The field trip

Gillian had her first field trip today.  Her class got to visit Huber Woods.  Since the trip was to a park, they allowed a lot of chaperones.  I was able to sign up (along with 12 other moms and dads).  Gillian and I got to her school this morning and we waited for all of her friends to arrive.  While we waited, her teachers put a red shirt on all the kids.  The front of the shirt had the school name and the back of the shirt said field trip.  Not only did all the kids have on a field trip shirt, but they also had wristbands that had the school name and phone number too.  Just in case the kids got separated from the group.  Finally everyone arrived and we were able to get on the bus.

Gillian was so excited.  She had never been on a school bus before.  She sat next to me and was sad that she couldn't see out the window.  But she still had a good time singing "The wheels on the bus" with her friends.  After a short but bumpy ride, we arrived at the park.  The class got split in half and Gillian and I were put into Miss Debbie's group.  Our first stop was pumpkin picking.  The park had a small fenced area where there were pumpkins laying on the ground for the kids to choose one.  Once again, we were split into two groups so that the kids wouldn't trample each other.  But I am sure you can imagine, wrangling 12 three year olds is pretty close to impossible.  Luckily it didn't take them long to choose their pumpkins and before we knew it, it was Gillian's turn to pick one.  Gillian picked up the first one she saw.  I had to reject it, because it had a little rotten spot on the back.  She wasn't happy with my decision, but picked a different one and I had her pose with her new pumpkin.

 

Our next stop was inside the lodge.  We learned about mammals and the park ranger asked the kids if they knew of any animals.  A couple of kids named a few.  Gillian shouted "Pigs!"  The park ranger then started to tell the kids about flying squirrels and how they really don't fly, that they just glide from tree to tree.  The ranger said "Wouldn't it be cool to be a flying squirrel?  You get to jump from tree to tree looking for food!"  Gillian shouted "NO!"  Got to love her honesty.  The kids then made a flying squirrel glider and we got to go back outside and try them out. 

The next stop was to a classroom.  We got to meet a few of the animals that are at the park.  We learned about snakes and got to see three of them.  All the kids kept asking if they could touch the snakes, but not Gillian.  "I not going to touch them!"  After the snakes, the ranger took out two box turtles.  One was named Scooter and the other was Rosie.  Gillian heard the names and said loudly "Just like you Mommy!"  Scooter was a fast turtle and ran across the room.  Again, Gillian said "I no touch them!"  The ranger was telling us more about the turtles and she took out a paper towel to hold under Scooter.  She told the group "He needs a diaper.  I like to call him Sir Poops-a-lot!"  The kids thought this was hilarious (this was also one thing that Gillian told John about her trip). 

Our last stop was a hay ride.  The kids loved the hayride.  They all said "It's so bumpy!"  By the time we were done with our tour of the park, a lot of the kids had droopy eyes and looked like they were going to fall asleep.  It was a great morning.  I am so glad I got to spend it with my little lady.

    

Softball, babies and bruises

Today Daddy had a softball game with his work colleagues. The softball field was at a park with a playground and a picnic area. When we arrived at the park this morning, it was raining a little bit. But a little rain did not stop the kids from playing on the playground. Their pants got wet but they didn't care. They climbed and slid and climbed some more. The rain stopped and we took out some toys that we brought. John had some super hero weapons and masks. Gillian had babies and a baby stroller. John immediately made friends with a couple of boys. They ran around the playground with the super hero weapons. They were playing nicely until John came running over to me crying. I asked him what happened. He said "I fell!" Poor boy didn't get hit, but fell going up the stairs of the playground. He fell headfirst into the stairs and hit his nose on the steps. He did a good job, his nose already look bruised when he came over to me. 

Gillian didn't meet friends right away. She was shy, but finally a little girl came over and asked if she could play with Gillian's babies. Gillian said yes. The little girl, Juliana, took the stroller for a walk. Her mom came running over and yelled at the little girl. I explained to the other mom that Juliana asked to play with it and Gillian said yes. Juliana's mom told me that Juliana likes to steal babies. Gillian and Juliana were best friends after this. They played on the playground together and pushed the babies in the stroller. There was a rock wall on the playground and on the back of the rock wall was a "fossil" of a dinosaur. The girls kept parking the stroller under the playground by the rock wall. Gillian would run over to me and say "The dragon is scaring the babies!"

We did watch Daddy play softball (a little) too. Daddy was up at bat and Gillian shouted "Go Daddy go!" Daddy hit the ball and ran to first base. John saw this happen and shout "Go Kyle!" All of Daddy's colleagues burst out laughing when they heard him. 

Pumpkin Picking

This morning we went pumpkin picking with Mimi, Poppy, Uncle T and Aunt Missy.  We walked to the pumpkin patch and Mimi noticed a corn maze.  She asked John if he wanted to check it out.  John didn't hesitate and the two fo them rushed off to the maze.  The rest of us went to the pumpkin patch to pick out a oouple of pumpkins. 

When Mimi & Johnny got back, we heard the whole story of what happened in the maze.  Mimi said, they got into the maze and John said "Mimi, do you have a cell phone?  You will need to text Mommy in case we get lost."  They wandered through the maze and John had to go potty.  Mimi told him it was okay to just go in the maze, because it could be awhile before they got out of the maze.  John argued with Mimi, "I can't go here.  I can hold it."  Mimi looked around and confirmed that there was no one around and told him just go in the maze.  John did and they got out of the maze safely ansd dtarted to walk towards the pumpkin patch.  "Mimi, you need to text Mommy and ask where she is.  So we can find her."  Mimi explained to John that they would be able to find us, the pumpkin patch was not that big.

John started the quest to find the perfect pumpkin.  He used a lot of the same critera as he had last year (check out pumpkin pickin from last year).  It had to have no holes, a stem, round and not too dirty.  After some pretty extensive searching, John found the perfect pumpkin.  We headed up to pay for our pumpkins and decided to stop to feed some of the animals.  John was not too excited about feeding the animals.  He didn't like them to eat out of his hand.  Gillian, on the other hand, loved feeding the animals.  She was very particular about what animals got the carrots she had.  She also liked talking to the animals and would say "Hey! Hey!" 

John found a goat (ram?  I'm not really sure what it was), with three horns.  He told Mimi, "He knocked down all the trees.  He has three really strong horns and knocked down all the trees here."

After feeding all the animals, we paid for our pumpkins and headed to Mimi & Poppy's house.  We had to help Mimi with her new Halloween decoration.  John and Gillian were big helpers and helped Mimi with putting out additional Halloween decorations.  After Mimi's house, we headed home and Gillian took a nap. 

 After nap time, we headed to Thompson Park Day.  I did not realize that it was that big of an event.  We got there and the park was full of cars and people.  They had rides, activities, races and all kinds of fun for the kids.  We immeditely ran to Aunt Betty's Auto Zone.  The Auto Zone had big wheels for the kids to ride, an obstacle course and some building blocks.  John and Aunt Betty ran thru the obstacle course a couple of times and then they built a little building out of the building blocks.  Gillian got to knock it down.  After visiting Aunt Betty, we went to see a magic show.  John loved it.  He giggled and was surprised with all the simple magic tricks.  Gillian got a little antsy, so we moved on and walked around some more.  We tried to get John in one of the races for his age group, but we were just a few minutes too late.  But the ladies running the races still gave John an inflatable ball which was the participation prize.  We walked around some more, and John and Gillian both got to talk to the pumpkin head man walking around on stilts and the raccoon too.  We were only there a short time (today was just a busy day), but we will totally make an effort to get to next year's Thompson Park Day.

1 year anniversary

One year ago today I posted my first blog entry.  I have to say that I am very happy that I stuck with it, and continue to post.  Over the past year, I have posted 286 times and the kids have been on many adventures.

Here are some of my favorite adventures:


The Turtle Back Zoo



iPlay America

Gillian's First Haircut



Zzzz and not sleeping little lady

First Cooking Class



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And let's not forget one of my favorite adventures: Wheeeee!

 

 

Over the past year, my little blog has been viewed almost 8,000 times.  And my top five most viewed posts are these:

Home From Work

The Wedding

 

 

Betty's Clues

 

 

Check-Ups

 

 

The Circus

 

I hope you have enjoyed all my rambling as much as I have enjoyed writing and living it.  Looking forward to another year of John & Gillian's adventures!

 

Petting Zoo and Craft Fair

Today we met Mimi at Freehold Raceway for Open Space Pace.  Bascially it is a festival for horses in Freehold.  They had a parade, races, vendors, music and a petting zoo.  We didn't get to see the parade of horses through downtown, but we arrived at the raceway in time to walk thru the vendors and go to the petting zoo.

John loved the petting zoo.  Gillian was a little unsure.  She wanted either Daddy or myself to hold her while she leaned over to pet the animals.  We walked around first and let the kids pet and see all the animals first and then we let John feed the animals.  He was a little unsure at first, but Daddy held his hand and showed him how to feed them.  John loved it.  He said "It tickles!"  After watching John feed a few animals, Gillian was ready too.  She fed the alpaca and loved it.  But she did tell me "This one is my favorite." while pointing at the donkey. 

 

After the kids had fun at the petting zoo, we watched a couple of races.  John and Gillian loved cheering on the riders (and horses).  We had a quick lunch and then we headed over to the Colts Neck Craft Fair.  Uncle T and Aunt Missy were there with a few cars from the dealership and a giant pumpkin.  They were giving a prize to the person that guessed the weight of the pumpkin closest without going over.  Uncle T had just purchased a funnel cake when we got there.  I felt really bad because Gillian and John just helped themselves.  We walked around the craft fair for a little bit and ended up buying a replacement funnel cake.  The kids had a great time, and even posed for a picture with the giant pumpkin.   

Brielle Day

Today was Brielle Day.  For those that don't know, Brielle is a local town and they have a day every September with a 5K and 10K race, craft & food vendors sell their wares and the local fire engines give rides to the kids.  Daddy and I have been going to Brielle Day since we were little.  We started going again a few years ago and meeting up with my Mom, sisters and brother. 

Last night we told John that we were going to Brielle Day in the morning.  He immediately said "I remember! We went on the fire truck last time, and we got sprayed with water!"  He remembers everything.  I was showering this mroning and apparently, John went in to wake up Daddy.  John woke him up by saying "Today's the day we go on the fire truck!"

It was lightly raining when we arrived.  We walked past the last couple of 5K runners.  John, so nicely, ran along side of them and said "I'm the fastest runner.  I'm even faster than adults."  We then met up with Aunt Betty, Aunt Trish, Grandma, Grandpa, Sammie, Justin and Kyle.  We walked around looked at the crafts and assorted vendors.  Justin and John found some wooden guns that shoot rubber bands.  The nice vendor let the boys try them out and both decided they had to have one.  Well, Justin actually got two and John got one, but they were very happy with their purchase.  No Brielle Day is complete without some old fashioned sarsaprilla.  We enjoyed our sarsaprilla and headed over toward the fire truck rides. 

Aunt Trish, Aunt Betty, Justin, John, Kyle, Gillian and I went on the fire engine.  I'm sure I have mentioned it before, but Gillian does not like the fire whistle that goes off at the fire station behind our house.  So I was prepared for Gillian to not like the fire truck ride.  She loved it at first.  She leaned over and watched all the cars and waved to the people as we drove past.  But we made our first turn and the fire truck sounded its siren and that was it.  She jumped into my lap and didn't move.  We drove past the fire station where we got sprayed down with water.  Poor Gillian got hit with the most and was soaking wet.  As we started to approach Brielle Day, I told Gillian to look for Grandma and Daddy.  She started yelling "Grandma! Grandma!"  When she did finally see them, she burst into tears and started to cry.  I think the whole trip was a little overwhelming for her.  If you ask her now if she wants to take a ride on the fire truck, she quickly says "No!"   

After the fire truck rides, the rain started to get heavier.  We all headed back to Grandma & Grandpa's house for lunch.  Gillian and Sammie played with Gillian's babies while the boys played with their new guns.  John and Justin were dueling.  Don't worry.  We gave both of them strict instructions. No shooting their rubber band guns at anyone. 

 

  

Bike ride

We took the kids to Thompson Park this morning for a bike ride. We put Gillian's seat on my bike and the girls went cruising. Daddy stayed with John. We met up at the playground. The boys made it to the playground before us. John immediately said "We beat you here. We are faster than you guys."

We played on the playground and had a little snack before we were on our way again. This time we moved Gillian's seat to Daddy's bike and I stayed with John. John is really at riding his bike, but he needs to concentrate. I was riding behind him and I told him to move over to the right. Before I realized it, he was in the grass. He gets so distracted. He looks around at the people or the trees or his feet. But we will keep working with him. He will need to fix this concentration issue before he loses the training wheels.