A Fun Day In Kindergarten

Shane had a fun field trip to the Butterfly House for his final field trip of the year. He was very excited for a trip to see butterflies then lunch and playtime at the park. 

 

 The kids started in a room as someone shared about butterflies. The kids also got to pet the taranchula, Lucy.

  

  They also just added an aquarium area at the Butterfly House which was fun for the kids. Shane's favorite fish were the ones that would pick up sand with their mouth and then spit it back out.

 

We then moved to the Butterfly House and saw hundreds of beautiful butterflies.

 

Shane really wanted a butterfly to land on him so found places to sit and wait patiently for them to land.

  

 He waited ...

 

and waited!

 Finally he got one to land on his shoe lace!

 

The kids had so much fun!
    

We then headed to the park for a picnic and time to play. Shane's teacher gathered all the kids and the kids were sad to be heading back to school. Little did they know what was to come. 

Shane's teacher started reading the book "My Teacher Sleeps In School." When she was to the last page she said it was now time for a Mystery Field Trip. There was a big buzz in our car as the kids were trying to figure out where we were going. We ended up at their teacher's house for the afternoon. The kids got a tour of her house and yard, snack time, they did Bible time and center time. It was a very fun surprise for the kids.

The Museum Of Visual Arts

I was able to go with Shane's class on his field trip to the Museum of Visual Material.  Have you ever been somewhere and wondered how in the world did I miss this place?  Well this was one of those places.  I feel like I have been to or heard of the kid friendly, fun places in Sioux Falls but somehow I missed this fun little place. 

They had a variety of activities set up for the kids to do when we arrived.  Everything they use is recyclable products.  First on the agenda was making a Christmas card.  

There were so many fun items for the kids to pick from as they let their creativity run wild.  

I loved watching Shane at work creating his cute little card. 

Next up was beads thread on a pipe cleaner to make a candy cane.

A highlight of the afternoon was the cookie decorating station. 

Especially when they got to eat their masterpiece! 

I love Shane's face as he is concentrating so hard on getting his snowman finished.  The snowman was a recycled CD painted white. 

Shane was proud of his finished product.

The last station was making a snowflake.

They finished with a little playtime.  Shane thought the tee pee was pretty cool! The place was amazing and they did such an amazing job making us feel welcome and provide fun activities for the kids to participate again! We can't wait to go back. 

A Nice Long Weekend

We had a nice and relaxing Labor Day weekend. I am going to have to write about it rather than post any pictures since I am a little bummed I don't have any to show. I downloaded my pictures at the end of the weekend and they were gone. Eric tried the "rescue the pictures" software but didn't have any luck. I have to idea where they went! You have to love technology some days!

On Friday I went with Emma and all the other 80 1st graders monarch caterpillar hunting. This was my favorite field trip of Alexa's last year. I thought I had taken some great pictures of our day away but we'll have to just remember them. We headed down to Lake Vermillion. When we got there the kids were able to play on a playground for a little while and then we sat down for lunch. We then headed out to look for caterpillars. If you didn't know where to find them you look on milkweed. We didn't have as good of luck as we did last year. It seemed like the milkweed was about done for the season but we still were able to find 2. My four little hunters were pretty excited. They then got to play in the lake up to their knees and in the sand for the rest of the afternoon. It was fun meeting other moms and watching the kids enjoy time with friends and having fun in God's beautiful creation.

(This picture was from Alexa's field trip last year)

On Labor Day weekend Life Light Festival is always another highlight. It is 3 day, very large, free, Christian music festival that is minutes from our house. It is out in a large field and we grab our lawn chairs and blankets and head out to enjoy the music. The kids love dancing the night away. On Saturday morning we headed out to grounds and Eric participated in his first 5K race of his adult life. He ran a great race and met the goal he had set. We headed out to the festival on Saturday afternoon.

The highlight of the night was Lincoln Brewster.

On Sunday we were planning on heading back out to the festival but Alexa and I started to feel a little under the weather. We ended up relaxing and hitting an afternoon movie in the cheap theater. We went to Karate Kid. It was fun since it was filmed in China. There is a little Karate going around in the house now. The kids were wondering if their brother is learning Karate in the orphanage.

Monday was pretty low key as Shane ran a fever, I was feeling pretty miserable and spent most of the day in bed and Alexa felt crummy so laid low too. I was bummed our last day of a long weekend was spent in bed but at least we all had a day to rest and relax.

A Cooking Class With Preschoolers

I headed downtown with Shane's preschool class to restaurant K. The kids were going for a little cooking class.

The kids were very excited to sit at their table and discover they each had their own water with a bendable straw. Oh the things that make a preschoolers day!

Chef Kristina gave the kids a tour around her kitchen.

The kids thought the huge refrigerator was pretty cool!

There were some food allergies that they had to be careful of so the cooking class was an all natural salad.

Chef Kristina showed the kids how to wash and tear their lettuce by hand for their salad. She talked about how big to tear the pieces.

Then it was the kids turn to tear their lettuce into bite size pieces.

She then demonstrated how to grate carrots and cut cucumbers. They were able try a hand at both for their salad.

And finally it was time to make the dressing.

The kids took some oil and vinegar and then were able to pick the spices they wanted in their dressing.

They then took their dressing and gave it a good shake.

Then it was time to pour the dressing on and taste the finished product.

It was one of my favorite preschool field

trips.

A Scavenger Hunt

I was able to spend the day with Alexa and her class on their last field trip of the year. Alexa had a wonderful year. Her teacher was amazing and her class was such a great group of kids. I am so thankful of how easily Alexa adjusted to her new school. She has such a great group of friends.

It started off as a beautiful day. We were ate a state park and ready to start our scavenger hunt.

The kids were so excited as they searched for all the items on the list and then were able to check them off.

We traveled up and down many trails. What a beautiful day enjoying God's creation.

The rest of the day we had lunch and the kids were able to spend the afternoon playing.

These are Alexa's 3 best friends. They were a group from the beginning of school until they end. They had a friendship that grew in such a special way this year.

It was such a fun, relaxing day with a great group of 1st graders. It is hard to believe the year is almost over.

A Morning At The Breadsmith

I love going on field trips with my kids. I was able to go with Emma on her field trip to the Breadsmith. The Breadsmith is a little bread shop in town that makes wonderful bread.

The smell of fresh baked bread is something I could get used to.

The kids learned about all the ingredients that they used to make their bread. The bags of flour were a little larger than the ones the kids were used to seeing. The baker had the kids smell a few ingredients and try to guess what it was.

The got a tour of the kitchen and most of the kids were pretty impressed with the big mixer!

They each got a piece of bread dough to roll, squeeze, stretch and form.

The could make it into any thing they wanted.

Emma was busy working on her creation. It was fun to see the kids imagination take over. They really liked rolling it in the flour!

Emma's finished product was a bow tie.

And finally their masterpieces were put in the oven to bake and later that day they had the opportunity to eat their creation. It was a fun morning with Emma's Kindergarten class.