Regina's Back to School night 2010

Every year, the elementary and preschool have a Back to School night where students get to bring the parents to their classrooms and show off their art works. It's also a good time for us parents to meet teachers and talk a little. Every year, the school halls are crowded with excited kids and eager parents. I admit, I'm one of those moms who want to see and know everything my kids do in school. So, this night was made for me!

Natalie's classroom highlights:
The Bear preschool room is a very familiar one for the Burer family. This will be the 3rd year in a row for us having someone (if not two) in that class. We will have two more years with Elaine starting next year! We love the Bear room and its teachers, Ms. Connie, Ms. Sarah, and Ms. Julie. Main difference we're seeing in Natalie this year is that she's smiling more for pictures. It's wonderful to see her opening up, like a little flower blooming! :)

A few Natalie facts:

Natalie was so excited to show us her art work of herself. She admitted to cutting her hair off of the drawing of her head. I just hope that she never cuts her hair off in real life!

Peter's kindergarten room highlights:
Mrs. Poss is such a wonderful teacher, kind and sweet. Peter loves Mrs. Poss and his classmates! It's become a busy year for Peter, being at school full days and getting to each lunch at school (he's really wanted to do that for a long time). Even though his curriculum has expanded to include areas like music, art, physical education, math, reading, and other areas, Peter continues to claim that lunch (then recess) is his favorite part of the day.

Peter fact to be known:

Reading Blvd is probably one of Peter's favorite spots in his classroom. He often plops on a bean bag and read a book. He learns so much from that corner, like the largest volcano in the world is in Hawaii. I actually had to Google that to make sure he was right. Sure enough.

It was a really fun night for the kids. We got a whirlwind view of our kids days at school. We just realized on the way home how next year, we'll have three classrooms to visit. Elaine is so eager to start...believe me, she's working on it!

Natalie's Wilson's Orchard field trip

The preschool field trip to the Wilson's Orchard is by far one of my favorite ones of the year. Not only do I LOVE the weather, I learn something every time. It also helps to get a taste of different apples! It was evident to be a popular field trip among all the parents as we have almost 11 come along. For the first time, I only had Natalie as my little person to watch over. I must say, it made the trip much more enjoyable to be responsible only for her.

One of the things that Natalie was looking forward to the most on today's trip was to sit next to Thomas on the bus ride.

Little girl's dream come true:

When we got to Wilson's, the sweet smell of cinnamon and apples greeted us. It was wonderful. Again, Fall is my favorite season, including the smell of everything about it. Kids were excited to arrive, and found everything in the store so interesting from the odd-looking gourds to pumpkins of all sizes.

Then they showed us different types of apples they grow and gave a sample of 3 varieties. Honeycrisp is still my favorite.

Next was the tractor ride. We squeezed many little kids and adults onto the trailer, but I think most of us got one, even if barely by one cheek (oh, the sacrifices a mom makes)!

The weather was beautiful and the kids all enjoyed the ride, especially when the tractor took us through the creek...twice!

She may not have shown it all the time...

...but I think Natalie really enjoyed the field trip.

Especially when she got to come home with an apple!

Elaine's favorite book

For the past month or so, Elaine has become inseparable with the "Eggs for Everyone" Dora book. It's a book from Easter and she just loves it! We've read it for bedtime every night...so much, I could probably recite it with my eyes closed.

She doesn't care. She loves her 'Egg book.'

Sibling love

Peter's first black eye

Last Monday I got a message from the school.
(I didn't get it right away as the call came while I was in the dentist chair)
The message (and my thoughts) went a little something like this:

"Angela, this is [so-and-so] from Regina..." (uh-oh)
"Peter had an accident..." (bathroom or serious accident?)
"He fell from the monkey bars..." (OH NO! WHICH HOSPITAL?!?)
"He hit near his eye, but is ok. He seems pretty upset..." (my poor baby!)
"If you could call us back,..." (I'm right across the street & on my way)
"Peter would feel better if he could just hear your voice." (OMGOODNESS, I'm coming baby!)

On my way to the playground to find him, I bumped into him with our friend Lily (holding hands, very cute) in the hallway. He had an ice pack to return to the office. He ran right into my arms and was telling me all about his fall. He grabbed my hand and started to lead me to the playground to show me exactly which monkey bar he hit. At this point, I knew he was ok.

Apparently, his hands slipped on a wet bar which left him falling down and hitting his head on the step bar below. From the looks of how tall the monkey bars are, it was quite the fall. He recovered well enough to show me what he was trying to do.

Another milestone: Peter can make it all the way across the monkey bars by himself!

Here's Peter showing his playground badge of honor:

Side note: First black eye...just in time for school pictures two days later!

Angelina's Ballerinas

Hold onto your tutus because the girly invasion has come to the Burer house! Natalie has become more and more into the pink and Elaine, well, naturally has been attracted to the pink. Now, we're in stereo!

Grandparents day with the Brinkleys

Day two of the grandparents' visit turned out also to be Grandparents Day. We celebrated by going to the Iowa River Power Restaurant for brunch followed by a walk along the bridge over the Iowa River. It was another beautiful day to enjoy.

Elaine still has a fear walking over bridges, especially when she can see between the planks. Thankfully, Grandma was there to hold her hand.



Next we headed out to Wilson's Orchard to pick apples and grab some apple turnovers. Most of the honeycrisp apples had been picked, but Peter was happy that his "favorite" apple was ripe to eat: the Senshu apple. He tried one and gave it a thumbs up!

He really enjoyed that apple!

Natalie got up close and personal in picking the perfect gala apple.

Of course, Elaine wanted to do the same!

Nothing is better than apples freshly picked from the trees.

Beauty tip about make-up

The beauty tip #121 of make-up is that it has multiple purposes in our house.
As Elaine demonstrates, mascara is a great alternative to lip (and chin) gloss.

Brought to you by my little make-up artist.