Halloweeen on the Lawn

We were planning (again) to dress Zara as a Toyota Prius with an Obama sticker on the back, but the allure of Kiera's hand-me-down lamb costume was too great. I think reading about Ramona the sheep with a black painted nose in Ramona and Her Father may have tipped the scale. Perhaps next year.

Dr. DJ Bickers and Zara

We had fun at Dr. Bickers' office. The hygienist named Jenny was fun too. Dr. Bickers counted my teeth 10 times and I have a very pretty smile. It was really great. I have a book about teeth and I have lots and lots of prizes. I chose to get special dentist gum and a fish tattoo. I also got SpongeBob toothpaste and a SpongeBob toothbrush!

(the above blog entry was dictated by Zara!)

Pumpkin Patch

Zara's class made a trip to pick apples & pumpkins. This is Zara's good friend and classmate Georgia.

Graves Mountain Apple Fest

To take the sting out of the departure of our Michigan friends Caleb and Melissa, we all (where we all = us and our friendly neighborhood Canadians) spent the day at Graves Mountain, where they were having a fall apple festival. Which I think might just be an excuse to have hay mountains to climb and hay mazes and all that, though I did see some apples, and the kids even ate some. And there were some animals to pet. And trees to climb. Despite the rather chilly beginning to the day, as you can see in the last picture it warmed up considerably and we all had a lovely time.
( thanks to Char for the awesome photos.... so far posts for the month of October have been brought to you entirely by pictures taken by people other than us... hmmm, I think we might be slackers. )

Room on the Broom

Zara and her class went to the theatre twice in 2 weeks! Life at CBI Preschool is considerably more fun than I recall preschool being.... Here Z and a bunch of classmates walk to the theatre and after the show, Z and E strike poses in the courtyard.

Havdalah

Zara and her class start the week off with a havdalah ceremony, ending the weekend away from school (or in general cases, shabbat) and beginning a new week together. Zara's a big fan of candle lighting, and is taking her turn bring in charge of the beautiful braided havdalah candle. What better way to welcome in a new week than a super cute pose with an upside down sit and spin?

Theatre Clothes

Zara and school friends took a trip to The Paramount Theatre to see Harold and the Purple Crayon. One of Zara's favorite things about theatre days is getting to wear special, very fancy, theater clothes. Here we see her (and G and E) decked out in their finery. In Z's case we have cousie Sam to thank for the swanky red dress. It is a definite favorite and Zara really wishes she had more opportunities to get gussied up here in our laid back C'ville.

Ellen's Sukkah

Since no one in the Levana class (at least no house that's easy to get to on the city bus) was making a 'home' sukkah this year, Ellen graciously invited the class to come hang in her sukkah. Here we see Z hanging with her buddy G, and also, painting a craft... left-handed? Wonders never cease...

Government Fair

The city periodically puts on "government fairs" on the downtown mall. You know, classic civic kinda stuff- fire trucks, city market info, yo-yos, activity books, parks and rec class schedules, recycling info, and... balloon creations. In the first pic, Z and E model the snazzy glasses that cause everything to look like it's surrounded by rainbows. In the second pic, Z shows us what she does when she gets within 50 yards of someone making balloon animals. The sounds of balloons popping are too loud and traumatic still, up there with toilets flushing. A rare snap of a fairly common occurrence around here, as we walk by the balloon man at the City Market every Saturday!