My Little Preschoolers

A Good Morning After All..

This morning (or I should write, Wednesday morning as we now past midnight), we overslept. Cassie had switched off her alarm, too, and I had been up a lot with Isabella who now is in the order to have a lot of coughing going on at night, so I was very tired this morning too, and at 7.20am, I looked at the time and jumped out of bed! But, we were all dressed, and ready out of the door at 8am, and Cassie and the twins eat breakfast in school, so it worked out well. Cassie's school is luckily on the way to the kid's Preschool, so we could drop her off there first. She got there in time! While there, I noticed the light came on. Only a few more miles left of gas...really, on a stressful morning and all..!?

So, I knew I couldn't make it to Preschool, so I had to turn around, knowing that we would be late for their school that start at 8.30am. Being stressed I didn't really check the price on the pump, and while the gas was pumping, I was washing the windshield and didn't pay attention. Not until it "clicked" and it was done, I saw - what could it be right? I only looked at the $$ sign first and not at the gallon, and I thought it must have switched off too early somehow.

 Full tank for under $40!! Wohoo! 

Normally, just a few months ago, it would cost me around $70 for a full tank.

We broke the $2 mark!!

So, with this, my mood lightened up a lot and we put the radio on "louder" as the kids "demanded" from the backseat while we drove to Preschool, singing along to all the songs. We only got there 10 minutes late too, and the kids still had time to eat breakfast. It was a good morning after all!!

Secret Gifts - Precious Gifts

My husband and I got the most special gifts on Christmas Eve from Benjamin and Isabella. They had been working on something in Preschool, they told me that they can't say what it is, it's a SECRET. When we had the Christmas party, we got to bring these nicely decorated gift bags with us home. Even if they were almost bursting of telling us what was inside, they didn't! They put the gifts under the tree, and told us that we open them on Christmas. So now, Isabella especially asked if we weren't going to open up their presents?!! Ofcourse we wanted to! They were so cute, really excited to see how we liked their gifts - their secret gifts!

Nice cards with the gifts!

Inside was a flowerpot that the kids had painted, decorated, a bag of beans and to demonstrate what to do with them, there were a couple of pens/pencils in the pencil holder! How neat, and we loved them!!

That was so special, and maybe even more as they really kept it a secret, and they were so excited and proud to show us! Great job kiddos!!

I also had another gift by the tree, one that I won from a raffle at the event where Cassie was walking the runway. We just walked by the makeup section and saw the raffle and Cassie thought, lets write our names on a piece of paper, with our numbers and maybe we win. Well, not very likely, there were so many people, and the box was already pretty full of papers, but we did. A few days later I got the call, I was the winner of the big giftbox from Estee Lauder! Great, not often that one really win on these things! Lots of nice things in a great black makeup bag, with little golden pouches!

Lots of special anti age cremes etc...

That would be a great thing, starting the year looking younger.

After cleaning up the wrapping papers, it was almost time for bed for the little ones. We ended the day with a little Swedish Christmas "fika".

Preschool Christmas Party - Movie Clip 4

Preschool Christmas Party - Movie Clip 3

Preschool Christmas Party - Movie Clip 2

Preschool Christmas Party -Movie Clip 1

Here is one of the songs that the kids were singing on their performance at their Christmas party last week. I didn't know how well I would be able to film them while they had their performance, so I filmed them on their final rehearsal before the other parents came. I was there early helping out getting the tables and other little things organized. They were all doing so well, and I'm especially impressed with the whole class how far they have come in their sing language. They have five or six (?) children in their class that are hearing impaired, and the kids are doing wonderful with signs and helping each other. Benjamin and Isabella  have practiced this Rainbow song for a while now at home, and think it's really nice!

Preschool Christmas Party

On Thursday afternoon, the kids were very busy writing the cards for their teachers in Preschool. As they had their last day before Christmas break on Friday, we were late in getting things ready. I had already organized cookies and plates that I had been signed up for, and I had also already while the kids were in school, been at the store to pick up some sweet chocolate boxes as gifts to their teachers.

They have three teachers in Preschool, which means three gifts and three cards, per child. When you have twins in the same class, that means you get to double the amount! Sure, I could have combined their gifts, but still, the kids like to have something from themselves, this is from ME, and not from US, so this is the way I'd like to do it. The concentration was on top around the kitchen table and they did so good, they really didn't want to mess up, and wrote with pencil in case we had to erase something. But, as I think it should be clear that it's the kids that have written this on their own, I don't want to correct or make all their lines straight or even letters, and I love the way the cards turned out!

After getting the kids ready on Friday morning, they looked this cute! We were running a bit late, as Isabella absolutely wanted to have a sparkly snowflake on her cheek, that I had promised, and now of course I couldn't find the silver liner. Sigh...luckily, it showed up and everyone was happy getting in the car 10 minutes later than normal.

 My little Santa boy!

 Little Miss Snowflake!

 Ready for their Christmas party and recital in school.

The class had been practicing a few songs, and as I was there helping out in the morning, I got to see the final rehearsal before showtime! They were so good, and it was great to see how well they all did with both words, movements and signs! I'm glad that I got to see this and that I took the chance to already here film them singing, as I didn't get as good view later at the real performance.

I have a few videos that I have to post to let you see, I will have to come back to those another day, as I'm too tired now to wait for them to download. I have to start that process a bit earlier than midnight..

After their performance, it was snack time. Everything from cookies, fruit and veggie trays, cupcakes and drinks. They had a good time and it was nice to see that a lot of parents had made it. 

The kids gave their Christmas gifts to their teachers, which was very much appreciated! They were going to have a very SWEET Christmas for sure, as I happened to see that I wasn't the only one that had brought chocolate that day..:) Now it's Christmas break until January 6th.

First Fieldtrip

Last week, when the kids had a short week due to the Thanksgiving break, Isabella and Benjamin actually only had school on Tuesday, as they don't go Mondays anyway. So, to make something fun, the teachers had planned a field trip to the "Castle park". The kids were all so excited for this, and maybe the most exciting part was to go on a yellow school bus for the very first time! This was big news, and they were a bit worried about how to go on the bus, but I had offered to volunteer this day anyway, so I went on the bus with them, and they were all doing just fine!
 

 Lining up for the bus!!

 Such a relief, they had seat belts, just like in the airplane!

Counting everyone once again, making sure no one got lost during transportation!

As the bus left right after school start, the kids didn't have breakfast in school as normal, but started their day at the park with breakfast in the park. It was still pretty chilly in the morning in the shade, but soon it warmed up enough to skip the jackets!

 Not east to smile against the sun when the teachers wanted to take a class picture.

 Isabella and her girlfriends..

Popsicles while waiting for the school bus to take us back to the school.

The kids had a great time, the field trip was a success, nobody got lost or hurt! :) Fun way to kick off the holiday weekend, and before going home, all kids got a cornucopia out of ice cream cone, filled with little snacks.

Preschool Time And Nutrition

Last week we talked a lot about nutrition in school and here at home. Everything that the kids eat, we discuss in what group it belongs, if it's healthy or not..Very important to get them to understand this, and as we have talked a lot about these things around food at home. When we go shopping the kids are always allowed to pick out a fruit or vegetable that they want to try, that they like and they are very good knowing their way around fruit and vegetables, and it was nice for them to get a lot of praise in school when they knew a lot about this, and were able to impress their teachers with raising their hands and knowing the answers to most of the questions! Happy mommy!!

I just wish that our very own picky little eater, would do more than name them, and eat them as happily as his sister, but still, he is getting better I must say, and I have at least a handful of different veggies now that he will eat, instead of the constant corn..:) Anyway, I really like the fact that they talk a lot about this already in Preschool, as they are so eager to learn. They also had two days of "trying and tasting"different veggies and fruit, and they came  home with a chart filled out which ones they had tried. They were very proud to present these diplomas here at home!

 Ben's job one day was to bring the cart with outdoor toys outside.

 On their way out, each child got a picture of an item in the nutrition pyramid, and in a game they were going to name it, say what group it belonged to and if it was healthy or not for them.

 Another day in Preschool, it's getting cold in the mornings, and little jackets are needed!