Kindergarten field day!

I got to help Claire's class for field day today. Claire got to be the

leader for half of her class.

 The first activity was throwing a rubber chicken and a rubber frog

into a hula hoop a short distance away.

 Next, the kids had to take a rubber pig and use it to push a ball

around a cone and back to the start.

 The third activity was the ice cream race. The kids had to carry an upside

down cone with a ball on top and walk as fast as they could around the cone and back

without dropping the ball. Claire did awesome at this!

 Finally, they had to take a rubber chicken and race to the cone and back as

fast as they could. I think Claire liked this activity the best.

 Always smiling when she is running. We might have a cross-country

runner on our hands!

 Claire with her classmates and her teacher, Mrs. McGuire, when they

are acting normal...

 and when they are being silly!

It's pumpkin carving time!

Jeff found a cute idea to carve Tinkerbell into a pumpkin so he

bravely took on the task, with his brave assistant Claire!

First Dad cut out the top.

 Then the two got nice and dirty picking out the seeds and

insides of the pumpkin.

 Claire enjoyed getting all wet and slimy from the seeds!

 Once the inside was cleaned out, it was time to trace

Tinkerbell onto the pumpkin. Claire took on this task.

 And here is the finished product! Nice work team!

Field trip to the Oil Ranch

I was lucky enough to get to join Claire on her field trip today to the Oil Ranch.

We had a blast. Her class was divided into two groups and me along with 2 other parent volunteers took 11 of the kids around the Ranch. This is Claire and Karsen who were buddied up for the day.

 An attempt at getting the whole class together at one time for a picture!

 Our group making silly faces!

 Spending some time at the petting zoo feeding the goats

 Free snow cones for everyone (red of all colors)

 then we had a competition to see who had the reddest tongue!

 At the end of the trip, the kids got to pick out their own pumpkin to take home.

Another attempt to get a class picture! I am not sure how Mrs. McGuire does it by herself every day.

The 3 of us volunteer moms had a hard time with just 11 kids!

Family fun day at Burroughs park

The city put on a Family Fun day at Burroughs park on Sunday afternoon.

We made a good choice and went early. Claire was able to enjoy all of the fun

activities before it became too crowded.

The very first thing we did was get her face painted.

 Then she got her picture with Ronald McDonald (not sure that she even knows who that is since we don't eat at McDonalds...)

 Her favorite activity was probably riding the pony

 and the petting zoo.

Claire is "Star of the Week"

Each week at school the teacher picks one student to be "Star of the Week". This is Claire's week.

For Monday she had to make a poster of pictures and drawings that told the class about her. She got to present it to her classmates and talk to them about what was on her poster.

Claire did an awesome job cutting out her photos, taping them on the poster, and drawing a picture of her and Belle in a house with a rainbow.

On Tuesday Claire got to bring something for show-n-tell. She chose to bring her doll Allison that G-Ma gave her for her birthday.

On Wednesday she got to pick a friend to eat lunch with. She chose her friend Benjamin.

Today she got to bring stickers to pass out to all of her classmates. She brought spiderman and Cars stickers for the boys and princess stickers for the girls.

Tomorrow she gets to bring her favorite book from home for the teacher to read to the class. I wonder which book she will pick!

Dewberry Farm

This year we decided to head to Dewberry Farm for some fall fun. It was definitely fun and

there were so many things to do. God blessed us with beautiful weather and just enough breeze

to not get overheated. The first ride Claire went on was the Roller Slide. She had to go with

Daddy to be sure it was safe first.

 Then she moved on to the Black Momba. With some encouragement,

she got up to her feet and was able to rock back and forth.

 Now that she has become brave, Claire decided it was time to do the Roller

Slide alone!

 After the slide, she had a blast going on the Pedal Karts. She quickly found ways to maneuver

around other kids who were going slower than her and even made a few shortcuts

once in a while! When she did this, she would look over to us and laugh...she

thought she was pretty smart!

 On to the Giant Slide next. To my surprise, she had no hesitation to go on

the open slide or the tube slide. She came down all smiles!

 Then we hit the Rat Racer. We had to move a giant circle from one haystack

to the other by walking in it. After a few tries, Claire and I got it down pat!

 Finally, Claire got to go on a pony ride. She had fun with this and loved to pet the pony

while she was riding it. She continues to amaze me every single day!

Kindergarten Fun Run!

Claire had her Fun Run (the only fundraiser for the school all year) on Tuesday.

We were so proud of her for running all 36 laps! Each lap she came through with a smile and was happy to keep going after she got her shirt marked.

 It is important to refresh and stay hydrated when you are running so far and so fast!

 Thankfully, the coordinators allowed the kids to walk a lap with a friend.

Claire and Julianna spent the lap talking and laughing!

 Claire is in the same class with our neighbor Cameron.

It is fun to watch them interact together! Sometimes they are best

friends and other times they fight like siblings!

 It is nice to be able to sit and relax after all of that hard work!

Our family photos

We had so much fun doing our family photos this year. A big Thank You to Rachael Hodges.

She has the talent of making our family look good every year!

Making s'mores with friends

We took advantage of a beautiful evening in Houston and invited friends over  for a bonfire.

Claire and Elliot got to roast marshmallows over the fire to make s'mores.

What a great evening together with friends! God is so good! As you can see we actually had a cooler evening for a change. No sweatshirts yet, but at least cool enough to wear pants for some of us!