A Day at the Museum

 The day after Thanksgiving we went to the LA Science museum to see the Endeavor exhibit.  It was pretty darn neat.  Anthony and Erik loved the space potty exhibit.  (That's a shocker.)  They also enjoyed the 3-D Imax movie on the Hubble Space telescope.  It was a little long for Anthony, but it kept his attention for a long time.  Bob had to put his arm out a few times to catch Anthony--he was reaching so far out to touch the images that he was in danger of toppling over into the row in front of us.

Happy Thanksgiving

R.I.P. Tigger 7/4/1996 - 11/19/2012

   Who would have thought that the crazy wild cat who would go "wokka wokka" (Janet's words) as she ran about the house would become the sedate animal who would let Anthony love her as much as he wanted?  Yet somehow she did.  She tolerated handstands (once), being carried around like a baby (repeatedly) and even being draped over Anthony's shoulder and twirled.  She was an amazing pet.

  Time caught up with her and her time finally came.  When I tried to explain it to Anthony I wasn't sure exactly how.  I knew the starting point, kitty old and sick.  I knew the ending point, Heaven.  The path I wasn't sure about.  I started off with a reminder that she was old and sick, and that I was going to take her to the doctor to get medicine.  At that point Anthony interrupted me and said, "So she won't die?"  Ooh, so backwards.  He misses her a lot at this point.  We're planning on getting a new cat in January.  Anthony, of course, wants a new cat NOW.  "But I need a cat to play with!"

The Beloved Witch Puppet

Anthony made a witch puppet at daycare on Halloween and was SO proud of it.  Its almost three weeks later and he is still sleeping with it!

Setting the Table

 Anthony has helped set the table for awhile now.  Usually he is more focused on who gets each fork, rather than where it goes on the place setting.  Today at preschool they made diagrams showing how to set the table and he came home with a full place setting.  He was very excited to show me how to do it.  (We're saving his Thanksgiving placemat for the actual day.)

Balloons

A party favor and he can blow it up himself.

Vote Early and Often

This morning I explained to Anthony how we were going to go vote for President.  (The President, of course, is the person who runs the country.)  I told him who Mommy was voting for and who Daddy is voting for.  His predictable response, "What about me?"

  I explained that he had to be 18 to vote.  His response, "But Mommy, you're not 18, you are 41!  Remember??"

  Anthony also learned about voting at preschool.  His classroom had a voting booth and each child got to vote for which book they were going to read during circle time.

A Glorious Day at the Beach

 

It was a perfect day at the beach.  The sun was out, the water was warm-ish...  Anthony spent most of the time playing in the surf.  He took a few breaks to build sand castles and throw tennis balls for a patient labrador.  A perfect Sunday afternoon!

Happy Halloween!

   As expected, the trick-or-treat was the highlight of the day.  Anthony was out for almost TWO hours!  Ciaran came over and we also joined forces with Claire and Robert.  Let's just say a lot of candy was consumed over the course of the evening.

  Instead of preschool's annual Halloween program, they had a Halloween party.  Each room had a different theme.  Anthony's favorite was the sensory area--witch brains (peeled tomatoes), skeleton fingers (pickles) as well as just buckets of jelly to play in.  There were also some neat activities in the pumpkin room, he particularly enjoyed using a hammer to pound golf tees into a pumpkin.

  I handed out books again this year.  They were generally quite popular!  It makes sense, most families I know require the kid to surrender most of the candy.  This way the kid gets a treat they get to keep.

Pumpkin Carving

   Anthony was VERY enthusiastic about helping carve pumpkins.  By golly the kid wanted to help.  Unfortunately, there's not too much he CAN do.  I'm not letting him use a knife!  He did help scoop out the pumpkin guts.  He also got to help poke out the "pieces" once they were cut.

  I think Daddy's witch came out really nicely!

Science Class

 Anthony has science class with Teacher Mike every other week.  He always comes home so excited about the projects they did.  The first week it was Mentos in Diet Coke.  This week it was observing reactions by mixing elmer's glue and borax to make silly putty.  (He did the same thing at Aulani to make "Stitch's Space Goo".)  He LOVES the stuff, we played with it for quite awhile.

Halloween at Great America

  Last month the boys joined the Donahues for an impromptu trip to Great America.  They were able to buy season tickets for NEXT year (that included the end of this year) for the price of one visit.  So, we now have Great America passes, too.

 Saturday morning we decided to go to the park to check out the Halloween festivities.  It got off to a rocky start.  Anthony was spooked out by the decorations.  It was also a LONG walk past all these fun looking rides that he was 1/2" to short for.  We finally got to the little kid areas so he could play.  He started off with SEVEN rounds on the roller-coaster.  Its a little bigger and faster than the one at Happy Hollow.  The swings were also a hit!

  Next season Anthony will hit the magic 44" mark and be able to ride a lot more rides. 

Halloween Party

   Anthony was over the moon excited to receive an invitation to his classmate R's Halloween party.  At the last minute he decided not to wear the costume we'd bought and picked out a random assortment of dress-up clothes.

  He had a lovely time playing with his friends.  I'm not sure what they are doing in the top picture, in the bottom picture they are all riding a broomstick together.

 

Happy Hollow Pumpkin Patch

   October is a pretty hectic month for us, and our favorite pumpkin patch is a good hour's drive away.  Sunday we decided to check out the pumpkin patch at Happy Hollow instead.

  It was very low key, but nice.  They had some bouncy houses, a "patch" of pumpkins with Danny the Dragon posing for pictures in his Halloween costume, and they turned their regular maze into a "corn maze."

  Of course we did all the regular fun things, too.  The roller coaster, the Frog Hopper, the stepping stones across the pond…  Anthony's legs are longer and his balance is better, so he didn't fall in this time.  I actually got to see the giant tortoise going for a walk around his enclosure.  I'm not sure I've actually seen one really move before.

 

Snakes at a Party

 Kind of like "Snakes on a Plane", but different.

  Yesterday was Sophia's birthday party.  We got off to a great start.  When we arrived, J, a preschool friend who I'd never met shrieked "Anthony" and gave him a big hug.  I was happy to see that Anthony was clearly making new friends at school this year!

  The entertainment at this party was a naturalist with a whole collection of animals.  Anthony was pretty freaked out by the insects and rapidly sat on Daddy's lap where it was safe.  (He was even afraid of the stick insect.)  Bob did let a tarantula crawl across his arms and he said that Anthony was pushing with all his might into his chest to get away from the thing.

  Anthony was more than happy to hold the snakes and other reptiles.  He also has a strong fondness for slugs and snails.  (Not my favorite, at all!)

Class Book

 Anthony's class is doing a lot of bookmaking this year.  I think they're making at LEAST on book a week.  Their entire class also made a book.  Each child drew a picture and then told a story about the picture.  The facing page was a picture of the child.

  Points to whoever can point out the inconsistency in Anthony's story!

"It was a lovely party"

Anthony's words.  I was thrilled to hear it.

   The long awaited day, Anthony's fifth birthday party.  He had about 10 pals over for some creative dramatics activities.  Honestly, while the actress was downright fabulous, we probably would have just been fine with free-play in the back yard.  They did enjoy her, a lot, but it was hard to compete with the sand table and roller coaster.

  The cake was a hit, as was the pinata.  They also went through nearly two gallons of ice cream!


  He got some great presents.  A bunch of board games (must be a turning five thing) and legos.  Also some new books, a few toys and some CD of music from his favorite movies.

"I'm Already Five"

 First words out of his mouth.  At 5:30 am.  Fortunately he crawled into bed with Grandma instead of us!

  Others have commented on how grown-up and mature he is.  Its harder to see as I seem him every day.

  A few random thoughts:
1.  He's figured out potty humor.  Yeah.
2.  His "pre-reading" skills have really improved.  He's long mastered what sounds each letter make, if you say a word he can identify a lot of the letters by the sounds he hears.
3.  He can also write most of his letters in handwriting that is much improved than last school year.  Interestingly, he'll often write his name right to left.
4.  Gross motor skills are fabulous.  He can easily do monkey bars, ride how bike fluently, in a hopping contest he made it up to 68 hops on one foot.
5.  He doesn't play dress-up nearly as much as he did earlier in the year.  At home he really enjoys building towers out of his lego duplos and then acting out scenes with them.  He received a several big boy lego kits for his birthday.  He's very excited to put those together.

Playing Dress-Up

The last of the Hawaii Pictures

 Top to bottom:

1.  Getting ready to go down the tube slide.

2.  Sand castles with Daddy, so much fun!

3.  Finally learned to make a "shaka" sign.  That was HARD, as usually you use your thumb to hold down the other fingers.

The Aulani Luau

  Disney's Aulani went to great lengths to celebrate Hawaiian history, culture and traditions.  The majority of the activities Anthony did at Aunty's beach house were Hawaiian themed, such as making me my beautiful lei (I made his!) and constructing outrigger canoes for canoe races.  He took a hula lesson and once heard music in a restaurant and announced, "We sang this at Aunty's."

  The evening program was no exception.  The show was just amazing, but we enjoyed the activities before, also.  Anthony spotted a game of ulu maika (polynesian bowling) and proceeded to show off how he'd learned it earlier that day.  He was better than me!