70th Day of School

To celebrate the 70th day of school, a 70's dress-up day was planned.  I tossed the note and assumed Will wouldn't be interested since he is never into dressing up.  This day proved to be the exception!  Will was excited because Mrs. Metz had used him as the example in class to show how the guys parted their hair in the center and feathered it back.  (Will was the only one with hair long enough!)  After that he wanted to dress up for the 70's!  After some internet research (since I am NOT a style expert!) here's what we ended up with....

Will was pleased when Mrs. Metz told him he looked just like
her brother back then - all he lacked was the leisure suit!  : )

Advent Activities

We are using our Advent tins again this year.  Each tin contains a Bible verse that tells the Christmas story and either a fun activity, a charitable activity, or just candy.  Will has amazed me because most days he has read (and mostly understood) all of the verses.  It's even more amazing because the translation of his Bible isn't the easiest (grandma couldn't find an easy translation that also met all the other criteria Will wanted for his Bible!).  I'm so thankful that he's been excited about the reading  each day! 

One day our activity was decorating the tree at the Historical Society.  The first
graders made ornaments in school and were invited to decorate their
tree for the Historical Society's display one evening.

Our activity Saturday morning was decorating our tree at home.
Will posed for a picture with the first ornament he put on.

One night we went to Altoona with the Honn family to see the drive-through
light display at Lakemont park.  It rained the whole time, but the
kids had a great time anyhow!  : )

Good Timing for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came at a good time this year because I was in need of a reminder of all the things I have to be thankful for.  Apartment life with an active 6-year-old boy is wearing on my patience.  Some days, the walls seem to close in, the kitchen space contracts even further, the laundry in the basement seems miles away, I imagine the bathroom is shared with 3,000 people rather than 3, and I think the sky is just a figment of my imagination because I sure can't see it out my windows!  The Thanskgiving holiday this year was a much needed time for me to remember that our apartment is only temporary and that any sacrifices we are making are worth it for Jerry to be so much happier in his job and Will to be so much happier in school.

We went to mom's house for Thanksgiving break.  The snow in PA didn't hold us up very much, but the accident on I-64 just 10 minutes from mom's house delayed us for an hour.  It worried mom sick since we didn't get cell service on the detour we took through Rich Patch and she didn't know where we were. 

Mom cooked a huge dinner and Will passed out plates!

A game of Pictionary followed dinner.  Will drew "the tallest tower in New York city."
We all thought he was giving us a clue when he said that so we kept guessing (the Empire State building, the
Twin Towers, etc.) and wondered why he looked confused and wouldn't give us the answer!

Clean-up crew!

 

Tom took Will hunting on Friday. They only saw a squirrel but Will had fun riding the
four wheeler and building a deer blind (that Will sat in for about 5 minutes and sang).
Uncle Jerry killed a 6-pointer later that afternoon - I think Will drove it
out of the woods to him!

  

Will had off school longer than we thought for Thanksgiving so he stayed
with mom until Tuesday while Jerry and I enjoyed a nice break.  : )
Will and mom decorated granddad's tree on Sunday.  Will
enjoyed that and happily posed for a picture.

On Monday mom took him to Wal-Mart to pick out something.  He wanted a
Bible like hers (leather cover, gold pages, and a string bookmark).  She sent me
this picture of him reading it to Tom after they got home.  It wasn't a
children's Bible but he sounded out all the words.  It's amazing what he
can do when HE wants to!

Thousand Steps

Sunday afternoon we decided to hike the Thousand Steps since it was just barely warm enough.  I'm sure there won't be many more days where we can enjoy being outside.  The last time we did this hike was several years ago and I carried Will the last few steps up and about half the way down.  This time he ran ahead of us the whole time and I asked if he could carry me!

I hadn't realized it before, but the trail continues a bit higher past the old
building at the top.  We followed it and reached a nice scenic overlook before we
turned around.

Penguins in Pittsburgh

Jerry planned a special trip to Pittsburgh over Veteran's Day weekend.  He and Will both had the day off Tuesday so we decided to take Monday too and make it a long weekend. 

As a side note, this was the first time I really encountered the attendance policy here in PA.  I will say I'm less than impressed.  In Virginia, I kept Will out of school when I wanted to and it wasn't an issue until the number of days became excessive.  I'm not sure what constitutes "excessive," but we never reached that point even after two or three whole days, a late arrival, and several early releases.  Here in PA however, we have to write a detailed letter requesting an excused absence at least 5 days in advance detailing the educational value the vacation day will provide.  Then, if the day is excused, the student is responsible to make up any missed work and also write about their experience.  Only 5 of these "excused absences" are allowed per year.  Any other absences require a signed doctor's note.  Any unexcused absences beyond I think 3 or 5 result in nasty letters home followed by fines and referrals to child welfare!   If you know me, you know this whole policy makes me furious because I firmly believe it should be my responsibility to decide whether my child is best served by being in school for the day or participating in another activity of my choosing!!!  I don't know how anyone ever voted for such an invasive policy but I cringe every time it infringes on my rights as a parent!  But enough of my ranting since this post is about Pittsburgh, not the school system.  : )

Anyway, since we were granted an excused absence, we had a great time visiting the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Science Center, and the National Aviary.  The aviary was mostly for me since Jerry planned a special penguin encounter for us!! 

A local ski resort set up a snowboarding demonstration in front of the
Children's Museum.

This was the water play area complete with a snow table.

Will could have played with the snow and built dams all day!

He also enjoyed trying out the electrical circuit display.

We rode the Duquesne Incline.  Will loved it but wouldn't smile for a picture,
as usual.  I got the last laugh here though because after I cropped
out half of his face it looks like a grin rather than a grimace!

The view of Pittsburgh from the top of the incline.

We took a self guided tour of the machine room for the incline.
Very impressive!!

Penguins at the aviary!!

Will recognized the burrowing owl thanks to the Wild Kratts
show on PBS.

The tub of white rats in the food prep area is evidence of the birds of prey they kept.
My stomach got a little weak after we spotted this right around the corner
from the cafeteria where we had just eaten lunch!  I hoped that wasn't a
shared kitchen!

This is Disco, the penguin we got to pet!  : )

Will isn't quite as enthusiastic about penguins as I am.

Jerry also bought us a penguin painting.  You choose your colors of tempera paint and end up with some cute
penguin tracks after he waddles through the paint and
across the canvas.  : )

Evidently Disco was not interested in painting with gold that day.  : )

Isn't he CUTE!!!!!

 

Here was my son's favorite part of the penguins - their poo!!!  He even took this
picture of it.  He thought it was hilarious.  And they did it every 10 to 15 minutes so
he got a few good laughs. 

Jerry found a really cool carpet skating facility.  Will strapped on a helmet and some plastic
sliders over his shoes and was ready to go.  After wiping out a few times
he got the hang of it and had a blast trying to imitate the older kids in there.

One of the exhibits at the Science Center was the USS Requin, a submarine used
during World War II.  It was renovated and open for display.

 

It was really amazing to crawl through the hatches and see the
spaces where the crew lived and worked.

I thought of my dad the whole time.  He served on a submarine as a
navigator during his time in the service.  I wish he was
here to tell Will all about it.

It was almost impossible to imagine men sleeping in these tiny bunks!

Will enjoyed the earthquake simulator at the Science Center.  What's not
to love about knocking stuff over!

Most of all though he enjoyed the sports center there.  They had
exhibits that timed you in a race, measured your jumping, taught you
about hockey, baseball, basketball, and even turned you into a human yo-yo.
Here Will tried out flips on the trampoline.  : ) 

I loved these life-size building blocks made out of some type
of dense foam.  I could have played with them all day!
Will built this tower then had me seal him up inside.

The Sweetest Voice in the World

Mom surprised us with a visit this weekend!  She pulled in right beside me as I was parking the car to pick Will up from school Friday afternoon!  I was so excited, and so was Will!  She walked up along side and hugged him as he and I were walking to the car.  He isn't one to show much surprise, so I asked him later if he knew that was grandma hugging him, or when he recognized it was her.  He said, "I knew it was grandma when I heard her voice.  I would recognize her voice anywhere.  It's the sweetest voice in the world!"

We had such a nice visit!  Friday afternoon we went to play at Lindsay's house, then we went to Altoona on Saturday.  Mom even found a stool for granddad that he had been wanting for his hunting shack - and we managed to fit it in her trunk!  Will was excited to share his room with grandma and sleep in the cot so she could have the bed.  We only have two bedrooms right now, but it worked out great since there was no school the next day.  Surprise us again soon mom!  : )    

Trick or Treat!!

Our little ghost had a very fun night trick or treating!  We went to "our old/future neighborhood" with one of Will's friends and ran into many others while we were there.  It was fun!  Jerry stayed home to pass out candy.  I have always done that job in the past while Jerry took Will out.  I missed giving all the kids candy, but Will's excitement as he ran from house to house was contagious too!

On the home front, Jerry ran out of candy after about an hour!!  And I really thought we had overstocked.  I had even bought an extra 95-piece bag on top of what Jerry thought was enough!  After running out of the candy we bought he started giving out the candy from the Halloween parade.  (Side note to Grandma - before you cry injustice, Will didn't like most of that candy anyway and wasn't upset!)  We can't count exactly because I don't know how many Mallo Cups were in the four bags we bought or how many Smarties were in that big bag, but conservatively we must have had over 400 kids in that time.  Even after Jerry turned out the light kids were still coming!  He had to put up a sign and turn off all the lights in the living room!  He was sitting in the dark when Will and I got home!

I'm not big on all the Halloween decorating and the general big production that it's become, but I do enjoy the excitement of kids dressing up and getting all the candy they can handle one night a year!  It's just fun!  It's nice too because Will seems to be growing out of most of his fears this year so the costumes and decorations don't really bother him anymore.

Will isn't much into the dressing up.  He's more into the candy!  He couldn't decide
what he wanted to be this year so he settled on Daddy's suggestion of a
ghost.  This was my best effort with my sewing machine and
other supplies in the storage unit!

Will got some candy that matched his costume!  : )

His candy haul! All this even after quitting before we even
made the loop back to the car!  He said he was
hot and his feet were tired!  : )  But then he did
run through the entire neighborhood!

Pumpkin Carving Fun

Today was a bit cooler than yesterday because of the wind.  After church we decided to hang around the house and carve our pumpkins. 

First things first - play in the goo!  I'm glad Will will do this part now.
He was not always enthusiastic about sticking his hand in there in years past.

Lots of concentration - you can tell by that tongue!

Will drew his own face this year and did all the carving himself.

You can't see it well here, but he put a Bearcat paw on each side.
(A Bearcat is his school mascot)

When Will finished carving he took more pictures. 

Some were better than others!  : )

Who's that with the pointy feet? 
Lama lama, trick or treat!!
(inside joke)

 

After seeing our pumpkins Jerry was inspired to carve one too!  Luckily I
had an extra - I never plan on him carving one!  He tried out
one of the patterns from the carving kit and it turned out
really nice!

 

Our finished products!