What the Right Decision Looks Like

After three weeks of school I transferred Riley. The details aren't important because after three weeks at her new school it is clear I did the right thing. Thank God! My heart is overflowing with gratitude. Look at the evidence, I found my sweet happy girl again.

There was a new first day sign for our fresh start. She's collected leaves for a nature collage, learned new songs, discussed science topics, practiced her handwriting, made friends, made art, taken a field trip, befriended the stuffed dinosaur in the front office (Diney), learned about a different culture, practiced her musical scales, been to a party and danced a lot! The bulletin board inside the door says "You are artists! You are bright! You are explorers! You are loved! You are the reason we are here." Isn't that great? I'm glad she's happy and learning again.

The Haunted Hike

I was Googling "Family Friendly" local Halloween events when I discovered this neighborhood holding it's 10th annual event. It is a walk through a neighborhood with stops to hear festive tales. It was conveniently timed and reasonably priced, but beyond that they were advertising a live performance of Thriller! Riley loves Thriller. Even though I let the boys sneak out to a local Haunted House the other night this was our first family Halloween event. An adventure!

Riley got her face painted with a bat on each cheek! As if that wasn't enough she saw her future husband! Seriously, Nightmare Before Christmas is one of Riley's favorites and she's been announcing she'd marry Jack Skellington when she grew up. A girl could do a lot worse than the Pumpkin King after all!

Off we went to hear tales of hotels for vampires who moonbathe by the pool and all manner of silly spooks. We even saw Betelgeuse!

And then the moment Riley (and all of us really) had been waiting for!

Now we've gotten October off and rolling!

"It Is Fun To Have Fun, But You Have To Know How"

Bounce House!! Slide!! Balloons!! Face Painting!! Pony Rides!! Hot Dogs!! Dance Party!! It was like a kid triathlon! My pin balls bounced from exciting thing to exciting thing, filled their bellies and then danced off the calories. Good. Day.

The Last Preschool Jams

Today was the last Preschool Jams for the summer. The library will now take two weeks off and then resume normal story time. Sigh. It was a good one though.

I guess we'll have to crank Laurie Berkner and bang on plastic buckets at home from now on. Totally kidding, we already do that regularly. After that we did a short stint on the adjacent playground before heading home for some PB&J (for her not me, ewwww!).

Nap time was a bit of a struggle. Riley's sleep got messed up before the weekend and she's got a bad habit of getting up multiple times a night which means she's cranky. Mommy's cranky too. I think she may have been over tired by nap. She'd been begging me to take her to dance class all weekend and now the day was here so at least I had a bargaining chip. She finally slept just in time to squeeze in an hour and change before class.

Can you tell she's pleased to finally after all. those. DAYS be on her way? Oh yeah.

Oh, I'd been meaning to share this one:
Riley: (says something silly and incoherent)
Me: What you takin' 'bout Willis!
Riley: (Highly Offended) I not Willis! I'm not talking about Willis. I'm Wiley. (points to herself)
Later
Mike: Hi, Riley. Did you have a good day?
Riley: What you talking about Willis?!?

Books & Beats

We continued our regularly scheduled summer camp at home program today. I actually got a phone call last night that I won the summer adult reading drawing at the library this week, yay! So, I was very excited to go pick up my $15 Barnes and Noble gift card. Isaac's reading list books got a little backed up on us and we had to settle up his fines, but he's only got one book left on his summer reading list for school. Exciting stuff!

I got Riley two Pete the Cat books and our newly discovered favorite Skippy John Jones this one is the dinosaur adventure. I'm so excited to read them. They also had not only a Hello Kitty coloring page, but an Alcie in Wonderland as well. Riley was over the moon. She's such a skilled colorer these days. I know I've said it before but this time I mean it I'm donating crayons to the library.

Not that the morning could've improved a bit, but then it was time for Preschool Jams. Isaac got a book about drawing airplanes and spacecraft and got to it. The summer music program at the library is winding down and this week was all about instruments. Drums, rythem sticks and bells (oh, my!). When they passed out the little tubs to drum on Riley realized mine matched her outfit better and we HAD to trade. They marched around druming and did the sound effects to a story with all three instruments. We ended all the fun with jingle bells. That was my personal favorite. After the library we were off for happy meals and (at least for Riley) a nap.

After some chicken nuggets and a nap it was off to dance class for Miss Roo.

Ballerina bun + Monster barrette for the win!

Our First Tunes & Tomes!

Reading while she waited to leave for the library! Ok kids say "library!"

The Mother Goose Story Time at the library has been replaced by Toddler Tunes & Preschool Jams. Which is great news since Riley's dance class is done until fall. I took her to dance and left Isaac at one of the nearby tables with a crossword puzzle to do and a stack of books. It was fun! Riley was a star for sure. We picked out and checked out a dozen or so books. Isaac got 3 more battle books and Matilda! Riley got two Dora books, a Clifford, an Arthur book and a dinosaur book. Everyone left happy.

Happily reading on the way home to build our reading fort.

Kids reading in reading fort!

After they had an hour to read/goof off in the tent I gave them lunch. After lunch Riley took a nap and Isaac and I took apart the fort. After lunch we started our all about me books. They both colored the covers, drew themselves, their house and family. At which point Riley had a monster meltdown. She sat in time out wailing for almost 15min before she calmed down enough to come out.

At that point we decided to clean-up our crafts supplies and go play outside. I definitely feel like the days with both kids will be the challenge. Granted, Riley has just recovered from illness and we had one heck of a busy weekend so she'll probably do better Thursday.