Cassie Quips

The understanding, or lack thereof, of a 5 year old never ceases to amaze me. This morning she discovered some "new" costume jewelry that I unearthed from the depths of our pantry while cleaning it yesterday--still in the packaging, but opened.
C: Please help me put this on. ("This" was a sparkly necklace.)
Mommy: Okay.
C: Do we have any more jewelry like this? It's beautiful.
Mommy: No, we don't.
C: Where did I get it?
Mommy: I found it in the pantry yesterday when I was cleaning.
C: Can you go find some more?

525,600 minutes and then some.

Okay, okay, so it's been more than a year since I last updated this. In case anyone really is watching and reading this blog still, I'm sorry. I joined Facebook and started keeping most of my blog-worthy moments in my little status updates. Didn't tell the whole story, of course, but the general idea was there and shared. However, it seems like time to get back to the blog, get pictures of C available for viewing and the larger stories shared. I don't know yet if I'll go back through the year and post some of the more interesting events, but I am going to try to do better here on out. So, please keep reading.

Rodeo, "Radio"

C had a special event at preschool today in honor of Kansas Day. She's been talking to me all day, telling me about her day. They had a rodeo (C pronounces it "radio") and all dressed as cowboys. Here are her words in the order she told me the story:

We sat on a saddle and threw a hula hoop on the cow. The play cow, not a real cow, so don't worry, the cow didn't get hurt. We put our face through a cage, a plastic cage with doors open and close and put our face in it and peeked out. We stayed in our cowboy clothes and didn't dress up in costumes. After we choosed our jobs, we went to the big room! And then we sat on a horse and threw the hula hoop. I got TWO turns! Everybody got two turns. Then we milked the cow out of a hand! It looked like a people hand, but it wasn't.

Then we did music. We sat around a fire. Not a real fire, we made a fire with paper and bags and logs chopped into pieces and lightbulbs. We made the bags look like fire and we all sat around it then they turned out the lights and the lightbulbs shined out. We didn't have snack in the classroom we had it on the floor in the big room. We got to sit on the floor. We had a meatloaf and a bread and a napkin for our mought and a cup for our chocolate milk and I ate it all! Then we threw it in the trash.

When we found all the rocks (they were "panning" for gold") we gotted a prize. We each gotted a prize for getting all the rocks. I gotted all the rocks first and I winned this ring. Actually, I remember what Mrs. Andrews told us what the stop sign on the floor was for. We sticked the stick between our legs adn we galloped to the stop sign and turned around and went back and that's how we raced the stick horses. Not real horses. I gotted to ride the pretty pony with the roses on it. Then James went on the brown one.

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.

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.