Boo at the Zoo

October 23rd we went to Boo at the Zoo. The kids got to play games, make crafts, go to treat stations, ride the train, and see some of the animals. While on the train, the camels got on the tracks and would not move. The guy had to keep ringing the bell and inching the train as close to them as he could, but it took like 5 minutes to get them out of the way. It was very funny...everyone cheered the "engineer" when the camels finally moved and we could continue our train ride. The lemurs were very active during the train ride. All of the businesses that had candy stations set up, gave out the really cheap candy. Don't think it was worth $10/person, but this is Ashlyn's first experience with Halloween, so we're doing many events that fall around it so she can truly experience it. She loved dressing up as the pretty pink princess and Kaylyn loved being Cleopatra.

Pumpkin Patch

Kaylyn got strep throat and was out of school Wednesday and Thursday, but we got her make-up work while she was out of school and did it. She made up all her tests on Friday and made 100s on all of them. This child is unstoppable.

So we went to the Pumpkin Patch Friday October 22nd. This was Ashlyn's first time to one. They rode the hayride, took lots of pictures, and picked a pumpkin out. The girls seemed to really enjoy this.

Today we had Kaylyn's swim meet. Since she was out sick for a couple of days this week she missed the second swim practice and was probably still a little weak from recovering. But boy oh boy...was she a poor sport! This child cannot stand to lose and boy does it show. She's very competitive and when she loses she gets very upset, talks meanly to Jason and I, and can cry. We just want to pull her out of there for behaving like this...but it's so hard to do that. She really enjoys swimming and we're hoping she learns that she can be a winner even though she does not place first. It's probably one of the hardest lessons for her.

We're probably going to Boo at the Zoo tonight, so I will post pictures after. But here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch.

1st Grade Field Trip

Ashlyn had her first 1st grade field trip on Wednesday October 13th. We started out at FIT's Botanical Gardens. We had a tour guide that explained all the different plants and the kids collected different leaves for a science experiment later in class. After the gardens, we drove over to Fred Lee Park where the kids met with the other 1st grade class. We ate lunch here and played on the playground. Then we headed over to Publix where the kids were given a tour. The got to lick icing off their hands (thank goodness everyone hand sanitized before we got there). They each got a cookie. They watched a popcorn machine pop popcorn and then they were given a bag of it. They got to go in the walk-in fridge and freezer and watch the meat department make different kinds of meats (tenderized cube steak, ground beef, turn ground beef into hamburgers, etc...). The kids really enjoyed this!

We got back to the school around 1:00, so I went home and finished my workout early and then picked the girls up in car loop.

Seatwork at School, Home Group Fair, & Field Trip

Ever since my last frustrated posting, Ashlyn is doing much better with seatwork. She's finishing without asking a hundred questions to the teacher or needing too much help from the assistant. I'm very happy about this. There's still small frustrations here and there with homework, but overall, it has improved greatly. We just need to work on her neatness with writing because when she concentrates on writing neatly, her handwriting is very nice, but when she doesn't concentrate, it's very sloppy. I'm very happy about the improvements on this and just wanted to share!

On October 1st, there was a home group night at church with food around the world. The girls got their faces painted, ate asian food and watched different cultural dances along with a puppet show with games. Ashlyn was in a contest on who could drink their mountain dew the quickest and stuff all their oreos into their mouths. Ashlyn got last place and never quite finished her mountain dew seeing as how she does not like soda! It was a pretty fun, free evening.

On October 7th, Kaylyn had a field trip to the Orlando Science Museum. They performed some experiments before exploring the museum. The 3rd grade classes seemed to really enjoy this.