Monday, November 20, 2006

A Week of Firsts

AnnaLaura had her first school pictures taken last month (okay, maybe a "week" of firsts was an inacurate title), and look: she's not acting like a complete goofball!! Who woulda guessed? It's actually a good school photo...I am simply amazed. In warning, the resolution on this pic is very low. I do, however, have many many copies here at home and will gladly send them out to those that want one. As long as you don't mind a wallet sized one, that is (I will order more larger sizes if enough people request them though).

Her Kindergarten class had a "Culminating Event" this past week, to which the parents were invited. Now I'm a bit confused here as I thought that a culmination was an ending or climax, but oh well. We got to see "A Day in the Life of a Kindergartener" condensed into 30 minutes. We even were treated to a rendition of Going on a Bear Hunt by our children (we were asked to join in...unfortunately I had my camera with me and so was duty-bound to photograph the event).

After the singing and dancing, her Spanish teacher, Sr. Cole, came in to give a short demonstration of his lesson. Okay, my kid tells me every day of school that she hasn't learned any new spanish words, yet she seems to know "sit", "stand", "fast", "slow", every color of the rainbow, and quite a few animals as well. Methinks someone is lying... I should mention that AnnaLaura also refuses to tell anyone, and I mean anyone, anything about school. Her counting is much better, she has learned a few "sight words" such as we, the, is, I, and can write her name better now as well (otherwise I'd think she was skipping class). She can also write her name backwards (completely backwards: right to left with all letters reversed) which I'm thinking is not a skill that they teach at school.

And now her most recent "first"! She has never, until today, been to a movie theater. Let's face it, movies are loud, crowded, and expensive. I was not about to take her into a cinema until she figured out what they were on her own. Well, someone finally told her about them. Get this. We now have an excuse to go see children's movies (as if we needed one before)! And what did we go see?


This movie is grrrreat! Go see it!! Now! With kids or without, you must go and see it! This is an order! What are you doing?? Why are you still reading this? Go watch this musical penguiny basket of joy (I kept waiting to hear the soundtrack from Grease...but in a good way...I really don't like Grease, but...oh, just trust me and see the movie). Who knew Hugh Jackman could sound like Elvis, anyway?

Friday, November 03, 2006

Skeleton Incognito

A Girl Dressed As A Skeleton Dressed As A Girl

AnnaLaura decided to be a skeleton this year for Halloween. Unfortunately, due to the temperature being in the low 30's, she had to wear a coat over her costume - thus she looked like a skeleton in a little girl costume! It would have worked better if she'd worn the mask, but the mask had only eye-holes and she kept complaining that everytime she breathed out it (her breath) got into her eyes.



AnnaLaura really enjoyed carving pumkins this year, too. Okay, she enjoyed playing in pumpkin guts... She tried to carve her own pumpkin but was having problems controlling the direction of the little "saw" that comes in those pumpkin carving kits, so I carved it for her. However, she did draw the picture of what she wanted on her jack o' lantern, so I didn't have to think too hard. Should I mention that Mike also had problems controlling that little saw and I had to carve his pumpkin for him too (and he did not draw me a picture, either!), or will I get in trouble? Hrmmmm....too late now!


On the Sunday before Halloween we went to Paige's 2nd Birthday/Halloween Party!! Both Paige and Jeana were Scooby-Doos, while Meg and George were Daphne and Shaggy...can you tell what cartoon series/movies they like? AnnaLaura went as a skeleton (of course), while Mike and I were boring and went as ourselves (my Mom, however, was a purple witch!).

AnnaLaura had a lot of fun Trick or Treating, as usual, even though only half the houses in our neighborhood were doing candy this year. What the heck is wrong with people?? Last year over 80% of the houses gave out candy! Very rarely did we have to walk past more than 2 unlit houses in a row before getting to another participating house...not this year! We actually took the car so we could drive past the areas where there'd be a whole section of houses with their lights off (and so we could warm up - when we got back home it was 32* out). Oh well, it's not like she needs that much candy, we end up throwing Halloween candy away every Christmas anyway (and the Christmas stash gets thrown out come Easter).

I hope everyone else had an enjoyable Halloween this year!! And I hope you're not seeing the white fluffy stuff out your window what I'm seeing out of my window. Oh, and for the crazy people who are jealous of our snow: please feel free to come up here and take as much home with you as you'd like (we won't miss it, I promise). In fact, I insist...

* I would have used one of those little circle things that denotes "degrees" but I have no idea how to make my keyboard create one...so deal with it**

** okay, does someone know how to make those little circle "degree" thingies?