you mean the food doesn't magically appear in the grocery store?

In Joyschool, we've spent the last few weeks learning about our food - what kinds we should be eating, what kinds we should be limiting, and where it comes from.

Carson and his "pretty girlfriend", Anna (or so he says)

They're gluing pictures of food into their shopping cart. I had set up the family room

like a grocery store, having the food in sections such as Dairy, Meat, Bakery, etc.

They each had a strip of paper ("shopping list") with 5 colored dots on it

(blue, green, purple, white, etc) and had to race to find

one food item that color for their cart.

Caleb & Preston

Benjamin (sideways, I guess)

We had several other fun activities, including reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and everything it ate. Then we played the corresponding board game to see who could become a butterfly first. I'm surprised by how much I've enjoyed Joyschool. Not that I thought I'd dislike it, but I wondered if it would be a ton of work and if it would be mass chaos. Thankfully, the kids are all incredibly well-behaved and so adorable, so anxious to learn, that it's been a blast!

We wrapped up our "Food" chapter with a field trip to the local grocery store. The kids loved having a "behind-the-scenes" look at how it all operates!

Powered up on Preschool: Bring on the big K!

In May Wyatt graduated for the final time from preschool - he is now our little Kindergartner! He's so ready (and so am I!). His preschool teacher, Miss Amy, taught him very well - she was amazing and we feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have her for a teacher. The graduation program was so cute; just like last year, Wyatt was the loudest and most "enthusiastic" (obnoxiously animated) kid out of the group. It's adorable and hilarious, but I must admit also borderline embarrassing! I tried to post a video so one could hear exactly what I mean, but blogger's stupid and won't let me post videos anymore (annoying!). I guess his facial expressions in the picture will have to give you the basic idea.

singing their special songs -

Wyatt's favorite was "1-2-Buckle My Shoe"

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The Class Play: "3 Billy Goats Gruff"

(We'll never forget Wyatt shouting at the top of his lungs,

"Who's that person crossing over my bridge?!")

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Afterwards all the students released their preschool years

(balloons) into the air, ready for the next big phase in their lives!

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We love our little duder!

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a couple of his school buds:

Sage & Ryker

Gotta let Bob the dog in on the fun!

november '09.

Our November seemed to have come and gone

faster than a Thanksgiving dinner!

Here's what we we've been up to:

After two years of a nasty court battle, we finally saw

our first check after winning our civil suit against our

water softener company (all those contemplating

signing with Aspen Water, beware!).

Now if we could just get them to come pick up their equipment

and give us our final check, this will all be behind us at last!

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Wyatt had a hot date to his preschool's Thanksgiving Feast.

It's so fun having grandparents close by!

As you can see, the class is mostly boys.

The students put on a little program.

Wyatt's part was "I see a green bud on a spring tree".

We love his teacher, Miss Amy!

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In other November happenings, Carson discovered the joy of dressing up in women's clothing! Doesn't he make a beautiful princess? (To defend his manhood, however, I must admit he was pretty ticked about me taking this picture. He liked the idea of it, even smiled for it, but then once he saw it played back to him, I think he realized how ridiculous he looked and was upset I'd taken advantage of the moment. I don't care, though. Someday I'll need good blackmail material and this is GOLDEN!)

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We had our favorite girlfriend, Maryn, over to make

Pilgrim Hat Cookies for a Thanksgiving craft.

Thanks to Grandma K. for hooking us up with the recipe!

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Breaking News!

In a surprise move made by our #1 Utah Fan,

Wyatt officially decided binkies were (finally) for babies

and threw all of them away. Needles to say,

this. was. major.

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I surprised Brett and the kids with a "staycation" in Sandy. We played at the Living Planet Aquarium, which was totally awesome. Brett even pet a sting ray (the rest of us were too chicken). Then we ate at Lonestar and enjoyed a fabulous hotel room at the Country Inn & Suites where we watched a movie together. I would highly recommend this place. It was beautiful, the staff was friendly and accomodating, they had complementary warm cookies, and a pretty good breakfast buffet, too. It was nice to get away and have some time together as a family, and like Brett said on the way home, "It's great to get the perks of a vacation without the long drive!"

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Of course our grand finale to November was our Thanksgiving dinner at John & Dixie's. As usual, their meal was incredibly delicious! Mom had decorated so nicely with a beautiful table setting and fun surprises for the kids. They had just gotten this foosball table, which the kids went nuts over. It was also wonderful to have that time with Grandma Bauerle as well. This is her first holiday season without Grandpa, and we feel very mindful of that. We hope the promises of the season will bring her more comfort than loneliness and that she knows how much she means to us.
Now December is upon us and we are already

enjoying the joyful feelings and gathering that accompany it!

******

(P.S. Useless November trivia my husband will appreciate:

On November 30th,

Scotland celebrates St. Andrews Day.

There you go, honey: a reason to close banks and post offices

in humble homage to your beloved club-and-ball sport.)

B-2-S FHE & First Days : 2009 Edition

On our last "summer vacation" weekend, we held a special FHE called "Back-2-School". The kids had seen me making preparations here and there for about a week, so they'd been anticipating all the fun surprises. I'm happy to say it was a huge hit and loads of fun!

I found some cute (cheap!) decorations at the Dollar Store (streamers, cut outs for the wall) and we used our Little People Bus as our centerpiece.

After prayer, we started our lesson by singing "The Wheels on the Bus". (This could very well have been the highlight of Carson's evening!) Then we had a lesson talking about the things we can do to be good students and also tips on how to make new friends. We broke into two groups, each group listing their ideas. After reviewing everyone's suggestions, we picked our favorite ones and made an official list. Those lists were then posted on our FHE board upstairs (a magnet board specifically used to display something that brings to mind our most recent FHE lessons--hopefully it helps carry the lesson on throughout the week as a reminder).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Then we had dinner, Cafeteria-style, of course! We all had trays and walked through the "line" along the counter island. The menu was delish and old-school, as you can see in the picture below!~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Following dinner, two teams went on a treasure hunt! Halle and Wyatt had written clues, and had to use some serious teamwork to figure some of them out. Daddy and Carson had clues with pictures (I had gone around the house, photographing different locations for clues). It worked very well and Carson felt special that he got to participate and pretty much be able to do it by his big-boy-self. Here's team "Hyatt" finding their treasure: a huge gift bag full of school supplies for all three kids, plus some items they could take to their teachers (kleenex, hand sanitizer, crayons, pencils, etc.). There was also a storybook for each child about going back to school. It was fun to sit and read through them. My favorite was the story which told about a girl who is nervous and scared about the first day of school. You never see her...just parts of her, like her feet as she puts on her shoes, etc. At the end you realize it's not a girl at all--it's the teacher who has butterflies about her first day back to teaching school! Gave some nice insight that maybe the teachers get a little nervous, too!

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Carson found his treasure hiding behind the blanket rack. It was a special dessert: School Bus Twinkies! Next time I will use the miniature oreos, as the regular ones made our buses "monster trucks", but it didn't matter...they still tasted very yummy! (And can you get any more sinful than TWINKIES and OREOS???
Hello, Calories...Hello, Heaven!)We ended our FHE with a common tradition: Father's Blessings.

I'm so grateful for the priesthood Brett holds and the worthiness he has to use it. It is an incredible gift in our lives, being able to start a new year knowing the Lord has been asked to help you specifically in that area. We have great kids--they are bright, energetic, and caring. But it's wonderful to know the Lord is on their side, by their side, in their day-to-day activities.

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Breakfast First Day of School:
Waffles & Strawberries with a tall glass of OJ

Halle loves going to her beautiful new school, and loves even more the fact that she can walk there with her friends! It was hard for her mama to let her go on her own, but she's done fabulously and has also proved that so far she can be trusted to go straight there and back (even in a timely manner!). I have such a cool daughter!

Halle's teacher, "Mrs. H"
~~~~~~~~~~Wyatt is a "senior" in preschool this year.
Next year he will graduate and move onto greener
pastures in kindergarten! For now, however,
he's enjoying being back with Miss Amy and making
new friends the hopefully will be right there with him
next year as he changes to the 'big school'.