Arrrghhhh!!!

Here's my little pirate. I'm so glad HE chose to be a pirate this year because his years of wearing "cute" costumes is coming to an end. I didn't want to have to MAKE him be a pirate. He will no doubt want to be something scary, bloody, and disgusting before long and I was determined to have a pirate picture for my Halloween album.

We went trick-or-treating last night with Mike, who drove up for the weekend. We first went over to Oma and Opa's house where he not only got candy but legos as well. He wasn't having any visiting though we had to get moving. There was candy with his name on it! We came back home and went around our neighborhood then headed over to the neighboring hood. Farmington is HUGE! We made it about half way through before Mike suggested we start heading back towards our house. Good thing he did because shortly after turning for home Jayke no longer wanted to trick-or-treat. Mike thought as long as we were heading for the house he could hit all the houses along the way. He went willingly at first but soon was yelling at us, "I DON'T WANT TO TRICK-OR-TREAT ANYMORE! I WILL NOT GO TO ONE MORE HOUSE! MY FEET HURT!"

When we got back to the house we had to "inspect" his candy. This is just what parents tell the kids so they can pick out the pieces they want. Jayke was kind enough to give Mike and me each a Reese's cup, which is both of our favorites. They left shortly after to go back to Mike's parent's house where Jayke could trick-or-treat...and hopefully get more Reese's cups.

Today I had to load the pirate up and take him over to my dad's to trick-or-treat. Halloween turned out to be just like Christmas...never ending. We had already gone trick-or-treating at the nursing home on Thursday. Grammy got to see Jayke in his costume, of course she didn't know who he was until she saw my mom and me standing over to the side. I would say total he got about 4 buckets of candy. I think I will be hauling some of it in to work to fill my candy bowl in my office. God knows I don't need 4 buckets of candy sittin' around my house waiting to make it's way to my butt and thighs! Jayke certaing won't miss it either!

Fun on The Farm

It was field trip time a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping next year we will go someplace different. Not that I don't like One Fun Farm, I actually really like it a lot, but we went there for his field trip last year in preschool too. At least this year they got to do a few new things that they missed out on last year.

One of those was jumping on this HUGE trampoline...

(Jayke is the fourth kid from the left...it's hard to tell because all the kindergarteners wear orange shirts when on field trips.)



It was funny to watch all those kids bouncing but then one brave dad joined them along with Mr. Logan, the cadet teacher, and the two kindergarten teachers. The kids all immediately went into attack mode and had the two guys down on the tramp. There were so many kids on top of them you couldn't even see the poor guys. I was shocked no one got hurt. There wasn't any crying at all which amazed me.

Since I passed my criminal background check...snicker...I was permitted to supervise Jaykeb and his friend Ben while on the farm. I think in the future I may request to NOT be in charge of my own kid. They all have told me how well behaved he is but as soon as I show up he looses his mind! I was about to ask that the teacher have him pull a behavior card. Ben, on the other hand, was extremely well behaved. I'm sure if his mother had been there it would have been a different story for him too. Mothers seem to bring out the worst in their kids.



I tried to get a picture of the whole class but trying to get all those kids to hold still is difficult. Not to mention that I got out there and discovered that my battery on my Nikon was dead. I had to rely on the cell phone camera again. Jayke is sitting up on the straw bales next to Mr. Logan, their cadet teacher from Delta High School.




We got to eat lunch there and before leaving all the kids got to go into the pumpkin patch and select a pumpkin to bring home. Jayke brought his straight home and colored it black. We had perfect weather for our trip and I think aside from Jayke's grouchiness at times, we all had a good time.

This week is Red Ribbon Week. They are wearing bracelets everyday, Wednesday is Red day, Thursday is Jersey day, and Friday is crazy tie day. Oma made Jayke a lovely little tie to wear. They also have a skating party Thursday and fall party on Friday. I hope I can keep track of all this!

Meet Jack

We carved our pumpkin last night. I decided to just do a face this year instead of some intricate design that takes forever. Jayke picked the face out of a book of patterns.



As you can see, we had plenty of help. Luna was right in there eating the pumpkin guts as we pulled them out and put them in a bow.







Jayke got to go to a Halloween party at the YMCA tonight with Opa too. They had a magician there and now he is interested in magic. They bounced in a huge bounce house, played bowling, and got a small pumpkin and treat bag. He is counting down the days until Halloween. Mike is going trick or treating with us and Jaykeb is very excited about that.






We went on our field trip the other day. I have a coupld pictures that I will put up tomorrow. Jayke also got his school pictures back, finished up another season of soccer, and got his first report card. His report card was very good. Pluses in everything. She says he is the quietest most well behaved kid in the class. He is an excellant role model for the other boys who all like him. He does all his work and is right where he should be. They all want to take him home every night. Nothing shocking about that!

Meow

Oh suuuuure she looks sweet here but in reality she is a flying ball of fur and teeny tiny claws! It has been a long time since I have had a kitten and I had forgotten what they are like when they are really little and before they can get their claws removed. I have tiny claw marks covering my arms, hands, legs, and feet. The worst part though was when I woke up the other night and Luna was standing on my face. I reached to move her and it must have scared her because she tried to run, digging her claws into my face. I hesitantly got up to look at the damage in the mirror and was shocked! I looked like a vampire! Blood all over my hands and face. She is lucky she lived through that night.

I am not the only one being abused by little Lunatic...the dogs are being tormented on a regular basis. They walk through the house with a kitty hanging from their tail. My accessories are being rearranged and my floor lamp with the paper shade took a hit the other night. It sits next to the couch and apparently caught her eye for the first time because she all of a sudden leaped from the couch to the lamp, landing almost at the very top. She hung there motionless as the lamp slowly began to fall over. I could read her mind by the way her eyes were bulging from her head and her ears were laying straight back. She was thinking, "Oh sh*t! What have I done?!" I caught both cat and lamp as they made their way to the ground saving them both because Luna would have been in big trouble had she ruined my lamp. I had to carefully extract her tiny claws from the paper shade. She sat there afterwards looking at me as if I had ruined all her fun.

Jaykeb is particularly careful with the little terror. He hasn't managed to avoid her completely though. She barely caught him on the thumb with her tiny claw the other day and the drama that insued was oscar worthy. First there was a lot of screaming for a bandaid. From the racket I thought she had bitten his thumb clear off and was surely sitting in the corner munching on it. Upon inspection, I found a very small hint of blood on his thumb but proceeded to bandage it as if it were the traumatic injury he thought it was. After we tended to his wound he turned his attention back to Luna. "I HATE LUNA!!!! I WISH SHE HAD NEVER COME HERE!!!" This went on for probably 45 minutes. I finally threatened to give her back to Holly and this slowed him down a little but not completely. My child is the king of drama and isn't afraid to show it.

Only 4 more months until we can get her claws removed...please pray for her that she makes it!

Friends and Enemies

I think Jayke had his first fight with a friend at school yesterday. Not a physical fight...just a disagreement. He has had two best friends at school since he started, Ian and Ben. Yesterday he came home and told me he IS NOT going to be friends with Ben anymore! Apparently Ben got out of line while coming back from the library and when Jayke moved up and took his spot Ben tried to say that Jayke cut in line! Jaykeb then proceeded to go and tell on Ben for accusing him of this. I don't exactly know where things went from there but Jayke came home determined to NOT be friends with evil Ben anymore!

I think Alex has now taken Ben's spot on the friend's list. Jayke has his friend on the bus, Jonathan AND his "Arch enemy", Parker as well. Parker is not in his class but is always on the playground where he throws rocks and torments everyone. Alex and Jonathan also both play soccer but not on our team. Ian just lives down the road to the east of our neighborhood and Jonathan lives in the neighborhood directly to the west of ours. Jayke clearly doesn't know in which house though because he took me on a wild goose chase the other night looking for it. I'm happy that there are a couple of kids close by who he is friends with. Maybe eventually they will play together at home.

So did you follow all that? If so could you explain it to me 'cause I'm starting to think I may need a score card. All this will clearly wear a person out!

The Team

We got our soccer pictures taken tonight. Apparently 60 mile an hour wind gusts is not a good enough reason to postpone picture night. Jayke is the second boy from the left. It will be interesting to see how these turn out. I'm just glad Jayke doesn't have any hair to be blowing around!

What We Have Learned In School

We have learned that the teacher does not want to tie 24 kid's shoes so if you don't know how to tie your own, you have to wear them during nap time and also full of rocks from the playground.

We have learned that there is a big ol mean girl who will choke you if you refuse to play with her friend, Parker.

We have learned that being "Special Student" is GREAT until you have to get up in front of the class and tell about your "Show and Share" item. When you find out about this little chore you no longer WANT to be special student. You will also fight with your mother about what you want to take to "Show and Share" even when she only has your best interest at heart.

We have learned that there is an uber hyper child named Parker who will sit with you on the bus and hit you. He will also throw rocks at you on the playground and stretch out the necks of all your favorite t-shirts. Unfortunately, this will lead you to the realization that the teachers on the playground, who are supposed to be watching the children, are actually chit chatting with each other. Thus, we learned that Mommy has to march out to the bus and tell the bus driver about Parker, the little menace...otherwise known as Jayke's "Arch Enemy", causing the bus driver to give you a HUGE hug and embarass you to death but also promise to "get" parker that night.

We have learned that they only teach "Everything you already know" and it is boring all the time. Plus...they won't let you use the computers nearly enough.

We have learned where the nurse's office is. Scraped knees are common on the playground.

We have learned that there is a boy, Logan, who gets to visit the principal on a daily basis...sometimes two and three times a day and WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE LIKE LOGAN!

We have learned that if your eyes are red from allergies and you are just sitting at the lunch table eating your lunch, a perfect stranger will come up and send you to the nurse who will then call your mom and make her leave work to come and get you. Apparently taking your temperature twice and having it read normal won't deter them and neither will your mom's word that it is simply allergies and the same thing happened last fall. We learned that Zyrtec will quickly make the itchy eyes go away and the rest of the day will be spent shopping, running errands, and mowing the lawn.

We have learned that if you forget to take your library book back on library day you will not be allowed to choose a new book. This will cause you to go home and blame it all on your mother for not remembering the schedule! You will probably bring this up many many times over the course of the evening because it was clearly traumatizing.

We have learned that 5 year-olds cannot do a sit up.

We have learned many songs and dances in music class that are "just dumb"!

We have learned a lot and it isn't even the end of the first grading period! It is exhasuting! We have learned that taking a nap after school, however, will only make us grouchier for the rest of the evening. This not only happens to five-year-olds but to thirty-six-year-old mother's as well. Sometimes this makes one wonder how any mother does it without a cleaning lady, nanny, chauffer, and yard boy!

As you can see, Jayke and Luna are good friends now. She even cries and looks for him when I get home from work before the bus drops him off. He says she is his favorite kitty. I don't bother mentioning she is his ONLY kitty.



Grandparent's Day is coming up at school. We had to send in pictures of the grandparents. I tell ya what, school is more work for me than I ever imagined. I spent days looking through all my stuff trying to find pictures to send in. I couldn't find any that were recent enough so I had to go take one. I found one of my dad and "Other Mother" to send but not of my mom and Jim so I went and made them sit for a picture. I had to order the others to be printed and picked up at Walgreens. When I got there to pick them up turns out I didn't hit the confirm order button so they weren't there. I had to go back home and do it all over again. Spent two days on that! If I had time I would have gone to Dad's and gotten a new one of them with Jayke too but there wasn't time and Mom is in Florida.



We also had an art project to do together at home the other night. We had to decorate a paper pumpkin that will hang from the ceiling in his classroom. We made one side a pirate and the other was just a jack-o-lantern but anyone who knows me knows I couldn't just cut out some shapes and glue them on. No, I had to make crepe paper hair and use scrapping felt bat stickers for eyes. We used black cardboard letters that spelled Jaykeb for the mouth. It is awesome! I even let him help me with MY art project! LOL I guess I should tell the truth...Jayke did glue everything on but I showed him where to put it all. I looked at it later after he had gone to bed and decided there was no way the teacher would believe that he helped with it so I pulled a couple things off and glued them back on a little crooked. I know...I'm scandalous!!