Halloween

Day Out with Thomas the Train (otherwise known as how I spent my birthday)

On my birthday, Corey and I took Jack to Day Out with Thomas the Train. It was a lot of fun! Jack was a bit overwhelmed at first, but he quickly figured things out. They had lots of fun activities, and then the highlight of the day was riding on the passenger cars pulled by Thomas the Train.

Here's Jack getting ready to play air guitar with the musician

This was the musician just getting started - Jack was ready to dance!

Digging in the dirt (90% of the kids in attendance were little boys, so there were lots of little boy activities)

Riding the "little train" - the other train was the "great big Thomas train"
Here we are in front of Thomas! The professional photographer got a much better picture, without my arm in it, so I will have to scan and post that one as well

Getting on the train . . .


Watching everything out the window . . .

Admiring his new Thomas tattoo (for the rest of the day, Jack would hold out his hand every few minutes and say "see it? see it? Thomas tattoo"

School Halloween Party

Last Friday was the Halloween party at Jack's preschool - here he is in his classroom instructing everyone on the proper way to play bean bag toss . . . Oh, and some of you might recognize the "costume" from last year. He's actually going as a fireman this year, but I hadn't gotten pants yet that went with his fireman jacket, so he went as a baseball player to this party.

He was much more interested in eating the fruit loops than making a necklace, so Corey made the necklace for him - he ate all the fruit loops off the necklace in about 2 minutes.

Playing a halloween version of a cakewalk, with colored spiders.

Decorating Halloween cookies

In his classroom again, with his teachers - Miss Kerry Anne is mustard and Miss Jessie is ketchup

Pumpkin Farm

We went to the pumpkin farm with Scott, Amy, and Hannah - here are the dads and kids headed in . . . Jack instructing Hannah on how to drive the tractor

Finding a pumpkin . . .

Hanging out in the old firetruck . . .

With Hannah . . .

Going for a pony ride . . .

New furniture and a new . . .

We ordered a new couch and chair to go with the leather couch and chair we had in the living room. I didn't think we'd be able to match the leather with another piece of leather furniture, so I went for something different in fabric. I'm happy with the way it turned out, and the colors all work well together. We aren't sure yet if this is the arrangement that we're going to keep it in for the room layout - but it works for now.

So new furniture and a new . . .

BABY!

Due date is May 23rd, 2009. This picture was at 8 weeks - I'm 9.5 weeks now. We're all very excited, especially Jack who enjoys announcing "I a big brother!"

Pizza farm

Cristina and I took Jack and Ella on a field trip one day to an organic pizza farm about an hour from our house. The kids thought it was a lot of fun. The farm was set up as a large circle, divided into sections, with different things in each section. There were tomatoes, pigs, chickens, a goat, green peppers, herbs, different types of wheats and grains, and some other vegetable plants (mushrooms, onions, etc.). After a talk by the farmer, we went out to the farm to check it out. The kids enjoyed running around, and after all that we went back in to eat a pizza made entirely from items grown at the farm.

Dinosaurs

As a back to school treat, Jack and I went to the science museum. He really enjoyed the airplane and space shuttle exhibits, as well as the dinosaurs. Here's some photos of us reading dinosaur books while looking up at the big dinosaurs:

Playing zoo

In addition to cars, trucks, trains, planes, and all sports, Jack has developed a fascination with going to the zoo and animals. He can make the sounds for almost any animal you ask him about, and he is especially into camels right now since Nana and Pop-pop are living with the camels now (that's the best way we can explain Libya to him).

So after going to the zoo one day, we decided to make a zoo in his room using all his stuffed animals. We set up little cages for them with blankets, and then he took his doll around to show him all the animals. It was a lot of fun.

Preschool

Jack started full-day preschool two days a week, and he really enjoys going. This is him in the morning before school, with his Thomas backpack.