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Ian’s first Halloween
October 31, 2006
On October 10th, we had some GORGEOUS fall weather and absolutely nothing on the schedule. We decided to seize the day and take the boys to Kelkenberg Farm in Clarence for some good, old-fashioned fall fun. Mom came along for the ride too. 🙂
The first order of business was getting pictures taken with pumpkins. Pictures with pumpkins has become an annual tradition:
(You might ask why I picked that picture of the boys from 2009. That’s the best of ONLY two pictures I have of the them together from that trip. It was kind of a not fun trip last year. LOL)
This is the first year we’ve gone to Kelkenberg Farm for their fall festivities. The Great Pumpkin Farm has a TON of pumpkins but (1) they get ridiculously busy on the weekends and (2) they have fair/carnival-type rides that Ian wouldn’t be able to ride (broken finger/cast). We knew Ian would be very upset about that situation so we decided to go somewhere different. That’s where Kelkenberg Farm comes in.
Kelkenberg is the farm we go to with First Trinity each year as part of their end of year party/field trip. We really liked it and their website had a lot of details about their fall activities. We thought he’d give it a try. We were really happy with the experience and probably won’t go back to the Great Pumpkin Farm for a while.
Anyway…here are the 2010 pumpkin pictures!
They had this open patio area and were selling apples, freshly baked pies, homemade apple cider and just-popped popcorn! Yummy!
Adorable sign with all the fun stuff to do and see:
Matthew Robert Samulski RODE ON THE PONY RIDE AND LOVED IT! I need to get Mom’s pictures of this. 🙂
After Matthew rode the pony, a hayride came back from the field. We quickly got in line to go to the pumpkin patch!
Waiting in line:
Waiting for the ride to start:
Out in the pumpkin patch:
Mike and the boys took a second to pose for me. Ian was having a hard time keeping his eyes open, apparently.
[insert big eye roll here]
We all quickly picked out our pumpkins and hurried back to catch the hayride back to the farm.
Sitting on the hayride:
Mr. Independent decided he didn’t want to sit on the bench. He needed to sit on the hay bales in the middle of the wagon like some of the other people.
After we got off the hayride, we loaded our pumpkins up into a wagon and took them to the car.
Seven pumpkins in the trunk of our car 😉
Returning the wagon. Mr. Independent didn’t care that Mike was pushing the entire wagon but DID mind that I needed to help him pull the handle (he wasn’t “steering” straight. LOL).
After we returned the wagon, we went to the barns for Ian to do the hay maze and to check out all the animals.
They had 2 piglets that were born in August and Matthew LOVED them. We also saw sheep, goats, cows and a bunch of horses. Overall, Matthew was very interested in all the animals on the farm. (Which is why I thought July’s trip to the Buffalo Zoo was going to be fun! You just can’t win!)
After that, we packed up the boys and went out for lunch. It was a fun morning! I’m looking forward to going back next year!
Matthew had his preschool orientation, meet-the-teacher, supply drop off on Thursday, September 9th. (Coincidentally, that was the exact same day that Ian had his 2 year old preschool orientation (9/9/08). How strange is that?!?!)
Matthew was all ready to go and wanted help do drop off for Ian. To the point, he really didn’t want to cooperate for pictures. The good news is, he finally allowed us to put his school bag on his back (we’ve been fighting about that for a while now).
I’m sure it comes as a complete surprise that Matthew was not a happy camper when we came back home to wait for HIS school to start.
Getting ready to leave for Matthew’s orientation:
Walking into school:
Does that remind you of anything?!?! How about Ian and Daddy going into school on 9/9/08?!?!
I swear on my life that I did not plan that. LOL
Playing in his classroom while the parents have a meeting with the teachers:
Having a snack…including drinking from a cup!
We had been practicing all summer with him on drinking from a cup. Every single time he’d dump the contents all over himself before he ever got it to his mouth. Imagine our absolute shock when he sat down at this table, picked the cup up and took a drink without one single spill! LOL
The really cool sign they put outside the classroom door to let the parents know what’s going on each day:
Matthew had a several days to wait for his first day on Tuesday, September 14th.
Waiting to leave:
Excited to go!
Grouchy about picture taking:
Walking into school:
Going down the stairs to his classroom:
Someone in his class has a Thomas the Tank backpack…Matthew needed to check it out:
Getting his nametag from his teacher:
Sign for the day:
School is done, leaving for the day (and losing his pants):
Happy First Day of School, Matthew!
October preschool update:
About 2-3 weeks after school started, Matthew started crying when being taken to school. He would actually start before they left my parent’s house, he’d cry all the way to school and all the way into the building. We know he likes school because he doesn’t cry during school but it was tough forcing him to go through the tears (particularly tough on Mom and Dad who are doing drop off for us).
Matthew’s crying continued for about 2-3 weeks before finally stopping. We have to do a lot of pep-talking to get him revved up for school. We talk about how school is fun and the toys are fun. We love our friends and snack time. And, we remind him about how much we love the stickers that he gets at the end of the day. Talking about it over and over seems to be helping prevent the tears.
Matthew had about a week or so where he was 100% fine during drop off and completely tear free! Yay! Unfortunately, Matthew started back up with the tears when I did drop off last week while I was off. It wasn’t as bad as before and only started once we were in the building and people were starting to walk into the classroom. Hopefully, he adjusts to the normal, Papaw-drop-off routine quickly and we can kiss those tears good bye for GOOD!