Charlie's New Activity

Doesn't he look cute?  Charlie started studying Taekwondo this November.  He loves it!

Charlie's Fall Projects

Charlie has been very busy this fall creating new masterpieces for us.  Many of them have been made at school, some have been made at home.  Most of them have been ideas provided for him, and a few have been his own.

We kicked off November by attending Charlie's preschool Open House.  Charlie had completed a few projects for us to see there.  I had him pose with them later that night before we hung them up in the house.

Charlie has made a ton of crafts at preschool this year.  So far they cover a whole side of his bedroom door, and half of the other side.  When it is all full, I will take a picture and post it... and then probably start removing some of the things to make room for new projects!

We also made quite a few Thanksgiving crafts this year.  Charlie's favorite were the characters that we made out of toilet paper rolls.

He also colored a lot of pictures for us to hang, and drew a few original creations too.  Charlie has a ritual when he starts coloring where he lines up all of his crayons to prepare.  I want to remember it, so I took a picture.

Finally, we got a new iMac this past month.  It was supposed to be my computer, but we've made the decision to keep it downstairs... which has made it the whole family's computer.  Charlie is really enjoying the easy access to it.

I am sure there will be a post to come with many Christmas crafts that Charlie will probably want to make!

Preschool Pajama Party

Charlie's preschool had a pajama party for their last class before Halloween.  He was so excited to wear his pajamas to school!

They also got to bring a stuffed animal with them.  Charlie's choice for the day was Alien.  We strapped alien into the seat next to Charlie's.  Charlie thought it was pretty funny that he fit in the seatbelt.

We got to school a few minutes early and I had fun watching all of the kids running up to each other, talking about their pj's.  I got Charlie to hold still long enough to take a picture of him - but the other kids were all running around.  When the teacher opened the classroom door she was dressed in her pajamas too.  Charlie thought that was "awesome".

Charlie had a very fun time.  They had a pajama parade and partied for most of their class time.  He came home with a spider that he had made.  Charlie really likes theme days!

Charlie's Preschool Goes to the Farm

The day after Andy's birthday was the preschool's annual pumpkin patch field trip.  Charlie was so excited to go pick out a pumpkin he could hardly contain himself.  This year his preschool was going to our favorite pumpkin patch, The Farm.  Andy took the day off of work so that he could accompany Charlie on the field trip.  Ephram and I stayed home... no siblings allowed!

I took a picture of Charlie just before he left.  He was super excited, it took awhile for me to get him to hold still enough to not be a blur of motion.

Then he and Andy took off to meet his class at The Farm.  Andy took some cute pictures while they were there.  He said that Charlie was meticulous about choosing his perfect pumpkin...  just like last year.  He is serious about his pumpkin hunting!

The class also stopped to take a couple of pictures - one with just the kids and then one with the teacher and teacher's assistant.  About half of his class was able to go on the field trip... and I think you can see that Charlie was having no problem showing his personality in these pictures.

As a side note, Charlie has a little girlfriend in the class.  There will be another post about their antics later, I am sure... but for now, her name is Sienna and she is the little girl with the big pink boots in the picture.  They are hilarious together.

When he got home, Charlie ran in to tell us all about the pumpkin patch.  He was very, very excited to show me his perfect pumpkin.

I love seeing him so happy, and this was also the first Halloween activity we had this year.  Halloween is Andy's favorite holiday, so I thought it was extra special that he was able to spend the day with Charlie.  I hope that he gets to have as much fun next year when he is a Kindergartner!

Coloring Handy Manny

Yep, Charlie still loves to color.  What could be better than coloring a really big page full of Handy Manny's tools?

Only One More Year

Until I have to send my eldest off to Kindergarten!  Charlie started his new preschool in mid-September.  He was so excited to go meet his new teacher and classmates.  I could hardly contain him long enough to snap this picture.

Doesn't he look so old?  I can't believe he is almost 5.  When I compare him to last years picture he looks like a totally different kid...

Insert big sigh ... my little guy isn't so little anymore!  Back to the first day of this year's school...

When we got there the teacher had name tag necklaces for each kid to put on.  I had to grab Charlie back from running into the classroom to get this picture.  He was waaaaaaay too excited.  I felt a little sorry for the teacher and classroom helper when I realized that most of the kids were a little (read: a lot) hyper.

 

The kids turned their name tags into cereal necklaces during art time that day.  Charlie had such a great first day, he couldn't wait to tell us about it at home.  We are all loving his preschool this year!

First Piggy Bank

Charlie loves Toy Story.  His Toy Story obsession started two years ago, when it was quite difficult to find enough Buzz Lightyear paraphenelia for a birthday party since it had been years since the last movie had been released.  Imagine his joy, and mine, when Disney announced Toy Story 3 and the shelves of every store were suddenly stocked with his favorites.

One of our family's favorite foods is Shredded Wheat.  And they just happened to be doing a special promotion that involved eating lots of their cereal so that you could collect codes to get free stuff.  Not just any free stuff... but Toy Story 3 free stuff!  We ended up eating 13 boxes of the cereal before they disappeared from the shelves.  And no, I didn't buy extra for the promotion... we just go through a lot of this cereal.  Charlie noticed that his favorite Toy Story characters were on the cereal box, but I didn't tell him about the promotion.

Then one day Charlie got a box in the mail.  Imagine his glee when he opened it to discover his very own Hamm, the piggy bank in Toy Story 3.  He became even more excited when we showed him how it could hold money... although he struggled with why it didn't come right back out!

Charlie is enjoying using his piggy bank, and was happy to reunite him with the other Toy Story friends he already had... Rex, Woody, Buzz, Slinky Dog, RC... the list goes on.  We hope he is starting to learn about saving money, and look forward to watching him spend it in the future!

Splash!

This is the look of a four year old boy that is completely soaked, a little cold, and beyond exuberant after a romp at the splash park.  We are so lucky to live only a ten minute walk away from a very nice park.  One of its features is a spray pad.  We enjoyed some summer days there this year, and I actually remembered my camera once.

Charlie absolutely loves running up to the different fountains and playing in the water!

He also loves running over to the water fountains to get drinks while he's playing.  He has been obsessed with water fountains lately.  Check out how he is filling up a pretend cup in the first shot.  Shortly after this he ran over and told me he filled up my cup too.  Of course, I pretended to drink it.  His imagination is awesome.

The spray pad also has some big guns that you can aim to shoot water at other things or other people.  Charlie loves using them, and has learned the art of waiting patiently until they open.  I think his favorite part is when the person at the other one decides to hit him with their water.  He loves to pretend that he doesn't like it.  And he screams and laughs all at the same time.

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, the spray pad is closed until next season.  I hope that we have as much fun there next year!

CA: Charlie Sleeps

Charlie had constant opportunity to play when we were in California.  No matter where we were, it was pretty much a guarantee that a parent, brother, cousin, aunt, uncle or grandparent would be readily available for interaction.  Charlie ate it up and was on the move pretty much the whole trip.  But, after our drive down to visit Grandma Hayman I caught him like this for a moment:

He had worn down so much that he curled up on my Grandma's living room chair and went to sleep.  He looked so innocent and serene that I just had to take a few pictures.  We don't often get to see this side of Charlie.

He woke up a little grouchy and confused.  So I showed him the pictures that I took of him.  And then he was just happy.  We sat together for about ten minutes... and then he was off.

CA: The Ravine turned into a Park

When I was growing up our neighborhood was just above a ravine.  At the bottom of the ravine was a pretty big field that was full of nothing but dirt.  In the middle of the field there was one circular mound of dirt, that I believe had a palm tree growing out of it.  It may have been some other type of tree, but I'm thinking it was probably a palm tree because this ravine was pretty desolate.  When we first lived in the house, we used to call this little mound of dirt Crystal Island.  At that point there was some quartz rock on it and so it would sparkle as we were descending the hills to get to it.  It stopped sparkling after a couple of years.  I'm pretty sure that we had taken all of the rock by that point.

We still used to climb down into the field.  I don't think my parents liked it when we would go there.  There were probably all sorts of bugs, and the dirt down there was really soft, so our feet used to sink into it.  I remember that my shoes used to be filled with dirt every time we went there.  And then, of course, people would occasionally trip on the way down and inevitably be scratched and bruised as a result.  I remember once, on a trek to have a picnic with two friends, one friend went tumbling down most of the hillside.  She was so hurt that we couldn't move her.  I stayed with her while the other friend went for help...  Pretty sure none of our parents were happy about what we had done that day.  But we still thought it was an adventure to go there, so we kept doing it.

In elementary school a group of neighborhood kids decided to build a series of bike jumps on the plateau above the ravine.  We spent a long time compacting dirt to make these jumps... it probably took months.  It was so much fun to ride over them when it was done!  But, after a few years, someone bought the land our jumps were on and decided to build a house there.

On one side of the ravine there are cement structures for a retention pond or sewage... I'm not sure which.  But they were constructed in bowl shapes, and so we used to take our skateboards down there to ride.  Actually, I wasn't very brave, so I didn't do much riding down there... but it was fun to watch!

Then the city decided to build a bike path from the street down to the field.  This made it a lot easier to get down that hill.  I think I was almost driving by this point, but I remember being excited that it wouldn't take me as long to walk up to the shopping center that was a couple of miles from our house.   In actuality, I think I only walked there twice.

I remember them talking about how this land was designated to be a park since about middle school.  But from what I'd seen, it wasn't going to happen.  It was a great place to play though, and in recent years we have gone geocaching down the bike path and in the field with our nephews.

But, they finally built a park there.  And it's a beautiful park too.  On the same day that we had the family dinner, most of the cousins went to play at the park before bed.  As I walked into the park with my sister, I was hit by a flood of memories from long ago... things that happened between 4th and 12th grades.  I love that the ravine that I knew and enjoyed as a child is now a park that is easy for a city to enjoy.

 Braxton brought his RipStik (I think that's what it's called) which reminded me of when we used to lug our skateboards down the hill.

The kids had fun climbing the rock wall.

Charlie had fun running across the bridges, through the tunnels, and sliding.

 Brinly had fun spinning Charlie around... and then they switched.  Luckily neither got sick!

Brinly and Quinlan doing the see-saw their own way!

Brinly in motion

 

The next day, a heat wave hit that lasted for most of our stay, so we weren't able to make it back out to the park again.  (The kids were always in bed by the time it was cool enough to go out.)  I am looking forward to the next time that we are home so that we can spend more time at this park!

Charlie's Haircut

When Charlie came to live with us he had a buzz cut.  It was not pretty.  So I let it grow out.  And grow and grow and grow.  I just kept giving him bowl cuts ... and not great ones, because I've never been good at cutting hair.  Especially not boy's hair.  When I cut Charlie's hair in May I decided it would be the last time... the next time he would go get it cut by someone who actually knew how to do it.  That time came in June.  And then a couple more weeks lapsed.  And his hair was longer than it has ever been.  Interestingly, in those couple of weeks I got more comments about how cute his hair was long than I ever have.  It was uncontrollable by the time we finally headed out to get it cut.  Here are some before pictures.  No, I didn't even bother to comb it that day... I figured there wasn't a point since it was about to be cut.

Charlie was so excited to get his hair cut.  And Ephram was napping.  I thought my timing was perfect.

Then we pulled up to the place closest to us.  I unpacked Ephram, got out the stroller and we all went in.  A little sign by the register said that their credit card machine was broken and that they were only accepting cash that day.  Yeah.  I don't carry cash.  And if I happen to have any, it's never more than $5.

Back into the car.

We drive down the road to the next place.  I unpack Ephram, get the stroller out, we head in.  What?  A 45 minute wait?  Seriously?  It was 11am on a Tuesday morning.

Back into the car.

We keep driving down the road.  Charlie is saying, "Mom am I still going to go to the cut shop to get my hair cut today?"

"Yep, we're still going to get your hair cut at the hair salon today."
"We have to turn around to go back to that cut shop!"
"Actually, they're called hair salons and luckily, there are a LOT of them on this street!"

We pull up to the next place that I see.  This time I am smarter.  As I get out of the car I peek strategically in the window.  I see no signs by the register.  I don't see anyone else getting their hair cut.  I unpack Ephram, get out the stroller and we head inside.

"Our stylist ran to get lunch and will be back in thirty minutes."

Back into the car.

"Mom, I need to go back to that cut shop to get my hair cut!"
"Charlie, there's one more hair salon across the street.  Let's try it.  If they aren't there we'll do it tomorrow."

We drive across the street.  I just take Ephram's car seat out this time.  Because he's napping and I don't want to wake him up.  I carry him in.

"One cut for your boy today?"
"Yes!"
"We'll be with you in about two minutes."

Finally!  And as an added bonus, this place had a little car that Charlie could sit in while his hair was cut.  He was almost too big for it, but he had fun making the wheels spin.  Charlie did really well while his hair was being cut and said that there was a "jungle" on the floor when he saw all of his hair there.

And Ephram slept almost the whole time, waking up happy about 5 minutes before we loaded him back into the car.

I think Charlie's new cut makes him look even older.  He does too.  He keeps telling us that he's ready to be 5 now!