First Week of Preschool

Welcome to Miss Kalli's Pre-K Class!

The door to our classroom decorated with the kids' handprints.

Today ends my first week with preschoolers. Although I started back at work at the end of August, the first day for students was September 13th. It's been a busy and tiring week! I still teach two sessions of half day pre-k with 20 children in each class. Needless to say I am pretty exhausted at the end of the day. Overall, I have great kids and I think it will be a fun year! :)

After being RIFed at the end of last year, I am very thankful to have the same job again this year. Our school district is operating much differently this year. Extreme budget cuts have had a huge impact on the Early Childhood department. Because of the budget crisis I have decided to take advantage of http://www.donorschoose.org/. This website collects donations to help teachers get the materials they need for their classroom. I currently have a project posted on this website to help my classroom get a complete Alphabet Center. Check out my project at: www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=412130. Spread the word about http://www.donorschoose.org/ to all your teacher friends.

Trip to the Apple Orchard

Alaina went on her first trip to the Apple Orchard last Sunday. We hope to make a few more trips out there before the season is over. Alaina loved looking at the farm animals and can even identify a few animals by name! Papou helped her ride a pony. We thought that Alaina might be a little scared of the pony ride, but she absolutely loved it! She was smiling and laughing the whole time. It was so cute! After the pony ride we shared a piece of apple pie and some ice cream. Ironically we did not pick any apples at the apple orchard. We'll save that for another trip. Below are a few pictures from our fun afternoon at the Edwards Apple Orchard.

Alaina kept saying "Oink, Oink" as she watched the little piglets.

Alaina is still working on learning the word 'goat'. She called all the goats Zoe.

Pony ride with Papou!

Look at that smile!

Yummy apple pie and ice cream!

Labor Day Weekend With Friends

My old roommate from college came to visit us this weekend. Jill came all the way from Kansas City. We spent the long weekend just relaxing and hanging out together. On Saturday we drove to Milwaukee and met up with our other college friend Dan and his wife Renee. The five of us went on a brewery tour and drove to a beach on Lake Michigan. It was nice spending time with friends over Labor Day weekend. Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend as well!

Kalli and Jill at the Lakefront Brewery

Jill, Kalli, Renee, Dan at Lake Michigan

Who knew Lake Michigan could be so pretty?

It's been a long time since we've been to a beach.

So nice to walk on the beach with our shoes off!