for a few minutes before I lose complete focus and start to think about the laundry, bathrooms, bills, etc.  I really liked the board game phase.  I was good at board games.  And I really like the sparkly mosaic fairy craft we have been working on, or reading the library books, or working on activity books.  But the pretend play is too much for me. I guess crafts and board games are also adult activity, just at different levels.  I don't pretend to be a dog on a regular basis. From what I gather, Paige has been playing "puppies" at the house center in her classroom with Rebekah and Katie pretty much non-stop since school started.  This makes me very happy as I know she's getting it out of her system!  Poor Paige, I feel bad.  You would think she would notice that I wasn't into it and want to do the sparkly mosaic craft that I'm dying to finish as I would be 100% committed and super fun!! Sometimes I tell her that mommies are better at other things and she should play puppies and unicorns with a friend.  She says, "but i want to play with you".  This makes me feel like my exasperated and sarcastic acting doesn't register with a 4 year old, and she thinks I'm really super into it.  Ah well, one day Rose will be old enough to join in.

A few photos after dropping Paige off at school...