Mommy preschool

Now I know you were probably expecting to see a Halloween post, but be patient.  I wanted to get this Mommy preschool post out first and then later this week we'll do Halloween.  Also Grant and I will be attending a Halloween "parade" this afternoon, so there's more pictures still to be taken, ha ha!

Mommy preschool is something my friends and I thought up to ease them into getting dropped off at preschool next year.  Since we are stay at home moms we didn't want to just all of a sudden drop them somewhere strange with people they don't know, so we formed a small group of moms with a rotating schedule.  Two moms (host and helper) stay with five kids and the other 3 moms get some time to themselves.  We have a lesson plan that is pretty loose, just teach them about a letter and an animal.  Some of us go crazy with it and fill the two hours with lots of learning activities and others of us are more low-key on the learning and big on the playing.  In my opinion it all works out.  Last week I had the group at my house and we learned about the letter "E" and the animal "elephant".  We made elephant masks and danced to a song about elephants and then we traced our hands to make a (quasi) elephant figure.  Here are some pictures of the kids at my house and the fun we had.

The setup!

 Grant getting ready to greet his buddies at the door.

Caitlin in her elephant mask.

Snack time!  Edamame and Elmo crackers.

And just to leave you hanging on the Halloween front...here's a video I got trying to get Grant to say trick or treat.  We'll see if I can have success later this afternoon!

Pumpkin Picking

Eamonn, Grant and I went pumpkin picking the weekend before last.  Grant seemed to love the endless supply of pumpkins and I think he touched them all.  We did end up coming home with just one (which was impressive).  We took this little jaunt to the country with Grant's buddy Mia and her parents and had a really nice lunch after the festivities at a local restaurant.  Unfortunately for us we missed the apple season, but we had a great time anyway, so no worries.

And a video of Grant and Mia doing their thing...

New stuff!

So here's some new stuff!  Some old pictures from Labor Day weekend and my Mom's bday and then some newer pictures of Grant and friends.  We had a fun playdate at Madeline's house last week and we actually got them to all sit still for a picture.  Amazing!  Also at the end are the pictures of the block party we totally crashed (well we were kind of invited).  It left Grant with a love of bouncy castles, and Eamonn and me with serious house envy.  Oh well.

Grant loves his new grill!

Playgroup at Madeline's (Can you guess the kids...it's been a little while since I posted the group?)

Mommy preschool at Cara's house (more on this later...)

Block party!