Spring Fling 2011

Cutie Pie’s preschool Spring Fling was on Friday.  Another mom and I were in charge of planning this event this year which made the entire week leading up to it totally stressful for me.  It was especially awful because I spent several days fielding personal phone calls about when each age group was scheduled to come out to enjoy the field day…  The preschool director typically handles communication between the parent volunteers and the teachers.  This year, however, the director failed to come to the two planning meetings I hosted and also failed to read my meeting minutes in which I detailed the timing for each age group.  She never told the teachers the time line so I ended up having both parents and teachers calling my home to ask…  For a person who hates talking on the phone it was a hell.

Enough of my complaining though!  The Spring Fling came together beautifully despite all of my fears and worries.  It always comes together with more help from eager volunteers than I could ever hope for.  Have I mentioned that I love Cutie Pie’s preschool?  The parents and teachers are wonderful!

This year we had six stations for the children to take turns exploring: bubbles, marble painting, spray art, an obstacle course, lemonade and cookie stand and face painting!  The children came out by age group with the toddlers being first, then the threes and, finally, the fours.  Each group had 45-minutes which ended up being plenty of time for them to relax and enjoy themselves.

What went down at the bubble station is probably pretty self-explanatory.  We had several bubble machines going and lots of trays and cups of bubble solution.  The children could choose from bubble wands of every size.  This station was quite popular!

At the marble art station, the children got to choose the paint colors they wanted to squeeze onto the paper.  The paper was set into a box top to keep the mess contained.  Once the paint was squirted onto the paper the children were able to drop a few marbles or bouncy balls onto it.  Tilting the box to roll the balls through the paint produced some wonderfully gorgeous art work!

An obstacle course ran down the center of the yard.  The toddlers weren’t so much interested in the doing the activities in the sequence they were designed but that was ok.  It was all about the exercise and fun.  The older children waited in line and took turns.  Everyone got a “superstar” gold medal at the end!

There was a snack station set up with lots of yummy sugar cookies and ice cold lemonade and water.

We filled up spray bottles with colored water and let the kids spray the colors onto a long paper sheet.  We had to mix a bit of tempura paint into the water because food coloring did not make the water dark enough to show up on the brown paper we used as a canvas…

Of course, face painting is always a hit.  One of the volunteer moms was fabulous at it!  She created some beautiful lady bugs, Easter eggs and flowers.  Some kids went back to have both cheeks and hands painted 🙂

It was a lovely yet stressful morning for me.  I couldn’t have done it without all the wonderful volunteers who showed up.  I’m working on a special thank you for them that I will share with you in a bit.

Today is the first day of Spring Break and it’s raining!  Argh!  What are we going to do?!

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Spring Fling

Friday was the Spring Fling at the boys’ preschool.

It was also last day for Cutie Pie’s teacher, Ms. Toni.  I embellished a wooden letter “T” for her as a going away present.  Her husband was laid off from his job and they cannot make ends meet on her preschool teacher salary.  It’s such a sad situation and a testament to the awful economic times that we are in…  Ms. Toni is so sweet and loves the children so much.  She even gave us her phone number so that we can plan a park play date some time soon.  We will miss her!!!

The Spring Fling festivities were held indoors this year due to inclement weather.  The air conditioning was not turned on in the room was quite stuffy!  The air conditioner controls were locked up and lady who had the key was absent…  So, we made it work in cramped, hot quarters.  The kids didn’t seem to mind a bit.

J took part of the morning off and was able to spend time with Cutie Pie and his classmates.  He had to get back to work before Wildman’s class came out.  Unfortunately that’s the way life works sometimes.  I’m glad that he was able to be there for some of the fun though.  I know Cutie Pie loved having him there.  So did I!

The cupcake decorating/eating station was a huge hit!

Cutie Pie asked for a white turtle on his arm at the face painting station.

Cutie Pie also liked pinning the tail on the bunny.  They didn’t make the younger kids wear the blindfold.  🙂

After half an hour, it was time to go outside to see the ice cream man!!!  The preschool arranged for an ice cream truck to bring treats to the children.  Needless to say, they were thrilled!

Cutie Pie and Cousin B both chose ice cream sandwiches for their treats.  Yum!

Once the ice cream was devoured and a sugar high was firmly underway, we headed back to the classroom for an Easter egg hunt!  Ms. Toni had the children make their own Easter baskets earlier in the week.  It was so cute watching them hunt for the eggs.

When J left to go back to work, I headed back over to the sweltering hall to meet Wildman’s class and do the fun events all over again!

I love going in Wildman’s classroom.  There is so much to look at that I’m overwhelmed at first.  Mrs. H, Wildman’s teacher, let me stay for story time.  I can’t tell you how rare it was for me to be allowed into the classroom, let alone stay for story time!  Mrs. H is extremely old school and insists on parents leaving and picking up the children at the door.

While Mrs. H played the book on tape (!) for the children, I sat there trying to absorb all of the projects, posters, art, calendars, chore charts, etc. on the walls.  It’s so awesome to see all of the creative things Mrs. H does with the kids.  They seem to stay extremely busy each day.

The Spring Fling was a great way to kick off Spring Break!  We’re officially ready to party this week!  Stay tuned to see what shenanigans we’ve got planned.