A special Visit to Preschool!

On September 5 I was able to leave work for a few hours to make a special visit to Cailyn's preschool.  She started at the end of July, two mornings per week, at Haley Elementary in Chandler.  The teachers had invited "grandparents" to visit for a part of their day in honor of Grandparents Day.  Cailyn was one lucky little girl to have 3 of her grandparents attend!

 When I arrived, Cailyn's teacher was reading a book to the class...there are two teachers for about 20 children in the class.

This "center" was a "stamping" activity; of course, once Cailyn was finished, she thought it would be fun to use her fingertips too for part of the design!

 The next center was painting a fish using paint and bubble wrap to create the fish scales on the paper plate.  Cailyn remembered to write her name on the back first.

 I made her "pose" in front of the "drying rack"!

 Next center was about "counting fish" on a laminated paper...trying NOT to eat the fish crackers which were after the counting activity were put back into the ziplock bag for taking home to eat later.  It was hard to wait! ;-)

 It just so happened that the class was learning about the letter "C" this week, so all the "C" things were on a board, including all the children who have names that start with the letter "C"....Cailyn looked so cute in her pretty dress and leggings!

 Here her Nana watches Cailyn "feeding" toy bones to a little dog!  Fine motor skills practiced!

 Then on to the listening station to follow along and listen to a book.

Here are the cubbies near the classroom door.  Cailyn's is on the top right.

 When Cailyn finished her "centers" I asked her about the props, puppets and stage, so she gave me a little demonstration.

 Teacher turned out the lights after about an hour of all these different activities, which signaled clean up time, and then time to sit on the rug for further instructions.

 When it was time for "recess", it happened to be Cailyn's week as "door holder" so she went to her post and waited for others to go ahead.

 And before I headed back to work, I went to their shaded playground to watch Cailyn play...she seems to enjoy sliding down the pole!  Fortunately, there's a playground aide at the ready for help!

 It was a very special morning....thanks for inviting me to visit, Cailyn!  You are a very special little girl!

Trip to Bass Pro

A couple of weekends ago, Vince and I had the chance to take Cailyn and Landon on a Saturday morning "outing" to Bass Pro and afterwards, we took them to their Great Grandma & Grandpa Janne's house for lunch.

They enjoyed looking at all the freshwater fish in the big tanks and in the "mock" stream.  Cailyn and Landon each got to touch the "stuffed bears" and look at all the other "stuffed" wild animals on display.  They wanted to try out the new tents in the camping gear area.

One of their favorites was climbing on to the ATV's on display...

Before we left, we had one more look at the big Catfish ....which Landon called "kitty fish" the next day! So Cute!!
(The catfish is NOT so cute!)

We had so much fun!!  Thanks for sharing your children with us, Mike and Corissa!!

Ready for a Rainy Day...

In the "valley of the sun" where we live in Arizona, rainy days are more unusual.  When it does rain, we enjoy the break from the 360 days of sunshine!! In July and August, we have the "monsoon" season, which means a larger "chance of rain" or sprinkles, following a big dust storm.  As a result, I usually have an umbrella handy in the car or in my canvas tote work bag.

This past week, I came home with a wet umbrella...but NOT from rain.  It was wet as a result of my water bottle opening up inside my workbag...and drenching everything inside, including the closed up umbrella! So, I opened  up the umbrella inside the house to let it dry overnight.

As many of you know, we have two OLD cats, Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, better known as Tinker and Pete.
Most cats love to hide "under" things, so it was only natural that I found both of them fascinated with the umbrella.

Tinker was especially infatuated with being under it...Pete was happy to be "near by"....