Annual Harvest Festival

Every year the kids' day care has a harvest festival, so of course we had to go this year.  Riley's class, along with kindergarten set up the Haunted Maze in the school so they were beyond excited about it, even though she's still talking a year later about the "scary boy" in the maze (who is her teacher's son dressed in a clown suit and creepy mask, I must say he is quite scary for a a day care Halloween party but now that she knows it's him, it's less scary.  The kids had a blast and got to debut their costumes - Sophia the First for Riley (her favorite!) and an elephant for Jacob which is so perfect for him and he looked absolutely adorable in it!

End of Summer

I can hardly believe where the summer has gone, oh yeah, that's right, it's been spent doing 2 jobs, Marc  traveling every week and shuttling to orthopedic surgeon appointments.  During the summer, the kids' operates like a camp more than a school, particularly for Riley but as school districts start up, the summer winds down at their day care and the curriculum begins once again.  Every year they have an end of the summer party and the kids have a blast.  They bring in a bouncy house, have snacks, band, face painting, and cotton candy.  Riley was very excited about the party, she also hadn't been to school in 2 days so I think she was excited to see her buds.  My mom came to visit and help out so she spent 2 days with my mom doing fun stuff, like movie, shopping, lunch and just playing.  Jacob was just happy to be with me and on the big kid playground.  The minute we walked outside, Riley begged to go on the bouncy house, so even though I shouldn't have, I let her take off her AFO and go on the bouncy house.  A kid has to be a kid and since she's been stuck in a cast or brace all summer I decided to let her enjoy herself.  We had a check-up with Dr H the next day anyway (more on that later).  She begged me not to tell Dr H she was in the bouncy house without her AFO on.  I have her trained so well!  The kids had a great time, Jacob loved the food of course and Riley just loved running around in circles with her friends!

Of course snacks were the first stop for Jacob

While Ri's first stop was the bouncy house

Cotton Candy!

Little brother had to follow

What is this fluffy, yummy, goodness!?!

He wanted more

More snacks, that's 2 taquitos in one hand.  His teachers weren't shocked!

Face painting

Rainbows and gumdrops

That's a wrap summer!  One more week of summer camp and then school starts up.  Can't believe Ri is in pre-k, which means homework starts in 2 weeks.  Fun times ahead!

Mommy/Daddy Day Care

Marc had a genius idea (note the sarcasm) to keep the kids home from day care to save a little bit of money.  He worked at home Monday and then I took Tuesday because I work from home that day anyway and of course Wednesday because he conveniently had to go in on Wednesday.  Tuesday morning was rough until my cleaning lady came with her 2 kids.  It was awesome it was like free baby sitting plus I got my house cleaned.  Her daughter is in 4th grade and son in kindergarten.  Her daughter was awesome with both Riley and Jacob and I was actually quite productive that day.  Jacob loved playing with the big kids!  When they left, both kids took like a 3 hour nap.  Woot! 

Wednesday I got desperate and actually took out a bunch of toys that were packed away in the garage.  In retrospect, not such a great idea since they started fighting over them, and Jacob fights back now.  I then gave them the huge box and told them it was a fort/tunnel and that they could color it.  That did the trick and kept them busy for a while.  Now it serves to block Jacob from climbing the stairs. 

Last Week

Well it's official, I am done with maternity leave, I am so super sad.  I've been sad all week, it's something I've been dreading for weeks now.  I have been working from home for 2 weeks and this week I just could not concentrate, I just wanted to spend my time with my little man.  I tried to take a ton of pictures of him this week so that I have stuff to look at next week.  Poor little guy knows to smile at my phone for pictures but not for my camera, he's so used to an iPhone or Blackberry in his face but that big bulky camera, no clue what that is.  The curse of being the second child!

Leaving Jacob behind at day care is definitely hitting me harder than it did with Riley, I have no idea why.  He spent the afternoon at day care today and as soon as I left the building I started bawling, how could my leave possibly be over!?!  I seriously can't fathom not being with him next week.  He did great at day care, he napped, ate and his teacher said he loved laughing and smiling at everyone.  Two of Riley's friends have younger siblings in his class (though they are about to turn 1 and will be transitioning to the 1s room) so not that he knows any different, but there were two familiar faces in there with him.  They loved havaing Jacob there today (one of Riley's old teachers from the 1s class stopped us as we were doing pick up and told us how much she loved spending time with him today) and so I know he's in good hands but I am so going to miss him incredibly next week. 

As you can see my Jacob-pants now does not mind tummy time at all!

Preview

Friday night Riley's school had a Harvest Festival, aka Halloween party. My mom's flight got in about 20 minutes early so we were able to make the party, which meant a test run for Riley's Halloween costume. I'm glad we did it because not only did she look stinkin' adorable but we learned the shoes that we planned on having her wear are WAY too big (now, they are a size 4 mind you, which generally is not even a walker size, so you can see why outfitting her feet is challenging) so we will be sporting sneakers for trick or treating tonight. Her costume won't quite have the same adorable factor but if anybody can pull it off, it's Riley!

A few of Riley's friends from her class were there too, here's Riley and Danielle playing in the 2s class, they were both pretty excited to be able to go into the 2s class and test out all of the new toys they will soon get to play with!

Riley's friend James was also there, here's Riley dancing in her classroom. James is dressed as the doggy. (Unfortunately no Nate!)

And Riley had fun helping her teacher from her infant class, Miss Karen, clean up!





We're heading over to our neighbors soon to celebrate and then go Trick or Treating, Riley's been practicing saying "Trick or Treat," so more pictures to come!

School Pictures - Fall 2010

We got Riley's school pictures this week, they were taken when she was just about 20 1/2 months. I can't believe how big girl she looks. We only got the fall background because apparently she threw a major temper tantrum during the plain background photos, she was clinging to the day care director and refused to sit down, I think she was a little scared but they eventually got her to sit for the fall background. Oh well, these came out super cute, even though I think she doesn't want to smile but they made her! :)

Here's her class photo, I particularly love the little girl to the right of Riley who is screaming, if you look closely you can see that she has a Cheerio on her tongue. Classic! We also thought it was funny that it appears Riley and the little girl to her left are wearing at least the same brand of shoes. They are also often in the same Gymboree outfits too! ;) And the little boy sitting on the lap of the teacher two rows back from Riley, that's Nate, Riley talks often of him. It used to be that when we pull into the parking lot she would start chanting his name but now she starts saying his name as we are pulling out of our neighborhood and when I ask who she played with at school, it's usually Nate. Could be trouble! Her teacher from the infant room told me the other day that Riley is very popular with the boys. I think Marc should move out during the teenage years. :)