Monkeys On The Loose!

Grayson’s preschool is the most amazing little group. 

There are only 5 kids in the class (Hello? Yes, 5! Awesome!), the parents are all terrific and his teacher, ahhh, his teacher….where do I begin? There aren’t enough positive words to describe her. She is extremely patient, unbelievably brilliant with her ideas/crafts/lesson plans; I’ve never met anyone who comes up with such creative and educational games. She is incredibly spiritual and includes blessings, songs, and kiddo-version bible study into her curriculum, she is tri-lingual (and teaching the kids in each one!) and her classroom is immaculately spick-and-span, with everything labeled and bright colored. To say this lady is spectacular is cutting it short. We are extremely blessed to have Grayson with her and I can’t wait for Delaney to join the group next year.

Another spectacular thing about this little group is the flexibility and availability to stray from the classroom. Last week Miss Maria, all five kids (plus Delaney and Julia's little brother Luke) and all the Mommas played hooky and took an educational trip to the zoo.

It’s well documented on this blog how much we love our zoo, but to see Grayson’s interaction with Miss Maria and all his classmates was another side to our well-traveled outing. We all had such a great time and I can’t wait until our classroom Pumpkin Patch outing in a few weeks!

Same song, 2^nd verse…Loads of photos are below, but make sure to check out ALL the photos HERE!

Hugs for the baby lion. This is a true representation of Laney...everyone gets hugs. Everyone.

 3 of the 5 classmates (plus Delaney). This is an ongoing theme: Can we get a picture with everyone? No, probably not. :-)

 BFF explorers 

 Miss Maria explains the ornithological wonders

 3 Musketeers

 Genetic leaning:

 Kiddo gorilla watching

 Photo contribution from one of the other Moms..all 5 kids, minus their unofficial classmate Delaney:

 Simon says: Hands on the glass and observe the gorilla

 "Momma, Afffffff!!!"  (aka, Giraffe)

 I so love these 2:

 Giraffe feeding picture montage: 

We're taking wagers on who will win this stare down:

 Such cute kiddos:

 Holding hands on the slide is a MUST

 These 2 make my heart so happy!

 Joe Cool on the carousel

 Miss Happy Tutu on the carousel

Hurdle to Myrtle

Another successful beach trip is complete and in the books.

I’m fairly certain that I can cut and paste this sentiment from previous posts, but as usual the 4 Happy Halsteds had a blast, ate yummy food, soaked up every ounce of sun and sand possible and were extremely sad to depart.

I do love seeing how the kids are getting both more independent and more adventurous though. In fact, Grayson decided he wanted to add a boogie board to our already over-encumbered beach supply bag. It ended up being an excellent idea and a great investment! And both Daddy and Grayson were hard pressed to leave it unattended.

To say we enjoy going to Myrtle would be an understatement. We absolutely love it!

Below are a bunch of pictures, so make sure to check them out but all the rest of our photos are HERE.

I’ve also uploaded a handful of videos at the end too. Don’t miss them!

Believe it or not, he hasn't fallen, he's sliding...and he got a pretty good run too!

The 3 loves of my life:

Every day Daddy makes a protective bay for the kids = best Daddy EVER!

It's an ongoing theme you'll see in a bunch of photos.

JUMP!!!!

Making their own slide:

Grayson keeps a watchful eye on his Spiderman kite

Time for some boogie boarding!

Sweet sibling love

Let's shovel some sand!

Another day, another protective bay...