little girl - big school

It was little nael's first day at the big school today!!! Snowboarder and I have been talking to little nael about going to the big school for the last couple of weeks and I think that little nael was pretty excited this morning. I was worried that I had to wake her up and she'd be grumpy but she woke up at 7:15am on her own.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the parent helpers today (BIG thanks to Aunt Sarah who stayed home to watch baby j) which gave me a chance to see how nael interacted and participated in a classroom setting. It also allowed me to see what a typical class day was like. Little nael seemed at ease right from the start which made me realize that I had nothing to worry about.
As a parent helper, I had to bring in snacks for the whole class so I decided to bring watermelon chunks, grapes and little nael's favorite "orange" crackers which everyone loved including the other adults (nael's teacher, Mrs. Mesa and 2 other parent helpers). It was also one of the kid's birthdays so the birthday boy's mom brought in snacks too - watermelon and blueberry muffins!
The kids spent the first hour doing an activity of their choice: painting, playing with playdough or at the water table, etc then they headed to the LMC for an activity led by Mrs Mesa. While they were busy at the LMC, we (parent helpers and our kids) set up the table and prepared for snack time. Soon after, the rest of the kids came back to the classroom. First, they all sang Happy Birthday to Trey who had a little candle on his mini muffin then they munched on some snacks. When we were all done eating, Mrs Mesa had the kids sit in a circle then she read them a book. Afterwards, we headed out to the playground. At 11:30, some of the kids went home while the rest stayed for lunch bunch. Little nael and I didn't stay for lunch bunch but headed home to see baby jeffrey and Aunt Sarah...
I think school wore out little nael today...she napped right after lunch and slept for a couple of hours!

Summer Camp

So today was the last day of summer camp at home with little nael and her friends. The final theme/agenda was cooking camp and nael, allie, evan, baby jeffrey, makenzie and baby avery each had an apron and a chefs hat to wear! The recipes included butter cookies, watermelon popsicles, and 5-minute ice cream in a bag. I think all the kids had a great time using the hand mixer, cutting out the cookies, playing with the dough, etc. While the cookies were baking and the popsicles freezing, the kids played out in the backyard and splashed around in the frog pool.Can't think of a better way to end summer camp...

Smoking mountain

So today has been an exciting, nerve wracking adventure in our own neighborhood. Green Mountain caught on fire this afternoon apparently struck by lightning. We live down the street from Green Mountain and the kids and I happened to be out shopping when this all started. On our way home ( we were only gone for 1 1/2 hrs.), snowboarder called to ask where we were and told me that there was a fire in our neighborhood. He heard from a co-worker/neighbor that Green Mountain was burning! Before snowboarder called, I did notice smoke from a distance but didn't think anything of it. When we got home we could see the flames on the hillside from our driveway. I pointed it out to little nael and she said that the mountain was smoking. It sure was. Silly me, I thought nothing of it and figured that it'll be doused soon enough so we went about our day like everything was fine. Well, fast forward 3 hours later and the flames, fanned by the wind, continued to burn eastward then northwest, towards our direction. About 10 homes were evacuated already as the fire was in their backyard! We got a warning call from the fire dept. and so I finally told snowboarder to come home just in case. I started to pack a few things and tried to make a mental note of all the important documents that I needed to take with us. In the meantime, little nael was looking out the bedroom window watching the smoking mountain, as she called it. I told her to pray that it would rain and she asked me why. After I explained to her that the rain can help ease the fire, she said she would. So, snowboarder finally made it home and wanted to walk down the block to take pics. We took the kids and started down the street when it started to rain. Yup, it started to drizzle then the drops started falling and falling...it was raining! I ran back home with baby jeffrey in the stroller while snowboarder and little nael continued down the block. Thankfully, the fire headed south and with the help of the rain, was finally contained by the brave firefighters. We didn't have to evacuate. We're home safe...Thank GOD!

noculars

Went to Tiny Town yesterday and met up with one of little nael's friends, Allie and her mommy. Originally, we had planned to go to Sunflower Farms but it has been way too hot lately so we just decided to head up to the mountains instead. It was raining on the way there and was still drizzling when we got to Tiny Town but the rain was a welcome relief from the heat and it helped us cool off for a little bit. The last time we were there, little nael rode the caboose with her other friends so it wasn't a surprise when little nael wanted to ride on it again. This time she and Allie rode the caboose while Allie's mom, Tanja and I along with baby jeffrey sat a few rows infront. Well before we got on the train, little nael found binoculars at the gift shop and kept on playing with it. Since little nael has been really good lately, I promised her that we'd get the binoculars on our way out. And, of course, when it was time to go home, little nael didn't want to leave without her noculars, as she called it.