The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Buggin out

Maxwell had his Bug Parade up at school yesterday! Yea, I’m not really sure what that is either but, they made cute bug costumes so we got to go watch them parade around the playground and show them off for 5 minutes! 🙂

On my way in I walked past the playground to see this cutie out having fun with his class….

spencer

spencer

spencer

Here he is telling me, “Mom, dis is my friend, Sebastian…”

sebastian

I then made it over to the other playground just in time for the parade! Apparently the kids got to pick from a few bugs and Maxwell chose Dragon Fly! He thought the solid gray shirt today would go well with his wings and I have to agree!

bug parade

bug parade

bug parade

bug parade

The Top Dogs (5K) were the bug catchers! ha!

bug parade

It was quick and cute. I always love getting to go up to school and see my boys “in the wild” and interacting with their friends.

This one was the best looking dragon fly out there!

maxwell

ps – Maxwell stayed for soccer but I went on and took his costume home. I went to pick up Spencer and he loved getting to be a Dragon Fly for the walk to the car! shhh…don’t tell Maxwell!  🙂

dragon fly

I love my little bugs!

Kindergarten Orientation

When we got home last week, Maxwell had a special surprise waiting on the mailbox!

kindergarten

It was his invitation to kindergarten orientation! Woohoo! We went on Tuesday and it was great.

kindergarten

Maxwell was pretty excited and it helped to walk in and see several familiar faces like Lila, Jack, Glenn, and Cate. We all sat in the auditorium at first while the principal introduced herself and all the kindergarten teachers. The kids then left with the teachers to check out the classrooms and get a little treat in the lunchroom! The parents stayed in the auditorium to learn about important things like school lunches, carpool, and what shoes to wear for PE!  🙂  We also got LOTS of good information about ways to get involved with the PTO. No surprise, I’ve already signed up! We then all went downstairs to find the kids who were having a fun time and enjoying a huge cookie. Kindergarten is off to a great start!

With Glenn and Cate…

kindergarten

Outside after orientation with some buds…

kindergarten

These kids are going to hit the ground running in kindergarten!!

kindergarten

I’m really excited for Maxwell. I’m also a little sad. He’s growing up so fast and I’m really going to miss him next year when he’s at school. 7:50 to 2:50 is a long day! That said, I know he’s ready and I cannot wait for him to experience and learn all the fantastic things MBE is going to teach him. He’s SUCH a good kid. He’s smart, he’s curious, he’s personable…he’s READY for kindergarten!

mbe

MBE here we come!!!

Street Party

This year I organized the Street Party at the kid’s preschool. It’s a fundraiser for their scholarship fund and just an all around fun day for the kids! A LOT went into the planning from requests for donations to reserving the park space to planning all of the games. But, it all went off without a hitch and we raised a record amount of money! woohoo! The party was last week on Monday and, thanks to me getting the stomach virus 2 days before, GJ was here to help set up that morning! Thanks to her we had all the balloons we needed! She was a master on the helium tank. The weather cooperated and it was a great day all around!

My co-chair Catherine and I ready for the party!

street party

The party was Superhero themed in reference to the name of the H.E.R.O Scholarship Fund. We had these t-shirts made which I think turned out pretty cute!

street party

Blair, Polly, Mary Hamner, Glen, Anna, Maxwell

Setup in Rushton Park for the big kids…

street party

We had Bean Bag Toss, Egg Race, Go Fish, and Grand Prize Game plus two bouncies and an obstacle course. It was just the right amount of things to do in the time allotted.

bean bag

go fish

egg race

grand prize game

obstacle course

hula hoop

I loved getting to spend the day with this guy (aka Cobra Face!) and watch him have fun with his buddies.

cobra

Setup on the big playground for the little kids…

playground

playground

street party

street party

Tattoos are always a hit!

street party

Setup in G20 for the crafts…face painting, tattoos and decorating a superhero mask.

street party

street party

street party

Maxwell, Mary Frances, Polly, Bay, Berkeley

The ice cream man even came and all the kids got to get a popsicle! Best day ever for them!

ice cream

ice cream

Glen, Maxwell, Wilson, Joseph

ice cream

Jairus, Spencer, and some boy I don’t know. 🙂

It was a lot of work and months of planning but I had two good reasons that made it all worth it!

streeet party

Anything for those cuties!

Happy Valentine’s Day

I hope you all had a LOVEly Valentine’s Day! We celebrated a little early with the kids’ parties at school last week. I was the party mom for both Maxwell and Spencer’s class so got to make our favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Valentine M&Ms cookies! yum! I also put together little goodie bags for Maxwell’s class with heart straws, flashing rings, chocolate hearts and Valentine granola bars.

valentine

As always, we made the Valentines they took to their friends. We weren’t quite as crafty as in previous years (2013, 2014, 2015), but when I found these lion and tiger valentines on Etsy, I knew the boys would like them better than anything we could make! So, I bought the download, printed them on cardstock and then wrapped them up with some goodies that the boys chose.

animal valentine cards

Spencer’s had “o-o”s and suckers.

valentine cards lion

Maxwell’s had Kit Kats, suckers, and tattoos – snakes for the boys, rainbows for the girls!

valentine

valentine cards tattoos

The 2s teachers don’t really want the parents to come up for the parties – it’s too distracting – but the 4s teachers don’t mind. I loved getting to go up to Maxwell’s class and see him in his element.

valentine

class party valentine

valentine party

I sure do love my three little Valentines!!!

valentine

Love Love Love!

Christmas Program

On Tuesday, Maxwell had his Christmas Program up at school and it was precious. They do a very shortened version of the Christmas story with lots of good singing! The boys were dressed in their holiday attire and looking Christmas cool!

xmas program

Silly boys.

xmas program

Susan very nicely went up early to save us good seats and then I brought Samantha up after she woke up from her nap. She was looking Christmas cute!  🙂

xmas program

xmas program

Maxwell did a great job during the program and took his job very seriously. He stood perfectly still and concentrated on all his songs! Here’s a link to the video if you really want to see.

IPC Lessons & Carols 2015

Maxwell said his favorite song was “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”.

I’m so thankful for his sweet school and all that they do. Here’s Maxwell with Ms. Edwards…

ms edwards

and with some of his classmates, Anna, Joseph and David…

xmas program

and here’s my crew after the program.

xmas program

Three little Christmas angels right there!