World Of Brookdale

Gavin's school (Brookdale Elementary) had a culture fair last week. This was at night, so attendance was optional. All the kids present could walk into the gym with their class, waving flags from the country they have been studying.

Kindergarten learned about the USA and made a flag from their own cut out hand prints (below). Gavin was more excited to show me this flag than any other part of the event.

We didn't stay the whole time, but watched some of the cultural dances. The Chinese "drum and dragon" dance was the most fun!

Window Clings

Time to change the window clings! Gavin wanted to skip over Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas. 

Someone is anxious for Santa!!

Jumping in the Leaves

What kid doesn't love jumping in leaves?? We go to the cemetery often, and there are LOTS of leaves there.

Gavin and Grandpa raked a nice pile:

Then Gavin got a good, long running start...

 And, one jump is never enough:

Snow!

I love winter and I love snow, so I was super excited to get flurries on Monday:

Nana and Grandpa came along to Gavin's swim lesson, and when we got back Gavin wanted to scrape the cars. He did a great job!

 

The next day was beautiful: a coating of snow, but lots of leaves still on the trees, and a bright sun. This was on our walk to school:

Blackberry Farm

We finally made it out to Blackberry Farm in Aurora. We met up with our friend Molly and her family, and all the kids had a great time!

Gavin loved this little train so much, we rode on it three times!

He LOVED the pony rides - his pony was named Peanut Butter:

Gavin was determined to ride the zebra on this carousel:

And his most favorite thing was the zip line! He had never done one before:

Halloween!

I got to volunteer in Gavin's classroom for the Halloween party, and he was so excited! The kids played games and had a snack, and I read them  a story ("The Runaway Mummy").

We weren't sure about trick-or-treating, since it rained ALL day! But the rain stopped at 5pm and trick-or-treaters started coming to our door, so then Gavin wanted to go out, too.

The rain returned though, and it was windy and cold, so he was done after about 6 houses.

At least he went to a few houses! And he was the cutest skeleton EVER!

Tae Kwan Do Party

Gavin's Tae Kwan Do school had a Halloween party, and he was allowed to bring one friend. He brought his school buddy, Claire.

 They had a great time! (I had my phone for picture taking, and some of the lights were off, so these pictures are a little blurry.)

They listened to instructions for all the games. 

They both lasted quite a while in the dance contest

They got into groups according to their costumes and had to "act out" their character. That was a riot when it was the Princess Group's turn. They stood around looking...princess-y!

This was a mummy-wrapping contest. That was a riot, too! One kid from each group had to get wrapped in toilet paper.

Back home and Gavin wanted to get right into pajamas. 

Stay tuned - more Halloween pictures to follow!