Kid's Day Out

Well Kid's Day Out started back up this month! 

 This was on Open House day. 

 Isn't she precious?!

 My sweet girl and I.

 I love the look on her face in this picture!  We had a scavenger hunt around the room to help the kids get to know where everything was and find their own spaces and things to do.  Lilly did great and found all of the places including the treasure box at the end.  (: 

 One of the little boys in the class asked to have his picture taken with Lilly.  This is what happened.  Ha!  A cute story about Lilly.  There is another little girl in her class named Leah and when Lilly went to find her name she found Leah's name first (because they both start with L)...well, later when I was asking her the questions to this questionnaire it asked who her best friend is and she said, "Leah!"  I said, "Honey I don't think you have even met Leah!"  She put her hand on her hip and said, "I have met her.  I do know her.  And she IS my best friend!!"  It was so funny.  And, as things have shaken out, they are pretty good little buddies.  ( : 

 Reid and I.

 In Reid's room they got to create their own barn scene and he loved that and looking at all the farm books.  This boy LOVES the farm and farm animals. 

 They had all kinds of fun activities in the lobby of the building including stick horses and cowboy hats!  (: 

 This is Lilly on the first day of school.  She was pumped!!

 She is still loving it after a month--so that is a good sign! 

 Reid.  Okay all that is in his backpack is his sleeping bag and then his lunchbox is clipped on his backpack.  When he put his backpack on for the first time he just fell right over.  I am so glad he laughed at himself because I was cracking up!  It was precious. 

 He stood at my door (I teach the class right next to his and there is a door that the two rooms share) and yelled for me a good chunk of the first day but after that he has loved it.  I am glad! 

I made these trees for our room.  I got the idea when we went to the Hands-On Children's Museum.  I just cut a tree shape out of a cardboard box, painted the trunk, and added green felt as the leafy part.  Then I added Velcro to the apples and peaches.  My co-teacher's husband actually used a saw on the foam board for the corn because we couldn't cut it so I would recommend just regular poster board for that next time.  I love these because they went with farm and they go with Fall, too. 

 We have done lots of fun, hands-on learning activities in our room this month!  One of the things we did was make butter using baby food jars and heavy whipping cream and we did the butter boogie to make it.  I got the idea from here.  We are all having a blast with KDO this year!!

Party Guests!

 Lilly and Reid had lots of sweet friends come to celebrate their birthdays with them!  We are so blessed and are so thankful for each one! 

 Kayson playing in the corn.

 Jack...

and his twin brother Jake.  Their mom is my co-teacher at Kid's Day Out. 

 Will came dressed for the farm!  Love this boy and his fun-loving personality! 

 Lilly and Reid's cousin Ethan.  He looked so big next to all of the little kids.  Can't believe how fast he is growing! 

 Sweet Cilla styling in her cute football outfit.  I haven't mentioned that the party overlapped with the start of the razorback football game so these sweet friends get extra credit for coming!   (: 

Addy.  Addy's birthday is the day after Lilly's--they were actually only born like 3 hours apart.  Her little brother Sam is one of Reid's best buddies but he was sick the day of the party. 

 Anna loved the pony rides.  I think she may have rode them at least 20 times.

 And her adorable little sister Emma. 

 Lilly and Reid's cousin Emma.  Emma and Lilly are at the age where they can play together now and they make very sweet friends. 

Laci--we actually went to Laci's party at farmland adventures last year and knew right away that we were going to be having their party there this year! 

Lilly and Reid's cousin Baby Brianna came all the way from Texas to party with us!!  The kids LOVE Baby Brianna and have named several of their baby dolls after her.  Lilly makes almost all of her "school" projects for Baby Brianna.  ( : 

 Deuce--little cutie! (somehow I didn't get a picture of his older brother Diesel--oops!)

Xander--try as I did I could not get a picture of him looking up--he was having too much fun.  (:

 Xander's little sister Isabella.

 Cruz--he is just 3 weeks younger than Reid! 

His older brother Trevor. 

 Lilly, Anna, and Addy--these girls have grown up in the same room at church (and at KDO for a while.)

 Lilly and Addy were watching the pig races. 

 Reid was running around so I didn't manage to get any pictures of him and friends...most of the kids were on the move!  However I forgot to add this picture to the party post--LOVE Lilly's face in this picture!

 We had some cute party hats--so here are some party hat pictures.  Jack sporting the duck.

Jake sporting the cow.

 Cruz sporting the horse. 

 And Will sporting the duck.  There was a cute pig hat but I didn't get a picture of it.  Boo!  I also missed a picture of Trenton and Trevor, too.

And of course all of these kids came with their parents and we love them, too.  Just not enough to take a picture of them.  Ha!  I am just kidding!!  But...I really did not get a picture of a single parent or grandparent.  I am still trying to figure out how I took 200 pictures and missed so many things!!  Thank you to all of you who came to make this day extra special for Lilly and Reid!!! 

Lilly & Reid's Birthday Party

Well this year we decided to have the party at a local pumpkin patch called Farmland Adventures.  It is a pumpkin patch that has all kinds of farm animals and fun things for the kids to do.  God was AWESOME and gave us perfect weather--which was a blessing because they close when it rains and we had NO backup plan--so PRAISE the Lord!!

 The day of the party I had no idea what the kids were going to wear.  I had been looking for the past two days but with no luck.  About 3 hours before the party my mom sent me a picture of the above outfit that she came across while shopping!  I was a little stressed but this was PERFECT! 

 Lilly already had that cowgirl hat and the outfit that matched.  I found her and Reid's boots the morning of the party, too.  The only reason the outfits for this party worked out is because God had mercy on a busy Mommy and provided and I am so thankful.  Seriously these were the only two pair of boots in our city (or at least the 8 stores that I had been too--and this store only had TWO pair) and they just happened to be in the exact two sizes that we needed.  There is no request too small to take to God, folks!!

 There was a lot to do at the party.  They had a baby pig that you could pet.

 And they had lots of farm animals for you to see, feed, and pet. 

 Lilly is so gentle and would feed the animals pretty much grain by grain.

 Reid, on the other hand, fed them cup by cup.

 Ha! 

 They also had (unlimited) pony rides.  This birthday girl had a blast!!

 Reid waited until the end of the night to get on--but once he got on and rode--he did NOT want to stop!

 I just love this little three-year-old cowboy!!

 They had a hug hay stack with a tunnel underneath for the kids to climb on,

 stand on,

 jump off,

and climb through.  ( :

 They also had a big corn pit.  I don't know who thought of this--but it is genius.  The kids LOVE it.  They get in it,

 play with it and throw it,

 dig in it,

 roll in it,

 and just have a blast in it!  I love this picture because Reid looks so precious and Jake in the background cracks me up! 

This was towards the end of the party and I finally got him to stop and smile so I took advantage.

 We also went on a wagon ride.  They gave all the kids tortillas to feed the chickens.

 Can you tell Reid had been running hard??  Look at those rosy cheeks! 

 Did you know that chickens love tortillas??  They came running up and followed us the whole time they were throwing out tortillas. 

Again, Reid threw out his whole tortilla and Lilly broke off the tiniest pieces and threw them to the chickens itty bitty piece by itty bitty piece. 

They had pig races which were kind of funny to watch.  I didn't get a picture of the baby pigs but they were the cutest!!

 We also had a campfire and we roasted hot dogs and made smore's.  I made the kids grilled cheese.  I was pretty proud of that.  ( : 

 We got the cake from Rick's and it was SO CUTE! 

 It had the pond on top and different farm animals around the sides.  Lilly is upset in the background of this picture because she got icing on her accidentally.  This is how Reid looked while we sang  Happy Birthday to him.

 This is how Lilly looked while we sang Happy Birthday to her.  Ha! 

 I didn't get a picture of the whole table because it was really windy and the tent that we were supposed to be under had been torn to shreds in the thunderstorm the night before.    We had these farm animal suckers in buckets on the table...

And these pig and cow squeezy footballs as party favors.

 

After everybody left the party (a post of party guests will be on here tomorrow), the kids went to check out the animals one last time before we left.

 This time they just wanted to pet them.

 Reid kept holding out his hand to see if they would lick his hand.  If they did he would just giggle and say, "It licked me!!"  If they didn't he would say, "Nope, he doesn't want to lick me!" 

 This little pony liked Reid and he thought it was pretty funny, too. 

 Sitting on a BIG bull. 

The party was lots of fun.  This was at the end.  We were walking to the car and Reid sat down and said, "I don't want to leave!"  After we got in the car as we were driving away Lilly said, "That was a GREAT party!!"  That was really all we wanted was for them to feel like they had a great party so I would say it was a success!  Thank you to all of who came out to help us celebrate our two sweet kiddos! 

 When we got home, they opened presents and I hope they realized how blessed they are to have so many people that love them!

Can't believe these babies are 3 and 4!!!