Beaches and Batman

On Saturday Neil arrived. It happened to be the coldest day of the year so far, with temperatures below freezing and a biting wind. Needless to say, we were very excited to finally see him!

I have been anticipating with great excitement Neil's first taste of pumpkin pie, and he has decided that he quite likes it. He was also very happy with my banana bread, which is a great thing because I like making it a lot.

On Sunday we took a walk in the morning. We walked down Bay Avenue and stopped at Veterans Park for Michael to play while we sat and had coffee/hot chocolate. It is a nice little park, and the weather was much milder on Sunday. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping, on the neverending quest to find Lego Batman sets. No luck. We stopped at Amy's Restaurant for lunch, had burgers, (Mike had chicken) and headed home before going to Al and Karen's, house for a dinner of chinese dumplings and a night of Faces and Rock Band. We had a great time singing and playing and rushed home to get Mike's bath in before bedtime.

Monday Mike was back at school, so Neil and I spent the day together before collecting him at 1pm. We went to Target and got a great deal on some shoes and a pair of Batman pajama's for Neil. At 2:15 we had a parent teacher conference, and Michael is doing quite well in school. Afterwards we picked up Daniel and went down to the beach for some outdoor playtime (Brrrr!!!!!) They had fun writing in the sand with sticks, running, jumping and skipping rocks.

Today we dropped Mike at school, went shopping again! FOUND Lego Batman sets!!! Checked out the comic store, had a diner breakfast, did our shopping and collected Mike.

Pajamas and Pies

Today was Pajama day at school. Mike wore his Wiggle PJs and was so excited to go to be participating in the fun. Even Mike's teacher wore pajamas! It was a fun day for everyone. Note in this pic, Michael is showing off his first missing tooth! He got a sparkly dollar from the tooth fairy.

This evening we made pumpkin pie together. Michael even mastered egg cracking! He is quite the baker. Now the pies are baking and the house smells delicious.

Observation

Today was observation day in Michael's classroom. Mrs. Davis read a story about animals and what makes them alike or different. The children took turns pointing out the similarities and differences.

Mrs Davis called on Michael and asked if he knew of similarities, but Michael was busy inspecting his finger, and announced that he had a bruise on it. Mrs. Davis pointed out how disappointing it was that he had such a bad bruise on his finger that he could not pay attention to the story, in fact, it must be so bad that Michael would have to miss out on the craft project. "Oh no Mrs. Davis, it is not THAT bad!" Michael assured her, and quickly changed his focus to his lesson. Afterwards, they made bird feeders before rushing off to gym and playing tag, and doing the chicken dance.

It was nice to be able to go to a school function for Michael, he was very pleased to see me there.

Highlands is such a wonderful school, and the view from the classroom is absolutely stunning. It is elevated and looks out onto Sandy Hook bay and the Atlantic. You can sit on the swings and look out across the ocean and it is so peaceful and beautiful. The bad part is that when winter comes the wind gusts endlessly for months, and it makes it feel like it is sub zero. There really is no describing the bitterness of winter on the Jersey shore, but trust me, it is not anything you should ever feel sorry missing.