Mommy Pre School

We had a fun time this year doing a sort of Joy School / Pre School with a few other moms and kids from our old and new wards.  I cannot believe how much Melia has grown in the process.  Here she is on the first day of school. 

First day BFF's

This is the first day I taught at my house -- Maddie, Tyler, Melia, Ella, Graham, and Ava.  (Brinley was absent.)

Here's Melia with her Abraham Lincoln mask that she made at preschool.

And THIS is her somber Abraham Lincoln face. 

All the little Leprechauns -- Graham, Tyler, Maddie, Brinley, and Melia

(Same order but with Ev on the end)

But I must admit, this was the cutest Leprechaun of all!  :)  (Evera is too young for preschool, but he enjoyed participating when I was the teacher)

Playing in the yard

Funny, these two pictures are taken on different days with different kids in different places, but the two pictures are awfully similar.

This is the little headband Melia made at preschool for Easter

One of the units I taught was on ice.  We put food coloring in an ice cube tray with water and tongue depressors.  Then the kids got to paint with them when they were frozen.  The kids had so much fun!

How cute are these girls?!

Evera especially loved painting with the icecubes--and kept trying to eat them too.  Lol.

That same day, we did my favorite activity which was making ice cream cone pictures using shaving cream, elmer's glue, and food coloring for the icecream.  Then we put a red pom pom for a cherry on top and we also put real sprinkles on it.  The kids LOOOVED it.

The ice creams dried super awesome and stayed puffy.  They were so cute!  The mixture is such an interesting texture when it dries!

To repeat this activity, mix 1 part elmers glue to 1 part shaving cream.  Because the shaving cream expands, I just kindof estimated the "1 part to 1 part" thing and just filled a bowl about 3/4 of the way with shaving cream and then added about a 1/3 cup of Elmer's glue and mixed it all up.  Then added a few drops of food coloring.

Evera always got a lot of attention at preschool.  The other kids loved him!

Cuties!

This was HIBERNATION DAY at my house (ie Pajama day) and all the kids wore PJ's and brought their favorite teddy bear.

This was the Community Helpers unit at Michelle's house and I just had to post this adorable picture!

 Jana ended up getting us a preschool Butterfly Habitat for the kids.  They started out as caterpillars and we got to watch them grow and create chrysalises.

 They were kindof nasty with all those webish things in there.  But they were pretty interesting too.

 It was really interesting to watch the whole process.

 This is one of the butterflies in its habitat.  (There were 5 butterflies in all.)  We put fresh flowers in there periodically and dropped a sugar solution on them for the butterflies to drink.  It was especially interesting to watch them drink.  I also was able to watch them mate...that was a little disturbing.  Lol.  At one point two of the (I assume male) butterflies went for the same (I assume female) butterfly...I won't go into details on that one, but I definitely never thought I'd witness a butterfly menage a trois.  

 Once the butterflies were full grown and acclimated to living out of their chrysalises, we all went and set them free at the park.

The kids also had fun playing at the park too.  Here they are on the slide with Miss Jana.

 We got to take a super fun field trip to the fire station.  Evera loved seeing the big trucks.  Here are my two cuties on the front of one of the trucks.

 The firemen were super cute with the kids.

 Colton, Melia, Maddie, Brinley, and Graham in front of the gauges.

 

 Evera felt like such a big boy sitting in the ambulance with the big kids.

 Evera (of course) ran away as soon as the firemen decided to open the garage door, and this nice fireman went to the rescue.  :)

 Here are all the kids taking an oath not to play with matches or lighters.

 Here's my little firegirl / DIVA.  :)

 And here's the whole clan on the front of the firetruck.  Brinley, Colton, Melia, Evera, Graham, Maddie, and Tyler.  For a good laugh, zoom in on Tyler's face.  He was having a jolly old time!  :)

 And here's a pic with all the mamas too.  (Moms from L to R: Missy, Heather, Michelle, Jana, and Chelsea.)

 I love these kiddos.  Melia is such a sweet sister.

 This picture cracks me up.  Melia complete with pink sunglasses, hello kitty flip flops, legs crossed, just chattin it up with her bff with her arm around Evera.  And then there's Evera looking down at her hand like, "What the heck do you think you're doing?!"  :)

 Here are the little BFF's.  Brinley and Melia.

 I got to teach the last day of real school.  Here's Melia holding up the weather card.  PARTLY CLOUDY.  That was her favorite weather to report.  She LOOOVED being the "weather watcher."  Who knows, maybe someday she'll be the weather girl!  :)

 One day in the car Melia was singing the Weather Watcher song to me.  (To the tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

Weather Watcher what do you see?
Won't you look outside for me?
Is there rain or snow up high?
Sun or wind or cloudy sky?
Weather Watcher what do you see?
Won't you look outside for me?

Melia then says to me, "Mom, that song is WRONG.  It should say, 'Is there rain or snow up high?  Sun or wind or cloudy sky, PARTLY CLOUDY?"  HAHA!  She is a crack up.

Graham

 Maddie

 Tyler

On our last day of school we took the kids to the park for an end of year party.  We had a little bounce house and let the kids play around and we had a picnic.  

Missy brought her two new kitties and the kids looooved playing with them too.  They were brand new little kittens and were so cute.  I loved listening to them mew.

And at the end, Melia passed out these little treats to her teachers and classmates.  I made little tags to go on them.  The teacher one said, "Thanks for helping make us little SMARTIES.  Love, Melia" and the ones for her classmates said, "Of all the fish in the sea, I am glad you were in school with me.  Love, Melia"  :)