How About Halloween

I've been sitting here looking through pictures from the past two months, trying to decide what to write about, when I came upon my pictures from Halloween. That seems a good topic to me, and so here we go.

Halloween was on a Saturday this year. At the school here, the kids are not allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school because (I was told) some kids were showing up in things that were too scary/inappropriate for an elementary school, so they bagged the whole thing. They have, however, come up with work arounds. The week before Halloween was Anti-Bullying Week at the school. Each day the kids did something different to celebrate not bullying, I guess. One day they got to wear pajamas (put bullying to bed), one day they wrote thank you notes to people (recognizing/positively reinforcing good behavior?), and on Friday, they got to "dress up" as superheroes (because everyone knows superheroes are NOT bullies). This was pretty neat. It was fun seeing the kids, as well as the teachers and other staff, wearing superhero shirts and capes and the like.

For the kindergartners, they had a nursery rhyme parade, where all of the kids came to school dressed up as whatever nursery rhyme character they wanted. As soon as school started, the kindergartners were marched all around the school, into all of the classrooms, then they were marched outside where they did a few loops for the parents and grandparents and who's-it, then the kids and their family members went into the gym where the kids performed a bunch of nursery rhymes. It was adorable.

Finn was Wee Willie Winkie, which I was sort of worried was going to be an obscure character that no one would know. I needn't have worried. Wee Willie Winkie was one of the rhymes they covered in their unit, and was one they performed during their performance. A few other boys also dressed up as Wee Willie Winkie as well. (I totally knit Finn's "sleeping cap" the week leading up to this shindig.)

The Wednesday before Halloween, my stepmom texted and asked if she, my dad, and their dog could come down for Halloween, and for the soccer games that morning. Since we always love seeing family, we said, "Of course!" And down they came.

They met Josh at the field where Deacon was finishing his game, and Zeke was starting his. After watching those two play for a bit, they met me at the field where Finn was playing. The boys were so excited. After soccer we had some lunch and hung out until it was time to head over to our neighbor's for the annual pipe stem Halloween party/candy hand out spot. For costumes this year, we had 2 soccer players and 1 Star Lord (from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie).

After hanging out for a few minutes, Karen, Mickey (the dog), and I took the boys to Christine's to see them in their costumes, and then we started trick-or-treating. We had a lot of fun, except for when this guy came out:

Mickey did NOT like this guy at ALL. The poor dog went crazy as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man walked past us on the street. The dog also went crazy when he showed up at our pipe stem party an hour or so later when we were finished trick-or-treating. While trick-or-treating we met up with some friends and walked around with them a bit too, until Deacon decided he was done and wanted to go back. I took him back and left the other 2 with Karen, but shortly after we got back, they came back. Apparently they made it about 5 more minutes before deciding they were done as well.  Back at the party Finn displayed some awesome dance moves before deciding he was tired and wanted to go to bed.

Shortly thereafter, we ALL had decided we were tired and ready for bed.

While I was putting the kids in bed, my dad won the game they played at the party. I was gone for 20 minutes and he won a game! Josh said it was amazing. They put the names of horror movies/horror movie characters on each person's back, then each person had to guess who they were. The story goes, a sticker was put on my dad and the conversation went like this:

Dad: Am I a human?

Answer: No.

Dad: Am I a shark?

Answer: Yes.

Dad: Am I a white shark?

Answer: Yes?

Dad: Am I Jaws?

Answer: YES!

What?! Who goes from not a human to shark? Well played, Dad. Well played.

And how can we have a Halloween post without pictures of this year's pumpkins? I didn't get photos of each boy with their pumpkins this year because they basically told Josh what they wanted their pumpkins to look like, then walked away. So, Josh carved all of the pumpkins, I separated out, cleaned and cooked the pumpkin seeds, and the boys watched TV, the day before Halloween. Josh also took advantage of back to back soccer games to etch-carve the small pumpkins we bought. This year's theme: Minions!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Halloween. I know that's a bit late, especially with Thanksgiving being next week (WHAT?!), but there it is. Happy Halloween!

Before We Got Down Here

I was organizing pictures today and realized I let July go by without blogging (intentionally), but I have some fun pictures and stories to share, so here's a "dump" post on a few things that happened in July while we were between homes and what's it.

Fourth of July we went to a bbq at a friend of Josh's house. Before we left his wife gave me some dessert to take with me. We left, and all was good until we hit Route 80. As soon as my car started picking up speed, Zeke and Finn both went, "Whoa! What was THAT?!" When asked what they were talking about, they said something white went flying past and went splat on the road. I looked at Josh and said, "Where's my dessert?" I'm sure you've figured out where my dessert was. If you guessed all over Route 80 you're correct! Not only was it all over Route 80 though, it was all over the one side of my car:

Ohhh yeahhh.

******

The boys did VBS (Vacation Bible School) at the same place they did it last year, and had a BLAST. They put the kids on a stage the last night to perform the songs they learned throughout the week, and that may have been a mistake. After Finn's dance recital, the kid LOVES the stage and totally rocked out all night. 

Zeke is right in front of him and Deacon is off to the left (as you look at the video) a little bit. Finn stole the show. Quite a few moms afterwards told me how much they enjoyed watching him up there, and how much fun he must be to have around.

Yes. Yes he is.

******

The day after our movers finished packing us up, the fire department was on our street doing drills. They asked Josh if they could use our place for a few minutes and Josh said, "Of course!" In return, they let Finn check out any fire truck of his choosing. The fire department on Picatinny are seriously some of the coolest and nicest guys. 

We also found a frog hopping about our front yard that day. That's not a ground breaking event, but it was pretty neat.

******

Josh got an award before we left. 

Finn got wigged out by the stairs we had to climb to get to the award ceremony, so he was uber cranky until I made a joke of him being in my way as I was trying to take pictures. My joke led to this happening while the ceremony was going on. 

At least Finn was happy and laughing again. Right?

*****

We also spent some time at playgrounds:

at Josh's parents' house, which means the beach:

and I got to meet my niece, Kara:

******

All in all, a great month where we spent 1/3 of it in our house, 1/3 in temporary lodging and 1/3 at Josh's parents'. We had fun everywhere we went and that is pretty much July 2015 in a nutshell.

He Totally Nailed It!

Finn has been taking dance lessons (or "agility training" as Josh calls it) since December. Yesterday was the big recital. I had no idea how it was going to go since he did this:

during the entire rehearsal Wednesday afternoon. Oh yeah. No amount of bribery would convince him to dance - he said no to both McDonalds AND Dunkin Donuts. That's some serious stage fright!

Day of, I had no idea what to expect. I promised Finn we'd get "special ice cream" if he danced, Finn promised he'd dance. We showed up, realized we forgot the tickets, I dropped Finn off while Josh took care of the ticket situation by getting this note:

After everything was taken care of, the 5 of us (Josh's mom came!) found some seats and waited for the magic to happen. And magical it was. The whole show was REALLY well done. However, my favorite part was this:

He totally nailed it! I am so proud of my boy! After their number the kids had to wait in one of the classrooms until the finale, which is when they were released to their parents. As I pulled Finn down from the stage, telling him what a great job he did, his first words to me were, "NOW we can get special ice cream?" Yes sweet boy, now we can get special ice cream.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sniffles and Laughs

Oh my gosh you guys (*Drama Queen alert*).  I had such a terrible head cold last week, and it lasted pretty much all week.  It started on Monday and really, I'm still sniffling a bit today. All of that is to say, I didn't blog for the past 2 weeks because I was sick all of last week.  I'm not sure how that math works out, but in my stuffed up mind, it does.  SO, since I pretty much missed a week of doing things like blogging, emailing, cleaning the house and what's it, this post is going to be short and sweet so I can get to some of those other things too.

We watched "Frozen" for the first time on Friday (and for the second time last night). There's a Mickey Mouse short on the DVD in the bonus features that we also watched. For whatever reason, this particular short tickled Finn to no end. Here's a clip of his natural reaction to this video:

He's too much right? Josh and I were cracking up watching him crack up, and I hope you did too a little. Now, the laundry is calling out to me, and I must answer, so that's all for now.

Sunday School Songtime

One Sunday, the first Sunday of January I believe, the Sunday school kids sang a few songs during the chapel service. I've been trying since that Sunday to post these here, but it was much more difficult than I had anticipated. Today I figured it out! SO, without further adieu, the kids:

 

 Aren't they sweet? Thank you Ms. Cindy and Ms. Dee Dee for working with our kids on these songs. You two are the best and we miss you both!

Dingle Dangle!

We've been having a really nice two days after Thanksgiving, hanging out around the house playing LEGOs and watching football and just relaxing.  So, as I'm in total relax mode, I've decided that in lieu of blogging about anything I'm just going to post this video I saw today because it tickles me.  Enjoy!

 

Now That School is Over...

Last week, Zeke graduated from Kindergarten on Tuesday.  He still had a full week of school to go to afterwards, but he graduated last week none-the-less.  I had no idea his graduation was going to be such a big deal, or I might have gone better prepared (as in, I would have brought my actual camera instead of my phone).

They held the graduation in the gym/auditorium.  They set up risers and all 3 Kindergarten classes were there, singing songs, doing their little play, and getting their diplomas.

They also did superlatives for the kids, and since they're in Kindergarten, they made sure there was enough categories so every kid could "win" one.  The biggest class had 23 kids, so there were 23 categories.  You knew they were reaching when they called out ones like "Jazziest Jump Roper" and "Terrific Shoe Tie-r".  The classmates vote on who they want to win each category and the teachers tally up the votes then call the winners at graduation.  Zeke won "Nicest Smile".  He also got a "Perfect Attendance" award - only 4 kids did.  The kid LOVES school.

Afterwards there was cake and drinks in the cafeteria.  This is when Zeke insisted on giving his teacher (pictured below - she's adorable) the gift he picked out for her (which I made, and is also pictured below).

Yep, he picked a giraffe, and then insisted it be blue - apparently he knew that was his teacher's favorite color.  Good job, Zeke.

Not to be outdone, Deacon graduated from Pre-School on Friday (which was his last day of school too).  Since Deacon's class only had 4 kids in it (well, 5, but one boy will be too young for Kindergarten next year, so he didn't go to the graduation), they grouped his class with one of the full-day Pre-School classes.

I love that they wore caps and gowns (he got to keep the cap).

They also sang some songs, "got their diplomas" (they had one rolled up piece of paper tied with ribbons that the teachers "handed" to the kid for the photo-op, but held on to to "hand" to the next kid), had a sweet story read to them by the 2 teachers, and followed up the ceremony with cake as well.

We were a bit wiser with Deacon, and gave his teacher (who truly was wonderful - we really lucked out with great teachers this year) her gift at school that day, well before the craziness of the graduation.  Again, Deacon picked out the project and the colors, and I made it (this guy I am SUPER proud of).

All of this made for a crazy busy week, but also a very sweet (and I'll admit, very emotional) week for our family.  I'll leave you now with a video of Zeke singing "First Grade, First Grade" in our kitchen (all the other songs and videos from both graduations are up on YouTube [you should be able to click Zeke's video here and be taken to our YouTube "page"]). When he first sang this song at home, it was seriously all I could do to NOT cry.  My sweet boy is growing up so fast.

And now to enjoy our summer vacation!

Go Deacon! Go Deacon! GO!

For your viewing pleasure, here is a video I took the other night of Deacon (and eventually Finn) getting his groove on.  I apologize for the shaky shooting in the beginning, I wanted to get as much as I could, but I needed to get up from the table to get all of him in the screen.



This kid certainly keeps things interesting and keeps us WELL entertained.

I Mean, I Like Phil Just As Much As the Next Girl...

...maybe even more. I really do enjoy Phil Collins and will gladly listen to him when I'm at home, when I'm in the store, when I'm in the car. And lately, I've been listening to Phil perhaps a little too much in the car.

You see, when each of my boys were younger, they had specific special songs we could play while we were driving and it would automatically soothe them, and stop them from crying. There's really no rhyme or reason as to why each boy picked which song they did, but the 1st 2 boys picked songs that are fantastic songs. Zeke's favorite was "Be Thou My Vision" by 4Him. Deacon's favorite was "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" as sung by Amy J. Stephens (sadly, there's no youtube video to link to for this specific version of the song). Both beautiful hymns that I gladly listened to over and over and over and over and over again and again and again.

In fact, I remember a time when I was driving up the Parkway when Zeke was 6 months old. I had "Be Thou My Vision" essentially blasting, but it wasn't enough. Zeke, through his hysterics, demanded that I also sing the song as loud as I could. I think we listened to (and sang) that song a good 35 times that trip. Good times.

Anyhoo...so Zeke and Deacon pick good, beautiful, meaningful hymns. And what does Finn decide his song of choice is going to be? "Strangers Like Me" by Phil Collins from Disney's Tarzan. Have a listen:

Not a terrible song, and I really do like Phil Collins, but after you hear this song more than 6 times in a row, it sort of wears on you a little. Thankfully, unlike the other 2 boys, Finn is a "little" bit less specific about his song. He'll settle for Barenaked Ladies' "Snacktime" album, or at least the first 5 songs or so on it (it really is a GREAT kid cd, by the way). He'll also sometimes let us go past "Strangers Like Me" to "Circle of Life". Or he'll sit somewhat quietly for some Phil Wickham. But, when push comes to shove and he's been in his car seat for way too long (in his opinion - which, his is a VERY opinionated little man), nothing else will due but the sultry sounds of one Phil Collins. That's my boy.

So, November Kind of Got Away From Me

Hey there! Long time no hear from, huh? Sorry about that. November sort of got away from me this year. I had thought about doing NaBloPoMo again, but totally bailed on that idea after the first day when I realized I'd be gone a few days this month and didn't really want to blog while I was gone. So I took the entire month off. I'm toying with the idea of "making it up to you" by blogging all of December. We'll see.

As for November though, the "few" pictures I took this month are up on flickr, and looking through them, we really didn't do too much that was exciting this month. Which is probably why I didn't blog too much this month. Thanksgiving was this month, so I'll blog about that (minus pictures because I apparently didn't take any that day).

The day before Thanksgiving Zeke's kindergarten class and the other kindergarten classes put on a little show/dinner for their families. It was super cute. He'd been singing the songs for us a good week or so before the show, but it was fun seeing him up there, singing and dancing with all the other kids. When they lined up on the stands, he look at us and almost started crying from excitement when he saw that ALL of us were there, since Daddy was able to leave work for an hour to be there as well.

Here's a video of one of the 2 songs they sang. Zeke is in the center on the back row. And if you look closely at the bottom left of the screen when I zoom out at one point you'll see a cute blonde woman - that's Zeke's teacher. I like her. Anyway, the video:

Aren't they all so cute?

Thanksgiving day we watched the parade in the morning. Well, I watched the parade while the boys ran around and played. Although, the Sesame Street float was a HUGE hit with Finn. He climbed into my lap and bopped around and pointed at all his friends. It was very sweet.

We had Thanksgiving dinner down at Josh's parents' house. We had a nice time. The bigger boys had a ton of fun playing with their cousin Sam, as well as Josh's cousin Holly and her husband, Jordan. Finn impressed everyone with his mad iPad/iPhone skills. It was really nice seeing everyone who was there, and enjoying a good meal with them.

The rest of the long weekened was spent playing LEGOs. Josh's parents gave us BOXES of LEGOs and LEGO sets and all that kind of stuff, which we spent almost the entire weekend sorting, and putting specific sets together, and organizing and all sorts of stuff.

We're not even close to being finished either. You see the big brown box there? That's FULL to the TOP with just pieces. Yes, I would say thousands of LEGO pieces. We aren't keeping them all. We're going through and trying to put together all the sets so we can send of them on to Linda for Sam to play with (you're welcome Lin!). Hopefully we'll have it done by Christmas.

And that, in a nutshell, was our holiday weekend. Nice. Quiet. LEGO-filled. Just how we like it. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving as well.

Look At Him Go!

First, let me apologize for it being such a slow month here on ye olde blogge. With my mom visiting, and getting ready for the movers to come (now that we have dates), and currently with me being sick (it's just a head cold, nothing too serious but enough to make me feel crummy) it's just been a crazy month. Also, we haven't really been doing much here. We go to parks and play outside when the weather's nice:

and we play inside when the weather's not nice:

All of that is just to say that besides being busy doing nothing, there really hasn't been much to blog about. I have been boxing up some of our stuff that has boxes (certain plates, coffee pot, etc) and moving all of the stuff that the movers are taking out of the pantry so I can now put the things I don't want the movers to take in there, with a big sign that'll read MOVERS STAY OUT! or something. I'm still working on the actual wording. I tell you what though, I think I'll be pretty happy when the movers have come and gone and there is a lot less stuff for Finn to mess with. It's exhausting trying to keep him out of things - especially since that whole "just distract them with something else" thing doesn't work on him.

And speaking of Finn, he has been doing something exciting that I've finally gotten around to taking a video of to share with you here:

That's right, Finn is walking! He's getting fast too. He started taking steps on his own while my mom was here at the beginning of the month, and slowly but surely he is getting the hang of it. Part of me wished he had waited a little longer because the thought of having to chase 3 walkers around airports makes me tired, but at the same time, I'm happy he's doing it now because he can walk at the airports instead of crawl all over those gross floors. Either way, it's going to be an interesting time.

And before I go, can someone else who uses blogger help me with something? I went to change the boys pictures on my sidebar the other day and they keep posting HUGE and I have NO idea how to resize them (either in blogger or on my computer in general) so that they are their normal size again. I feel like blogger changed some things lately and I don't like it. And to those of you who used to use blogger but switched, where did you go?

Nature! Goulet.

It's been like Animal Planet up in here you guys.

It started with the moose in the back yard (not actually in our yard, but just on the other side of the fence). At one point there were 3 of them back there. A medium sized one, then a big momma and her calf. The momma kept chasing the other one further and further away so the calf could run about as it pleased. (Once the calf goes behind the tree you can stop the video, I tried to follow it to the other side, but got distracted by Zeke.)

It's been fun. Also fun, is when Peavey caught (and killed) a bird Saturday morning and brought it home for us. Who's a good hunter with his big, sharp claws? Peavey is! When Peavey dropped off the bird, Zeke asked if Peavey shot it. I had to explain then how cats catch birds using their claws and fangs. Zeke was impressed, then pointed out how the bird is now dead. Which is good he realized the bird was dead, because shortly after our conversation about the bird, Peavey ate the bird's head. Yeah. No other part of the bird was eaten, just the head. My cat is so weird sometimes.

(I guess I should clean the back door again.) Shortly after Peavey had killed the bird, I took the boys food shopping. As we were walking across the parking lot, Zeke said, somewhat matter-of-factly, "So. Peavey caught the bird." To which Decon replied in possibly the most excited voice ever, "AND THEN HE ATE THE HEAD!" My middle child is so weird sometimes. And I'm guessing that my kids are not going to be bothered by death much. At least, not when it comes to the animals living in our neighborhood. Or, the animals no longer living in our neighborhood, I guess I should say. I am so weird sometimes.

This Must Be What Living With Binky Would Be Like

For those of you who don't know who Binky the Clown is, presumably because you never watched Garfield and Friends growing up, here is a quick clip of Binky the Clown:

See, he's super loud and always exaggerates his greetings in a SUPER LOUD voice. I realized tonight, while praying with Deacon, that living with Deacon must be a little bit what living Binky the Clown would be like. He started his prayer tonight with a growly, yet high pitched, super loud "HEEEYYYYYY GOOOODDDDD!!" I quickly calmed him down, but I couldn't help but think of Binky right then. And the more I think about life with Deacon, the more I realize that he can be quite the loud mouth. At least, whenever Zeke is home he's loud. Deacon is constantly shrieking and screaming and yelling instead of talking, even if I'm 4 inches away from him. I'm always telling him to tone it down. I imagine if I lived with Binky instead, it wouldn't be that much different.

Okay, it would probably be very different. Deacon does have his quiet times (namely when Zeke is at school or otherwise occupied). Deacon is also a very sweet kid. I'm not sure Binky has ever been sweet. Deacon melts my heart every time he says, "I love you too, Mama." And while Deacon may get over protective of his toys and a little annoyed when Finn crawls up, he's still very gentle with Finn. Deacon loves princesses and Care Bears, rocks and dirt, trains and superheroes, books and Peavey.

So maybe living with Deacon isn't that much like living with Binky the Clown. Just every once in awhile, and I think that's okay. It's all part of who he is, and who he is is a boy that I love very much. Even if he does give me the occasional headache solely with the volume he chooses to communicate in.

Happy Weekend!

I want to post something today, but I'm kind of tired. Therefore, you all get to enjoy this. Have a happy weekend!

In Christ Alone

The very first time I heard the worship song, "In Christ Alone" was way back in 2004. It was the first Sunday after Josh deployed to Iraq for the first time. I didn't try singing it since it was new to me, and so I sat there and listened. It was beautiful. It gave me so much hope and encouragement for the year that lay ahead. I still love this song, and I still get a little emotional whenever we sing it at church. (I'm not entirely sure, but I think we sang it in chapel the first Sunday after Josh deployed to Iraq the 2nd time too.)

Saturday night, as I was doing the dishes after putting the boys in bed, I was planning out Sunday morning, so it would go smoothly and we'd hopefully get to church on time. I stood there and though, "Oh gee. If we sing "In Christ Alone" tomorrow morning, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep myself together." Can you guess what happened?

We were a song or 2 into worship, and I was sitting down (probably because Deacon was starting to get heavy by that point) when the music started. As soon as everyone around me started singing "In Christ Alone" I started crying (just a little...not full on sobbing or anything...but enough that I had a hard time singing along). Zeke looked at me and said, "Mom, your eyes are tearing." Then he wiped my tears with his hand, climbed into my lap and sat there hugging me. He didn't let go until I stopped tearing and assured him I was fine. I know, I have the sweetest boy in the world.

So, since this song seems to be my "anthem" for when Josh is gone, and what with Easter rapidly approaching, I'm putting a video of the song at the bottom here with the words. Feel free to sing along if you know it. Or just sit and listen to the beautiful words. Or skip it altogether.

On a completely different note, sort of an aside here, not 10 minutes after I wrote and posted yesterday's blog post about our weekend and all the throwing up Finn and Deacon had done, I went downstairs to fold laundry before getting Finn up from his nap. I think I folded one shirt when I heard Zeke crying. I went in, held him for a second, then he jumped out of my lap and started throwing up. All. over. his. rug. Yeah.

That means that in the first 3 days Josh was gone I had all 3 boys' throw up to clean up. I did learn something though. I learned that throw up on the bed is MUCH easier to clean than throw up on the rug. Here's hoping we've gotten it all out of our systems now (pun intended) so that we don't have to deal with it again while he's gone.

Who Needs Friends...

When you have brothers?

Hopefully I'll Have Something Better For You Tomorrow

It's just that, I have this song stuck in my head, and it's making it hard to concentrate on other things (especially since today is when I pretty much recovered from the awful food poisoning I had Thursday/Friday). And of all the songs to have stuck in one's head, I think this might be one of the stickiest. My apologies if it gets stuck in your head too. Enjoy!

There'll Be No Stopping Him Now

First, I want to start this post with a video. Well, the whole post is really going to be videos, but I want to start with a video I took this morning. I had gone downstairs to work on a food shopping list for Josh. Maybe 2 minutes later, I came back upstairs and found Finn doing this:

Gross, right? But what can I say, the kid LOVES water.

Finn has figured out how to work the drill, and he loves it. He likes to try to grab the drill while it's moving. At first, he would only use the one hand to do both (which doesn't work since the drill stops as soon as you let go of it), mostly because he would lose his balance if he let go of the bench with his other hand. Eventually, as his balance got better, he figured out how to grab the moving drill with his other hand. Apparently this was working, but always the thinker, Finn decided to see what would happen if he could get at the drill from another angle, and so I found him doing this:

Crazy, right? But what can I say, the kid knows no bounds now that he's mobile.

Speaking of mobile, while I had Zeke (and Deacon) at speech Saturday morning, Josh decided it would be a good time to work on Finn's "walking skills" since they had some quality one-on-one time. See, Josh is determined to see Finn's first steps before he leaves for Alabama in a few weeks. And it looks like he got his wish:

Insane, right? He hasn't taken more than 4 or so steps at a time, and it's usually from one of us to the other (therefore more videos of this might be awhile coming).

Life, as we know it, has just gotten a lot more interesting.

Do You Have 5 Minutes?

Because if you do, I took this video of Deacon the other night, and I think you'll enjoy it. But it really is a good 4 1/2 minutes long, and while it lags in parts he does keep us cracking up (you can hear Finn laughing throughout the video - he was highly entertained by it all).

On Wednesday, we watched The Backyardigans Tale of the Might Knights. As soon as it was over, Deacon ran to the playroom, and came back out in his knight armor. He then proceeded to run around, reenacting scenes from the movie, and singing some of the songs. (My favorite part is around 1:35 when he sings "the helmet is off!")

In case you aren't familiar with the Backyardigans, or more specifically, either of the songs Deacon was singing, HERE is the Dragon Mountain song, and HERE is the Might Knights song.

Farmer Zeke

Zeke's class made these little books based on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. They're really cute, and hearing Zeke "read" it all on his own to Deacon was just so sweet I had to share it. The video is a little long, so if you don't watch it all the way through, I'll understand. Unless you're one of his grandparents. In that case, you better be glued to your computer screen for the whole 1 minute 18 seconds. Tee hee!