Happy Halloween!!

Unlike last year, Collin knew what Halloween was about and did not change his mind several times trying to figure out what costume he was going to wear.  He went as Savage Revenge which is a bad guy from Star Wars.  He wanted me to dress up as well so we looked through the box of costume stuff we have collected over the years and come up with something that was acceptable to him.

We met the Jurek girls and Clayton, took a few pictures (that Linden would have nothing to do with) and then took off to the start of the parade in the neighborhood.

Saige, Linden, Clayton and Collin

Geisha, Iron Man and Savage Revenge

Following the leader to the parade start

While waiting for the parade, Collin got his picture taken by the photographer that was set up at the corner and also picked out a tattoo. He saw a few of his friends from class and was not shy walking up to them to talk.  I was proud of him to see that.  He then got thirsty and WAY too antsy for the parade to start because he wanted a drink....now!

Black cat tattoo

Not sure what I am here...Spider Momma?

He looks so old in this picture!

There were so many people there that they did not all fit in the camera window.

Once the fire truck arrived, the parade was ready to start.....and so was Collin.  We all walked several houses down the street and ended up at the house that was loaded with treats for the kids.  They took the time to get something to drink and eat before heading off to trick-or-treat.  I walked with Collin last year so Daddy walked with him this year so I could head back to the house to greet trick-or-treaters.  Collin was grouchy for some reason so I thought he would not last too long anyway.  He lasted longer than I expected and they came home just as it was getting dark.

Thirsty boys

Collin wanted to help me pass out candy.  He thought it was fun the first three times or so but then got annoyed with the door bell ringing so much.  The treaters lasted for another hour and then it was time to get ready for bed.  He was not too hyped up on sugar so the did not take too long to focus on getting back to his room to read books and get in bed.  After four books, he let me put him in his bed and give him a kiss.  He did not say a word as I left his room and then did not get up after that.  He must have had a great time tonight because he is OUT!

The Three Amigos

Collin, Clayton and Saige are best buddies that also happen to play on the same soccer team.  They are also cut-ups and have fun with each other.  It's a wonder that they even focus long enough to play the game.  For instance, here are a few pictures of them waiting for the team soccer picture to be taken:

Here is a good picture of Team Zebras! Aren't they cute?



Soccer and Birthday Parties

We had a full day running around to a soccer game, two birthday parties and now a friend, Clayton, spending the night. 

Timmy's birthday party and Collin's soccer game started at the same time.  Collin really likes playing soccer so we went to the game so he could play the first 30 minutes before we left for Timmy's party.  Even though the other team was scoring goal after goal, the Zebra's (Collin's team) was playing really well together and did not let the goals for the other team discourage them....probably because they don't realize what the goal means and winning or losing at this point.  Collin was SO close to scoring a goal once but he kicked the ball a little to the left and missed the net.  He had great command of the ball and did not lose focus while he was playing.  He was having so a great time that I did not want to have to pull him out so we could head to Timmy's party.  I knew he would have fun there too and would not want to miss it.

Huddle and prayer before the game begins

Collin in position

Collin in front trying to to keep the ball away from the other team

Trying to stay with the action

There goes #3 helping a team mate out and to turn the ball around

We got in the car and dashed to Timmy's birthday party.  Before going in, Collin wanted to change out of his uniform and cleats.  He is very concerned if others will make comments about what he is wearing or if they will be doing something different.  I knew this and was prepared for him to want to change.  We quickly changed and joined the party just as Timmy was blowing out his candles.  After cake and ice cream, the kids played pin-the-badge-on-the-Dalmatian.  Collin was close but a little too low.  Timmy then opened his presents.  As with his party last year, Collin was right there with him checking out the new toys/presents.  Timmy got tired at one point and let another friend open his presents.  I was happy to see that Collin did not want to take the present home that we gave Timmy like he did last year.  Of course, he liked it because he picked it out. 

Timmy and the fire men that hosted the party

Because Collin arrived late to the party, he missed getting to see the fire truck...or so we thought.  The fire men were happy to give Timmy and Collin a private tour of the driver's seat and the compartment in the back which the rest of the kids did not get to see.  The boys loved it and asked lots of questions.  They even got to push the button that turns the lights on.  They REALLY liked that.  Even Leah wanted to be included.

The boys in the front of the truck

Leah giving Collin a hug

They were trying to make the lights turn back on

Mimi wanted pictures of her grand kids after the party.  Now Mimi, do you really think that a 4, 5 and almost 2 year old are going to be still for a picture?  I clicked as many times as I could before Timmy took off to play with the water hose.

After grabbing lunch with Timmy and his family. we headed back to our house for Saige's birthday party which was at her house.  As soon as we turned on our street, Collin saw the bounce house in her front yard.  I pulled in the driveway and that kid unbuckled as fast as he could.  I thought for sure he would have been tired from what he had done already for the day.  Nope, not when there is a bouncy house that needs to be jumped in.  He, as usual, lasted the longest in there and only came out because I made him when it was time to sing to Saige.  He was fine when he saw that there was a cupcake and cookie waiting for him.  No, he did not eat the icing but he is a chocolate cake kid now.  Last year, it was vanilla.  This year, it's chocolate.  Then...not time to waste when he finished.  Time to jump again.  They jumped even after it got dark.  We finally pulled Collin and Clayton out of the bouncy house after 8pm because the boys needed to start settling down for the evening. 

Collin and Clayton played in Collin's playroom before it was time to brush teeth, put PJs on and get in bed for movie time.  They decided on Toy Story 3 which they are watching right now.  I hear talking in there at it's 9:45pm.  Guess it will be a late night for at least three of us in the house.  Daddy already went to bed 15 minutes ago.  It was a long day for everyone.....but a great one!

Jumping!!!

After running too many errands, Collin and I went to the indoor trampoline place.  He and Daddy have done this before but this was my first time.  I assumed it would wear me out....and it did!  He and I jumped, tumbled and bounced around for over an hour.  Towards the end of our time there, Collin tried to do a flip....and did it!  He was so happy about doing a flip, he did it over and over and over....at least 20 times.  He was so proud of himself and said this was his favorite part.

Look at him go!  Mommy did not do too bad herself.  I am sure I will be sore tomorrow for the bike ride.

Pumpkin Patch #2

This morning, Collin went on a field trip to the local pumpkin patch with his Pre-K class.  I took the day off so that I could participate in the fun outing (and knock off a lot of other things on my long list to do). 

It was so fun to watch the kids quickly figure out where they were and disburse through the pumpkins.  The girls knew what to do and started to look for their pumpkin.  The boys did not care and climbed on the wagon, wanted to sit on the saddle and pick at the hay bales. 

The kids also had a good time putting their face in the wooden board that had pumpkins painted on it.  They were getting rough and pushing but had fun.

Collin happy that it was his turn to put his face in the pumpkin hole.

"My turn, my turn!"

Collin took his sweet time to find the perfect pumpkin.  To him, the perfect pumpkin is the one with the longest stem on it.  Nope, not the biggest or the one with the most bumps, it's all about the stem.  He did have to stop and check out every pumpkin that was oozing stuff out of it.  There were not that many because the person was cleaning these up.

"Mommy, this one's heavy.  We don't want it, right?"

Such a happy little boy!

He did it!  Found one with an exceptionally long stem.  Time to stand in line now.

I helped the teacher with the kids getting their money out to pay for them and write their name on the pumpkins.  Collin helped me by putting the pumpkins in the wagon to take back to school.  He would run off and then come back to help a little more.  He even help Elliot find a pumpkin because it was time to go.

Sure is a lot of pumpkins to decorate.  That's William's green one.  He just had to have it.

Before heading back to school, the class stopped to take a few pictures near the pumpkins.  They posed seriously and then really liked making funny faces (I missed that one).

1st Pre-K Parent Conference

We met with Ms Hansen this afternoon to talk about Collin and how he is doing in class.  Her summary report was "Collin loves to make his friends laugh.  We are working on following directions right away.  We are also working on keeping our hands to ourself.  Please continue working on recognizing letters and sounds."

Oh really?  Collin is a "cut-up" in class.  I know exactly where he got that from.....nope, not his Daddy.  I love to make people laugh and feel at ease.  I like the be the center of attention...when I want to be.  This is how Collin and I interact in addition to joking around with each other.  My little jokester is taking that to school with him and I should not be surprised.  I am not surprised that he pushes Ms Hansen's buttons and does not always follow directions.  For example, she says that she will ask him to stop doing something and he will do it just one more time OR she will ask another kid in class to stop or do something else and then Collin will do the opposite of what she is asking.  This is not regularly but enough for her to point it out to us.

He did really well understanding parts of a book, sentences and other questions related to books.  He also did well with numbers, colors and shapes.  None of this surprised me because he is interested in learning these things.  He DOES need to work on his letters, both lower and upper case.  I am not surprised by this at all.  He has never been interested in writing or working on learning about his letters.  She gave us a few suggestions and we will start working on these more to see how much he improves the next time she tests him.

Red Ribbon Week = Crazy Hair Tuesday

To promote Red Ribbon Week at school, a drug prevention campaign, the kids get to wear something different than usual to school each day this week.  Monday, Collin wore his shirt inside out.  He thought it was funny especially because the other kids where doing it.  By the end of the day however, the tag at the bottom of his shirt was bugging him.  "See how the tag keeps hitting my arm when I swing my arm by it like this?"  This comment was close to 8pm when we were headed back to his room to get ready for bed.

Tuesday, the kids could wear a hat or have crazy hair.  Thinking that most of the kids, if they even participated, would wear a hat, we thought it would be fun for Collin to have crazy hair and spike it up really tall.  He has so much long hair on top, that it should stand at least 3 inches above his head.  We borrowed some gel from the Jureks to have it for the morning.

Daddy and Collin played around with the gel that morning.  At first, Daddy did a mohawk which Daddy said looked REALLY cool but Collin did not want to wear his hair that way.  "Will the other kids have hair like this?"  Remember, this kid is really concerned about what others will think and what other kids will be doing or saying to him.  So, Daddy tamed it down a little but it was still crazy hair.....even compared to the bed head  that Collin sometimes has in the morning.

They drove to school so that his hair would not be messed up from the helmet if they road the bike.  Here are a few pictures of Collin just as he got out of the car:

Later, I asked Collin what the kids thought about his hair.  "They laughed.  No one one else had hair like mine."  He was really said when he said this which made me sad but I tried not to show it.  We talked more and I found out that the other kids, as we suspected, wore hats and did not have crazy hair.  We did not talk about it much more because he had moved on by this point.

Wednesday is crazy sock day.
Thursday is neon, bright colors day.
Friday is Halloween shirt day.  I guess he better have one by then.

Here Come the Questions

"Mommy, what does 'comfort' mean?" after hearing the word on the radio.

"What does 'suicide' mean?" after hearing the word on TV (that's Daddy for watching that TV program.....)

"Why is this cheese flat?' when he was unwrapping a piece of sliced cheese.

Collin is asking more and more questions especially about what words means.  He is learning a letter a week at school, how that letter is all around him in life and sentence structure.  Instead of guessing what I meant (or ignoring me all together ... which still does happen), he listens and then asks questions about words I or someone else near him used.  I love this and enjoy explaining the words to him and then watch his face and see him thinking about what I just told him. 

"Fart begins with 'F' right?"

Collin is learning letters, syllables and rhyming in school. Each week, they work on one letter of the alphabet.  With this letter, they color the letter, sound out words that begin with the letter and even bring a show-n-tell that starts with the letter.  The show-n-tell is fun for them because they bring it in a bag that has 3 clues.  The kids have to guess what's in the bag based on the clues. 

Last night during dinner, I talked to Collin about the letter they were working on this week.  I knew it was "F" based on the email the teacher sent that morning with an update about the class.  I started with:

Mommy:  "Collin, I heard you were learning about the letter "F" this week in school.  Does "chip" begin with "F"?
Collin:  "No"
Mommy:  "Well, then does "table" begin with "F"?
Collin: "No" as he is sounding out the word table
Mommy: "What about "feather""?
Collin:  "Yes, that does begin with "F".  What about "fart"?  That begins with "F", right?"  He then starts laughing so hard that he farts....which made him laugh even more.  I love my boy! 

"Come Find Me Mommy!"

Collin has loved to play hide-n-seek since he was 2.  This love has not changed.....just the seeking has gotten harder.  He has found some really good hiding places and also learned to not talk to the seeker when he is hiding.

His favorite spot is under the bed.  This is also where is wet towel and occasionally diaper will end up.  I now have to look under the bed when cleaning his room or if there is a smell.

Last night was no exception to wanting to hide.  I am sure it was because it was close to bed time and he knew it.  I followed him down the hall as he was running to his room.  By the time he got to his room, he was well hidden.  Where did that stinker go?  I was just behind him.  I did finally find him under the bed.  Since he did that so fast, I asked him to show me how he does it so fast.  He was happy to do so.  He got up and started from the door to his room, ran around to the front of the bed, dropped to his belly, and then head first, inched his way quickly under his bed within 20 seconds.  "That was fast!" I told him and he was really proud of that.  I then put pillows in the way of that entry and asked him what he would do if there were pillows in the way.  Thinking he would enter from the side, he surprised me when he ran around to the front, threw the pillows out of the way and made it under the bed in seconds again.  Hmmmm......this kiddo is determined to hide and get to his favorite spot.  He liked the "what if" game and then blocked the side of the bed. 

We played for about 15 minutes longer before it was time to go to bed.  Daddy came home about this time so this was another welcomed distraction for Collin....and it worked.  We did not have time to read books so I laid with him in bed while he played "dead" which is another favorite of his...and he is really good at it.  You would think this would wear him out because he was shutting his eyes and being as still as he could but it didn't.  He did finally relax and fell asleep. 

Sleepover!

Timmy spent the night last night!!!  After work, I met Aunt Lisa to pick Timmy up and take him home for what I hoped to be an enjoyable night and Saturday for both him and Collin.  Timmy was asleep when I arrived and slept all the way to our house.  When we arrived, Collin ran out of the house to help Timmy and I get out of the car.  "I can help you unbuckle him Mommy".  After that, the boys were inseparable the rest of the night.  They played really well together and barely stopped to eat dinner.  They started in the playroom, played with Play Doh at the kitchen table, played in the playroom again, ran around the house chasing each other before it was time to have cake at the Jureks for Randy's birthday.  All of that happened within 1 1/2 hours of Timmy and I coming home.  At this point, I could tell that I was going to pass out early tonight (which I did not to my surprise).  After coming back to the house, the boys wanted to watch a movie and did fall asleep in the playroom where they both stay through the night.  Ahhh....quiet....until 6:45am.

The difference this morning was that the boys played together for about 20 minutes until Collin came to get me so I could help rebuild the train track that broke.  I did and slipped back into bed for another 20 minutes when I was woken up again.  I stayed up this time.  After they downed 3 homemade pancakes each, we got out the Halloween decorations and started to put them outside when Daddy joined us.  Then, they wanted to paint the pumpkins.  I thought this might last at least 20 minutes but they got tired of it quicker than it took me to set it up.  They wanted to play outside.  I joined them and cleaned the backyard because it had been at least 3 months.  Lots of pine needles everywhere.  This is when they finally got on each other's nerves. 

After eating very little for lunch, we left for Collin's soccer game in the Jeep.  Timmy loved the wind in his hair. While the kids practiced 20 minutes before the game, Timmy and I practiced soccer too.  He is really good with the ball!  Collin noticed I was not watching him and ran over to give me a 5 minutes warning.  He wanted me to know the game was about to start and I needed to watch him play.  Timmy was not interested in sitting still so I let him play games on the cell phone so he would sit next to me.  Collin did fantastic during the game (of course, because it involved running) and even scored a goal.  After the game, we met a few team mates for ice cream before Timmy had to go home.  Collin and I came home to watch a movie and relax.  He feel asleep within 30 minutes and has been out for almost two hours.  I guess that means he had fun with Timmy.  Maybe we can make this a monthly thing.

Playing with Play Doh at the kitchen table

I think the boys did a great job with the decorations

Timmy did not get much further than this with his pumpkin

Collin showing off his pumpkin before he grew tired of painting.  I am sure it had to do with Timmy not sitting there anymore.

My little jokester.  I love him!

Jeep ride on the way to soccer

Pumpkin Patch

I am not sure his reason why but Daddy let me know before I got home that Collin wanted to go to the Pumpkin Patch....tonight!  I knew when I got home and the first thing he asked was "Can we go to the Pumpkin Patch?" that he was not going to forget his request from earlier that day.  Grandma H was at the house because she took him to gymnastics.  After he showed me a hand stand attempt twice which was more like a cartwheel, we loaded up in the car and headed to the Patch.  Grandma H said she had never been so it was good that she was able to join us.

We have been going to this same Patch for 3 years now.  Collin is a pro at it now and knows the purpose of being there.  He wanted to pick a pumpkin out for our house, Grandma H and school.  I was also going to get one for Mimi but they were low on good medium size pumpkins.  After climbing on the cart he has to climb on every year, we set out to search for the pumpkins we wanted to take home.  Collin was really particular this year and explained that the pumpkins had to have a long stem on them.  I usually like ones with little ones or even without a stem so this should be fun.  After about 20 minutes of looking around, we selected a good group of pumpkins and brought them home.  He will decorate them this weekend.  He is really looking forward to that. 

Great bunch of pumpkins!  Collin can tell you which house each one of these belongs to. 

Grandma H pointing out a good pumpkin.  I think we did end up bringing this one home with us.

He kept coming back to this one because he could see what the pumpkin looked like inside.

See the foot Grandma H?  It's back there!