Pumpkin and Halloween Fun

We had our annual pumpkin painting/carving at Papa's house with nana, granddaddy, and all the cousins.  After Sunday dinner, the kids hunted for candy filled pumpkins in the yard.  Rocco racked up on some goodies!  

 Sydney and Rocco really got into the painting.  They were the only two this year who painted a pumpkin.  The rest of us were busy carving. 

 I chose an owl pattern for this year's pumpkin.  I prepared the stencil work, and .....

 Jason did the cutting. 

 And look at our end results.  Blues Clues pumpkin was carved by Ben for Sydney.  JJ and her parents carved the only 'real' pumpkin.  Allison carved out the words "Trick or Treat", and ours is the last pumpkin on the right. 

 Drew worked on an All American flag stencil. 

 On Halloween day, Rocco dressed up as Luigi.  I was Brainy the Dwarf.  I know he wasn't one of the original dwarfs in Snow White, but all of the teachers chose a made up dwarf while our principal dressed as Snow White.  Our assistant principal was the wicked witch.  It was a lot of fun.  Thankfully, I was able to go on Rocco's field trip with him.  His class went to an assisted living home to trick-or-treat.  His kindergarten class missed science, so it all worked out that I missed very little teaching while I was gone. 

On Halloween night, we met at the bank at 5:30.  Most of the cousins went trick-or-treating together.  JJ, Drew, Chloe, Colston, Rocco, and Sydney walked all downtown to collect a lot of treats.  Susan, Terry, BJ, Tonya, Carolyn, Barry, Allison, Jason, and I walked along with them.  It was a fun night.  Afterwards we went to Carolyn and Gary's for some hot vegetable soup, cornbread, and hot dogs.  It was perfect for the chilly night.

Rocco and Daelyn

My mom and I met in the town where I went to high school for a photo shoot.  We had two cute kids to work with...Rocco and my niece, Daelyn.  Rocco is 5 1/2 years old; Daelyn is 2 1/2.  Here's how some of the pictures turned out. 

To Cozumel

   

 This Labor Day weekend, we headed to Tampa, FL and boarded Carnival Cruise Ship Inspiration for a four day adventure.  This was my parents' first time on a cruise ship.  They had a great time. (My dad enjoyed all of the picture booths we stopped at.  We all bought too many pictures!)   Of course this was Rocco's first cruise, too.  When we got on the ship, he asked, "Are we on the boat?"  I think at first he couldn't fathom that the big place was really one big ship.  I was still in my first trimester of pregnancy, so I felt a little sick.  Thankfully I didn't throw up the entire trip.  That was a miracle, too, considering how we rocked back and forth.  It was just a relaxing get-away filled with fun waterslides (Rocco enjoyed them - I couldn't go down ;)   naps, our six o'clock dinner, and nightime entertainment. Sometimes we would go to a show; other times we were our own entertainment!

 Of course we took in a few strawberry slushies along the way!

Our one stop was in Cozumel.  The water was beautiful!  We took a taxi to Mr. Sancho's Beach. 

At this beach, we took in the ocean, swam in a pool, enjoyed the long swings, ate some nachos, and my mom even got a massage. 

5 Years 6 Months

At five and a half years old, Rocco is probably the coolest kid you'll ever meet.  The other day he told Jason, "If you want to be cool like me, daddy, I'll set you up."

We are so thankful for how well he is doing in school.  He is only one of the few that is taking AR tests.  The Little Boat and Dear Dragon Goes to the Carnival are Margaret Hillert books that he's read.  He's done really well on the reading tests in the library.  He continues to do well on his site words (knowing about 80), and his newest math trick is counting by 10's.

One Sunday night, I was lying in bed sick. Rocco came in the bedroom, climbed up on the bed, and said, "Mommy, can I pray for you?"  "Of course you can!"  I responded.  He proceeded to get on his knees, bow his head, fold his hands, and with his eyes closed he prayed a pretty lenghthy prayer that Jesus would make me better and that I would have a good day at work the next day.  What he then told me reminded me of the book of Ruth.  "Mommy, wherever you go I want to go.  I want to follow you."  My heart was pure mush by this time. He kept on,"Mommy, I just want to kiss you all day and all night.  I want to kiss you all over and love on you."

And speaking of being sick, I finally explained to Rocco why I haven't felt so good lately.  I told him, "There's a little baby growing inside my tummy.  That baby will be your brother or sister."  "WHAT?" was his reply.  At first, he said he didn't want that.  We would have to take the baby to another house, but within a few minutes he was kissing the ultrasound picture.  I explained to him that the baby would have to grow for several months inside and then it would come out.  A few days later he asked, "Will the baby come out of your mouth?"  Oh, boy.  We have so much to discuss and learn. 

5 years 5 months old

At 5 years and 5 months old, here's what Rocco is up to...

1)For the first time in his life, he has real homework.  In the past he's enjoyed pretending to do homework in a pre-K workbook we had at home.  Now, it's the real stuff.  Each Monday Mrs. Bond sends home an assignment for each night.  It's all due on Friday.  His homework has been to write his letters & numbers on worksheets and to read 15 minutes at night. 

2)  He already knows almost every sight word for the coming nine weeks of school.  I hope he doesn't get too bored.

3)  One day at school, they were asked to finish the sentence, "I love....."  I'm sure many kids said ice cream, recess, or a favorite toy.  Rocco's response?  "I love my mom."  This absolutely melted my heart.  Mrs. Debby, the parapro, told me about it.  He said he loved his mom because she played games with him and gave him love.  That just did something to me.  I love that kid of mine!

4)  He loves being carried on top of daddy's shoulders each morning on his way to school.  Jason takes him every morning and even sits with him while he eats his breakfast.  They have the morning thing going on!

5)  He still sleeps between us at night. It took us a long time to have this boy, so I don't really care what anyone thinks about this.  He's a great snuggler - he still gets upset if I turn over.  He thinks I need to be facing him with  my arms wrapped around him.  And he still asks, "Be in my dreams, mommy."

6)  I thought it was rather funny that he told his nana she could not come visit him at school on Monday's.  According to him, he is really busy on that day.  Monday is his day to go to music, PE, and science.  Nana can visit any day...just not Monday.

7)  One sweet picture I'm sure I'll treasure for years to come is the one he came home with the other day.  He had to draw a picture of him doing something with a friend.  He drew a picture of him and his friend "mommy" camping out.  They were eating snacks.  I'm so thankful he sees me as a fun mom and one that wants to spend time with him.

8)  One game he loves to play is baby cheetah.  He pretends to be a cheetah and I'm his mama.  He eats gazelles and then comes cuddle up to me.  I meow and roar at him.  For some reason he's really into these wild cats.

First Week of School. . .

and this is what he brought home on Friday. One big smiley face for a great week of excellent behavior. He stayed on the green light all week.  According to Rocco, the green means, "You are good to go!" 

First Week of Kindergarten

School started back this week, and Rocco began kindergarten.  He is at the same school as last year, and his former preK teacher is his kindergarten teacher.  We really love Mrs. Bond and know that she is an incredible teacher.  How happy and thankful we are that she looped up to the next grade.  It's amazing how God worked it all out.  Because of funding and the failing economy, our school was downsized to just one preK class this year.  Last year we had two.  Thankfully all preK teachers in our school still have a job - just had to move around a little bit.  Turns out Mrs. Bond moved to kindergarten.  With the exception of 3 new students and a few not returning (Cade, Jaly, Landon, Will S. and Angel), she has the same kids as last year.  Knowing the kids in his class made for an easy transition.  Not once did he seem nervous or scared.  In fact, he was ready to be back at school.

Even though I teach at this same school, Jason took him to school every day this week.  Some mornings Jason would still put Rocco on his shoulders as he walked him in (just like he did in preK).  That's why he wanted his daddy to carry him to school.  He feels like he's on top of the world on his daddy's shoulders.  He knows that mommy can't carry him like that. 

Each morning Jason would take him to the cafeteria and sit with him while he ate breakfast.  Rocco felt more comfortable this way.  On most mornings I would join them and eat with Rocco.  Then, I'd make sure he made it to his class.

Being in kindergarten means that he gets to come to the science lab this year, my classroom.  About a week before school started, I started talking to him about this.  "What will you call me?"  I asked him.  "I guess Mrs. Willis," he said.  Well, in fact on the first day of school his class came to science.  Monday is their science day.  And....he still called me mommy. 

The science lesson was on the five senses.  They looked at mystery pictures, matched up Jello-O flavors based on smells, pulled out matching textures in a feeling box, and listened to their heartbeats with a stethoscope.  They were the cutest bunch of kids - and of course I had my camera ready to take pics of them!

Each day he carried his Mario book bag to school.  He also had a Sheriff (police man) lunch box.  Most days he ate lunchroom food, but one day Jason packed his lunch.  On Friday's kids can buy ice cream in the lunchroom for $1.  Thursday afternoon when we got home from school, he made sure we put the dollar in his pirate coin pouch.