Back to School!

William started school this week and I thought I'd share the pictures from his big week back. He LOVES school and we are so thankful for that!

There are only 4 kids in his class so far, which is great for him and his teachers. (One kid from last year came back for only the first day and then a new girl came later in the week.) He has been a wonderful leader at school this year too. Everyday we got a glowing report in his planner and at pick-up, about how he's been such a good boy! We are so proud of him!

Thanks to Miss Debi & Diane for these pictures! :)

William's Version of Mommy's Van & Daddy's Car

William brought these pictures home from school last week and he didn't explain them to me until this morning. His teacher had told me about these in particular - she was just amazed at his attention to detail! Oh, and I'll include this last one of a pot of gold and a rainbow, which is apparently a reproduction; his teacher kept the best one for herself. She said she wanted to keep it, so that when he becomes famous, she'll have an original! :)

So here's mommy's van - with daddy driving

And here's daddy's car - he's driving this one too

And last, but not least the rainbow

The Big V-Day Party

I thought I'd share a few pictures of the kids at William's class Valentine's party.  They invited Abbey to come and she had a BLAST with the class!  They even had valentines for her and everything!  She was the only girl there, so she got plenty of attention - especially from one little guy in particular.  He was quite taken with her and wouldn't leave her alone!  She was pretty good, considering she was in a whole new world FULL of toys, trucks, play clothes, potato heads, blocks, puzzles, books, crafts, crayons, markers, and well, just about anything else you can think of!  They even had some special singers come in and sing for the kids, which was pretty cool.  Of course, her favorite part of the day was when they got to eat cookies, chips, chocolate cupcakes, and drink capri suns!  With a combo like that, how can you go wrong? :) 

Oh, and lest I forget, here are the valentine gifts we made for William's teachers.  I got a lot of compliments on them, so I think they were a hit! 

William's Christmas Class Party

William's class had their Christmas party yesterday.  William was so excited about it and thankfully, Jonathan was off work, so he could stay home with Abbey while I went to the party.  She was invited to come too, but things were chaotic enough without her there too!  There were 8 adults and a baby there, so we didn't need any additional distractions!  Party days are fun, but it's tough for our little guys to get out of their routines.  So anyway, William was feeling a little puny yesterday and kept telling me he wanted to go home.  He didn't even eat his cookie or cupcake, so you know he really wasn't feeling well!  Anyway, he made it through the day, playing games and he received many presents, so I think he was happy he stuck it out.

 

 

 

My Christmas cutie!!

 

Posing with Miss Debi

 

And here with Miss Shadle 

  

Here he is opening his present from his teachers!  He loves his new tractor!

   

Diane and Debi were so sweet, they had a present for Abbey too.  She opened hers later at home and here she is showing off her dress up shoes!   The perfect gift for this little shoe lover!!!

Oh, and in case you were wondering what I did with Jacob (the little boy I watch) while I was at the party, well that's another story...  Last Friday I was told that his dad lost his job, so they wouldn't need me anymore.  If you think of it, please pray for their family right now.  Thankfully, Jacob's mom has a good job, so that's a blessing, but it's always tough losing a job, especially right before Christmas.

And please pray for us, since this obviously has a big, negative impact on us too.  Jonathan is still only working part time and without that extra income, (with the exception of our van) we are right back where we started last July when Jonathan lost his job!  We are confident that the Lord has a plan for us through all of this; we just need a little extra patience right now as we continue to wait to see what the next step for us will be! 

William's Fall Fest

William's class had a little "non-party" yesterday at school.  You can't call it a party, because they're only allowed 2 parties a year!  At least, that's what his teacher said!  So, anyway, I was able to be there for some of it and we had such a great time.  He has a great class of kids and it was nice to meet some of the moms too!  As soon as I arrived, I was asked to read a story to the kids.  About 5 books later, we moved on to play some games!

    They started out with "musical pumpkin", 

 
then a ring toss, which ended up being more of a "ring drop,"

 
and then they learned how to say "trick or treat" and I played the lady at the door.  They came to my door over and over until everyone got a chance to knock and say the magic words.  

After "tape the nose on the pumpkin", the kids sang and danced for us!  It was so cute!  I got some video of it, which I'll have to edit and upload later.  Anyway, then they had a special lunch and lots of yummy treats.  We had to get going, so we took a treat to go.

This is William and Miss Debi, his para.  She's so fun!

Happy Halloween!

What a Week!

In addition to the many toy soldiers, cars, sunglasses, and candy bars William brought home this week, he also got a special "award" for his potty efforts. So of course, I had to take a picture and share it on here! We're so proud of you William!! Oh, and his teacher said that he was the easiest kid she's ever potty trained, and she's had a lot of little kiddos to work with! (Guess she's not counting the nearly 2 years of prep work we did! :))
Sorry, I don't know why but this picture keeps loading sideways. Just turn your head! :)

Mothers Day came early

William came home from school yesterday with something in his hands, which he brought right to me. I didn't open it right away, but then my curiosity got the best of me. I figured it was going to be one of 2 things and I was right!

For whatever reason, these pics are sideways. Sorry, I can't get them to turn around.

He was especially proud of this card.

William took this picture!

William wrapped himself back up!
Thank you William, and Mrs. Hatchett! I love my apron!

Field Trip! Back to the Museum

William's class took a short trip back to the Tallahassee Museum yesterday. Their 5th grade reading buddies were going to the Mag Lab and since the museum is just down the road, his class shared the bus and got a chance to get out of the classroom for a bit. I had an early morning with Abbey already planned, but I was able to finish that just in time to get to the school before his class was about to load up. It was so fun riding on the bus with the little guys. This bus had seat belts, which I had never seen in a bus before, and every little guy had to be strapped in. This bus also had air conditioning, which was wonderful, especially while we were waiting for the big kids at the lab, since they weren't exactly ready to leave when we arrived. Man, buses have come a long ways since I used to ride in them at school! :) Anyhow, I didn't get a lot of pictures since I had a lot of keeping up to do! Keeping tabs on 11 special needs kiddos in an uncontrolled environment is a lot of work! We had 6 parents though and a helper, so that was great and I know his teacher was appreciative that we all could be there. So here is a little self portrait we took in the bus right before take off. William's class had been playing outside when I arrived, so he was all sweaty and hot, but so excited to go on the bus!

We stayed on the animal side of the place, since it was farm day and there were lots of classes in other areas of the museum. I was a little hesitant to be back in the animal place, since we had the incident with the bobcats the last time we were there, but thankfully I didn't even see them this time! Most of the big cats were asleep!

Here are William and his friend Ryker, trying to be bats! Ryker said 'take my picture', but he didn't get his face in place at the same time as William! He's such a nice, cute kid. I know William will miss him next year, since he's moving up to kindergarten. :(

So we saw the animals, had a nice lunch outside, and then got to spend some time at the train before the bus arrived. The kids LOVE the train! The little guys were inside, knocking on the windows, saying "Hi William's mom!" It was so cute! William got himself up onto the high seats in the caboose and found me outside. I just didn't the camera to work when he was waving. Oh well, we had a fun day!

William's ABC song

Tonight, while William was building towers, he started singing the "ABC" song. It was the cutest thing as it came out of nowhere and he was doing so well with it! I heard every letter, plus he sang the bit at the end! He caught my eye near the finish of the song, which was teared up by then, and ran and gave me a big hug! I was so proud of him and he knew it! He was quite proud of himself too! Of course, I didn't get it on camera, so I asked if he would sing it again for me. He gave it a good shot, but it wasn't as good as before. That's OK; I know how good it was and so does he, and that's all that matters... Anyhow, this is his second version, with a little prompting from me. Unfortunately, my phone was ringing at the end, so we didn't get a complete version either. Oh well!

William's first school scuffle

Apparently William and another kid got into a little disagreement over a train set at school and William got whacked. I don't know all of the details yet, since the accident report is coming tomorrow and Jonathan picked him up today and isn't good with remembering all of the details. I don't know what the other kid looks like; I'm just happy that this isn't any worse, considering it's so close to his eye!