Trick or treat

Pumpkin hunt

This year our annual trip to the pumpkin patch was rained out. Given the very hectic nature of this season we compromised by swinging by our local orchard after school one day. Yoda makes all things excellent, apparently.

He is eating an Empire apple.

Haunted House Visit

An afternoon of spooky fun with RHCR over fall break

Cemetery photo by Monkey. (Instagrammed by Mrs. Z.)

Sweet treats. 

Halloween/Birthday Song

Since Aunt B has headed back to her island, Monkey made her a video for her birthday (yesterday). it was about Halloween, of course, which he is being brainwashed into thinking is the best holiday ever (although it can't overcome Christmas and his birthday, for obvious reasons. We're still trying.)

The entire song lasted for an 18 minute car ride to Target, and included several other sections and a verse about 'Brenda, stop saying "you better not have fun without me"'. I was told that the 'we don't care' refers to how the kids want the candy so badly they aren't afraid of the bats. Unrecorded spin offs include 'Bats and Grampires' and several other spooky combinations.

Soccer Parade

In between kindergarten homework and house renovations, Monkey has been playing soccer. Grandma T is the coach, Aunt A is the assistant coach, and RHCR is his enthusiastic team mate. Mrs. Z is in charge of keeping our newest cousin, A, entertained during soccer type activities. It's a pretty sweet deal. 

A weekend or two ago the soccer team was in the local Fall Festival parade. Monkey had a FANTASTIC time waving to the people and throwing candy. 

With the aforementioned cousin A. Mrs. Z was the only one sunburned. Naturally. 

Their team name is Dynamite. Monkey loves to do his cheer. It goes like this: "Dynamite!"

He's really enjoying playing soccer, and it's nice to have some time with the new neph and enjoy the fantastic fall weather we've been having. It's a good break from the stresses of running our real estate empire. That being said, we'll also welcome having full weekends open for house projects when soccer ends in a few weeks. 

All Over but the Crying

Our brave boy got on the bus with no fuss and in a timely fashion. The end of the school day was not quite as smooth, unfortunately. The bus was over 45 minutes late bringing him home, which means that he was on the bus for almost 2 hours. The first thing he told us when he got off the bus was: "You were wrong, Mom. We do have nap at school. We all took a rest. You could rest on the floor or in a chair."

Soon thereafter, he jumped into my lap and wouldn't budge. He swears that his teacher told him that he was boring and stupid and she just kept using those words over and over, because of the cars and the lego men and it all started to get very confused. He says that he was not a good listener for her, because he was being 'sneaky good' which means that he was being good when she couldn't see him, but sounds an awful lot like he was up and wandering around when he shouldn't have been. 

They did feed him lunch, although he said he forgot his lunch money and they 'lost' him in the wrong line, because even though he was in the food line he was in the wrong class. The check was missing from his backpack though, so I'm guessing that his teacher took it out along with his school supplies. 

We offered him his choice of restaurants, and he wanted to stay home and eat hot dogs. Until he didn't. And then there was screaming and crying for about twenty minutes before he could be convinced to eat his hot dog. 

He said that he ate an apple and a sandwich and had some milk at school, and that he liked playing outside at recess. His class read two books that were funny and talked about numbers. There was one girl in his class that he knew from preschool, who was an afternoon kid who waved at him but he said he did not wave back at her. The kid who likes Star Wars was there and he was little but he didn't remember his name. 

We fed him watermelon and smoothie and gave him a bath and we all curled up on the couch for one episode of 80's Transformers (I quite prefer Transformers Prime, so this was a real concession.) And now he is screaming and sobbing in his bed at 7:15 p.m. because he is exhausted out of his MIND. As are we. 

Everything looks better in the morning. 

A very brave boy

Costume time

Monkey has a thing for costumes lately.  He was especially excited to find a pair of 'grampire' teeth in his dress up box the other day. Hilarity ensued. 

The best costume of all is Obi Wan Kenobi, of course. We're planning to attend a Star Wars costume party in August, and he has repeatedly sworn that he will be Obi Wan for Halloween. It had to be Clone Wars Obi Wan. Of course. And he had to wear it to the mall to buy his new school uniforms. Naturally. 

"Take a picture of this side, Mom. So they can see the logo."

We built a wagon

Monkey received several excellent birthday presents, and we were very excited to see that one of them was a Radio Flyer wagon. Living in a park with a pool and a library and weekly concerts means that we will put it to very good use, and Aunt A and Uncle N also gave us a very exciting camp chair for picnicking and such as well. Monkey and Mrs. Z started the assembly in the front yard, and then Grandpa and Grandma T came by to help us put it together. Once we got it put together we walked down toward the regular Thursday concert but didn't make it before the last number ended. A lovely evening was had by all. 

With the exception of the images with him in them, Monkey was the photographer for all of these. 

He insisted that I get in and try it out. So I did. And then he grabbed the handle and started pulling. It was a delightful and comfortable ride, if I do say so myself. He pulled me around the corner and all the way back to the house. 

Kindergarten. It's happening.

The other day we had a very special guest to our house: Ms. Schmidt, Monkey's teacher for the next two years! We were pleasantly surprised when we got a knock on our door right after she arrived, and it was the Head of School! ("He's the president", Monkey insists. "He's a principal", Mr. Z sniffs.)

Monkey prepared by creating a 'display' to help Ms. Schmidt get to know us. He wrote 'Mom' and 'Dad' by himself, and then we helped him spell the rest. Unfortunately, Monkey started his display on Sunday on the dining room wall, and we had a showing for Monday night. Mr. Z helped him rearrange all his notes into a manila folder. By the time Thursday came he had forgotten a lot of it, but he was able to show her his drawings of the buildings where we work and the monsters that he battles. 

We also bought some flowers for our table, and wrote out a list of our questions. Many of them revolved around Star Wars. Yes, he can bring Star Wars toys to school for daily sharing time. No, he can't wear sweat pants even if they fit the dress code. (Also, no on the light blue shirts, which was a bummer. Strictly navy or white on top, khaki or navy on bottom.)

The last question was a little emotional for Monkey - I think he had forgotten that I wrote it down and seemed a little embarrassed when I read it. They both handled it beautifully, though. We talked about how Jedi need to learn how to read and write, that they will do yoga and meditation at school, and that will help him in his battles. 

Monkey also selected some treats from the store. The watermelon cookies looked better than they tasted, unfortunately. He still ate two. 

The Zoo Keepers are feeling a lot calmer and more excited about kindergarten now that we've met Ms. Schmidt. She was absolutely lovely and we can't wait to see what exciting things happen in her classroom in the next two years! 

Great white shark

At Monkey's preschool graduation they sang a song for us - The Octopus Song aka Slippery Fish by Charlotte Diamond.. Mr. Z reenacted this with Monkey afterwards. 

Birthday: Episode V

Our dear friend once again made all of the cupcakes. They were all delicious chocolate with cherry filling and a grey icing. Light saber toppers, of course. We are so grateful for her help. Thank you thank you!!! 

Our Jedi began by customizing their light sabers and posing to show off their Jedi moves. 

These looked better cropped and filtered in Instagram, but somehow they didn't save for me. Alas. The wind picked up and then our backdrop completely gave up on us, so lots of kids skipped this part. 

They were a little distracted by pool time. Naturally.

Unfortunately it started thundering and eventually sprinkled rain, which didn't seem to bother anyone. But it meant that we had to close down the pool regrettably early. Conveniently there was a Death Star ripe for destruction. We got everyone's attention by playing the Imperial March over the patio speakers. 

Once it was busted and all the toys collected, our Jedi each received a medal for their service to the Republic. I didn't get any pictures of this because I was passing them out, with my Princess Leia pigtails. This event was also cued by the appropriate music from the Star Wars: A New Hope soundtrack. Monkey declined to participate in this event, and has explained his reasoning as both '"there were too many kids and I didn't want to wait in line" and "Ben Kenobi doesn't get a medal because he doesn't destroy the Death Star. And I was being Ben Kenobi."

Many many thanks to Grandpa for hosting all 43 of us! (Eek!) The final count was: 17 kids, 5 infants, and 21 adults (including Monkey and the Zoo Keepers). We would have loved to invite even more, but this was definitely testing our limits. It was kind of hard to get everyone's attention in that crowd, and Monkey was a little late to some things, like blowing out his candles! (For which we played the Darth Maul/Qui Gon Jinn track before singing Happy Birthday.) Also the large part of my plan revolved around letting the kids swim, and when that didn't work out they amused themselves on Grandpa's backyard train and tree swing... with perhaps predictable crashes given the population density. No one was seriously injured and everyone seemed to have a good time. Somehow we ended up with a lot of unclaimed light sabers and over a dozen leftover cupcakes, which is actually a pretty sweet deal. 

Happy, happy birthday, Monkey! We love you!

Graduation videos

Preschool graduation

"It's not a ceremony, mom! It's just a graduation."

Miss Anne

Miss Alicia, who will be his teacher for the summer. 

We're planning some exciting adventures before kindergarten starts!

His primary teacher, Miss Laura. Miss Laura was worried that he wouldn't do the motions for the songs. Thankfully, the spirit of the day moved him, even though it was hard to see him.