What we learned from our field trip to the Fire Station:
1. Don't pull any levers. In the front room where they display the antique fire truck, before the firemen were even there to talk to us, one of our kids (Meri got blamed but who knows) pulled a small lever on a pipe and suddenly there was water spraying across the room. None of the moms had seen what happened so we didn't really know how to stop it. Needless to say, the floor got very wet before anybody came to help. Oops.
2. Jell learned "they drive in the fire truck." Here's the girls giving it a try (lots of the kids were very disappointed that they didn't actually get to drive the truck. I don't think they trusted them anywhere near all those levers ... with good reason.)
3. Firemen with their masks on sound like Darth Vader and make Jell nervous. She finally did get brave and went up and knocked on his face mask, but she spent most of the time with her hands over her ears (what she does when she's nervous about anything) a safe distance away.
4. Meri claims to have only learned that "we get a hat" when we go to the station on a field trip. Which is pretty neat. And a sticker.
5. I listened and learned a lot of cool stuff, but I'm not so sure about the girls. My first clue was when they were jumping around dancing throughout some of his demonstrations. My second clue was when they were trying to climb the basketball pole and slide down during his explanations. My third clue was when it was apparent that it was more important to them who they were standing by than whether or not there was even a fireman in the room. My fourth clue was when I asked them what they learned when we got home and Jell said, "Um... um... well, you were there mom."
I know I already did a ballet post, but I was just sent these pics and I HAD to include them - they may make my all-time favorite list. And I don't even like pink. But I just love these girls! Just don't look too closely at Jells' saggy, wrinkly old woman tights (they're like 3 sizes too big ... she'll grow into them, right?).
Meri came out looking like this when we said "Go get your jammies on please."
And "time for family prayer":)
He was convinced it would help him do better. Later, he also got out his gloves and face mask. And he wonders why we were embarrassed as teenagers!
It's just too bad that raking leaves isn't as fun as jumping in them!
Some of the fun of Halloween is that we get to go show our costumes to lots of grandparents and Aunt Patti and Uncle Jim. Here's a few pics with them:
Jell refused to ever touch the stuff, only willing to scoop it out with a spoon. Meri, on the other hand, got nice and dirty - I love how she's up to her elbow in one of our smaller pumpkins!
I think it's tradition now - we had it out and glowing for the Blazers' opening night again this year and it helped them to a win :) Course it was lit last night too, but we won't talk about that.
Then Jell absolutely insisted we make one into a witch, and after her not liking any designs we could find online, I made up this one while she slept and she loved it in the morning:
I can't take the credit here, this one did come from the internet, but it was so funny (Jell didn't stop laughing hysterically for like a minute straight) that we had to have our own Cannibal monster pumpkin. "Poor, poor baby pumpkin" she kept saying after she stopped laughing.
Now we're finally ready for Halloween, come rain or shine! And from all indications, come rain it is!
As we've been seeing Halloween decorations everywhere, we've had quite a lot of discussions about what's real and what's pretend, and how pretend things aren't scary. They're just for fun and often silly. So here's our pretend hands/feet ghosts! We love the end product, and they loved the process, however mom was a little stressed about keeping the white paint from getting everywhere!! I'm giving myself a pat on the back for being a good sport and letting them do it in the first place :)
Jell dumped basically the whole sprinkle jar onto one cookie. Oh well, right? Maybe she was trying to make him feel better after she busted his arm off ... before she ate him.
Ready to go party!
The whole witchey crew
Witches in training
Mama Witches - even Moms have fun dressing up now and then
But she did warm up and by the third time we got on the train, was laughing her head off. Jell even sat by us for a couple minutes before ditching us for all her friends :)
And surprise, surprise - look who got all brave all the sudden!
Also a bit surprising, look at who wasn't brave. She did get some of the food, but each time the goat turned it's head toward her, she chucked the food at it. Catch!
And somehow, nobody fell down this! There were a dozen constantly climbing on and in this - what fun!
Buddies!
Cute girls!
The preschool group happy to have pumpkins!
