The Tooth Fairy

Last night, after enjoying his supper since he no longer had to worry about his loose tooth hurting with each bite, Josiah was eager to place his tooth in the tooth fairy pillow. So, please excuse the extra food on his clothing and face! He's still cute, even with the extra food, lol! :)
My two proud kiddos, showing off their pillows. Mackenzie wanted to join in the fun, even though there was no tooth to place in her pillow last night. ;)

He's clean! Josiah's holding that tiny tooth after bath time last night.

Inspecting his tooth.

Placing his tooth into the pillow that Geri made for us.

He's ready!

And this is what he found when he woke up this morning! A celebration on the floor from the tooth fairy with a note, too!

Here is the letter.

A proud boy, with his excited sister celebrating with him! (He said the camera flash was bright so early in the morning!)

So he was squinting! The tooth fairy left him a $5.00 bill and a Fifty Cent piece as a special keepsake. She also left his tooth for him to keep, too. I need to find a keepsake box for him to store it in sometime soon.

A fun morning, for sure!

Josiah's First Lost Tooth!

It appears that I have not blogged in quite a long time. Life seems to be whirling on faster than ever, and I have not found much spare time to blog. This post, however, must be completed! Josiah lost his first tooth today! His tooth is tiny!
It was his bottom front middle left tooth.

Josiah discovered that his tooth was loose this past week. Less than a week later, it is out! He wiggled and wiggled. I pulled on three different attempts. The third attempt pulled the tooth right out as the first two loosened it. I am not sure who was most proud...Josiah or Mackenzie! She was super excited for her baby brother.

It's gone! :)

Thanks to our neighbor, Geri, for stepping in and helping me make Josiah's tooth fairy pillow. My sewing machine thread and fabric got caught and jammed as I began sewing tonight. I did not have time to fix it right then, and I am thankful that Geri could help finish the pillow for Josiah. He is excited. Should be fun to see what the tooth fairy brings tonight! More pictures to come, I'm sure.

Josiah's class was in charge of chapel earlier this month. Each child memorized a set of lines, created a poster to illustrate the lines, and stood up in front of the whole chapel crowd to say the lines. They did GREAT!! (Josiah is at the middle microphone in the above picture.)

Josiah practicing at the microphone just before chapel began.

I will try to do a better job of blogging. Since my last post, we had a wonderfully blessed Christmas, a great start to the new year, and who knows what all else happen. For now, at least I got a few things recorded!

Our Week

We had a wonderful last week, and here are three pictures for you. Above is our annual picture with Santa Claus at Fantasy of Trees. I think it turned out pretty cute. :) Both kids talked to Santa, and Josiah even hugged him at the end of the photo shoot. So super sweet.
Josiah's half birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year. He is officially 5 1/2 years old. Granna and Z-pa bought him a turkey cake to celebrate. He told me today that his favorite part of Thanksgiving week was celebrating his half birthday.

To complete our week, last night Mackenzie's other top front tooth was so loose that I insisted on pulling it. On the third try, I got it! Here is her new smile. I believe she is adorable in this phase. She says she is embarrassed to be missing those two top front teeth. After assuring her that she is beautiful, both inside and out, I tucked her into bed. The tooth fairy came while she was sleeping. All is well in our world that seems so full of fun milestones these days!

Thanksgiving School Parties

It's official. The kids are out of school for Thanksgiving break! Yippeee! :)I joined Mackenzie's class for their party this afternoon. Mackenzie did a great job of quoting her memorized lines for the Thanksgiving program that her class did in the room. I am proud of how well she did! Above is Shaun and Mackenzie.
Her class decorated giant sugar cookies for the party activity.

Mackenzie, Savannah, and Hollie

Part of Josiah's class. His class all had t-shirts with a turkey made from the child's hand print on it. Super cute. They were out of dress code and in turkey shirts with pajama bottoms and slippers today!

Most of the boys in Josiah's class are in the picture. I love how excited they are, though I have no idea just what happened to cause such happy faces! Made for a great picture, though.

Mackenzie and Josiah, ready to head home for the holiday!

Classroom Crafts

I am so incredibly thankful for my job that allows me the flexibility to work and still be present for my children's classroom activities. I had the opportunity to do a craft with Josiah's class last Friday. One of the things we made was a Christmas door hanger. Kids had fun. I did, too! Above is Josiah, Tucker, Isaac, and Riley.
Josiah busy painting his ornament craft. (Yes, we did Christmas crafts before Thanksgiving because the stores were sold out of Thanksgiving crafts, lol!)

Rylan, Josiah, and me.

Rylan and Josiah. Definitely buddies!

Today, I had the opportunity to join Mackenzie's class in making a Ginger Bread house for the Fantasy of Trees, a fund raiser for Children's Hospital. Above: Sophia, Emma, McKenna, and Mackenzie.

Mackenzie, McKenna, and Emma

Caleb and Mackenzie mixing icing for the gingerbread house.

Mackenzie and Savannah taking a turn at decorating.

Mackenzie and me with the finished ginger bread house!

The kids tried to make a cross out of skittles on the roof on this side.

This side of the roof has a Christian fish on it, and "Baby Jesus" (i.e., Ginger Bread Man) is in the Manger at the front door!

I think the kids did a great job. We all had fun. I think the best part was watching the kids enjoy some of the left over candies! I loved getting to be with the kids for these fun activities at school.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight was Trunk or Treat at church. Here's my two kids: an angel and Jango Fett off of Star Wars. :) Ready to enjoy some crafts and games!
Allison, Lauren, Mackenzie, and Josiah

Mackenzie making a bracelet craft.

Josiah "fishing" for candy. Fun game!

Jango Fett

Josiah, Britton, and Owen

Mackenzie, with Josiah close behind her, making the rounds to gather candy. Another annual Trunk or Treat. Another fun memory made.

Fall Festivities

We've been busy with lots of fun activities. Here's some pictures to catch you up-to-date. Mackenzie and Josiah at a pumpkin patch on Tuesday afternoon. We stopped by to pick out a couple "pie size pumpkins" for school projects.
And I had to snap a few pictures while we were there, of course. ;)

This morning, after settling the kids in their classrooms, I joined some friends and we off-loaded their truck bed full of pumpkins. Today was going to be pumpkin patch day for the kids, complete with hayrides! Due to rain, the pumpkin patch grew out of concrete this year. ;) The kids loved getting to pick out pumpkins. Thanks to our friends for donating the pumpkins. The hayride was rained out, but we all had fun anyways! You can see the trailer full of hay behind Proctor's truck. Would have been fun....sigh...but the concrete pumpkin patch was great!

Here's the Kindergarten side of the pumpkin patch.

My Little Man is in the middle of the back row with the gray shirt and red pants. Today was "dress up like a community hero" day; they enjoyed being out of dress code. Josiah was a firefighter.

Josiah with a few other boys picking out pumpkins.

Josiah and me at the concrete pumpkin patch. lol.

Here's his whole class with the pumpkins they chose. He's on the front row toward the right.

Mackenzie's class did not attend the pumpkin patch (it was just for the Kindergarten and 3rd grades as those are the grades that Proctor and Allison's kids are in), but they did enjoy painting pumpkins in their classroom today. I guess 2nd graders are more independent than Kindergartners as they did not need parents in the room to help today. So, I don't have any pictures of Mackenzie from today! I did get to eat lunch, one-on-one, with the kids today during their lunchtimes. That was fun. The above picture is of Josiah's class decorating pumpkins with stickers this afternoon.

Josiah and Tucker

Josiah decorating his pumpkin with stickers.

Josiah and me. I love getting to be involved in his classroom activities! I am thankful to "share" room mom responsibilities with Lexi's mom this year. Very nice, indeed!

Josiah with Mrs. Haluska

Candid pics of pumpkin decorating.

Cutie

Aly and Josiah

Last weekend, David and I worked together to create a "baby poster" for Josiah. The assignment was about baby names and pictures. Josiah was hilarious. He saw that his full name was on the poster. He quickly indicated that he did NOT want his middle name on the poster. We said it had to be on the poster because of the assignment. We tried to explain the importance of his "family name." When I told him about the four people in the family with that name, his quickly said, "I wish there was one less." Poor baby! He was very funny about it. Then, after presenting it at school, he came home excited. I asked him what his friends thought about his name. He said, "It's cool, Mom." Apparently his name went over quite well in the classroom! How funny.

The poster will be on display all year long in the classroom. He was so proud of his poster that he wants to hang it in his room at home. He has asked us to make another one for him to have here at home because he says he can't wait until the end of the school year to have one in his room. Cracks me up. Glad he liked it.

I wish I had pictures of Mackenzie's class from today, too. I enjoyed my lunch time with her. She enjoyed her day at school. She was dressed as a Bible character. Cutie! I am so thankful for the flexibility of my job. I am grateful to be able to work and still be present at school, too.