National Book Festival 2007

We spent the day at the National Book Festival, down at "The Mall". There were tons and tons of people and it took us almost 2 hours to get there by car and find a carpark. Luckily we managed to get their in time before the "free" book bags were gone LOL my kind of festival when they give away lots of free stuff. We managed to get a few books and posters, book markers, flyers and informational materials for Maddy. The book sales were very expensive so I decided to take down a few titles and find them elsewhere, as I know I will be able to get them much more cheaply through my book club I joined earlier this year.

There were lots to eat and drink, games to play and pictures to take with cartoon characters and sorts. There were a few authors I wanted to listen to but because I had my two boys with me, and it was extrememly hot (well not for me LOL), we chose just to view the children's tent, ride the merry-go-round and do whatever else Madison wanted to do.

Overall, we had a fun time and look forward to the next Book festival in 2008.

Colouring in his own book bag

The finished product

Pengu the Penguin

Riding the Merry-Go-Round

With our free tote book bag LOL

Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? ...

... I see Madison looking at me.

Madison

This book was made by Madison's class and I copied the picture of Madison, closing his eyes!

Big THANK YOU

Goes out to all our family members who participated in the lavenderonline.org. fundraising event. I submitted copies of all the items we purchased and it came to a total of 23. It takes up to 3-4 weeks before they start shipping out everything so please be patient for those in NZ and Aussie, as soon as we get them and Maddy completes the calendar/s and other items, I will ship them out to you.

Up and coming events in October:

PTA Meeting 9am 10/2
Fall Book Fair 10/11 - 10/17
PTA Pizza and Movie Night 10/12
Halloween Wacky Day Parade 10/31

Have a lovely weekend everyone :) Love Us xxox

"Walking With Dinosaurs" Show

Tonight we went to see "Walking With Dinosaurs : The Live Experience" show at the Verizon Center. Thanks to Daddy who found some cheap tickets at the last minute, we were able to experience what it was like during the "age of dinosaurs". What an experience it was and of course Madison loved every minute of the show. His eyes were fixated on the entire show and he hardly ate any his food. Everytime a new dinosaur came out on stage, he yelled out their names and smiled excitedly especially when Mama T-Rex and Baby T-Rex entered the stage (his favourite out of all the dinosaurs).

Here are some pictures of us at the dinosaur show.

Maddy eagerly waiting for the show to start

Very excited

Utah Raptors

Torosaurus

Baby T-Rex, Torosaurus, Ankylosaurus and Mama T-Rex

At Intermission, Maddy playing with one of his light toys

Allosaurus and Brachiosaurus

Allosaurus and Stegosaurus

Ankylosaurus, Baby T-Rex and Torosaurus

Reminder

Don't forget, this is the last week to order items online or send me your details and I can place an order on your behalf. We have 20 items already and hoping to get another 20 so that Maddy can get to ride in a limo. If not, that is ok, he will still be awarded prizes from the prize list I posted a few days ago.

Have a nice weekend and THANKS to those who have already ordered.

xxoxx

Maddy At School

Here is a picture taken of Maddy playing with clay or play dough and creating letters. This was taken by his teacher Miss Weatherholtz.

Maddy's PlayDate

Maddy invited his friend Daniel who is 9 years of age and lives upstairs on the third floor, over to our house today. They go to the same school and catch the bus home together as well.
They are playing play station games, drinking juice and eating goldfish biscuits. He is soooo excited that he has a friend over to play with. It means I get to watch my talk shows while they are busy playing the games. YAY :):)

I wanted to take a picture of them both but the camera battery is flat - Maybe next Monday. Daniel and his family only have two more weeks here before they move for good to Utah. Maddy is especially sad to see him go. They have become good friends over the last few weeks.

Nevermind, he has made a few more friends at school, and no doubt once we get to meet their parents, he will be bringing more friends home to play.

Reston Zoo

Since it was a beautiful day today, we decided to go to Reston Zoo. It was a lot of fun and Maddy especially enjoyed feeding all the animals like sheep, goats, llamas, ducks, birds etc. The most exciting part was riding a pony, he was sooo brave!

We then got to feed the goats and as soon as Maddy put his cup up to feed them, they took the whole cup and gobbled it all up. We had to keep filling the cup up several times just so we could feed the other goats and animals.

These ladies were holding a real Python - scary stuff I thought. We were even allowed to touch it but none of us would .

Maddy on one of the rides with his friends from Madagascar (haha)

Lunch Date With Maddy

Maddy invited me to join him for lunch today and it was a lot of fun. He was so happy to see me and ran over and gave me a great big hug. I felt very special :). I helped his teacher Miss Weatherholtz hand out the lunch bags before we walked in a line into the cafeteria.

I made lunch for Maddy today because he wanted to be like the rest of his class, who mainly bring their lunch from home and only a few order theirs at the school. Today he had two bologne sandwiches with light mayonnaise, an apple, a small bowl of peaches, 2 apple juices and a small packet of goldfish biscuits. I ended up ordering from the cafeteria and had a small kiddies sized pizza slice, spaghetti bolognaise, small lettuce and tomato salad and fat free milk. As soon as I sat down with my order, Maddy wanted to eat it, so we ended up swapping lunches - I got left with the sandwiches and he ate the pizza and the spaghetti bolognaise!! Humph, I was looking forward to eating pizza LOL.

I met six of his classmates who were sitting with us at our table (Raoul, Ashad, Nicole, Ashley, Michael and Natalie). They wouldn't stop talking and wanted to tell me about what they were eating for lunch, what they did today and all sorts. It was so much fun. I felt like I was a substitute teacher or something LOL

Maddy wanted to share his goldfish biscuits with his two friends Raoula and Ashad but was told by one of the teachers supervising that kids were not allowed to share lunches because many of them had food allergies. "Fair enough" I said. Maddy then whispered to me and said "I didn't know that we can't share our food? I gave some of my biscuits to Michael yesterday?!?!" I said "it's ok son, now we know that you can't share your food." He replied "oh poop!"

Overall I had a fun time with Maddy today and it was great to see firsthand what sorts of food they provide and what happens during their lunch break. Thanks for the invitation son!

Prize List

For selling the most items from lavendar.org fundraiser, Maddy can be in to win the following:

Sell 1 item - (A) receive Oval Twist Pen
Sell 6 items -(B) receive (A+B) Freeplay2 Download Card
Sell 12 items - (C) receive (A+B+C) Light Stretchy Flying disc
Sell 20 items - (D) receive (A+B+C+D) Power Horn Lighted Whistle
Sell 30 items - (E) receive (A+B+C+D+E) Super Water Blaster
Sell 40 items - (F) receive (A+B+C+D+E+F) Programmable Massage Fan
Sell 50 items - (G) receive (A+B+C+D+E+F+G) Table Top Hover Disc Game
Sell 60 items - (H) receive (A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H) Sound & Motion Plush Giggle Pet
Sell 75 items - (I) receive (A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H+I) Set of Two Text Messengers
Sell 100 items - (J) receive (A-J) Super Slim 128MB MP3 Player
Sell 125 items - (K) receive (A-K) Light Up Hot and Cold Refrigerator
Sell 150 items - (L) receive (A-L) choice of 7" Portable DVD Player with 75 games OR Deluxe sound rocker chair

School Fundraising Has Started!

FALL 2007 FUNDRAISER

Top Quality Products from Lavender's

Visit our website: www.lavenders.org

WE NEED YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT

Here's how to participate:

1. Show the brochure to friends, relatives and co-workers (or ORDER ONLINE)

• Out of town friends and family can now support our school by ordering online at http://www.lavendersonline.org/
  
• All orders must be received by Friday, September 28th.

Prizes are awarded to every student that sells 40 items or more. They will be taken in a stretch HUMMER limo for lunch at a local fast food restaurant AND the top selling class in the school will have the honor of ADOPTING A GIANT PANDA from the National Zoo.

Ok friends and family, if you're interested, take a look at http://www.lavenders.com/ website. You will find out all about the company involved in helping schools with fundraising activities.

• Signup or register yourself with the company first - its free.
  
• To view the items for sale, Click on "order online" or type in http://www.lavendersonline.org/ and scroll through and see if there is anything you would like to order.


• Once you have selected and placed items in your shopping cart, you will be prompted to another screen to enter the school details and students name. See sample below.

• Enter correct shipping details


• Enter billing details i.e. credit card details


• Confirm your order and make sure your details are correct.


• A confirmation email will be sent to your email address confirming order.

If you have any questions or prefer NOT to sign up and order online, send an email to rvmanoo@gmail.com or mmanoo@gmail.com stating the item number, quantity and total cost and we will place an order on your behalf. We can then make other arrangements for you to send the funds.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING MADISON AND HIS SCHOOL

HAPPY 60th Birthday GRANDMA

Hi Grandma, hope you have a lovely birthday celebration today.

Keep an eye out on the mail and Jojo and Junior should be visiting you soon with a gift from all your children. We will call you later on as well.

Lots of Love, Hugs and Kisses from US xxoxx

Happy Happy Birthday Aunty Sachi

Hope you have a lovely Day Aunty Sachi :)

Take Care, Lots of Alofas, Us xxox

First Day Of School Was GREAT Mum :)

Says Maddy as he walks off the bus after school. Our boy did well in terms of catching the bus to school and home again without any problems. He loved riding the big yellow school bus. He wants to do it again tommorrow and the next day and the next, infact forever he says LOL.

He made one friend in his class but can't remember his name. The fun part of the day was playing on the playground, drawing and scribbling and the 30 minute rest they got to have after lunch. Mum has to remember to pack a beach towel for him so that he has something to lie down on.

He ordered chicken nuggets, chocolate milk and peaches for lunch and said that it was filling. There were no snacks given out today as the roster has not been finalised yet. Each family provides a healthy snack once a month and its up to each family to decide what that healthy snack is, bearing in mind those who are allergic to peanuts or nuts of any kind. Not sure when our turn is but it's going to be apples, since we always have lots of apples on hand at home.

His Special classes for PE, Music, Computers, Art and Guidance will be held on the following days:

PE M/T/TH/F
Music W
Computers TH
Art M
Guidance TH
Library Not allocated yet

Its great to see there will be lots of physical education for him as he is one not to stay in one place for very long and being able to run around and let out all that energy he has everyday, would be great for Maddy.

He has a Teacher-Parent Communicator booklet which is sent home with each child daily with important newsletters and notices. If we need to communicate anything with his teacher, then we use this booklet too as they check it daily as well. Nice way to keep in contact and to be notified of important and or upcoming events.

Overall Maddy had a great day and even though he doesn't remember much of it, he says it was great and can't wait to go back tommorrow!

Off To School Pt 2

Waiting patiently for the bus to arrive

Walking to the Bus Stop

Someone is Extra happy today :)


Mr Eager Beaver

Ready For School

How Do I Look?

Off To School

Who is afraid of his first day of school? not Maddy! He was up and ready by 7am eating breakfast and talking about how excited he was to be going to school. After breakfast he brushed his teeth, washed his face and had his daddy do his hair. He chose his clothes he wanted to wear from the top, underwear, shorts including his shoes. I was a little worried because he picked up a cold a few days ago (runny nose and slight cough) and is just getting over it. It didn't stop him from wanting to go to school though. I put an extra t-shirt and shorts in his bag as well as his playing shoes just incase he sweats and needs to change. I didn't need to put any lunch in there because he will be ordering from school. However tommorrow I will put a small water bottle and some fruits to nibble on incase he gets hungry during the day. I wonder if he is allowed to eat in class? LOL, probably not, oh well!

Once ready, we were out the door by 8am walking him to the bus stop which is just around the corner. He met three other kids waiting for the bus too.

As soon as he got on the bus, he turned around and waved goodbye and said "byeeeeeeeee Mum" and no byebyes for Daddy. I think he was more worried about me and making sure I was going to be alright without him today. He was a brave little boy and was not scared to jump right onto the bus to take him to school. We then walked over to his school to make sure he arrived their safely and walked him to his class.

As soon as he got off the bus I said that I would walk him inside and he proceeded to put up his hand and say "I know the way mum, you don't need to walk me!!!" I got teary eyed because it showed how brave he was and how proud I am of him ,to be so strong and independent. I still followed him though because I had a few forms to give to his teacher and to explain to her that he had a slight cold.

This is a picture of his classroom with the instructional teacher at the front. They were still waiting for a few more students to arrive. As soon as he found his roome, he walked right in, found his chair, sat right down and started to draw and color in with the others on his table. He did not once turn around and say goodbye. On that note, it was time to leave him be. I can't wait to find out all about his day when he gets home around 3.15pm.

Madison "Tiger" Mano'o

Mini Golf and Dinner For Fathers Day

Like Father Like Son

Happy Father's Day

To all the Daddies (and SOON-TO-BE Daddies :)) out there in New Zealand and Australia, Happy Father's Day.