More Halloween

On the Friday before Halloween (October 29th), the elementary had their traditional "Storybook Character Day".  Each child had to dress up as someone in a book and bring the book.  Jarem's teacher dressed up as Snow White and asked that her class dress as one of the dwarves if they felt so inclined.  I put a little costume together for Jarem with things I could find around the house.  He turned out to be a pretty cute little dwarf.  There was a lot of discussion about WHICH dwarf he was.  He said he was "Happy".  The first two pictures he looks like "Happy" and then he turns into maybe "Bashful".  Tessa wore her same queen dress and borrowed a book from her friend Divya about real queens and princesses.

Tessa wore her same queen dress and borrowed this book (don't try to look inside) from her friend Divya about real queens and princesses.  I borrowed this photo from Amazon.    She told everyone she was "Queen Elizabeth"

This picture is from the night we went trick-or-treating.  Jesikah painted her whole face and neck green this time.

Patterson Place

On the only Saturday that we didn't have soccer games in October, the girls, Jarem, and I went with my friend, Priya, and her girls (Divya & Pramika) to the Patterson Place Pumpkin Patch and zoo.  Eric and Alex were at the temple in Nashville with the youth so they weren't with us.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time petting the animals and looking around.  We also went through the corn maze.

They had some unique animals there like alpacas, emus, elk (including a baby elk only a few days old), fallow deer, different variety of cattle, a big camel, donkeys, a zedonk(zebra/donkey mix) and a 800 lb pig (which we didn't get to see).  In the water, we saw ducks, geese, and swans.  Divya and Tessa especially loved the animals and had to pet anything that would come close enough. 

After we finished looking at the animals, the kids found a little playground area to play on.  We didn't end up buying a pumpkin because they were too expensive and I didn't have any cash (which was all they accepted).  Instead, we went and bought some at Kroger for Famiy Home Evening on the following Monday.

It was such a beautiful fall day.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!

This donkey kept rolling in the dirt violently.  It must have been trying to get the bugs off or something.

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch with Jarem

Yesterday, (Friday) October 22, I went on a field trip with Jarem to the pumpkin patch.  It was a beautiful fall day, (just a little crisp in the morning and mid-70's/low-80's warm by afternoon).  We had a good day together.  It is so nice this school year to be able to do these things with the kids without arranging babysitting.  I can just go!

Jarem and Austin sitting next to me on the bus



Shortly after we arrived, they divided the kids into 3 groups.  Our group went to the corn maze first to learn how corn and pumpkins grow.  They also got to go through a short walk in the corn field (very short).

Here is Jarem, Lantz, and Maddie showing the green pumpkin stage of growing and Jarem with the corn (most of the kernels gone).

I wanted to get a cute picture of Jarem in the corn, but after trying several times, I gave up and settled with this one.  He wouldn't open his eyes because the sun was too bright.

Next, they got a turn soing down the big tunnel slide.  This was a big hit!

It was awfully dusty at the bottom though, but the kids didn't seem to mind.  Jarem was all smiles!

Here he is with a big smile coming out.

A group picture of Jarem's class and Mrs Williams, his teacher.  Each class made matching shirts that their class wore on field trip day.  It was really helpful in keeping track of everyone.  Jarem's class shirts were one of my favorite, they were orange with pumpkins on them.

Silly faces!

Big barn

I really liked how the light was coming down on these donkeys and chickens.  It reminded me of a nativity type seen.

Jarem loved feeding the goats.  Their tongues tickled his hand.

The hayride: this was funny because the kids kept saying something smelled good and sweet.  I could smell it too and in trying to figure out where it was coming from, I realized the driver of the tractor was smoking a cigar and had all the windows vented open.  That was the sweet smell...or not so sweet smell in my opinion!

Next up was goat milking...the kids anxiously awaiting...



Still waiting...

And still waiting... (it took awhile for them to get started) The kids all thought it was disgusting when the lady showed them where milk came out.  It was kind of funny.



After lunch, the kids got free time to spend at any area they wanted.  Jarem chose the corn pit with a few friends.  He had a lot of fun and did manage to go down the slide one more time before heading home.



Burying each other...Jarem was always the one doing the burying for some reason

Calli is buried and loving it!

Then she had to sneeze...the dust would have made me sneeze too.

Heading out, they each got their own pumpkin.  Jarem got one of the bigger ones (yes, they were very small), but it was cute and absolutely perfect!

My boy had a fun day!

His class friends wanted me to take their pictures too (Aubrey and Olivia)

(left to right) Cannon, Braden, and Justin

Aubrey (cut-off), Carson, and Stephanie

These kids are from another of the kindergarten classes.  The elementary school has 6 Kindergarten classes this year.  These shirts are cute with a class picture on the front. 

Take note of the little girl with pigtails.  Even though she was in a different class, it didn't take much time for everyone to notice her, and  her parents.  Her mom put rickrack and school-themed buttons on her shirt and (oh...sarcastic pause for effect) look at the little bows tucking up her sleeves.  How sweet!! (sarcasm intended)  Not one other person in all 6 classes embellished the shirt they made at school.  But wait, that is not all....



Look at the back...her name with studded diamonds! :)  And, my friends, there is still more...




Mom is wearing a MATCHING one! Isn't that sweet!!  This woman was busy documenting every second of her child's life.  When her husband had the camera, she had the camcorder and vice versa.  It started when they got on the bus.  The camcorder was on as they were walking onto the bus videoing the seats, everyone on the bus, etc,etc, etc. Now, I like to take pictures (as you all know), but this woman was a bit over the top!! She was actually getting front-row footage of the goat being milkedin this picture.



And you thought that was all...oh no, she has her name on the back too! :)

And one last shot, once again with the camera and her husband next to her ripped jeans with boxers hanging out and all.  I'm all for supportive parents, but I couldn't stop laughing as I looked through these pictures.  This was just SO funny to me.
(By the way, I didn't intentionally take these pictures of them, but when I got home and looked through them, it was funny how many they were in, so I cropped them so you could see things better. :)  Pardon my making fun, but it was such a funny part of the day for me that I couldn't help mentioning it.