Peter's first field trip!

Tuesday was a special school day for Peter - it was his first field trip! Regina 3-year old preschoolers were going to Wilson's apple orchard!

It also turned out to be his first time on a school bus, which seemed almost as exciting (if not more) than the field trip itself! What 3-year old really understands what an orchard is anyway?

As one of the parent chaperones, I was assigned Peter and a cute little girl named Carissa. Here are the two of them excited about their first school bus experience.

As soon as we got to the orchard, we got off the bus and hopped aboard the tractor wagon for a ride around the orchard. It was a fun and bumpy ride through apple trees and the creek, which was lots of fun for the kids. My main concern was to make sure the two kids under my supervision stayed on the wagon!

Here are Peter's preschool teachers: Mr. Nick (in black shirt) and Ms. Connie (in the hat).

After the tractor ride, we went inside for a little demonstration on different kinds of apples and how differently they taste. All the kids were paying close attention because she was cutting apple slices for them to sample. Yum! Even us parents got to sample a few slices!

Once our Bear class apple demonstration was over, we played games and sang songs outside while the Bunny room kids got their turn inside. It was a beautiful day and perfect for a little hokey pokey business!

and with that..."That's what it's all about!"

Family fun at Bloomsbury Farm

Sit back, you're in for a long blog entry!

Our discoveries of new parts of Iowa continued on Saturday when we decided last minute to go to this place called Bloomsbury Farm (http://www.bloomsburyfarm.com/). We'd heard of it and knew there were corn mazes (get it - maize?), but never went. It was less than an hour away so what the hay (get it - hay?).

Ok, enough of that. We went venturing towards Atkins, IA, got on some country gravel roads, got to Bloomsbury farm a little past noon and were pleasantly surprised. There are so many great things for kids to do. Peter and Natalie were the perfect age for everything!

We started off with feeding some farm animals. It all sounded pretty easy and innocent, but when it came time for me to show the kids how to feed the goats...well, you can watch for yourself!

Fortunately, my fear did not get passed onto our kids, especially not Natalie. For the girl who often says, "I don't want to", Natalie jumped at the opportunity to feed the goats and LOVED it! She had no fear at all, which scared me a little! Nothing is scarier for a mother to watch her little girl stick out her hands with food towards an animal that's more than 4 times her size, with an eager mouth and teeth of unknown size. The fear that her fingers would get bit by those teeth had crossed my mind. As it turned out the goats were very gentle and kept their teeth to themselves. Natalie loved their ticklish mouths eating from her hands and just kept wanting to feed them.

While Natalie fed the goats, Peter had his own fun at the duck races. He worked really hard and stayed persistent to get that water pumped out to get the ducks going but was having fun! He sounds like his daddy!

Next, we watched cute little pigs in a race then hopped aboard a tractor ride around the corn fields. The kids had lots of fun on the bumpy ride. I would have tried to take some pictures but I felt the need to hold on both Peter and Natalie so they would bump off the ride!

They were cute little piggies!

She seems so tiny next to this tractor!

Our 'chariot' awaits! This is so "Iowa" to me. I love it!

After the tractor ride around and through the fields, we discovered the Corn Box. It was kind of like a giant sandbox except it had corn kernels instead of sand. This stop was a huge hit for both the kids. Peter jumped right in and was having the time of his life. Natalie started off with her usual "I don't want to!" and was having a hard time moving around as she sunk into the corn like it was quicksand. With a little help, she ended up having a blast, too. I'm guilty of hopping in myself just because I needed to know what it felt like to stand in about 2 feet of corn kernels. It felt cool and funny. Every Iowan should have a corn box in their backyard!

Bed of corn is fun to roll in.

Corn also makes a cool background for pictures!

And corn is apparently fun to throw (see Peter) and gets stuck in your toes (see Nata)!

Ain't it the truth?

Next, the kids enjoyed going down this huge slide made of out of big industrial piping of some sort. Peter went down with no hesitation (what a big boy he's become). Natalie had a little hesitation and, again, said "I don't want to". With a little help from Daddy she made it down the slide and, again, loved it.

Then we headed over to the giant "pillow" bouncy. It was so big - the picture below only shows about 1/4 of the actual size of this thing. Yet another hit with the kids. They looked so funny running across it, like trapeze artists walking across the net. Sam discovered another funny thing, especially with Natalie. If he bounced just a little on one end while she was on the other, he could make her airborne. Although it was hilarous to see, I was also VERY relieved they were the only kids on it at the time. She could have been catapulted into the corn fields!

Natalie got some air in her hair!



Right next to the pillow was the kids tractor ride.

Peter chose to be the caboose!


Spending most of the time asleep in the baby Bjorn, Elaine woke up long enough to get a picture with her 'new scarecrow family'.

Next was some big boy fun for Sam. He just couldn't resist being a little boy again and taking a this dirt bike/go cart for a spin. He had a lot of fun and surely would have gone around many more times if I wasn't having a hard time keeping Peter off the track.

Peter SO WANTED to be out there with Daddy but his legs weren't long enough. More than two days later, Peter still talks about how he is sad that he "couldn't ride the 7-year old bike". I had no idea what he was talking about until I looked at this picture that I realized he was on the #7 cart!

We FINALLY made it to the big event - the corn maze. I must say, we were pretty brave to go into a maze made in 9-ft tall corn fields with 3 youngs kids. Could you imagine the panic attack if we lost one? Luckily, we stayed together through the course,...

found a family photo op,...

even had Peter be "the leader" with the map in hand,...

and made it out again!

Before we left, Peter took his last chance to feed some goats. He was a bit more timid about it than Natalie, but he enjoyed it just the same.

I'm such a sucker for these cut outs for photos - it must the be Asian in me. I, as our main photographer, never got one myself as the day had gotten late and the kids were losing steam. Sam did ham it up for this last one, which I appreciated!

Just shows you how much we ALL had a great time!

University of Iowa homecoming 2008

We had a great weekend and it all started with a little school spirit - Iowa homecoming festivities on Friday evening. We started with a BBQ sponsored by the Tippie College of Business. It was a lot of fun with good food and fun activities for the kids!

Natalie and I are sporting our school colors and new Hawkeye tatoos. Go Hawks!

Even Elaine got her very own name tag that was about the size of her face!

Peter and Daddy enjoyed their hot dogs, too. It doesn't show in the picture, but Peter did have a good time!

After everyone got full on food, we moved onto the kids games they had set up. Most kids were interested in the plethora of prizes, such as beads or plastic little toys. Peter, however, took a liking to the Plinko game and kept playing it over and over again, forgoing the prize in the end. Luckily, there weren't many other kids at the time waiting their turn at the Plinko game.

Natalie enjoyed the games too and was a little more interested in the prizes. Here she's chosen a frisbee, which she later tried to make it spin on the floor. I guess kids will find creative ways to play with toys they don't understand how they work.

We headed to the parade, which conveniently had its route turn right at the business school's corner. We met up with our neighbors and enjoyed the parade - all 90 minutes of it.

As Dora the Explorer reviews in her shows, Natalie's favorite part was the music, Peter's favorite part was the lollipops, Sam's (and my) favorite part was the marching bands, and our neighbor Donna's favorite part was that there was a bunch of kids and me in front of the crowd begging for the candy from the floats. In my defense, I was doing it for our children who so desperately wanted lollipops! *sighs* The things a mother will do for her children!

The night ended with some glow necklaces/sticks fun, which were some of the prizes we came home with from the business school kids games. They were a hit in the car on our way home! They pretended they were fishing poles and caught imaginery fish in the back of our Odyssey. *sighs again* The joys of children's imagination!

WHAT A DAY!

Being a stay-at-home mom of three young kids, I often get the "You have your hands full!" comment. I usually think "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don't know already" but also think my life isn't as complicated as most people think. I typically have ok to good days with all the kids. Well, today was like the midterm of all tests for a busy mom!

What should have started off as a school day for Peter, the day's plans changed when he wasn't able to keep his breakfast down. That was a major mess that started a laundry load. So, Peter had his first sick day...poor guy was devastated until I mentioned he could get a pillow and blanket to the couch and watch his show.

Things were going well until Elaine finally decided it was time for her to have a bowel movement. To spare the messy details, let's just say I started my second load of laundry at 10am.

In the middle of the cleaning and laundry, Natalie had her own diaper issues, but by far the most normal occurence of the day. Just another mess to clean up.

Peter started to feel better and himself by 10:30am. I ended up having to cook a second breakfast of pancakes, eggs, blueberries and milk. Peter was starving. Natalie followed suit and wanted to eat too. They both ate more than any normal breakfast! After he was finished, Peter thought since he ate all his food, he was now ready to go to school. It was, again, devastating to him when I explained that there would be no school today. That set the tone for a good while.

So, as I'm trying to dry and fold the first two loads of laundry, Peter announced that he didn't make it to the bathroom and had an accident. Poor guy! It was obvious that Peter was having an "off" day because this would be one of two accidents of the day. Yet, another mess to clean up - I've lost count by this point - and another set of clothes waiting for the laundry...and it was only 2pm.

Before I totally lost it, I decided to go outside with the kids for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, breezy, sunny, and in the 70s. The fresh air was good for all of us. Peter rode his trike, Natalie pushed her empty stroller, and Elaine enjoyed the walk in her stroller. The best part came at the end of our walk. Peter lost his momentum and couldn't get up our driveway. Here's what happened next:

How cute was that! Lil' Sister Nata to the rescue! :)

After our walk, the next 3 hours consisted of Natalie's nap, Elaine napping on and off, and Peter and I doing everything from watching a show, playing games, and finishing that laundry!

How do I think I faired on this midterm of all tests of a day? Well...I passed, but always can do better tomorrow!

Mommy got a new hair do!

This morning, I finally got a much needed and much anticipated haircut at Zender's Salon and Spa downtown. I knew I wanted something shorter with a little style. I looked online for styles that would fit my rounder face and came up with "the Jenny" (as in Jenny McCarthy). Basically, it's a medium straight hair bob cut.

So, here's what I went in with:

(Yes, sadly, this is what I look like every day.

It's the best I can do when kids start to wake up at 6 am or earlier.)

An hour later, here's what I left with:

I love love love the length and it feels so good. We'll see how well I'm able to keep up with styling it every day, although it seems pretty easy, which is good.

I'm no Jenny McCarthy, but Sam and my kids think I look great...that's all that counts!

Preschool art

In the first weeks of being in preschool, Peter already brought home two art projects. The first one is very cute. If you can see, it has his thumb print (maybe a couple prints) in the doorway of the school house above where it says "I'm thumbody special". To the right, it says "I had fun playing with the trucks today." Peter tells me that he got to put the boy and school bus figure on the picture. :) He seemed very excited about that.

Week two's Art project: "Me Flag" has a picture of him from last week, and the lyrics to the song he just learned "I am special". On the back, he got to glue foam shapes which he was very proud of. When I picked him up on Thursday, I was a little early and thankfully so. I saw the preschoolers get lined up in front of the school, waving these flags and parading around singing
(to the tune of "Are you sleeping")
"I am special, I am special,
if you look, you will see,
someone very special,
someone very special,
that is me, that is me."

Peter was still singing the song in the car and at home. He really loves learning these new songs and dances (like the Hoppy Boppy Freeze"); I just wish I was there to hear and see what they're doing because I don't always get the full song or picture of what he learned. It's a little sad that now there's someone else in his life - his teachers. I feel like I have to let go of him a little in this experience called school. It's not easy after 3.75 years of being the one with him all the time. *sniff sniff*

Peter is a growing little boy, who likes to say hello to his shadow every now and then...

...but he's still my little boy!

What has Natalie been up to?

While Peter was off to his first day of preschool, Natalie showed me some of her new talents while eating a mid-morning snack with me.

Then she had some more cup fun!

Today, I had an opportunity to have good one-on-one time with Natalie. Peter was in school, Elaine was deep into a nap. I sat with Natalie and asked what she wanted to do. I named off a list of things we typically do together with Peter, like puzzles, reading books, or play chase...all to which Natalie quietly said 'No'. Then, I realized I needed to think like a little girl again. I asked if she wanted to play dolls. She immediately said "yes!" and got off the couch in search for our dolls.

We ended up playing about an hour with Barbie Ballerina, Blue, Woody and My Little Pony. It was so fun to watch Natalie come up with interactions among the dolls. Barbie ended up needing to take a nap while the rest went for a snack in the play kitchen. The trip to the play kitchen wasn't without drama as Woody and My Little Pony had to save Blue from falling off the table! Natalie was so cute as she held Blue at the edge of the table and said in a soft high voice 'help! help! I about to fall!' Woody and Pony's response, 'oh, ok! We will save you!'

I think I have some ideas for Christmas presents! :)