Grandparents Day

Like I mentioned in the previous post, Grandparents Day was on November 4th. I hope that this is a tradition that continues in the years to come because ALL of Eli's grandparents were able to be here because of his birthday the following day. I think I was more excited than anyone else. I love special events that involve family, and I was super thrilled that everyone that was important in Eli's life was able to be here.

The grandparents started arriving as I was leaving the school, so I called my mom and told her to wait for just a second so I could get a picture of all of them before they went in. I wish I'd been able to go in with them, but there was standing room only everywhere they went. 

Grandpa E, Zue-Zue, Pop and Grammy

Grandparents Day 2011

Eli was just a little happy to see all his grandparents when they arrived :)

All the classes had prepared a special song to sing for the grandparents. Mom, Dad, Zue-Zue, and E all said Eli was kind of shy when the 3 and 4 year olds were up there and didn't sing that much, but he gave a repeat performance at home and sang the song beautifully. After the performance in the auditorium, they went to his classroom where they had gifts for all the grandparents-a bookmark of Eli stretching his arms out wide with the words "I love you this much" behind him and a pin with Eli's picture in it. They were both PRECIOUS! They also had a couple of crafts for the grandparents to do with their grandchildren in the classroom. Eli and Pop had fun painting each other's hand for one of the crafts. It was a picture of both of their handprints. I know it's something my parents will treasure forever :)

After taking them on a tour of the school (my mom and Sue both said he had NO CLUE where he was going. He just wanted to walk around..haha!), they went to eat lunch. They served red beans and rice (YUM-O!) but all Eli wanted was the cornbread...typical :)

After lunch and some shopping at the Book Fair, all the grandparents checked Eli out from school and came home. We had a lot of preparations to do in order to be ready for his party the next day! Our busy weekend had just begun and it was going to be tons of fun! 

Muffins and Juice

Remember a few posts ago what I said about wanting to slow things down? Yeah, so that didn't happen until after the first weekend in November because a certain little boy was turning 3 years old. 3!! How in the world has it been 3 years since this sweet little boy was placed in our arms? I am always stunned at how fast his little years are passing by, and once again, I am so thankful for this blog. It is such a wonderful "time capsule", if you will, of everything precious, momentous, special, and funny that has happened since the moment we found out we were expecting Eli. I'm so glad it has all my thoughts, recollections, and memories in one place so that he'll have it to read one day :) 

Friday, November 4th, I took the day off from work so that I could do things to get ready for Eli's party the next day. My original plan was to take cupcakes to Eli's school later on that afternoon, but those plans were cancelled when I found out that his school was having Grandparents' Day the same day. I was upset at first because I didn't think I'd be able to celebrate his birthday with him at school, but then I came up with a Plan B. I asked his teacher if it would be okay to bring muffins and juice when Eli got to school that morning and then I'd be gone before the grandparents started arriving. She said that'd be perfect :)

My sweet birthday boy

Mrs. Paige called Eli up to the front and had him sit in her lap. She asked him how old he was going to be on his birthday and he told her. Then she had all his friends sing Happy Birthday to him. It was so cute! He sat there and smiled so proudly! After the song was over, all the kids went to their seats to eat their muffins and juice. 

Eli and Mrs. Paige

I gave my birthday boy hugs and kisses and then darted out before the grandparents started arriving. I'm so glad I was able to celebrate my little boy's birthday with him at school with his friends. 

PreK-3 Update-October

Around the middle of October, Eli's school had their Fall Break so they could have Parent/Teacher conferences. I scheduled mine early one morning before work, but then Josh got sick, and I wasn't able to make it. On my way to Walgreen's the night before my scheduled conference, I called my friend, Torri, to see if she could give me his teacher's number so I could call and reschedule. She didn't have it, so I was going to have to find another way to get the message to her that I woudn't be there. While I was waiting at Walgreen's for Josh's antibiotic, guess who walked in the door...Eli's teacher, Mrs. Paige. Thanks, God :) She wasn't there under the best circumstances either, she was getting medicine for another family member, but we were able to have our conference right in the middle of Walgreen's.

Eli is doing great she said! She doesn't have any concerns or worries about how he is doing in school. I was a little concerned about his speech (just articulation) but she said next year if he still isn't articulating very well, he'll probably qualify for speech services at school. A few days later that week, she sent home Eli's report card for the 1st Nine Weeks. I was one proud Momma :) I hope that next year we can just continue to build on what he's learned this year in PreK-3. He'll be doing PreK-3 again because of the way his birthday falls, so that makes his progress so far even better! I'm so proud of my little boy and everything he's learning at school.

Happy Halloween

October was such a BUSY month for us that I was actually looking forward to Halloween so we could move on to another month! Between moving into the new house, going out of town, Josh getting sick, Eli's festivities at school, my festivities at school, and our festivities at church, Halloween was such a welcome holiday this year! I've lumped all of our Halloween festivities into this one post, so you could see all the fun we had this year!

First up, was Wild and Wacky Hair Night at church. I help teach the kids at our church on Wednesday nights, and the Wednesday before Halloween we all came to church with wild and wacky hair. To show my team spirit, I quickly used a wild and wacky hair technique that dates back to my high school days. I got one of Eli's cups and pulled my hair up all around it and twisted a ponytail holder around it. The result was an enormous looking beehive do that had all the kids wondering how I got my hair up so high. I wish I had a picture that showed a profile shot of my hair, but you'll have to trust me that it was WAAAY up there! 

Next, I flexed some of my creative muscles and made these pumpkin rice krispie treats for Eli's class at school. I saw these in a magazine, or maybe it was Pinterest, and thought they looked easy enough to replicate. I thought they turned out really cute!

Eli got lots of fun surprises leading up to Halloween. His first surprise was a card in the mail from Grammy and Pop. Inside the card was a gift card to Sonic for $10. WOO HOO! We'll definitely be using that on Fridays for some blue drinks-Powerade slushes. Fridays are usually the day we make a Sonic pit stop, but I could literally go every day during Happy Hour because this Momma runs on their drinks.

He loves to get mail!

Thanks for the sticker card and the Sonic card!

We also had the privilege of being BOO'ed not once, but TWICE at our new house. For those of you that don't know, the BOO process is as follows: You go to a friend's house with a pumpkin/bucket/bag full of treats. You run up to their door and knock. You place the bag of treats down and rush back to your car before they answer the door and see you. It's quite fun and Eli and I are going to participate more next year (this year we only BOO'ed one person). Eli got BOO'ed by Clayton and Cooper and by Hannah and Marlie. He loved all his treats!

Then a couple of days before Halloween I had a freak out moment when I realized that Eli's trick or treat bag, the one Grammy and Pop gave him for his very first Halloween, was missing. True, I could have just gone to the store to buy a new one, but I really wanted to find his Frankenstein bag. I vaguely remembered taking it to my parents house during the river flood crisis, so I called Mom on Thursday and asked them to look around up there. Thankfully, they called back and said they'd found it! Dad mailed it to us Friday and it arrived Saturday! Whew! Thanks again, Grammy and Pop! We were so excited when it arrived that I had Eli sit on our stairs for a quick photo. I have a feeling that he's going to be photographed a lot on these stairs growing up!

The Friday before Halloween, my school had our annual fall carnival. It was C-R-A-Z-Y because when the kids are out of uniform the excitement level goes up quite a few bars. All my kiddos were super cute in their costumes. I love Fall Carnival because all the teachers at our school dress up in costume, too. Last year, all the first grade teachers went as witches. This year we were a bunch of scarecrows (kinda fitting...we sometimes wonder where our brains went..haha!). We all have so much fun together and I'm so thankful to be where I am at my school. I love my first grade girls!

Halloween morning Eli's class went trick or treating around the school. All the preschool and kindergarten classes walked around to the high school and junior high school students and got TONS of candy. I took off yet another 1/2 day so I could go with him. I wouldn't have missed it for the world! It's amazing how much difference a year makes. Last year Eli didn't want to wear any costumes and this year he was all for it. He loved his Peter Pan costume! (Thanks again, Nicki, for letting us use it for a little bit!)

My little Peter Pan

Eli and Mrs. Paige

Eli and Mrs. Jody

I loved seeing all his friends' costumes. They were all so cute in them!

Eli's friend, Walker, and his dad, Adam

Scooby Doo, Jessie from Toy Story, and Peter Pan

Before we left to go trick or treating, we tried to get some pictures of all the kids in their costumes. Wow! Have you ever tried to get 15 three year olds to look at the camera at the same time...not an easy task!

I love Jessie from Toy Story in this last one :)

I understood how she felt!

After trick or treating around the high school and junior high, the kids came back to the classroom to have the rest of their party. Mrs. Paige was nice and let them pick two pieces of candy to eat right then and then the rest was put away in their backpacks. 

Eli chose two suckers :)

After they ate their two pieces of candy, the kids changed into regular clothes. Eli and his friend were pretty excited about having matching shirts. 

The kids sat down and ate their Halloween breakfast-muffins, doughnut holes, and juice-while the parents started prepping for the crafts. 

The kids rotated to three craft stations-a candy corn magnet, a door hanger they decorated with stickers, and then a ghost canvas made with their cute little footprints. I can't wait until next year so I can use this to decorate. I plan on adding some cute wording at the top and adding some googly eyes to my ghosts.

I picked Eli up from school and realized that in all the craziness we hadn't even carved a pumpkin! I was a little sad because that's an experience I love sharing with him, but we had just been incredibly BUSY! I grabbed one of the pumpkins I had sitting by my front door and we quickly carved the pumpkin. We had a little meltdown moment because Eli wanted to use the knife to cut the pumpkin,  but other than that it was fun getting to share this moment with my little man. 

Before

When Daddy came home, our pumpkin was finished and we were ready to go trick or treating at our church. 

After

I dressed Eli in his Peter Pan costume, snapped a couple of pictures of him on the stairs, and then we were ready!

We knew our church would have TONS of people wanting to trick or treat so we left early (or so we thought) but when we got there we still had to wait a long time in line. It was worth it though. We loved seeing all the different themes and all our friends dressed up. Normally, we participate in Trunk or Treat, but Josh and I opted not to this year with everything going on. We might try again next year :)

Walking to Trunk or Treat with Daddy

The line at the church to get in to Trunk or Treat

Eli's friends, Drew and Scott dressed

as Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat

Music minister, Stephen, and his wife, Megan

M &M gang

Jana and Jennifer

Swashbuckling pirates

(some of the youth at our church)

The Flinstones

Jordan, Logan, and Addi

Old McDonald

Heidi, Dusty, and Baylor

Eli and Molly

Eli and Peyton

Hayden and Eli

Whew! Good-bye, October and Hello, November! It was a whirlwind month full of wonderful events, but I'm ready to slow down just a little bit :) Happy Halloween!