More peeks at cutie Kip in Kinder
Kindergarten is so full of busy work that Kip absolutely loves. They do activities and worksheets all day long and only on "Fun Friday" is when they have free play. I figured Kip would be annoyed by this but his teacher makes all these little academic activities so much fun that they don't even realize it is learning and Kip looks forward to going every day.
God bless Kindergarten teachers, but WHY OH WHY are all the boys at the same table???
Last week was Fire Safety Week at Kip's school. They did activities all week long to talk about fire safety. On Saturday they blocked off the street in front of the school and had the firetrucks out and demonstrations for the kids. Dan took Kip and Ivy and they had a blast.
Kip told me he had to "use all his might" to put out this fire.
They came home with a container of candy corn cotton candy, and let me tell you...that stuff is GOOOD!
I kind of adore our "small town" with a teeny tiny school district that is able to put on events like this for the community. This type of thing would be unlikely in Brooklyn or impossibly crowded.
What a split weekend. We had amazing weather on Saturday. It was a beautiful fall day so we planned to take family photos at the local state park. Plans got slightly adjusted when Mandy was called away to help the other family she is a nanny for when their new baby arrived early!! Exciting for them and I'm sure they were grateful to have Mandy help in a pinch since the rest of their extended family is down with covid. Ugh. So stressful for them, I'm sure.
I would have rather waited to do family photos with Mandy since she is our designated family photographer, but Kip was insistent we go. So Dan and I took the kids and just did photos of them. It was a moderately pleasant experience. There was a lot of attitude and forced cheese faces, but we did get a couple of gems that might make it onto a Christmas card. Here are some outtakes:
On Sunday, the weather was poopy but we NEEDED to get pumpkins for a little pumpkin carving party we are planning for next weekend. We hit two places and basically all that was left were MASSIVE pumpkins. I mean huge. The first place we went was where we went last year and I think the nice weather from the day before brought the crowds that wiped the good pumpkins.
Mandy directed us to another farm nearby which allowed us to view some of the beautiful fall foliage in the area. We live pretty close to a lot of farmland in Jersey - they don't call it the "garden state" for nothing. Once you leave the industrial area across from NYC, New Jersey is gorgeous.
We had much better luck at the second farm. It was spitting rain and a bit muddy, but we left with some options (still not an ideal size for small kids but doable).
We had donuts and got some photos around their decorations. Kip is currently in a phase where he requests photos but then usually puts on the most forced cheese face and rarely looks into the camera. Ivy just shouts cheese but only looks at the camera about 1/3 of the time. I much prefer candid shots of the kids but I do love those rare posed shots with sweet beaming natural smiles.
Happy Tuesday!
Now that we're all caught-up, here is a little update from this past weekend.
On Saturday, we took the kids to Storybook Land! We love it there all the time but the fall is especially fun because the place is decked out with pumpkins and they have a fun hay maze scavenger hunt and free pumpkins for the kids. We had a blast. It was fairly crowded but still such a wonderful atmosphere.
The kids were into the story animatronics more than ever before.
We were a little worried that Ivy would be too afraid to go on any of the rides this time, but fortunately, she had a blast.
The scavenger hunt was super fun and Kip got really into this year. Great chance to run around, hunt for numbers, practice peeling stickers and matching to make the picture at the end.
Picking our pumpkins out and making faces.
Lots of fun and memories forever. Love this place so much.
On Sunday, we were invited to a first birthday party for the son of one of my friends from grad-school. So we headed back to Brooklyn and enjoyed the day at the playground.
The temperatures are permanently turning cooler every day and for as much hate as I give fall time, I will admit it is pretty. Mandy does such a great job with tending to the plants and flowers in our yard and making everything fun and festive.
Yay, it's almost Friday!
