Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Thumbelina...really.

Another year of trick or treating has come and gone. The days of being able to choose her costume are totally bygone. I tried my hardest to talk the young one into being a ladybug (she's fascinated by ladybugs and butterflies these days), but that was a no-go. The other "hit" in her life these days are Barbie movies. This started by being enamored with fairies, however. Daddy rented one of the fairy ones for her a few months ago, and that started a new era in our house. The Barbie era. I was pleasantly surprised by how well done the movies are, and how very tame...and content appropriate for all ages. Even though there might be a touch of romance, there's no kissing--yay! However, it now means that she wants Barbies for her birthday, wants to watch Barbie movies, and wanted to be a Barbie-related character for Halloween. In Barbie Thumbelina, the story is very different from the traditional fairy tale we adults are familiar with. It's a very cute little show, and C made a sweet little Thumbelina and she was so happy to be the little heroine. The thing that pleased me the most about her trick-or-treating experience this year though was that I only had to remind her 2 or 3 times to say "thank you" (she remembered most of the time on her own :) and most of our neighbors were more impressed by her manners than by how cute she was...even though she was very, very cute.




Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Preschool Halloween

C had her first school Halloween party, or Harvest party. Either way, the kiddos wore their costumes (no scary ones!). When the parents arrived, the children had a little costume parade to the main gathering room. Then they sang their Halloween songs, including "Five little Pumpkins" (pictured below) and a song about all sorts of Halloween-y things and what they do, Skeletons dance, spiders crawl, cats creep, etc. Then, it was back to the classroom for snacks (mummy dogs, carrots in dip to look like a hand, and the like), and crafts. Parents helped the young ones make 1-liter bottle jack-o-lanterns, monster claws (gloves stuffed with candy corn for nails and then popcorn), and games. Good times.

Crafty Girl

C loves her art. She's in an art class where she makes all sorts of wonderful creations. So many, in fact that we have to have a special basket where we put all of her completed projects. At home, she calls the room where we keep my scrapbooking supplies the "art studio" and clamors for opportunities to "make something." Quite frankly, I struggle to come up with great things to make and do. Her friend's mom, and my friend, on the other hand has great ideas for preschooler crafts. This particular craft looked easy enough for me, so I filched the idea and C and I made "Indian Corn" decorations.

Pumpkin picking

Even though we didn't carve up our pumpkins this year, C is still enamored with them and wanted to pick out a pumpkin for the season. We went up to Red Barn Farm with friends this year and the girls chose pumpkins. C picked three. One big-ish, one medium, and one little mini pumpkin. She said "one for Daddy, one for Mommy and one for ME!" The girls rode the ponies, checked out the animals, played on the haystack a little, and then picked their pumpkins. It was a good afternoon.

Dashy Doctor

One of C's favorite activities lately is "doctor". However, there are times when neither Mommy nor a friend are available to play with her. She has finally discovered a great alternative--doctoring her "friends". She still doesn't do much with her dolls, but last year we got a great pony baby Rainbow Dash for a dollar at the Post yard sale and she has proven to be a fantastic patient.


Firehouse




The second week of October is fire safety week so that was the focus of C's preschool that week. They made several related crafts and coloring pages, learned about firefighters and not playing with matches or lighters. The week culminated with a field trip to the local firestation where they had a tour of the station, the truck and learned about getting out of their room if there is a fire, and about "stop, drop and roll". We saw a short video about it, and then the kids got to practice. Fun! Finally, one of the firemen (they were all men here), got dressed in his gear in front of them, so the children could see that underneath all the "stuff" was a real person and they didn't need to be scared of him if there is a fire in their house and someone dressed like him comes to help them. I thought it was quite amusing that once he was dressed in all his gear, the kids acted like he was one of the characters from an amusement park and wanted to hug him, give him "high fives" and have their photos taken with him. Cute!