Happy Easter

Easter is a celebration of coming out of darkness and into the light.  It is a celebration of gratitude.

Happy Easter to all!

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Satisfying training run in the hills

Fun morning on Mt Diablo! Missed first in my age group by 20 seconds. Alas, Eric will be disappointed in my finish. He wants me to bring home a first place metal for him to wear. We are working on teaching him the joys of personal victories,  but seven year olds like to win.

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Let's go number one

Great hit and speedy wheels to first base got him around the bases!

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Lunch date at Kali's

Such a treat!

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A few great one liners

Momma says, " I have no energy left for mini golf". Noah responds "POOF....I gave you some of mine [energy]. Now you have some".

Noah demands a snack after school  to which Momma reminds him she needs to hear those respectful magic words. Noah replies in his most tired and whiny voice, " I don't have any magic left today."

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Last week, Noah's pre-school celebrated International Day of Happiness and the letter "U".  Among all the joyous activities, they explored the fantastical world of unicorns by making horns;  practiced writing U's by making happy faces; and even re-purposed our pvc pipes by making upside down U's for the garden, which will be used as a support system for their plants/vines to grow around. They also kept up with  energetic 3/4 year olds by having a dance party where were they had a robot dance off and congo'd all around the classroom to "Happy" by Pharell (clearly a new favorite song). 

Here's a gist of what was said during one of our Happy vs.Unhappy circle times..

What makes you happy? 

Reza: Valentine's Day

Noah G.: When I go with my mom and go see firetrucks and see astronauts when it flies.

Noah T.: Toys!

Taavi: When I get to ride trains...and climbing on a firetruck connected on a play structure at a park.

Lily: Daddy

Silas: Firetruck that takes away the park. That's crazy!

Colt: When I go on trips. It makes me happy.

Jax: I love firetrucks, backhoes and dump trucks!

Eli: Superhero, my birthday day!

What makes you unhappy?

Reza: First robot day makes me unhappy.

Noah G. When you fall down you might get a boo boo.

Noah T. Blood.

Taavi: When my baseball team doesn't win. My team is the Giants.

Lily: Nothing...never!

Silas: When trucks take away the park and dumps it on the ambulance and goes boing boing!

Colt: When I don't get to go on pretend firetrucks a little bit.

Jax: When I'm burning on smoke and fire!

Eli: Firetrucks, well actually...

He is so sweet

Took a little work trip and was greeted with this note on the driveway.

"Welcome back from Monterey home sweet home Tara
Love Eric"

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Spirit week

Guess which rockstar I am for spirit week?

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Team Lugnuts opening day

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Eric is reading

Eric's reading ability is really progressing. Watching him recognize new words and read longer sentences is as fun and amazing as listening to his verbal skills develop as a toddler.

He reads all the easy books now and is clearly ready for more. I have a pile of books I am reading next to my bed. Yesterday he picks one up, studies the cover and says, "Can borrow this book Mom?" I say, "Sure."

This is the book he is borrowing which is now sitting by his bed:

Getting the hang of it

Noah is eager and enthusiastic about learning to swim.

Eric is really focused on being in single A league baseball and if he would be still long enough for a photo in his Lugnuts team uniform, I might  have a photo to share.  But he is too excited to be still and feeling very grown up having to wear a cup this year!

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Happy birthday baby

Noah, being a bit bashful to all the birthday attention,  reluctantly standing next to the birthday sign his Mt. Whitney preschool glass made for him.

Also post class treat of strawberries with whip cream ( or sugar as classmate Silas refereed to it.

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Guess who turned four today

Happy birthday to my sweet, tender,  and loving boy. Your strong will, expressiveness and advanced vocabulary amaze me daily.  Your face can steal hearts and also bring down mountains with a steeley glare.

I love you.
Love, Momma

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Nap time

Noah's school activity

January 2014 Newsletter » Mt. Whitney: Out of This World!

Hi Preschool Families,

Happy 2014! This month we were welcomed with an influx of new friends- Jackson Morantes and Silas Poppas. With them, they bring bright smiles, warm hugs and silly dance moves. We are beyond excited to have two more friends along for the ride.

Jackson vying for the class clown title

Silas with his signature silly frown.

“N”ew Year, New Goals

First stop - Letter “N.”  Being as it was the New Year, we based our curriculum around resolutions. The children came together to brainstorm goals for both the classroom and themselves. This social emotional activity encouraged them to try new things, become more self-aware of their actions and for some, continue to be silly. Here is what was said:

Taavi: "I would like to go to a new park that I have never been before."Noah playing bean bag hopscotch.

Colt: "I want to write my name all by myself."

Noah T. "I want to be brave and write my name too."

Lily: "I want to buy a new shoes."

Noah G.: "Nicer to my mommy, daddy and my Nolan."

Silas: "I want buy a big fridge for my home."

Reza: "I want to go to Mars and say ‘hi’ to the martians."

Jackson: "Poop on the potty and get choco-latte!"

Cruz: "I want to 'oh yeah, oh yeah ( spins around and dances)'…more!"

Eli: “I want to meet and be nice to my  ‘watermelon (new sibling)’. Oh I want to fly like Spiderman!"

Owen: “I don’t know. I just want to play with all my new toys from Grandma and Santa. I have so many!"

In addition to making number rockets, the children used their creativity to draw other things associated it like Earth, aliens and astronauts. Some even drew their own version of a rocket.In addition to sharing our goals for the new year with one another, we worked on another "N" word - number! We helped put together the days for the new month, counted down the days to Taavi's & Owen's B'day, played number/bean bag hopscotch and made a number rocket! These activities helped us with number recognition, rote counting and one to one correspondence.Cruz & Lily observing each other's masks.

“O”uter Space

As we continue our adventures through the year, many of our interests guided towards Outer Space. So fittingly, our next stop was far far out in the galaxy. Together with our child-made astronaut masks, we hopped on the Mt Whitney space shuttle, practiced counting backwards and blasted off into outer space. While flying, we used our imagination to see aliens, boats, shoes, rocks, moons and planets floaReady to take off!ting around, all the while being careful not to get "space-sick (Taavi)"! Once we arrived, we collected specimens such as "moon sand."Using our five senses, we closely examined this peculiar sensory item and made a few predictions of what "moon sand" was actuaAstronaut Reza & Cruz stayed in character as they checked out their specimens.lly made of. Eli "I think it's made out of cheese because when the astronauts are hungry they have something to eat" What do you think?

Exploring moon sand with block people

  

Here are a few other enrichment activities during this "out of this world" journey into space:

Learned about suspension and springs as we launched our rubberband plastic cup rockets.

Using shape recognition/fine motors, Reza trace/draw cuts out his planet which was later painted. Each child further their language and cognitive skills by explaining their planet's uniqueness. Colt called his "Planet Lily, where nice people live"

 Stregthening our fine motors, we carefully squeezed cornstarch/paint filled water bottles to create a galaxy.

Jax help kneading out salt dough to later mould into moonsPainting our freshly baked salt dough moons

This month also marked two big milestones for our friends - Taavi & Owen as they celebrated their birthdays. Thank you to their families for the yummy treats!

Next up, we will be hopping off the space shuttle and set sail on the ocean to learn more about Pirates! Arrgh. Argh.. Arrgh.. Can't wait to share our discoveries with you!

With love,

Ms. Mylee 

In search of snow.....

As our plane began its decent into Great Falls, Eric looked out the window and exclaimed with excitement loud enough for the whole plane to here , "Look Mom! I SEE SNOW! " Then he said, "I think I even see Showdown!"

Montana Grandparent-love and snow.
Bring it.  We need some of both.

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Showin' Momma how it's done

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Back at it

Opening day at brand new swimming lesson facility!  Noah shivered his way through his lesson with promise of a warmer pool next week. It didn't hurt his motivation a bit.

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Best day

Many days I ask everyone in the house what the best and worst thing that happened to them was that day. This Saturday afternoon Eric and I went on a bike ride up the beach and then stopped for lunch.  While we were eating our tacos Eric says to me, "If you asked me what my best thing was today I would say  spending it with you. " Tears. Oh how a love my sweet boy.

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Base Camp pre school fun and buddies