Happy Halloween!

It's downright spoooooky how quickly time evaporates these days. I'll just break the ice by apologizing for not uploading any Halloween photos. Unfortunately, we have been unable to locate our camera for a couple of weeks and it is very frustrating. I don't want to admit that it's lost, but if we don't find it soon we'll just have to replace it. The girls took part in a Halloween Sing-a-long at preschool yesterday and to miss out on photos is a touch heartbreaking.
Picture this: 18 sugar-soaked three year olds in costume on stage singing (to the tune of the Farmer in the Dell) "The skeletons are out tonight, they march about the streets, with bony bodies, bony heads and bony hands and feet. Bony, bony bones, with nothing in between, up and down and all around, they march on Halloween." I did take some video with the video camera courtesy of Dear Aunt Duffy, but it was criminal to be without a camera for stills! Anyhow, that's sort of my super wordy apology for not uploading any spanking new photos, but luckily I have some surplus photos from Spring and Summer to share.
School is going really well, the girls love their teacher and have made some friends I find suitable. (Just kidding, but I do think the 2 girls they have befriended are the nicest in the class). Every day they do some kind of different facilitated art project (rolling pumpkins through paint to make pictures, sticking different colored dots onto the tummies of tissue paper ghosts and describing what kind of food the ghosts "ate.") Also they have an hour of free play time to paint, write, play dress up, blocks, read books (there is frequently a parent helper there just to read book after book), do playdough, or one of the 4 or 5 activities that change every week.
One thing I was not prepared for was how fond I have become of the other kids. I am there more than any other parent, so I get to spend lots of time with the kids and they are a pretty cool bunch. Even the "spirited ones" I kind of feel for because they're mommies are weird and fake or they have a new baby in the family. And one thing that is so cool about the preschool is that there are very few expectations on the kids. They can come in and hang up their bag and coat and spend the next hour doing only playdough if they want or painting picture after picture and someone will be there to get more paper or whatever. And Mrs. Hazzard "never gets mad" as one very astute little girl pointed out to me. I replied, "I know; I think we all wish we could be a little more like Mrs. Hazzard." Bless her heart, Mrs. Hazzard overheard and said, "I just do my best."
There is something really poignant about experiencing preschool with my kids. I feel like everything that happens is like this monumental event, and it kind of is because kids are so malleable, but also, they are way more resilient than grown ups when it comes to lots of stuff. So when another kids says something thoughtless to your kid it's easy to take it way personally but kids seem to just take it all at face value, which is so smart of them. Just because that mean boy says he didn't want to sit next to you it doesn't mean you smell bad or that you're ugly or he didn't like your anything, it just means he'd rather you didn't occupy the seat next to him, like it's his issue, which it is. Whatever. Just like that. I will be left speechless at the callousness of it, but meanwhile the offendee has moved on and is halfway through their snack.
I had wanted to cover a lot of ground, but now it is past my bedtime and I can't go on. I am looking forward to the advancing fall and now that the girls have this preschool gig a couple times a week, I can kind of silence that "gotta get the girls out of the house" voice and concentrate on spending time together at home.
"Autumn, the year's last, lovliest smile," said William Cullen Bryant.
Happy fall to everyone. exes an ohs to all.