Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Happy Happy Joy School

I have some very nice friends. The kind of friends who agree to do Joy School with me and Bridget. Today was the third Wednesday of Joy School for Bridget, Tyce, Clara, and Leah. Except Clara was sick and couldn't come. And it was raining really hard outside. Tyce's new baby sister came home today while he was at "school" (as his Daddy kept calling it - hee!), so we felt lucky to have three of the four. The hostess (Tyce won't be hosting for a while, so it's "hostess" only for now) always gets SO excited when school is at her house. Bridget ran into my room this morning with a huge smile on her face because TODAY IS PRESCHOOL!

I don't know how Kristi and Melanie have arranged things, but after a few moments of reticence, we had about 45 minutes of running and shrieking. (I doubt you'll get such an offer from the eels.) You'll notice that Leah appears to be having a problem, but it's just her "CHEESE" face. Yeah, Tyce was concerned too.

The kids bellied up to the bar for a little talk about their names. Bridget was the only one who knew her last name, but Leah was the only one who could name almost every letter I showed them (initials only today - let's not go crazy here, people). Tyce knew the letter "T" when no one else did. While I was asking them their last names, Bridget said her's and then she spelled it! WHAT?! Smartest ever. I asked them to make their letters on the back of the paper I'd given them. As you can see, that worked out perfectly. Also, why does Bridget need to look at Leah's paper for this activity? I don't think she was cheating - I think she was disapproving of Leah's work. (We worked in the yard Monday night. Bridget went from me to Brian and back talking constantly, "You can dig right there and you can put the weeds here and just let me know if you need the shovel or if Daddy needs the shovel I will take it to him and be careful and you can water right there if you want to and you can dig wherever you want to." She is a tough boss.)
I made little name tags for them to wear. This was after we discussed their names and each of them could guess which name tag was theirs. Success!
The picture of Tyce wearing his name tag turned out very out-of-focus (not in an impressionist, cool way) and yellow. Eeek. His name tag was in the shape of a tie. The kids did not get how fun I am for making their name tags in shapes starting with the same letter their names start with.

Then we made cookies!
I thought I'd get a cute little picture of them looking at the cookies in the oven, but they almost got that oven door open while I was busy taking pictures. Bah! I'm too used to having my friends there to do the real mothering while I just take pictures of it.

There were only a couple of skirmishes, but they were the funny kind and they were over before anyone got too worked up. (My favorite was seeing Leah running up the stairs carrying Bridget's little pink piano, which was blaring "Be Our Guest!" Funny because Leah's face did not say "be our guest" and Tyce and Bridget were running after Leah telling her she had to share. You HAVE to! Hahahahahaha. But not sharing is so funny.) The time went by so fast I couldn't believe it. And the kids are really so kind to each other and polite to me. Love feelings for all of them.

5 comments:

Kristi said...

I laughed so hard thinking (and reading) about the skirmishes. Only because I know all the kids so well. If Clara had been there, I think there would've been a defensive tackle (maybe even a flag called) on the way up the stairs. Tee hee.

allyn said...

so fun. "joy" school is good times. banks was a one man show last year, just like tyce. that worked out very well. no wrestling or gun fights or anything of the like.

Mom said...

Wasn't Harrison a one man show also? Aaron was always the only boy too - what's up with that? You did so well, Nicole! Did you make alphabet cookies? What a fun time!

RCH said...

"I'm too used to having my friends there to do the real mothering while I just take pictures of it."

D'oh! That is so me, lol.

I've never lived in a neighborhood with enough little kids to do Joy School (and I don't think it had been invented yet when we were little; we're old!). :-P Sounds like fun!

(Verification word: Budabed. Apropos of absolutely nothing, but I like the sound of it so I thought I'd let you know.)

Ashley said...

Yay for Joyschool! I haven't had my turn yet to host, but I'm concerned from the looks on the moms' faces when I pick them up. I'm hoping by the time it's my turn, they'll be whipped into shape :)