November Happenings (Nov. 1 - 17)

So far, November has flown by at record speed. I feel like we just had Meghan's birthday party, and here she is a 13 month old!

To start November off right, we ate our post-Halloween lunch at what has become one of Brec's favorite places to eat lunch since his office moved last spring, Market Restaurant. 

Taking a swig...

Tuckered out (haha, it's cream soda!)

Meghan talking on her makeshift telephone.

The first half of November greeted us with relatively mild temperatures, especially over Veteran's day holiday weekend which was downright Indian Summer. We've been taking advantage and playing in the backyard whenever we get the chance, knowing each opportunity could be our last for awhile.

In an update about September that has not yet been posted (now it has!), I introduced our newest backyard toy. Flash forward almost two months and the kids continue to enjoy it, yet the blog is still blissfully unaware of its existence. So the fact that Meghan is riding unassisted is not quite as exciting as it might have been had the previous videos been viewed, but alas it is not to be. Without further ado, here's Meghan enjoying our new backyard roller coaster with Jack, Clara, and then for the first time, all by herself... (Earlier videos will follow later :) )

Double coasting

Unassisted coasting

Meghan and Sydney playing fetch

Meghan and Clara playing fetch

In the last month Meghan has not only learned to climb the playhouse ladder but can go down the slide all by herself. One of the kids favorite fall activities is to slide into a large leaf pile. Now they can all get in on the fun. Keep an eye on Meghan and what she has to endure - she's tough!

Yesterday we took a morning trip to the park.

Later on at the lunch table, not yet noon, it became clear that all that motorcycle riding wore Meghan out. I walked away from the table for no more than a minute and returned to see this:

Stone Soup 2012

This past Wednesday was the Stone Soup celebration at Jack's preschool. Brec, Meghan, and I joined him there to eat the tasty vegetable soup made from ingredients contributed by all the students.

Enjoying the delicious soup!

Eating his popcorn out of the clay "pinch pot" and resting on the placemat both of which he made. Unsurprisingly Jack did not want to wear his crown.

Eating his "fruit turkey" - an apple stuck with grapes on toothpicks fanning out like feathers.

Meghan scavenging the discarded apple.

Jack has been obsessed lately with looking at family pictures and videos. He loves it when Brec takes a video using the forward facing camera so he can see himself while it's recording.

Meghan at the big kids table enjoying some popcorn.

What a difference a year makes! Meghan was a mere one month old who slept and nursed her way through the festivities, Jack's hair was even longer than it is now, and Clara was still in preschool.

Art: "My Book about Me" - Age 3 1/2

The art the children bring home from their preschool, Arts Together, is incredible. I want to save every piece but keeping it in a folder in the closet hardly seems to do it justice, and I can't afford to frame every piece. :) So thanks to an inspirational conversation with Katie, it occurred to us that we should take pictures of it and post it to a blog. That was at least six months ago. Presently Jack has started bringing home his art, so I thought now was as good a time as ever to embark on these so-called "art posts". 

The first project all the preschoolers do in art class is construct a "Book about Me". Here are photos of the one Clara made when she was a Sun in the Fall of 2010 and the one Jack completed this past September in his first month at preschool.

Clara's front cover

One thing Ms. Renee', the art teacher, likes to do is use multiple artistic mediums in one piece of artwork. For the cover I believe the kids used stamps and oil pastels and then painted over them with water colors.

Front & back cover

Table of contents

Clara's self portrait

"My family": Apparently Clara forgot she had a brother that day?

"My friends": Aww, Clara and Rosalind are in the same kindergarten class this year.

The theme of this piece was "my favorite thing to do" to which Clara's answer was "I like to play with my friend Jack".

"My favorite color collage"

Clara's painting, again using both water colors and oil pastels

Clara still likes to pull out her book and go through it with me. Jack on the other hand was a little less talkative about his.

Jack's front cover

Front and back cover

Traced title page

Table of contents

Jack's self portrait, short and sweet.

"Our family"

Jack and his classmate, Sydney

Jack's green collage

Jack's painting. You can see his signature moons made it in there.

Happy Halloween 2012!

Halloween was kind of a crazy day for us. Clara didn't have school but Jack did, and she actually got to go to school with him. I think she had fun being the big girl on campus and help Ms. Lauren out with the Suns class. It was Jack's special helper day, and what better show and tell than bringing your big sister.  I couldn't have been more thankful on this day for Clara to be allowed to return to preschool with Jack. It helped temper the excitement for the night to come by having a fun activity in the morning. I can only imagine how crazy Christmas Eve is going to be based on the hours of 3 to 6 pm Halloween afternoon.

Meghan in the morning when all was quiet. She keeps trying to get her Nuks out of the crib, then comes in to taunt me when she's victorious.

Pumpkin! She was being such a punky pumpkin. She would not look at the camera, and then when she finally did, there were no smiles to be had.

 

By 3 pm Meghan was up from her nap and things were starting to get hairy. It was time to get the festivities of the evening started by carving our pumpkin. Clara helped me scoop out the innards and plan the face. 

Finished product!

Meanwhile I couldn't resist yet another comparison, this time a "last year vs this year". Last year Memo gave us a size 0-3 mo Halloween outfit for Meghan. Clara loved it and once Halloween passed, claimed it for Kit & Kaya. Since it was not packed away in the attic, I thought it would be fun to try it on Meghan this year. I was shocked that it actually fit, tight but still wearable.

I guess it was a tad big last year.

"Wicked cute" in action with her ball popper.

With pumpkin carving out of the way, it was finally costume time. Everyone joined in the festive cheer. Jack was carrying his pink pumpkin for candy along for the ride.

Meghan and Jack kept fighting over the ride on toy. So to mix things up, I decided to venture into the bowels of the attic and pull down another one that had not seen the light of day since before Jack was born. Clearly it was a hit.

Finally Daddy arrived home from work, and we were ready for trick-or-treating!

A witch, Jack 'o lantern, and giraffe.

Much like her pumpkin outfit earlier, I couldn't seem to snap a decent picture of Meghan in her giraffe costume. Though she was trying very hard to get her costume off in this picture taken after we arrived home, she really was perfect while we trick-or-treated. She rode in the stroller, and I worried that the constant stopping, starting, and waiting would bother her, but she just snuggled in for the ride.

Giraffe on the loose with a sippy cup full of milk.

Despite the lack of pictures, I did get a video of her in it.

 

The kids wasted no time getting into their candy.

Look at all that loot. I posed the question to Brec that Jack and Clara had gone to the same houses, so how come Clara had so much more candy? His responded that Clara had taken the "one piece please" sign on grab-bag houses as a more of a guideline rather than a rule. Honestly she comes by it naturally.

Back home, jack 'o lantern lit, happy Halloween!