More Kindergarten Activities - With Mommy and Daddy!

While Everett and I loved Disneyworld and want to go back, the best part of coming back from our trip was returning to my kindergarten class and all of my friends. I've always loved school and kindergarten, but especially during the few weeks before Thanksgiving and our Disneyworld trip - because just about every week, either Mommy or Daddy came to my classroom at least one day a week as volunteers to help out my teacher, Anna.

Like he did back in October,  Daddy once again chaperoned my class on a trip to Prospect Park to visit our class tree. He took lots of pictures and helped us with our drawing project.

And when it came time for our run up the hill from the tree, Daddy once again stood guard at the top of the hill to make sure everyone knew where to turn around.

Except it looks like at least a coulpe of my classmates are getting a little too attached to Daddy...

Daddy also came to my class five days in a row to run "cooking center." Here we are making one of the cooking projects Daddy planned for us... 

It was called "tortilla art" -

Mommy was in our classroom just as often as Daddy, first to chaperone our book fair, and then to help with "art center." How do you like my recreation of my bunny?

Or my abstract sculpture?

I just love it when Mommy and Daddy come to my classroom!

Disneyworld - the lost pictures

You didn't think we were going to let you get away without sitting through this one, did you? Of course we found some lost pictures from our trip that Mommy just couldn't fit into our trip highlights video! So here's another summary of our trip in pictures - not the highlights, just the lost pictures...

Rise and shine! Our trip started nice and early in the morning - that's 3:49 *AM* on Daddy's watch as he's about to wake me up.

And here we are, exactly an hour and fifteen minutes later, having breakfast at the airport, while watching our plane being prepared at the gate...

Burning off a bit of energy in the kids area at the JetBlue terminal -

Finally, on the flight...

And able to relax a bit with our morning TV...

Eventually, we made it to our hotel at Disneyworld, and it was beeeeeeeeeeeautiful.

The best part might have been these rocking chairs in the lobby, which we tried out while Mommy and Daddy were checking into our room.

Why did we love the rocking chairs so much? Hmmm, have a guess....

A TV with all Mickey, all the time!

Of course, after that extra early wake-up and the three hour flight to Orlando, once we checked into our room, we needed a bit of a nap, with our usual untraditional sleeping arrangement...

On our first day at Disneyworld, we spent the afternoon at the great hotel pool, then chilled and lounged a bit poolside.

But eventually, we did make it out of the hotel, and the Magic Kindgom was our first stop. We were sure to be there before the park even opened so we could catch the opening ceremonies.

Then a spin in Alice's Teacups - one of the many, many, MANY rides we went on while there.

Killing time during a bit of a wait for the hotel - theme park bus...

Dinner at Rainforest Cafe - with fishies, my favorite!

Eventually, of course our trip had to come to an end. We spent the last day at Disneyworld exactly the same way we spent our first - at the pool. After a great late morning swim, I was sure knocked out, all the better to get a bit of rest before our flight home.

Then, a ride on the Disney Magical Express to the Orlando airport.

Where, believe it or not, they had more fishies!

And ice cream!

And then, the flight home (while clutching the miniature dinosaurs I selected as the one gift each that Mommy and Daddy allowed me and Jasper to get - apparently, the trip itself was a gift...

What a great trip this was. We're so glad we were able to track down these lost pictures to relive our memories once more. 

Reliving our Disneyworld experience

No sooner did we get back home from Disneyworld than we immediately started playing play-pretend airport - and I think that Jasper and I may even have found a new career - airline ticket agents!! 

On our trip to Disney World, we got to observe people working at the airports - at the ticket counter, at the gate, etc. When we got home, we recreated an airport ticket counter, complete with computer, boarding passes, scanner and luggage tags.

And look, here's our first passenger checking-in for his flight to Disneyworld!

There's just one major difference with our ticket counter and the real one at the airport - no lines!

What happens in Jersey, stays in Jersey

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend at Dziadek and Babcia's house, especially since we had some beautiful weather (one day of it, anyway, sandwiched between a couple of much cooler days), and as always while at Dziadek and Babcia's, we engaged in some activities that it's probably best Mommy and Daddy weren't around to see, like this -

(Never mind about why I'm putting dozens of clothes line pins on Babcia's sweater - what are those two plastic bags filled with water doing hanging from the clothes line?!)

Taking naps (or NOT taking naps...)

Eating a healthy lunch (of Philadelphia soft pretzels?...)

Not even sure what to say about this one...

And finally, here's what goes up the day after Thanksgiving in Dziadek and Babcia's neighbors' front yards...

But it's never too early for Santa Mickey, is it?!

Early jump on Christmas activities

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! While we spend Thanksgiving day itself at home, both resting from our trip to Disneyworld and enjoying the great dinner Mommy made for us, the day after Thanksgiving we headed down to Dziadek and Babcia's house, where we got an early start on Christmas - especially Christmas trains.

We started off with a visit to Macy's Santaland, where we paused for a group picture - which would have been better if I hadn't blinked right when Daddy took the picture...

Then a walk through a Christmas Village right inside the store - and a full recreation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

But the main event at the Philadelphia Macy's, as it is every year around this time, is the annual Christmas light show. This year, instead of craning our necks up from the ground floor, Everett and I decided to head upstairs, where Everett found the perfect watching nook for us...

We had a great view, and so our day of trains begun...

After Macy's, we headed to the SEPTA museum just down the block, where both Everett and I got to drive the city bus...

And the trolley...

Not to mention ample playtime with the Chuggington train table...

And then, finally, the highlight of the morning -

The Reading Terminal Market model train display - an annual favorite!

We loved getting an early start on Christmas festivities - but when do we get to see Santa?!