The 1st Annual Ruth Washburn Harvest Festival

It started with a pumpkin heist and ended with a festival.

The preschool has it's own garden where the children learn about planting and growing, responsibility and so forth. Back in Spring they planted pumpkin seeds and they had grown into very nice pumpkins that they planned to turn into projects and baked goods. A few weeks ago, it was discovered that the pumpkins had been stolen in the night. I'm not talking about a teen prank with two or three pumpkins gone, but somewhere between 20-30. After the community replenished the pumpkins and then some (as blogged earlier) the teachers put a few out in the patch to show the kids. THOSE were stolen as well, along with the very expensive copper irrigation system. The festival was still on.
The need for a sponsor for the festival was great, and a local Whole Foods store quickly stepped up, providing a tent that served free fresh fruits, veggies, fruit leather, cookies and drinks. In addition to the food, they handed out their reusable shopping bags and said that RW is the school of choice for the donations that are given when people use their own bags. The food and bags were great, but they also hired security guards for the school through Halloween. The guards are SWELL, but they also bought a new irrigation system. Now, irrigation systems rock, but they are having a day in February where 5% of the entire day's proceeds go to Ruth Washburn Cooperative Nursery School. I hear that they are also sponsoring or donating to the silent auction that we're having on November 15th. If this hasn't at least dinged your view of corporate food chains, something is missing in your heart!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

Why, those ARE Zebra's hoofbeats!

Doing my volunteer hour at the WF tent

Who doesn't love a smiling kid on a tire swing?

Contemplating the questions of life atop the crowes nest

Gary says she was really good at the bean toss game, getting the bags in the holes quite a few times.

Festivals will wear you out!

A view from one of the playground hills

Why do I bother with cute clothes? Because I love Spray-N-Wash.

Pumpkin Patch!

Friday was Pumpkin Patch Day! Two of our neighbors and their kids came along to a local ranch. Turkey Creek Ranch does "hayrides to a pumpkin patch" each Fall. It's such a neat thing to do in a world where gameboys and Spongebob babysit most kids.

Mia sits outside the main house waiting for the ride to start

Joined by Brian...

and Matthew

Trying to get all four o these kids to look at the camera at the same time was much akin to herding kittens.

It was a beautiful ride, BIG trees and gentle bumps

This is as close as we got to cooperation!

Mia and Baby Leah

The things we do to get babies to smile!

Mia's pumpkin

No way, no how was this kid leaving her pumpkin unattended

Big strong!

Notice the way they set up their "pumpkin patch".I was quite pleased with it. I dressed her up in a cute Gymboree outfit thinking of the super sweet photo opportunities, thinking about dirt and mud after we had already hit the road. I was very relieved when they had already brought the pumpkins out of the patch and arranged them for the kids on a big bed of hay.

We made it through the haybale maze with our pumpkins! She really did carry it farther than I thought she would. It wasn't until the wagon pulled up to carry us back to the parking lot that she got tired of hauling it around.

Baby Leah and her mommy, Marissa, navigate the haybale maze, Leah style!

Signs you need to limit NPR time

I am thinking that the NPR on the way to preschool is actually being absorbed by two minds.

1. Mia's vocabulary now contains the following words: Bailout, Crisis, President, VeePee

2. I heard her talking to Obama and McCain in the bathtub.

3. She might be able to hum the themes to various segments on NPR/PRI

4. She claps when the audience claps during speech clips.

5. Mia is probably more politically savvy than most Americans.


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In other news, the GI office called today and said that her blood work came back showing that she is a go for 6MP. The PA was worried about the coverage since it would very likely have to be compounded. It does come in pill and capsule form but you can't break or crush them for whatever reason, so they need to mix it in a liquid. Once the PA heard that we already have Atarax compounded she was more optimistic and called the pharmacy. The pharmacist was also feeling good about it, saying they seem to have a lot of luck with TriCare (fingers crossed, knocking on wood). They said the pharmacy will call us once they get the Rx, and submit it to TriCare first so we aren't stuck with a whopper of a bill. It's not cheap stuff. According to one website, 400 pills would set you back about $650, and that's ordering from a discount website.

Speaking of bills, we were nearly going gray over a few notices we received from Children's. Apparently they billed TriCare but never got paid so they sent a few kind worded letters asking that we facilitate an investigation into why they didn't get their money. TriCare said they had no record of pending bills. I called Children's and went over our info, only to find that somehow they were billing under the wrong ss#! TriCare didn't even bother to let Children's know that the number wasn't matching the name or any person on record. So, who do I send my bill to?

Metberry Gulch, this past weekend

Playtime Miscellania

She spread the blanket out all by herself without getting frustrated (a big deal for us!)

Hanging out in the castle tent that Helen gave to her. Rody lives in it until Mia kicks him out.

Mia and one of our sweet little neighbors, Brian

It doesn't listen.

Always watching those feet!

Backyard fun is soooo tiring!

We're finally weaning Mia off of steroids. She has been on them for nearly two months and has had zero improvement. She complained that she felt sick or tired all the time and her personality took quite a slide. We're down to half doses until Friday and then we can completely take her off. After this, we're trying 6 MP (6 Mercaptopurine). The docs feel that it's time to try immunosuppression since diet adjustments, leaving it alone and steroids don't work. We're not completely in the dark since we did talk about this route with Dr. Pratt lasts year. She'll have to have frequent blood draws since that is the way they monitor toxicity. If things don't look good they take her off, easy. That is why the chose this drug, the ease of monitoring the functions that it can adversely affect.

The school recently had a pumpkin incident that started off sour and ended in a great coming together of the community. This past Spring, the kids planted pumpkin seeds and cared for them until they were ripe. Last week, some twit came in during the night and stole about 20-30 pumpkins, all but a few green stragglers. The directors were livid and called in the newspapers which led to a spot on the evening news and before long most of COS had heard about the pumpkin heist The following days, truckloads of pumpkins arrived at the school. I mean TONS. One older gentleman in his early 70's was so shocked that someone would steal from kids that "worked their butts off" growing little pumpkins that he brought in a flatbed loaded down with new replacements. There were so many donations (and still) that the school is hosting a fall pumpkin festival to thank everyone for the support. It's on Saturday, so hopefully I'll have some super fun pictures to post!

Mia Ballerina

We have Helen to thank for the ballet bar and lovely DVD that goes with it. The DVD music sticks in your head, whether you're actively paying attention or not, but Mia LOVES it!