Tales from Preschool: Easter Eggs and 100!!!!!

First, I have been anticipating this post for weeks. It is my 100th post! Yikes! Can you believe it? I am so proud. I was planning to do a top 100 list of some sort, but 100 is a lot. I had trouble coming up with 100 anythings that I would be interested in typing, not to mention 100 things that y'all would be interested in actually reading. I could not come up with anything else terribly clever to celebrate, either. So we'll just leave it at a "yay me" for posting 1oo times and more importantly, a "yay you" for reading my rambling thoughts, crazy stories, and my obsessive feelings for my precious babies and awesome family. And now, on with the 100th post. . .

This week, our preschool is celebrating Easter. Besides all the stories and discussions of the true meaning of Easter, they are having Easter Egg Hunts. They are spreading out the egg hunts over the whole week. This is because of limited egg-hiding space on the church grounds, but I LOVE it because I get a day to focus on each of my children. Tuesday was Spencer's class egg hunt, and Jessa's class day was Wednesday.

Each child brings in 12 candy filled eggs, so each child leaves with 12. A great idea and a good way to keep it fair (plus, we have 2 more egg hunts to attend, so I am happy to limit the number that enter this house!!!).

I walked into Spencer's class Tuesday during lunchtime. I was so excited that I even wore some bunny ears to get in the mood! I went to sit with Spencer at his spot at the table. The little girl next to him, immediately looked at me and said, "Who are you?" I told her I was Spencer's Mommy. She said, "Oh. Well, what are you doing here?" I said I was here to help hide eggs for their Easter Egg Hunt. She said, "Why are you wearing those ears?" I explained that I just love holidays and I was excited about Easter and hunting eggs. She looked at me hard and said, "Well, Easter is not really about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Easter is about Jesus." I smiled and told her that she was exactly right. She told me, huh??

Spencer at the lunch table - look at his grin!!

After I sat there for a minute, another little girl walked over to me (I just sat on the floor by Spencer). She stood in front of me and gave me several "once overs." She never said a word, but after a few seconds, she leaned over and kissed me on the shoulder. Then she turned and walked away. I was puzzled but tickled. Ms. Christina said, "Did she kiss you?" I laughed and said, "Uh-huh!" Miss Christina laughed and said, "She is just very affectionate!" I guess I should feel honored that I made the cut! She definitely thought it over before she gave me my shoulder kiss. . . Aren't they all cute??

After lunch, I helped hide the eggs. Then they lined up to head out - we were all very excited!!

We hid their eggs in plain sight, and some of them still had some trouble! They were so funny! Their teachers gave them these cute baskets with 12 small holes in the bottom. It was perfect to help them make sure they only got 12 eggs. The teachers kept reminding them "only 12 eggs per person." It was clear that some of them could not count to 12! And Spencer (who I call "little Emory" because he is so anal and precise and deliberate just like my Poppy) found an egg and lined it up with a hole in his basket. He walked 2 steps, and the egg rolled out. So he stopped and lined it up again. He took off, the egg rolled, he stopped, he fixed it, he was on his way.

Needless to say, his hunt was somewhat frustrating and very slow because he did not like it when his eggs were not properly placed in their hole! These holes were not meant to hold the eggs. They were more for decorating, you know, or even for deviled eggs. Anyway, "little Emory" found his 12 and sat proudly with the other kiddos. SO much fun!! They were so cute and so excited. I love to watch the babies interact with their little friends and their teachers!!

Spencer counting and recounting his 12 eggs and posing with his full basket!!

Wednesday, I got to Jessa's class after lunch. They were all in a circle after a story trying to kill time waiting on another class to finish with the playground. After the story, one of her teacher's opened up the floor for some jokes. Jessa's hand was up first. Her joke: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Her punchline: "To get a smoothie on its head." Well, it killed - who knew she was such a comedian! They were rolling on the floor and fake laughing up a storm. So then, each of the next jokes involved things crossing the road. There were also a few smoothies in the mix. And one little boy added "poop" to his punchline. This made them all crack up even more!

I also got to see them play a game called "shoot out." The kids stand back to back and whoever raises their hand first and answers the question correctly wins. Jessa was not always fast on the hand, but she did get her question right when she was fastest. The funniest part of the game was when the teacher asked during one round, "What is something that starts with the letter of the week: T?" Guess what answer they call came up with first?? Yep, you guessed it, "Toilet!" And with the mention of the word toilet, they all erupt into silly giggles.

Finally it was time for the Mommies to hide the eggs. Since they are all 4 and 5, we could really hide theirs. It was more challenging to hide them! They were so funny running around like crazy. Jessa and one of her little friends were cracking me up keeping each other posted on their progress. Jessa would holler, "I found one. It is purple." Her friend would holler back, "I just got one, too. Mine is green!"

Hard to get a good picture because I was having to chase her - she was serious about this hunting thing.

Jess posing with her haul and counting up her eggs. She had to share 1 because she got 13.

And she parted with it without too much coaxing. . .

Jessa even found one of the 2 prize eggs! She found the silver one and was ever so proud. I had no idea what was in it. They were supposed to wait until they got home to open them. Once she was home for like 2 seconds, she cracked them all open. Her big special, shiny egg had a whole dollar in it! I asked her to let me see it, and she said she couldn't. I asked again and she said in a very exasperated tone, "Mom, I already put it in my piggy bank." I guess that was a good place for it, huh??

Posing with her prize egg

After the hunt, we hung with her class until the end of the day. They had races (Jess was the only girl that wanted to race over and over. She did not win, but I was proud of her for trying!), played horseshoes, and even chased bubbles that Ms. V blew. Such a fun day!

Note the proper technique - she is a natural!

I am so glad that I got to have an egg hunt with each child where I could focus on just them. AND I always love my funny preschool moments with their friends. Yay!

A puddle wonderland

I love the rain. OK, I mostly like sleeping with the window cracked so I can hear it. And I like being chilly and needing to put on a warm sweatshirt or snuggle under a warm blanket. I also like stomping in puddles and enjoying the fresh, wet world.

Once Jessa could walk, I taught her to seek out puddles and splash away. Mimi told me I would regret it when she was older, but I taught her anyway. She has always enjoyed playing in the rain, too. And of course, Spencer likes it now, too.

Wednesday, when were leaving school, we came straight home to put on our boots and splash around. There were not a lot of puddles at the house. And the rain had stopped for the time being. We had our rain boots and coats on for nothing! Bummer!

When I was leaving to pick them up Thursday afternoon, I noticed the rain was coming down pretty well. So I packed their rain boots in a plastic bag to take with me. Their rain boots are cool, but they are not comfortable shoes for all day wear. Once I picked them up at their classes, we stopped and changed their shoes. The parking lot is old and was full of cool puddles. We splashed, we jumped, we ran - it was so much fun!

Once we got home, the fun continued. Since we have had a lot of rain, we have standing water in the yard, the sidewalks, the patio, the street. Standing water = puddles







After several minutes, Jessa looked up at me and hollered, "Mommy! It's a puddle wonderland!" I must agree. It was pretty wonderful. We had lots of wet fun splashing in the mud, stomping in the water, and enjoying the rain. We were all drenched when we came in, but it was so worth it. Plus, after a warm bath and hot chocolate, they were good as new!

It worked for me, even though it looked black.

Just push play, and it should work, I hope. . .

A puddle wonderland indeed!

ZOO

We are zoo people. Unfortunately, there is not a zoo very close to us. The closest one is in Jacksonville, FL! As soon as we moved here, Jessa could not wait for her Daddy to "find us a new zoo." The kids were thrilled when he told them that we found one. They really do love the zoo. I mean, I guess all kids love the zoo, don't they? We have been taking them since before they could walk, so they are veterans. They know their animals and so enjoy visiting with them.

My little Zoo Lovers

The first thing we did was ride the train.

THE TRAIN

Spencer could hear the whistle as soon as we got out of the car. It was not an option to wait until later to take the train ride. We headed right up to stand in line for the train. The funny part was that we could see the back sides of all of the exhibits. We had a great view of the rhinos and elephants and giraffes. Observant Jessa noticed that the giraffe "barn" had a special door.

Jessa said, "That's one tall door."

Next we ate lunch. David got somewhat frustrated that we had driven 2 hours, spent $50, and after an hour there, all we had done was ride the train and order food. Jessa and I were sad to be in Florida where there is no Coke, only Pepsi, but we managed. We got a pager to tell us when our lunch was ready. The kids cracked me up watching and waiting.

Hurry up, LUNCH!!

After lunch, the kids headed straight for the carousel and playground. OK, so it was close to 2 hours before we actually saw an animal. . . But like I told David at the time, it is all about them, so we just went with the flow.

Silly Daddy poses with J and S on the carousel!!

Also in the kids area was a small petting zoo for goats. Finally, animals! I may have mentioned this before, but Jessa has a deep love of goats. For some reason, every petting zoo area has goats. And we have been to our fair shre of petting zoos. She loves to feed them and brush them. She talks to them and hugs them. She is truly a goat gal.

Jessa with Sally

(all goats regardless of gender are Sally).

I am not crazy about snake areas or reptile houses, but on a hot day, they are usually nice and cool. We saw huge snakes (a 17 foot anaconda - yikes! I always have Harry Potter moments at snake exhibits. I am not ugly like Dudley, but what if someone around me is a parselmouth?) We also saw cute little tree frogs with big red eyes. The kids posed with some inspiration from these frogs.

Spencer was not a fan of the strong smells. He comes by this very honestly - I am not a fan of any odor, pleasant or unpleasant. There were moments when Spencer's nose interrupted his fun.

Spencer was so precious all day with a stick playing "air drums" and marching along. He is such a happy boy most of the time.

When we were in an aviary, there were tons of birds all flying and walking free. There were some really unique birds that I had never seen before. At one point, Jessa was looking in an area with several birds. She said, "Look, Momma, a Toucan." At first, I did not see one. But I followed where her eyes were looking and sure enough, a toucan! A lady next to us got so tickled! She did not say, " a bird," she knew what it was. I did say we visit a lot of zoos.

I will say that by the end of our afternoon, we were all hot and tired. I spent some time with Spencer on my back. It was a long day, I guess. . .

BUT one of the last animals we visited ended up being the highlight of our whole day! I mentioned that we saw the giraffes from the train. But they have this awesome giraffe overlook where you can almost touch them. And for a mere $2 you can buy a branch with leaves and actually feed a giraffe. Jessa was all over this. I missed capturing the actual moment where the giraffe ate her leaves because a lady held her daughter up right in my line of sight. Darn it! But Jessa was so tickled - she has always loved giraffes. What a cool opportunity!!

When we called May to tell her about our fun fun day, the first question she asked was, "Well, what animals did you see at the zoo?" And our boy Spencer said, "May, we saw a train!" Bless his heart, he does love trains. Forget the elephants, lions, and giraffes, the zoo had a train!

My amazing husband

I married the most wonderful man. There are dozens of reasons why he is awesome and amazing - enough reasons for countless posts. I will limit this post to one reason, though, OK? Today, I am going to tell you about his amazing talent. He can build anything! And he does a terrific job. He always laughs because he did not do well in Wood Shop in school, but something must have stuck! Or maybe he is just naturally talented. Whatever the case, he continues to impress me with his creativity, his patience, his attention to detail, his skill, his knowledge.

Staining Spencer's Toy Box

He started with staining and finishing furniture that we bought at Ikea and other unfinished furniture places. I have mentioned before that Poppy has always built wonderful pieces of wood furniture. He was always David's idol. I can see him now, in a tiny basement storage room in our stairwell in Germany. He would be sanding, staining, applying polyurethane, sanding, applying polyurethane - going through all the steps. And I would say, "D, Poppy is not here. Why are you struggling with all of this?" And he would smile and say, "But he will see it someday, and I know he'll notice any mistakes." He was probably right. BUT Poppy has never been anything but proud of David. No other men in the family have ever been too interested in wood working, so David has been like his little protege.

Anyway. The first big thing he built was Jessa's toy box. He was very cute and spent a lot of time on it. And Jessa was right there with him - helping. She loved it once it was finished. And once he saw the finished product, it only made him want to do more.

Jessa inspecting his progress.

She was quite pleased with her awesome toy box!
Spencer has benefited from his desire to do more. . . With Jessa, we would buy a piece and he would look at it and think, "I can do that!" So with Spencer, he built a lot more things. Plus, in his defense, when Jessa was moving into her big girl bed and room, he was in Iraq. Not too much free time for building, you know?? But he has built almost every piece of furniture Spencer has.

First were his shelves - he used Jessa's as a guide, but made them his own.

Next was his "big boy bed." Spencer was done with the crib when he was about 15 months old.

While we were in Atlanta during Lucas's treatment and transplant, David built this.

Then it was time for Spencer's toy box and then some shelves.

The latest and coolest thing my awesomely talented husband has built is a train table for Spencer. Holy Cow! This thing is incredible! And Spencer is so excited! Poor D, he has already agreed to build another one for our neighbor who watched him building Spencer's. I guess when you are talented, you have no choice but to share it with the world.

Spencer has been needing a train table. He was not really ready for one until we were preparing to move - not the best time for new furniture. Then David deployed, and I did not want to try to buy one without him. Plus, I knew he could make us something that we would like even better than anything we could buy. So we waited. Poor Spencer was in need of a place to play trains badly. He did not play as often as he wanted to because he had to drag it all out each time. He had to patiently wait, but now the wait is over! He is beside himself. He ran around the house singing "train table, train table, train table" all afternoon after David presented it to him!

Spencer enjoying his new train table - a whole bunch!

Spencer is in love with his new table. How did Spencer and I get so lucky to have such a talented Daddy and husband?? And now that you have seen his handiwork, I bet you'd agree that he is pretty amazing, huh?

An extra special guest

Spencer's class has a very special member. He is not very talkative, but he is a great listener. He gives great hugs. He always lets his friends choose what game to play, so everyone wants to play with him. He is a good friend to each and every other class member. He makes people so happy. We are so lucky to know someone like this. His name is Beary Bear.

Each day, the teacher lets one student take Beary home for a sleepover. He has a cool backpack where he hangs out and has a journal. Each person he visits, records all the fun adventures that Beary has at their house in the journal. Some people even include pictures. And then every day at circle time, Miss Christina reads the journal entry aloud and lets Beary's buddy elaborate. And then it is time to choose Beary's new sleepover friend.

Spencer has been talking about Beary ever since we started this new school. He could not wait for his turn. Conveniently, Beary's visit corresponds with your snack turn. Since the calendar was already done for February, we had to wait for the new schedule. And yesterday, it was finally our turn to host Beary for the night.

Words cannot accurately express how precious my baby boy was when I walked up to his classroom. He was BEAMING with pride, grinning from ear to ear, and wearing Beary's backpack. I will never forget that sweet look on his face. And as we were walking to get his backpack and go to find Jessa, he was strutting! Other kids and moms from other classes saw the backpack and were saying things like "Oh, there's Beary!" and "It's his turn with Beary!" This made him EVEN more proud and excited. Jessa noticed right away and asked what the backpack was. Spencer proudly replied, "Beary." When we got to the car, he pulled him out to show us. Jessa was immediately green with envy. She said, "I think I picked the wrong class! I should have picked his class so I could have Beary, too." My explanation as to how they were placed in classes based on their birthdays fell on deaf ears. . .

I did not have the camera when I got to his class,

so this is right when we got home. He was still pretty fired up!

This is Beary coming out of the bag to get his grand tour of the house.

Boy was Beary tired when he got here. Jessa's penguin was happy to share a bed.

Spencer was thrilled to let Beary do everything with him. He carried him everywhere. Poor Beary is showing the signs of spending every night with another family. He is definitely loved. His eyes are wearing off and the Care Bear's logo has worn off his booty. But he still seems thrilled to play with all of his friends.

Did I mention Spencer took him everywhere?

Beary enjoyed the playground, and he LOVES trains!

We went to the PX, and Spencer made sure that Beary was strapped into the car seat.

Safety first, especially with special friends.

Spencer let Beary ride in the cart with him while we shopped. Then they got to ride the carousel because they were so well-behaved while we were running our errands.

What a cool idea this Beary the spend the night company! The kids LOVE it. They look so forward to it. And they feel so proud and so important. Plus, it reminds the parents about snack day! It is a win/win, wouldn't you agree??

Spencer snuggled Beary close all night. The he cried the next day when he had to come home without his new friend. Never fear, after 11 more students, it will be our turn again! YAY!