Class "Pet" Visit

I mentioned in the Star Student post, Rocky, William's class panther, spent the weekend with us. The fun began on Friday night when we went to pizza and then had him join our movie night presentation of Brother Bear.

Saturday we journeyed to Fountainbleau State Park in Mandeville (north of Lake Ponchartrain). There the kids and I went on a 2 mile hike through the woods and over a marsh--yes, I did see one rather large, venomous snake. LA has some rather crazy wildlife, so I took this opportunity to teach the kids about talking/singing/clapping on a trail to let bears know we're there (we have a bear bell, but I forgot to bring it along). We also walked to the pier that overlooks Lake Ponchartrain and watched the fish jumping near the surface. Before we left we went to the Nature Center. The kids were very excited to see a baby alligator in a tank there, and even more excited when they got a chance to pet it!

Today was Lakeview Fest. It is a carnival near our house with games, music, and lots of food. Again, Rocky went along for the fun. The kids played lots of games and won several prizes, and, of course, each had to have cupcakes and king cake.

As a part of visiting all of the reserve units in his district, Andy spent the weekend in St. Louis. While we definitely missed having him home with us for yet another weekend, it was well-timed so that he could attend Mike's farewell party this afternoon. I know he also spent some time showing a few out-of-town Coasties the sites and sounds of STL, so if he has pictures, I will be sure to share them.

Star Student

William was selected as Star Student in his class for the week. Each child gets a chance to be the star for a week and it is a way for the kids to get to know each other better. This means a few special things for him throughout the week, but the biggest came yesterday. He brought in a couple of items to show and share with the class. He chose to bring a bowling pin that he received at his bowling party and his bug/lizard catching vest and tools. The kids were very interested in both items. They all had to touch the bowling pin and they wanted to see all of the various bug tools up close. I also got to be there for the show and share, and then I read a story to his class that William picked out. He chose "Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash" which has always been one of his favorites. Since it is a fairly short poem story, I brought along a squash to talk a little bit about that and lengthen the book some. It was such a fun experience to watch William in front of his classmates and to share a story with them!

Also, you may notice a few, including William, wearing crazy socks. As part of S week, they all wore silly socks to school yesterday. William wore a pair of pirate tube socks. I was informed by William that I even had to participate since I was coming to his class that day, so of course I wore some crazy striped ones. The teachers were impressed that I brought the squash during the "s" week and wondered if I planned it--of course, I said yes.

The other part of being Star Student is that he brings home the class "pet" for the weekend. Rocky, the black panther, is staying with us this weekend and going everywhere we go. I will post about our adventures with Rocky after tomorrow.

Andy's 33rd

On Thursday we celebrated Andy's birthday. We went out to dinner, he opened all of his gifts with the kids, then we had cupcakes for dessert. I think Andy would agree, the best part of all was that William remembered it was his birthday when he woke up on Thursday, and was the first to wish him a happy birthday.

Kinder Garden

On Tuesday I took Clark to the Kinder Garden program for kids 18 mos through 3 years at a local garden (the same one that William went to for a birthday party about a month ago). It was a fabulous program with lots of stations set up around the Discovery Garden. He dug for worms, raked pine needles, played with balls, planted seeds, made a bird house craft, sang a song, and listened to a book all in an hour! We are already planning to go again once the next session begins in October.

Park and Party

William's school hosted a Family Fun Night at City Park Amusement last weekend. They rent out the park after hours for just his school. Unfortunately, Andy was in Houston and couldn't go with us, but we still had some fun.

The following day we had a birthday party for one of William's classmates, JoJo, who turned 6. It was a pool party at the Southern Yacht Club, which is a pretty fancy place for a kid party. Andy met us there after his plane arrived from Houston (and after he changed a flat tire on the way there). For most of the party I was by myself with the kids which should help explain the lack of photos--it was difficult enough to keep track of 2 kids among lots of kids in 2 pools.

Let the Saints Craze Begin

As many of you may know, tonight the NFL season kicks off in New Orleans with the Saints playing the Vikings. What you probably don't know, at least first hand, is just how crazy people get about this team around here. Because of the festivities that surrounded the game, including a big concert and a Mardi Gras-style parade, many schools were actually canceled today! Well, William's school was not canceled, but they did hold a pep rally and a second-line (which is like a dancing parade) that made the news. If you look closely, you will see William at one point at the bottom right of the picture. All of this for the first game...it's going to be a LONG season!

http://www.abc26.com/news/local/wgno-news-st-pauls-mini-saints,0,2488501.story

Let Pre-school Begin

Yesterday was Clark's turn to officially start pre-school. He is going to the same school that William attended last year, and he had a great day! As you can see from the photo he was tired at the end of his day (he only took a 20 minute nap), but he was happy. And, I was especially happy because he was wearing the same clothes that I brought him in that morning--which means he didn't have any accidents! He went to a once a week program there for a couple of months this summer along with William, which I really think helped with this transition. He is in a new classroom with new teachers, but the environment was familiar to him and therefore made it easy for him to jump right in. He is in the 3 year-old class (he is young, but in LA the cutoff is September 30, which he makes by a week) and goes to school 3 days per week for fairly long days (9:15 am til 2:15 pm). I just hope it continues going well for him!

Mostly Labor-less Labor Day Weekend

Andy ended up not having to go into work this past weekend, which was great, but it was canceled too late for us to go anywhere far. The poles for the fence were also not yet ready, so that project didn't get off the ground either. However, we managed to make the best out of it by sharing some great family time together. On Saturday we headed to Baton Rouge to the LSU Rural Life Museum. It is set up on about 40 acres and re-creates plantation life with buildings and features that would have been found in Louisiana in the late 1800's/early 1900's. There are also many tools there to see and the kids were very facinated by what things "used to be like" back long ago.

On Sunday and Monday we didn't really do anything specifically wonderful, but since Andy has been gone the last couple of weekends and will be gone the next few, it was nice to get the downtime too. Andy and Clark did go on a quick kayak trip, while William and I went on a real bike ride (about 3 miles total and on the road some). Their kayak trip was on Bayou St. John, which is fairly close to our house so William and I road over on our bikes to see them. Other than riding right by our house, this is William's first real bike ride. He did GREAT and even mentioned how enjoyable it was to be out on the bike trail! Unfortunately there aren't any photos of these two items as it is hard enough to kayak with a babe on board and to bike on the road with a kid-in-training.

I also included a photo of a chair sculpture that Clark made. He was very intentional in his placement and called it art when he was finished. In the photo you can see the pride of accomplishment on his face and I love that he put his arms out and said 'look what I made!" Of course, I may be a little bias, but it definitely looks suitable for placement in any sculpture park that I've been to.

A Few Weeks In

Hard to believe that we are at the end of William's 3rd week of kindergarten. Overall, I think it is going pretty well. He is making friends and seems to enjoy his days there. The biggest part of the initial adjustment for him was not going full-days, rather 5 days. If I would have been thinking, I could have prepared him a little better for that by telling him he will go on the days Andy goes to work. Anyway, seems that adjustment has been made. Several people commented about his bright-white tennis from the photos on his first day. Well, I can tell you they are already well broken-in and the new is definitely worn off. He has already been invited to 3 birthday parties--one was last weekend at the Longue Vue Garden, and that is where the photos were taken. He had lots of fun running around with his new friends, chasing butterflies, digging for worms, and blowing bubbles.

Clark is supposed to start pre-school next week on Wednesday. I think he is mostly ready as he went there a bit this summer to get him used to it. He is doing fairly well with his potty training (at least half of it) as is required to go to this school, so I am just really hopeful that he is able to do it at school too. Oh, the things that we have to stress about as a parent--never thought I would care so much about pee and poop in my life! Before pre-school starts up, Clark and I have been spending some fun days together while William's at school. One day we went to the zoo. It was a scorcher, but still fun as we practically had the place to ourselves and Clark got to feed the otters.

Not sure what, if anything much, we will be doing this weekend. We had hoped to head to the beach, but given the most recent oil rig situation, Andy is currently scheduled to work on Sunday. I am really hoping that changes or that we at least get a chance to get a little family time doing something fun this weekend. Andy was out of town last weekend and will be out of town for the next 3 weekends, so if not now, it will be awhile. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!