Thursday, October 31, 2013

Trick or Treat

As usual, we went over to Shrike's parents' house for dinner and then trick-or-treating. Our niece did most of the work of escorting Peeper to doors, and even pulled her around in the wagon when she decided that she couldn't walk any more. That lasted for one house, and then she was all done.

Mommy and Peeper



Peeper and Cousin S



First stop: Papa!



This is how she went back and forth to all the doors, cape flying behind her.



A cool house down the street. Those eyeballs are sleds, and the red pupils are French fry baskets!



One last house, in the wagon.



Mrowr!

"Now My Shoes and Socks Match"

I don't think that word means what you think it means, Peeper.


(Both the socks and the shoes are mine, by the way.)

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Special Friend Night

This evening was "Special Friend Night" for the little ones at Peeper's school. That means that each kid was allowed to bring one (but only one) "special friend" - an adult, parent or otherwise - to visit the classroom and observe them demonstrative several "works" or activities.

Peeper chose me, and I got such a kick out of watching her do her thing.

She mostly wanted to show me the "water works" but I eventually got her to demonstrate some "dry works" as well.

It was pretty cool seeing her get out the materials, lay them out, do the activity, and put everything away. (It would be nice if she could do that at home!) It was even cooler when she talked through the process and explained to me what she was doing.

On the other hand, I could definitely see places where, "Bless her heart," she's just not quite there on things. For example, she had to do quite a bit of table drying after her "water works" and she really struggled to hang the wet towels up on the drying rack. Of course, it would've been easier if she'd not tried to put it on the highest rung that she could possibly reach (on tippy-toes) every time.

The last thing she demonstrated was some coloring. Of course, the picture itself was more or less scribbles. I was impressed (and a bit scared) when she showed me how to sharpen the colored pencil with a small hand-held sharpener (she had actually told us about that the other day, so I wasn't surprised or too freaked out) but less impressed when she turned the sharpener the wrong way, then took the pencil out and said, "See, how it's sharp!"






Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Celebration of Life

Peeper's first Montessori Celebration of Life was this morning. After the ceremony, she served her friends watermelon, apples and cinnamon dip.

Happy Birthday to Peeper

Monday, October 28, 2013

Family Birthday

After we went up to school and did Peeper's "Celebration of Life" ceremony, we took her out to Red Robin for her birthday lunch, and then home to open gifts from Mommy and Mama.

I think she liked them.






Sunday, October 27, 2013

Five Years

Year Five

Birthday-Palooza!

As promised, Peeper did wake up bright and early this morning, to get a start on her big birthday day.

She even remembered to remind me to take our panda pictures, "Mama! We haven't taken a panda picture yet!" and then she even got herself dressed for the photos.




She gathered up as many 5s as she could find.




Peeper helped me make the pizzas for the family party this evening; you'll see those later, after they're cooked.

When we got into the serious crunch-time party preparations, Peeper declared, "We need decorations!" I told her that's what we were doing, but she evidently didn't think ours were sufficient, so she found some of her own.

This is the first thing she came up with. "Here, Mama. This is a decoration!"


Then she disappeared into the sunroom for a while, and made it all monstery. She got out every monster or Halloween thing she could find.



Then, she put gloves and hats and such on all the arms of the chairs, and even the door handle. I'm not quite sure why, but evidently, that makes them very spooky.




Shrike made a last-minute run to the grocery (as usual) and came home with these, for me. How sweet is she?



As requested, she also got a couple of balloons. Look closely at the one in front. Evidently, before the grocery store lady inflated it, it looked like a cupcake. Now, not so much.


Mummy Dogs, thanks to Pinterest. (Theirs are much better looking. I think I should've used a lot more dough.)



And, as always, our friend A did an amazing job with the cupcakes.


And T brought some games that she had made for the MOMS Club party - Pin the Face on the Pumpkin, Pumpkin Ring Toss and "Trick and Treat" where the kids drawn a paper and do the "trick" that it says on it, then get a "treat" - and even helped run one of the "stations."


Cupcake time! (Photos courtesy of T and I believe A got some video, too. They were a huge help.)






And then it was time to open gifts.



And bust open the pinata.



After the pinata, Peeper handed out the treat bags, telling each kid, "Thank you for coming to my party." It was pretty adorable.

T and A stuck around and helped us clean up and refresh everything for the family party. We had an hour between the two, and with their help, I had about thirty minutes with nothing to do but keep an eye on the baking pizzas.

Oh yeah, the pizzas.

Mozzarella and cheddar cheese with pepperoni.


Peeper made me add the eyebrows because he wasn't scary enough. Then she told me that "He needs to be trembly. Ghosts are usually trembly," so I made the edges wavy, and that satisfied her.


This guy wasn't scary enough either, so Peeper took over and made the face. So she says.


More singing and another cupcake.



And more gifts.


And after everyone was gone, and the kitchen (more or less) cleaned up, we just chilled out for a while.

She may be big enough to have a fifth birthday party, but she's not too big for goody.