One of many!

This Easter we had our share of egg hunts! All together Ryan, Lydia and Emily participated in 5 egg hunts. We have decided to open a shop and sell candy to make a little extra cash:). Their candy stash is a little out of hand and of course it has taken all the will power I can muster to keep from eating ALL of it!!

Another one of our Spring Break activities at our center included an egg hunt. Each child at our center brought in 10 plastic eggs, filled with candy, stickers, toys, etc. One of my "mothers" and one of our center's older school-ager hid the eggs in our centers playground and the field beside the playground. Each age group had a little head start on the age group older. It worked out really well and in the end all of the kids ended up with an equal number of eggs. We hid roughly 325 eggs. It was such a great event! I love this job!!:)

Skating at Skatetown . . . oh no wait a minute . . . Funky's

The week of Spring Break, our center had a lot of extra kids that are normally attending public schools, but their parents needed care for them during the spring break week. Ryan was included in this total. This more than doubled the size of Ms. Rabia's class for the week. As a result, she decided to do some fun stuff for the kids on a couple of the days. Funky's Skate Zone hosted a Christian skate on Tuesday of that week. Funky's is a roller skating rink in Harrisonburg. When I was a kid, it was called Skatetown and I have a hard time calling anything other than that. With our center being a faith based center, this Christian Skate was a great idea! Each child brought a dollar for their skate rental and packed their lunch for the day. With the whole teaching kids thing I do during the day, I was not able to go on the fieldtrip, but managed to steal some pictures from Rabia of Ryan having the best time!! He continues to ask, regularly, "Can we go skating today/tomorrow?" He loved it!! I love the picture of him hiking his pants up. I can only imagine he and Caleb are saying "Man these are old skates!!!"--I think I wore the exact same ones when I skated there as a kid:)

FUN DAY!!!!

Today was such a great day! My co-worker, Treasa (Lydia and Emily's preschool teacher), and I have been doing a nutrition unit with our preschool students and decided to take the kids to a grocery store to tie everything together. One of our "mothers" is the deli manager at the Food Lion just down the street from our center. She agreed to give our kids a tour of the store. This was something so neat for the kids as well as Treasa and myself. Ms. Sarah (our "mother") gave each of the kids a nametag upon arrival and a hairnet to allow them to go into the deli. In the deli, they met Mr. Tom who gave each of them a piece of American Cheese. We then went through the dairy department and into the back room where we went inside a storage refrigerator and freezer and saw the box bailer bail some boxes. Then, it was on to the meat department and to produce. In the produce department back room we were able to go into the produce cooler and see some different fruits and vegetables. We finished off the tour by spraying off the produce on the produce department floor area with the hose--each child got to spray a little bit. We said our thank you and good-bye to everyone as each child received a Food Lion bag filled with crayons, pencil, balloon, color page and a banana. It was such a neat day for all of us! I had a particular attachement to this fieldtrip because I worked at this Food Lion when I was in High School and College. They have had a huge renovation since I worked there, but for as many things as I saw changed, that many were the same. Thank you so much Sarah and the staff at Food Lion!

Thankful Thursdays

Many serious bloggers, blog according to themes, ideas, days, whatever strikes them. Thankful Thursdays is one I have seen and wanted to do, but never seem to remember to make an entry on a Thursday when I am thankful (which is every thursday). I am thankful for so many things in my life! So many things and so many people that I take for granted! I love my husband, my children, my parents, my brother, my grandparents (those still alive and the ones that have passed), my nieces, my nephews, my sisters in law, my brothers in law, and my friends! My life is amazing and so often I forget just how amazing it is!!

Today I had a parent make me realize just one small area of my life that I am so thankful. She dropped off her son at my classroom this morning. She explained that his grandmother would be picking him up this evening. She said this grandmother had picked him up once or twice, but she was not sure if I knew her. I told her that I knew her mom and I would recognize her. She explained that it was not her mother, but her son's father's mother. She said her son's father may and may not come with his mother. I know I had a pretty surprised look on my face because I have never heard her speak of this child's father. I assumed he was not in the picture. This child has a great support system though! He has a wonderful mother who has a nice boyfriend who is active in this child's life and her parents are very present in his life. She had just never mentioned a father. She explained to me that this was new. The father had been "gone" for two years and is interested in seeing his son. In her explanation of her concern for how it was going to go, she began to cry. And, of course, I had to cry with her--I tend to make it a policy--no one can cry by themselves with me in the room:).

After she left I realized how completely blessed I am that I do not have to part with my children periodically as a result of a broken home situation! I can't imagine sending my children off somewhere for any length of time and not know what they are doing, if they are scared, if they are ok. I have known many divorced mothers, step mothers, and single mothers in my lifetime. They all hold a very special place in my heart. Can't be easy to trust someone else to raise your child as well as it can't be easy to be the person that is helping to raise someone else's child.

My family is my life! I can't imagine not having all four of them with me all the time. Mike, I love you so much and I love what we have together! I am so thankful that you love me too! Happy Valentine's Day!!

Green Eggs and Ham

Lydia and Emily laugh hysterically when you read “I do not like Green Eggs and Ham.” My co-worker and Lydia and Emily’s preschool teacher, Treasa and I decided to do a unit on the Dr. Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham. We brought in eggs, green food coloring, and got some sliced ham from the lunch stash at school. The kids had so much fun eating GREEN EGGS!!! With the cold weather, it has been a little difficult to take the kids outside. We had traded places with the four year old classroom and stayed down there until lunch time. The kids had such a great time!

Parade Time!!

Friday night was the Christmas Parade in downtown Harrisonburg. Our preschool put a float in the parade. I use the term float loosely. We had a week and a half to plan this "float" and get ourselves registered--one of these weeks was actually the week of Thanksgiving . . . so . . . there was not a tremendous amount of time to plan. Shayna loaned us her pick-up truck and Jennifer scrambled to find a large wagon to pull with the pick up. Turns out the pick up and wagon were great! We made two banners and wrapped boxes for the children to wear to be presents on the wagon (my children, however, did not like wearing these boxes:). Prior to arriving at the parade, we received incorrect information from the persons running the parade so that messed us up a great deal and we had quite a bad start. Once we got going it was quite fun! I originally put the boxes on Lydia and Emily and Lydia began to cry as we started moving. There was a parent behind her that helped her take the box off. Lydia then decided to join her family and stayed with them under their blankets. Ryan and Emily shared a blanket and rang their jingle bells. Rabia, Treasa and I walked beside the float and handed out flyers and Jennifer pulled a little red wagon behind the float with one of the kids from our center. Once we were finished we had to go back and collect our vehicles. The kids were told to hold on tight while we rode back to the parade start (at a much faster speed) while having no sides on the wagon:). The kids were all so bundled up in their super warm winter clothes on this 19 degree evening that I don't think any of them could have fallen off of the wagon if they wanted to. After the very cold parade, Rabia asked us to come to her church where they were passing out cookies and hot chocolate. All in all it was a pretty fun night.

Opening Night

Last night was the GREATEST!!! Our preschool put on a play. Rabia, Treasa and I directed the play Stone Soup with our preschool kids. The toddlers, two year olds, three year olds and four year olds took part in our play. Three of the four year old class members were our "travelers" and the remainder of the students were townspeople. Each class made their props as art projects and brought them out as a class and put them in the Stone Soup pot. Lydia and Emily's class (the three year olds) made carrots and potatoes that they brought out to the soup pot. At the end of the play, all of the kids stood and sang a Loaves and Fish song that tied into the play "lesson." Following our night of drama, we hosted a pot-luck dinner where the school provided the main dish of our own stone soup and all of the families brought a side dish. It was terrific!!

Pajama Day!

My class had their Halloween Party today since tomorrow (Halloween) is my day off. This afternoon, after circletime, lunch and naptime, we had our party. In addition to having our party of chips, cupcakes, fruit and veggies, all of the kids dressed up. Instead of wearing their trick-or-treat costumes that could potentially get torn or stained, we encourage the kids to wear their pajamas to "dress up." They LOVED it!!! Lydia and Emily's class dressed in their pj's as well and . . . yes . . . Ms. Stacey dressed up in her pj's today too. Any day that you can wear your pajamas to work is a good day!! We had a blast and everyone took a ton of candy home! The picture above is of "my" kids eating at their party and the picture below is everyone "laying down" in their pajamas. :)

Our County Fair

On Thursday, we took the kids at the Preschool to the county fair. We took 10 two year olds, 10 three year olds, and about 15 to 17 four year olds and school agers. It was great!! We saw cows, chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats, and turkeys. My two year olds were able to pet a cow, baby goat, and a sheep. They were so excited!! Mike was off work that day and was able to come along with Lydia and Emily and ride the bus with them and everything!! Ryan was along on the trip as well, but was with his class. They rode in a different vehicle and they did some other things that my guys and the three year olds did not do. After seeing all the animals, we went to the little circus that was inside the fairgrounds. The kids loved it!! Especially watching the motorcycles driving in the "globe of death." After this great fair time we all parked ourselves on some picnic tables, under a shelter, and ate our packed lunches. It was great!! As you can see, we made Mike our balloon transporter.That evening, we decided to go back as a family. One of the perks of being a police officer in Rockingham County, is that you and your family get into the fair free of charge. We decided we should not pass up this opportunity. Upon arriving we had dinner. Eating at the fair, quite a big deal!! In venturing over to the rides, we ran into my friend Rabia and her family. Her daughter, Frances, and Ryan rode the motorcycles together while Lydia and Emily hitched a ride on another one. After riding the motorcycles and the cars we were out of ride money:) (buying tickets for three kids to ride . . . takes a lot-we stop after two rides per child). Luckily, we still have children that enjoy the "free rides" as well. The kids love sitting on the tractors just as much as the rides that cost money! Frances and her little brother, Henry, joined us at the tractors as well. While hanging out on the tractors, we ran into my parents. They were walking around checking things out. After meeting up with them, Rabia and her family left to get some dinner and we visited the livestock animals as well as the petting zoo. After eating ice cream and stealing a peek at the tractor pull, we headed out of the fair. All three kids fell asleep before making it home. No one made it to bed before 10:00 pm. It was a great day and night!!!

Make my day!

One of the parents in our preschool absolutely made my day yesterday. . . .Yesterday my class, along with the class down the hall from us (Ms. Treasa's class), held a 4th of July parade with our kids. Treasa is Lydia and Emily's teacher and has become a good friend of mine. We tend to join together on occasion for activities and events we do with the kids in our classes. We decided to have a parade using some of the crafts we had the children make in class this past week. Treasa downloaded Yankee Doodle and I brought a cd player to school. We invited the other kids in the center to sit in the school hallway and watch our parade. It was so cute!!! The kids had a great time with it! We even went so far as to give them each a piece of candy (thanks to Ms. Rabia) to "throw" to the children watching the parade. Several of the younger two year olds did not want to throw their candy or even let go of it for that matter--they wanted to eat it:).

A mother of one of our kids came up to me as she was picking her son up from school yesterday. Her son is in Ms. Treasa's class and they had already made their way up the hill to the playground . . . Ms. Stacey tends to take a little longer getting her kids cleaned up . . . anyway, this is the mother of a child I had when I first started working at this center. Very nice woman, but this is her only child, she is an older mom and she is a little harder to please than a lot of the other mothers. Plus, she and her husband are teachers:). In her son's cubby, Treasa had placed his Uncle Sam hat and construction paper flag he had carried in the parade that morning. She collected these items to take them home. As I was sweeping up the crumbs from snacktime, she passed my room holding this hat and flag, just looking at them. I looked up to say good-bye to her and she started to thank me for all the effort Treasa and I put into these kids. She said, "This parade must really have been a production." As she was talking tears welled up in her eyes. She talked about how difficult she knew this must be for us, but how wonderful it is for our kids to experience things like this. She went on to say how she was going to take the hat and flag home and see if she could get her little boy to have a parade at home with her and her husband. She must have thanked me three or four times. I told her I would be emailing pictures to her and to be on the lookout. She said she could not wait to see them.

I am thanked from time to time and told, quite often, how great it is that I do this and that I must have amazing patience. Funny, I really don't have amazing patience, but I love what I do so much that my lack of patience is focused on showing the kids the best way to direct their energy. I appreciate the things all the parents say, but coming from this particular mother was like receiving an award! Before I even reached the gate at the playgound with my kids, I began to tell Treasa of this good fortune. She said when this mother came up to pick up her son, she thanked her as well.

This made Lydia and Emily's 2nd parade. Back towards the first part of June Ryan, Lydia, Emily and myself were in a parade that was part of a local lawn party. The director of my center owns another center and we rode in the parade for that center--advertisement. It was really neat and the kids thought it was so great! We rode on a make shift float that was actually a trailer being pulled by a pick up. The trailer sat pretty close to the ground and at the end of the parade, in order to get back to our vehicles we had to get out on the main rode for about 2 miles. One of my co-workers was in the back of the pickup and yelled at me to turn around to look at Ryan and her son, Dylan. As I turned around I saw both of them leaning over the edge of the trailer watching the pavement go by rather quickly:). Screaming at them to get back before they fell off the trailer and hit by an oncoming vehicle, I realized this is the first time either of them had been able to see the road while riding in a vehicle. What an experience:).