October and November School Events

It is amazing how fast the time has gone by once school has started. With Emma in Kindergarten, we have entered the world of elementary school activities. Here are a few of the events that we participated in throughout the fall.

In October, Emma (and the rest of the family) participated in her annual school walkathon. The walk, called the Cat Walk, is a fundraiser that raises money to support the school. Emma was very excited to participate. She took cookies to Daddy's work and asked for their support and on the day of the walk, she finished her lap card with an amazing 49 laps. Here are a few pictures from the day:


Emma gets her lap card punched as she goes around

It was a really warm day, but Emma was a trooper throughout

She had lots of support from the family!

We are really proud of Emma and at an assembly this week, she was awarded a medal for raising the most money for all the kindergarteners.

At the end of October, we celebrated halloween in a low key kind of way. We carved our pumpkins:



Dan got a little creative with his carving implements

Our finished product

We also attended Emma's school halloween parade:


Emma ready to parade through the school

The kindergarteners paraded through the older grades' classrooms

Emma's class all dressed up


Today, to celebrate Thanksgiving, we attended Emma's Thanksgiving feast. The children dressed up as pilgrims and Native Americans and feasted on turkey sandwiches, cornbread, fruit, and pumpkin pie.


Emma's place setting

Emma was chosen to be a pilgrim

The pilgrims and native americans eating in harmony

Ian got to join in the fun, too! He even got to watch Charlie Brown with the big kids

Emma shows off her turkey

Reading together after the feast

Emma the indian showing off her corn crop.

We are really enjoying Emma's kindergarten year and look forward to many other fun events to come!

A taste of our Halloween

Here is a taste of our Halloween:
(sorry for the poor quality, with left the camera at home tonight!)







We went to our church "Hullabaloo" and they sugared up our children..... Emma went for the cotton candy and Ian is two fisting it with a lollipop and popcorn in the other. More pictures of Emma's school parade to come.

Our pumpkins

Emma wanted to have a photo shoot with our pumpkins, so here are Emma and Ian showing off their pumpkin choices...

Emma really likes her baby pumpkin

But she let Ian hold it so he would join her for pictures!

Emma 's gymnastics show

After going to the farm yesterday, we had another event to head to in the afternoon. (Did I mention that fall weekends seem to be very busy?) Emma's annual gymnastics show was being held, so we headed off to see some of Emma's skills.
This is the second year that Emma participated in this event. The children are advised to wear their halloween costumes, so here is the unveiling of Emma's costume this year..... She chose to be


A hula girl!

Emma waiting with her group

Her turn! The children practice their routine for about a month before the show.

Preparing for cartwheels

Giving Dad a wave

Proud!

Emma's friend, Kaylie introduces herself

Emma's turn
Emma had a great time performing and it was fun to see how much she has learned this year!

Fun on the Farm

Yesterday morning, we decided that it was time to head to the farm and a choose some pumpkins. In my quest to find a "real" pumpkin Patch in Northern California where you take the hayride into the field to pick your pumpkin, we headed about and hour away to try out a new farm that was recommended to us. Although there was no hayride and the pumpkins were already picked, we still had a great time on the farm.
The first thing we did was made Daddy happy by going to the pumpkin blasters....

As you can see, these were some serious pumpkin shooters

Ian was excited to try

Daddy gets ready to blast a pumpkin

Emma's turn

There was a place where you could "mine" for treasure

Emma enjoyed the jumping pillow

Ian enjoyed the pony ride

Ian and his horse

Then we went on a train ride

Emma with the pumpkins
One of the most fun parts of the day was the Corn Maze

Ian and Daddy on top of the bridge

Good friends

An attempt at a family pic
Even though it did not fit my vision for a pumpkin patch, we had a great day on the farm.

Fleet Week 2011

Every few months, we brave going into San Francisco to enjoy a little city life and remind ourselves why we live in the suburbs :) Last weekend was fleet week in the city and since we have a 2 year old that is infatuated with any form of transportation, we decided to incorporate trains, boat, and planes into one big adventure.
We started off the day by heading to the train station to take the "choo choo" into the city.


Waiting for the train. This was also the subway station, so Ian was pointing to the other "train" and trying to get us to go on it

Still waiting...

Ian spots the train!

Once we got into the city we took the trolley to the waterfront and after a nice lunch, found a spot to see some boats and airplanes.

This is one of the first planes we saw.

Followed by this awesome Canadian group of flyers

Their planes were white on one side and red on the other

They made some awesome formations

Emma wanted her picture with one of the airplanes

Ian having fun at the show
The airshow ended with the Blue Angels

Flying behind one of the ships; Alcatraz is on the right

They were truly and awesome sight
We ended the day with a subway trip back to our car with two tired, happy kids enjoying all their favorite forms of transportation.

Read to Me, Emma

Emma is really enjoying Kindergarten, and even though she can not read yet, she still likes to share stories with Ian.


"Reading" before nap

Emma is a great story teller!