Tanner's 5 year old checkup and Halloween parade

Tanner had his 5 year old checkup last week. He's finally 40 pounds, so we could take the harness straps off his carseat, and he's just buckled in with the seatbelt now! Woohooo! He's 42.75 inches tall, and 40 pounds.

Tanner's preschool had a costume parade and trick-or-treating through the church buildings. The Sunday School classes and offices decorated their doors and handed out treats. The kids had tons of fun. Then in the classroom, we decorated monster cookies and played Halloween BINGO. Tanner kept his SWAT team costume on alllll day long. (It needed a little bath last night before we go trick-or-treating for REAL today!)

Trick or treating outside of Eric's office. He had to be at a meeting, but thankfully he had a stand-in handing out goodies! :) 

Trick-or-treat!

Tanner in his classroom (he's near the bottom left) 

Tanner and his kooky monster cookie! Those frosting eyeballs are SO much fun. We stuck them on bananas this morning at breakfast! I think they'll be making an appearance on lots of food in our household! 

pumpkin patch 2014

Tanner's first field trip!

Tanner had his first field trip yesterday, and I was able to join them on their outing to a church pumpkin patch not far from our church/preschool. The kids had a science lesson about pumpkins (and they got to feel the squishy goop inside of a pumpkin.) Then they listened to some pumpkin stories, and did a 5 Little Pumpkins craft. Before leaving the patch, each child picked out their own pumpkin, that they'll paint at school next week. We also played on the church playground and had a picnic lunch while we were there. Riding on the bus was one of the highlights though! Tanner sat with his best buddy, Gavin. 

This is Tanner's class, with their teacher, Mrs. Roxie. 

Tanner's 5th birthday party {Sharks and Fishies}

Pics from Tanner's big day!

After being sick earlier this week, we were SO happy that Tanner was feeling better and ready to party! Eric made ribs and pork on the smoker. (Tanner's famous line before his party was "I want SO many ribs!" I made a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, (and vanilla cupcakes on the side!)

He's a whole HAND this year!

Some of his favorite presents were a Ghostbusters Lego set, and the Robber's Hideout Lego set. (It has a bear in it, which I'm told by Bryce the expert, is quite rare!)

 We were so happy to celebrate with Gigi and Doobie, plus Steve who came up for the weekend, Chris Hollister, and Nana and Gil.

Tanner is also SUPER excited because he has some birthday money and gift cards to spend! He got $50 in the mail, and then another $50 in the mail, and he said "LOOK! IT's MORE $50!!!!" Despite all the new presents, he still has quite a few items on his wish list that he is already asking to go to Toys R Us to pick up! :)

Since he was home sick on his birthday, we'll celebrate with his friends at preschool next week, with brownies with matching little fishes on top, from his birthday cake.

Happy birthday to TANNER!!!!!

Big shoes to fill

Just sitting around watching tv, and wearing Mommy's shoes.

:)

Halloween Night!

We had a super fun night trick-or-treating in Gigi and Doobie's neighborhood last night! The kids got some seriously GOOD candy this year, and man - they got a TON. Their bags were HEAVY by the end of the night.  Tanner counted his pieces, and we got to about 50 when he lost interest in counting.  Bryce's Ghostbusters costume was definitely a hit, and everyone was thankful that Captain America was there to save the day too! The neighborhood was definitely a safer place with our two heroes around! 

(Eric's FBI shirt and fake mustache were pretty fabulous, but the mustache didn't stick very well!)

"Who you gonna call????"

It was a GORGEOUS sunset to enjoy while we were out!

And this was the beginning of the Sibling Candy Trade that took place (and which continued this morning!) 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Mr. T's 4-year-old checkup

Mr. Tanner had his four-year-old checkup with Dr. Hardman this week.

Dr. Hardman makes Tanner giggle by "seeing" surprising things when she's looking in his ears. Last year she found a garbage truck in his ear, and this year she saw a colony of Smurfs living in there! (I knew there was something strange going on in his head!)

Tanner is 40 inches tall now, and 35.8 pounds. That's the 25-50th percentile for both height and weight, so he's just perfect :) 

He had two shots which made him verrrry unhappy, but he was brave as can be, and recovered quickly. The superhero bandaids they gave him helped a lot!  

And then, yesterday THESE superheroes arrived in the mail, after a long journey here and there, from Steve and Kate.  They were supposed to be here at Tanner's birthday but they were unavoidably detained along the way. (Apparently, the plane that was carrying the toys, went down - holy cow!) 

They were a great surprise though, sitting on the doorstep last night, and Tanner is THRILLED! 

A rainy day class at the zoo!

Tanner had his second Zoo Tots class at the zoo on Wednesday.  It was downpouring when we left the house, so we got ready for a wet morning with raincoats and boots.  By the time we got to the zoo though, it looked like maybe we'd miss the rain. (We were both a tiny bit disappointed!) But our disappointment didn't last long, because after we got through the gate it started to POUR buckets of rain. 

This was outside the entrance - it was just sprinkling a tiny bit. 

And 5 minutes later. . . .

We found a sheltered place by the leopards, but we still had a 10 minute walk to get to the classroom where Zoo Tots meets!

We were so soaked even our raincoats weren't enough.  The water was ankle deep on me in some spots! Tanner thought it was HILARIOUS when we emptied out his boots, and water came pouring out!

 Only three of the twelve kids made it to class, but they still had a great time!

 Tanner got to touch an opossum  . . .

 and also a gopher tortoise!

 Then we got to stamp and put together a turtle hat!

It was TOTALLY worth the wet trip!

Zoo Tots!

Tanner and I have started a preschool age class at the Jacksonville Zoo, called Zoo Tots.  We're going about twice a month.  Each class has a theme, and we listen to stories, do a craft, play a game, and get to meet a few animals! 

The first week's theme was centered around the color red.  We learned about animals that have red on them, and Tanner got to touch a rat snake (aka "wat nake") ;)

Here he is playing a great game with the parachute.

 Meeting the wat nake. . . 

 Our ladybug craft!

After class, Tanner said, "I didn't know it was going to be THAT much fun!"  I think he likes it!