A Day Date

Yesterday, Aaron and I redeemed a babysitting swap and went to Oklahoma City.

We went to the temple and ate lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.

I know, right? It was a long drive, but wonderful nonetheless. 8 hours alone in the car to have uninterrupted grown up conversation does a marriage good. Aaron's love language is Quality Time, so making arrangements to spend an entire day together is a big deal. The scenery on the way to OKC is usually a little boring, but taking the trip during the peak of fall colors provided a breathtaking backdrop of colorful foliage. Occasionally, thousands of black birds would paint a ribbon across the grey sky, silencing our banter long enough for us to just watch and enjoy the beauty of the season.
I can't think of a better way for us to kick off this month of gratitude than doing a little service, renewing covenants, eating cheesecake, reflecting on our own blessings, and singing along obnoxiously to our favorite road trip jams.

Wake Up!

5.2 earthquake shakin' up the Willy House, tonight!
There was a 4.7 east of OKC at 2am.
and 2 aftershocks from that quake in the 30 min that followed.

Thoughts:
-it is NUTS how far away from the epicenter earthquakes in the midwest and south can be felt.
-earthquakes here sound and feel like there's a large semi rattling by outside your front door. They last a long time, but the shaking really is just shaking, rather than the big rolling waves you get from Ca quakes.
-4 earthquakes in less than 24 hours? Are these weather guys sure about it being 2 quakes and 2 after shocks? Sort of feels like "pre"shocks to break up tension behind something bigger, if you ask me.

Halloween Race

We got our group costume ON this year at the Halloween 5K!
We had so much fun making them (Thanks, Kasey for picking up the supplies and doing ALL of the sewing! I think they turned out to be pretty fabulous. We already have next year's costumes in the works, and they're going to be even better!

Of course, Jocelyn came in a ridiculous costume (she came as Moses, last year), and even in a crazy heavy chicken costume, she still managed to place in her age group. That woman has some serious talent. Great job to Tia, Katie, and Catania for all setting PRs in the 5K, too! You women are amazing! I love my running buddies!

Kasey and I supported Miss Reese (aka Hermoine) in her first competitive race. She woke up on race day begging to come race, too. Who could resist that? Not me. We got her dressed quickly and headed to the race. I haven't taken her running for a long distance, before, so we decided to just register her for the 1K and see how she liked it. I told her that if she ran the whole thing and tried her best, then I would help her train for a 5K and she could race with the grown ups. Well well well, look who has a little competitive edge in her! This girl is a runner, for sure! She ran the entire 1K (.6 miles) at full speed. I tried to pace her, but she was just so excited, so I watched her slowly pass everybody. She did NOT like the idea of being behind anyone, so as soon as she passed one person, she pushed on to pass the next. Her steam started to run out toward the end, so we told her, "don't let Buzz beat you! Run faster!"

so she did! She flew past Buzz, then Spiderman, and finally, left Tron behind to eat her dust.

She smoked three boys in the last tenth of a mile. We are so proud of her. This is a girl who was begging me to race WITH her at the beginning, and refused to race the last two years. She is getting more independent every day, and she's turning out to be a dang awesome little runner.

She ran so hard that a couple minutes after she crossed the finish line, she said, "I feel like throwing up and I can't breathe." Then promptly laid herself down on the pavement.

She surprises me.
I love that about her.
Way to go, baby girl! I'm so very proud of you!

Young Learners: I am in Control of Me

Playing a little catch up with preschool posts. Expect a few more.

Literature:

The Way I Feel, by Janan Cain

Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day, by Jamie Lee Curtis

When Sophie Gets Angry by Molly Bang

Attention Activity: smell the rose, blow the bubbles.

make believe that each child has a rose in one hand and a bubble wand in the other hand. Take a deep breath breathing in the "rose", then turn to the wand hand and slowly blow a bunch of "bubbles". Talk to the children about how calm and relaxed they feel after the exercise.

Share: Bring something that is black

Questions: ask children the following questions and record their answers

What makes you happy?

What makes you sad?

What makes you angry?

What makes you laugh?

How do you feel when you get upset?

What do you do to feel better?

Art: Macaroni Letter Mm

Science: MagnetsSensory: Macaroni transfer

Dramatic Play: Face puppets!

I have a set of popcicle stick puppets with smiley faces depicting a variety of emotions. The children had fun guessing the emotion and trying to match the face in a hand mirror.

Fine Motor:

Friendly Frogs: Handwring letter M

Busy Bees: Wood Puzzles

Practical Life Skills: I can calm myself down when I get upset

Introduce and practice age appropriate non punitive techniques for calming down. (examples: taking a deep breath, scribble with a red or black crayon, using feeling words to describe emotions, count from 5-1, take a walk, separation, visit the peace center, smell a rose, blow the bubbles, etc)
I love this unit because it is instant gratification for a teacher. Giving a child power to express their emotions can be like plugging in a beautiful lamp. The lamp was functional and attractive before it had power, but with the added light feature, it becomes an expressive piece of art that shines. I enjoy getting to be a part of the process where a child's action and vocabulary evolve and gain the ability to express their feelings from frustration to elation. It is an amazing proccess.

Math: Money Match

Music and Movement:
Hap Palmer "When I feel down I get up and dance"

"If you're happy and you know it" (with various verses to express our many moods like "if you're mad and you know it, if you're silly and you know it, if you're sad and you know it, if you're lonely and you know it..."

"If you chance to meet a frown" with happy and sad face puppets

Storytime: in the book, "When Sophie Gets Angry", Sophie goes to a quiet place to calm down. Ask the children if they have a quiet place where they go when they are upset. This is a great way to teach children that they are responsible for their feelings, and that they have the power to be happy when they get upset. They don't have to keep acting out until they are sent to time out, they can take themselves out of the situation and calm down in a quiet, instead.

{Little Things}

Day 6: redbox (of his choice) and gourmet popcorn (garlic and parmesan...also his choice) date at home.

Day 7: Dry erase markers are perfect for writing notes on the bathroom mirror. Easy to read and the ink wipes right off with a paper towel. Leave your love a note of appreciation this week. You might be surprised to walk in the bathroom later and find a note for you, in return :)

Who cut the cheese?

couldn't resist the post title. Cuz I'm 10.
I went over to Kasey's last night after my kids went to bed.
We designed, stamped, punched, embossed, cut out, embellished, and assembled 30 kits for homemade thank you cards (that are totally cute, btw) for November's Relief Society Meeting. We talked and laughed.
And we made cheese!
Check it out:
4 gallons of local milk
add mesophilic culture, calcium chloride, and rennet.
heat, stir, wait, repeat. (x like 50)"cut" the cheese curds.
Cheddar the cheese.
Add salt.
Drain.
Press. (we finally got to use our fancy pants handmade maple cheese presses.)

Cheese curds are stinky. drumroll please........Tada! Now we will dry, wax, and age for a minimum of 90 days.

This wheel of cheddar and I have a hot date set for Valentine's Day.

Halloween Shenanigans

-Halloween festivities began last last Friday when Reese went to a Halloween themed birthday party.
-Then I had preschool parties with my Friendly Frogs on Tuesday and with my Busy Bees on Wednesday (several preschool posts coming soon!)
-On Friday, I chaperoned at Quincy's school field trip and brought Corbin and Cole along to enjoy some trick or treating as well.

-The kids had a great time and scored some impressive candy loot.

-Reese dressed as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. We borrowed the cape and scarf (thanks, Karen!), bought her shirt at the Associates Store for $1.50, her "dress" is a sweater vest of mine, she wore one of Aaron's neck ties, the belt goes to another dress of hers, and her knee socks are from t ball a few years ago.

-Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon monopolized most of my costume making time and creativity, this year. She freaking loved her costume and that makes staying up all night to sew the skirt from fake leather with a crappy machine 100% worth it.

-How funny are those trick or treat bags from Paul and HolleeAnn? Corbin's got so heavy, he dragged it behind his body like a roller suitcase. Cuteness. We borrowed his monkey costume for Friday from Cole. Hey, Corbin, is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to have a giant bag of candy?

-From Trick or Treating, I took food to Quincy's school party, then went over to Cooper to surprise Reese at school and have lunch with her.

-Back to the preschool to pick up Quincy, home to make homemade cornbread and black bean soup to take to the ward party.

-We opened a package from Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Pumpkin and the kids went crazy with happiness.

-Reese got home from school at 3 and we joined the zillion other associates families at the Walmart Home office for trick or treating. This is the one time a year that I get to go to Aaron's work. It is always a lot of fun to see where he spends his time and visit with a few of his coworkers. I have a running joke with Aaron that I don't actually know what his coworkers look like in real life, because I only see them on Halloween and they are always in costumes. Does his assistant really have that rockin' afro, or is it a wig? (it's the real deal, btw...glad I didn't make an idiot of myself and comment on how "real" it looks!)

-2 floors, 1 Hogwarts Express, a million cubes, and a haunted house later, we moved our party to the church for the chili cook off and ward trunk or treat. I dressed as a pirate and Aaron wore his You Can't Beat LA shirt and proudly announced that he was an NBA player on lockout. Does that make me the basketball wife? Sweet! Show me the money, baby!

-Seriously guys, 2 more weeks without NBA. Kinda nice...

-One great thing that happened at the ward party was that Quincy was introduced to our friend, Shane. More on that experience later. Catania, you are brilliant.

-The kids loaded up on even MORE candy at the trunk or treat and crashed on the way home.

-Saturday was the Halloween 5k/1K race (post coming soon), the pumpkin patch, meltdowns and chocolate diarrhea for the children as a result of the candy free-for-all binge session. After that, all of the candy bags were emptied into a giant communal bowl.

-The children were permitted to watch Hocus Pocus (um...language? not so much for little kids, but it seems to be going over their heads, thank goodness. Not my proudest parenting moment! I don't recall the movie using the word "virgin" and "sucks" so many times. Oopsie.)

-Aaron bought some GROSS parmesan and garlic popcorn that tastes like feet and uncooked pasta roni. We attempted to have a date after the kids went to bed and Aaron's movie of choice was Zookeeper. I'll never get that hour back.

-I lie. I only lasted 10 minutes. Once the animals started talking, I checked out and fell asleep.

-On Sunday, we made ghost shaped cupcakes and delivered some to our friend, Pam, who had a mastectomy last week. The rest went to school with Quincy today to share.

-Tonight, for FHE, we carved pumpkins and saved the seeds for roasting (save a few for planting next year!). We ate mushroom dill soup (thanks Katie, you're a dream!) for dinner, and put out our jack-o-lanterns, witch broom, and bowl of candy out on the porch before the girls went to bed.

Right before bed, the girls opened another package, from Grandma Lynda, this time. My kids love getting mail. Thanks auntie, uncle, grandpas and grandmas!

The Halloween Witch stopped by, snacked on the candy (read: threw away everything gross, sorted out all of the colorful candy and set it aside to be used for gingerbread houses in December, and bagged and stashed the rest outta sight and outta reach.) In exchange for the candy, she left The Wizard of Oz. This was a childhood favorite of mine. I'm really excited to share it with my own children. I hope the flying monkeys won't be too scary for the kids. I think I scared them enough this weekend when Quincy saw Shane's missing thumb and I told her he sucked it off when he was 5...

-More posts comin' atcha soon!