Lyla's Drawings

Lyla is drawing and writing a lot more these days. I will try to get some more samples on the blog soon. She drew this picture tonight. She didn't tell me if the picture was of anyone in particular. She just brought it to me, gave me a big smile and ran off. I love to see the progression of these drawing and writing. Lyla has come a long way in the last few months.

How to Grow a Pumpkin, by Grace

Grace's Story about Mimi and Papoo

Translation:
"One day my Mimi and Papoo came to stay at my house. My granda always sleeps with me when she comes to my house. I like it when my Mimi and Papoo come to stay!"

I just love to see her writing and drawings these days! So precious! I love this age. I wish we could freeze her in time for a little while.

The Next Karate Kid

Lyla started taking Karate in September. We are hoping that the respect, obedience, and self-control that they teach will spill over into Lyla's daily life! I have seen some improvement. She likes it when she's there and she's pretty good. She's the youngest in her class but she hangs right with the big kids. I can tell she's proud of herself during class because after she does something she turns to see if I'm watching and smiles really big. Last week they let each student break a board in class. Lyla thought this was the best thing ever. She even got to bring the board home after she broke it in class. She asked me after class if I thought she would be able to break it. She said she didn't know if she could. Then she kept saying, "it's real, live wood!" She was really proud of herself. I had her replay the breaking of the board at home that night so I could take a picture of her. The picture of her holding the board herself was her idea. She thought that was a "gweat idea" of how to show her breaking it. Then we had Eric hold it and she showed us how she did it. I love watching her in class. It's so cute and pretty cool that she's as good as the 6, 7, and 8 year olds out there!

In the rest of these pictures, look at Lyla in the mirror too.

Grace's Fall Party

I went to Grace's fall party this year. She loves it when one of us comes to school for something. Anyway, they played a game, colored a monster mask and had a snack. I really liked the game. I think coming up with games for these parties is hard. This game was like musical chairs, sort of. They had a pumpkin bucket filled with cooked, wet, curly noodles (like "brains") and candy. They sat the kids in a circle and started music. They passed the bucket until the music stopped. The person with the bucket when the music stopped had to reached into the "brains" and get a piece of candy and then that person got out of the circle and the game continued until everyone had their chance. It was fun, took a good amount of time and everyone got a prize. I'll have to remember that game!

Doesn't she look old in this last picture!?

Lyla's Fall Party

Lyla's fall party at preschool was pretty short and sweet. They had a snack and a little craft. Lyla did not want me to take her picture. In the last picture you can kind of see her black eye. She wore her Peter Pan costume to school that day.

Trunk or Treat

This year for Trunk or Treat our life group used a football theme for our trunk/scene. Eric made a goal post and field and Nathan made a big football board to throw a football through. Everyone dressed in football gear. Grace brought her friend Rachel, from across the street. She was very excited to bring a friend and was acting pretty crazy. The night was very crowded, as it usually is, but the kids love it. The scenes that people put together always amaze me. This year a few of the scenes were:
* a birthday party scene where you decorated cupcakes
* a Price is Right theme where the kids played "Plinko"
* a boot camp theme where the kids went through an obstacle course
* a bonfire theme where the kids got smore's
* an 80's theme that had break dancing and a slide show of 80's stuff
* a dunking booth (the poor kid in the booth was shaking like a leaf)
* and the biggest theme was Winter Wonderland, complete with an ice covered hill, sledding and Santa Clause! Completely out of control!

This is Lyla playing in the leaves in front of our house before we left for Trunk or Treat.