Counting on God

You'll have to read the following/previous post to get the full story about the video. Suffice to say, the video does not do these precious kids justice. Their singing and dancing must truly bring joy to our Lord, as these Kindergartners sing, "Counting on God," with all their might.

Fall Activities

Seems like we've had a busy week, but busy in a wonderful way! On Monday, Mackenzie and I made Thanksgiving Turkey Treats just like we did last year. We got the idea from Family Fun Magazine, and Mackenzie was featured in the March 2009 issue of Family Fun in the mailbox section. However, this year we were not just making them for fun. We got a grade for them! :) No worries, we received 100%. Her Kindergarten class is talking about the sense of taste and community helpers, such as bakers. The assignment was to make/bake something together, bring enough for each classmate, and tell the class how you made them.
Mackenzie was very proud of our Turkey Treats.

We had fun making them together, and I had fun carrying them down the hallway and into the classroom on Tuesday morning! The oooh's and aaaah's were so much fun! :) (These are not hard to make. Simple use Oreos, Candy Corn, Whoppers, and Icing as glue.)

Last night we went to Boo at the Zoo, which has become an annual tradition. The kids began the evening tired, so they really had no desire to pose for cute pictures for me! I liked this one of David and the kids walking toward Trick or Treat Lane, though.

Because of the huge crowds, we were able to take the free shuttle bus (big yellow school bus) from our van to the zoo entrance and back to the van when we were finished. Check out Mackenzie's (ladybug) loot!

Here's Josiah (ironman) enjoying his doughnut on the bus ride back to the van. He ate his doughnut and David's, too! Guess that was supper?!

Today David came home early so that I could go attend a Fun Friday craft time with Mackenzie and her classmates. I am her room mom, so I've been coordinating which craft and which parents (three at a time) are there to assist with the craft. We do this once every two weeks, and this was my first time to go. I love it!!! In the above picture, the kids are dancing the coordinated moves that go with the song, "Counting on God." It was priceless. The 19 second video I got of it does not do it justice, but I just might try to upload it anyways!

Above is Mackenzie sitting at her seat after finishing the pumpkin face craft. I read the story of the Pumpkin Parable to the kids after we finished the craft.

Here's Mackenzie with Avery right next to her and two other friends (Madison in pink and Kenzie in white), as well.

Left to Right: Kenzie, Madison, Audrianna, Avery, Mackenzie. Mason and Raley in background.

The entire class, except for one child who was out sick, with their pumpkin faces on their heads.

The finished product!

A sweet picture of the whole (almost) class! Mackenzie is loving Kindergarten. :)

Josiah Stories

We had a wonderful visit with David's parents this weekend, and I'm so sorry that I have absolutely no pictures to share! We all enjoyed the time together so much that I forgot to grab the camera. Anyways, the Josiah said some funny things this weekend, so I'm going to share those stories.

As we were enjoying supper at Abuelo's (thanks Zearl and Betty!) on Saturday night, Josiah crawled into my lap after eating his meal. He then began to tell me that his feet hurt. Then he said, "Mom, there's something in there!" So, I pulled his shoe off thinking I would surely find the object causing the pain. Nothing. Josiah says again, with more urgency in his voice, "It's buzzing around in there! Get it out!" At this point I have not only his shoe off, but his sock off as well. That's when I realized his foot was bright red as the blood flow was returning. He must have been sitting on his feet while eating his supper, because his feet were tingling as they had gone to sleep. I felt bad for him that his feet hurt, but his terminology was so funny!

On our way home, Josiah was talking with Granna and Z-Pa about things that fly, like hang gliders and rockets, and Granna said, "You have your Z-Pa's genes for flying, Josiah." (David's dad flew helicopters in Vietnam and a plane for a university.) Josiah paused for a few seconds while he inspected his jeans. Then he announced, "No I don't, Granna! These are my jeans!"

Random

Mackenzie was lying in her bed the other night, trying to fall asleep...and she was counting. She eventually got out of bed, came to me, and said, "Mom, I just can't go to sleep. I've already counted to one hundred and twenty-ten twice now!" I love it. She can easily count to 100, and has been able to do so for quite some time now. The funny thing to me is that when she gets to 129, the next number that comes out is 120-10 (that's 130, right?!)!! I just had to record that because she used to do that all the time while counting up to 100, like 29, 20-10, and I never got that recorded anywhere. It's been a long time since she counted to 20-10 or 120-10! (Ahem, 30 or 130.) I'll miss those cute things she does as she grows, and I want to be able to tell her about them when she's older. :) She is counting by 2's and 10's and learning all kinds of ways to count in Kindergarten. I'm guessing our days of counting to one hundred and twenty ten are numbered. ;)

If you ask Josiah what he wants for Christmas, he'll tell you...and boy are these items all about adventure and speed: jet pack, rocket boosters for shoes, hang glider, bullet bike, yellow jet car, and who knows what all else! He is boy through and through. I just hope he comes up with something doable before Christmas! He, he.

As we drove around in a parking lot looking for a place to park this evening before Mackenzie's soccer game, I said something about driving in circles. Josiah piped right up and said, "No, Mom, I think we're really driving in ovals!" He was right.

Mackenzie wrote a note to me this week. It said, "I LOVE MY MOM." She wrote it all by herself, without even asking for help with the spelling of anything! What a fun surprise for me. :)

Josiah wrote "MOM" for the first time this week, too. He is learning so much at school. He loves saying his alphabet over and over, and he loves to practice writing his letters. He is quite good at tracing items and staying in the lines while coloring. His teachers at church say he is the best in his class at coloring...very focused and determined to stay in the lines and wants to finish his work.

It is fun to see both kids doing so well in school settings and with school work. Oh, and they saw each other at recess today! Well, Mackenzie was on the big kid playground and Josiah on the preschool playground (separate areas)...but they waved to each other and were so excited to tell me all about it when school was over. Precious kids.

Inviting a friend from school

Mackenzie and Josiah have both been begging to invite Avery over to play. I finally found an afternoon that would work, and we invited her to our house. The most fun part for me? Getting to pick one of Mackenzie's friends up from school and bring her home to our house to play! That may sound funny, but I have such wonderful memories of having friends over to play, as well as going to their houses to play, that I was really excited about this! I don't know what they were doing, but they were laughing so hard that I just had to grab the camera! :)
Mackenzie driving the Mustang and taking Avery for a ride down the street.

Now Avery's at the wheel and Mackenzie's along for the ride. I have to say, they're both pretty good drivers for five year olds! We had so much fun, and I'm so thankful that my children have such wonderful friends. Friendship is truly a blessing.

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

If I counted correctly, there are 27 pictures in this post...don't say I didn't warn you! :) We had a blast yesterday at a local pumpkin patch/farm.
The kids loved running through the hay bale maze that was just their size.

They both enjoyed the giant sand area, but Josiah enjoyed it most of all! He spent a lot of time playing with the trucks and buckets in the sand.

Mackenzie loved the pedal cars and went numerous times around the track even though her legs were just barely long enough!

Josiah loved the pedal cars, too. His legs just weren't long enough!

Mackenzie flying out the end of the long slide.

Josiah flying out the end of the long slide!

Both kids running back toward the stairway up to do it all again!

Mackenzie in the corn or maize pit.

Josiah making a corn angel?! :)

Enjoying life in the big bucket of corn. Very fun to play in and a neat texture, too!

Well, if you look close you can see the back of Josiah's head in the green hole, beside Mackenzie's in the brown one! I almost got them both at the same time, but not quite!

My family!

David, Mackenzie, Josiah, April

My Little Pumpkin. :)

Little Sweetie in the hay waiting for the hayride wagon to board.

Little man waiting for the hayride to board.

My two precious kiddos, excited about the hayride!

My babies and me on the hayride.

I love this one of Mackenzie. The lighting was good, too.

My little pumpkins, sitting on pumpkins.

(We didn't get any there this year as they seem old and don't last as long as the fresh pumpkins from a small area nearer our home, but we enjoyed the photo op!)

David and Mackenzie on the return hayride back to the main area.

Mackenzie in the foreground and Josiah in the background, getting their faces painted! We let them each pick which "face" they wanted...

Mackenzie chose Rose Princess.

Josiah chose Skeleton Pirate!

Here's the finished product.

Josiah's just cracked me up. I think he looks like he has black eyes today, even after our attempts to wash it off! All of it is off except the bruised appearance of his eyes. Ha.

Mackenzie proudly displaying her Rose Princess paints.

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch, and the weather was so perfect, too. Fun times and fun memories. Happy Fall Everyone! :)