Oh, my goodness, how can we be at the end of October already?! I know you have all heard this before, but for parents of young children, (and for preschool teachers!), the days go so slow, but the years fly by!

We had fun in October, teaching our students about the lifecycle of the salmon and then having Larry Franks come to the school to show us two of our Issaquah celebrity fish, up close and in person! We switched from salmon to leaves as our theme and had fun raking the playground leaves into piles to jump in! Teacher Donna had amazing birthday circles as did all of our Libra friends. Thank you so much for all the lovely wishes, notes, gifts and the amazing tray full of my favorites! I Loved it all and am so appreciative of your thoughtfulness! I used the gift certificate at Lucky You and purchased a couple of nice warm ‘shackets’ and did a little bit of early Christmas shopping too! Thank you everyone.

Belleamie also had some wonderful birthday circles! We had our monthly Board meeting, our monthly fundraising meeting and a successful Belleamie’s Birthday Gifts fundraiser! What an amazing group of families we have here in our community! It’s because of all of you that we can continue our program! We also want to shout out to our alum students whom we have seen several of this past month as ‘big kid helpers’ in the classroom. We are so proud of each of you and how much you have matured since you were here at The Garden just a few short years ago.

We had our Ladybug Check-ins and Cara, Cari and Donna had such a nice time getting to know our Ladybug parents a little better as we talked about our Littlest Littles. Overwhelmingly, we heard from our newest families what an amazing community we have here at The Children’s Garden. Thank you to all of you for continuing our reputation here at this little preschool of welcoming new families, supporting each other, and reaching out and making community so fabulous for all – playdates, support, friendships, and growth. You guys are wonderful.

Now as we prepare for our Halloween celebrations next week, we have switched to spiders and bats! Speaking of Halloween – wasn’t our Pumpkin Patch trip to The Carpinito Brothers’ Pumpkin Patch the best?! The staff took a makeshift attendance and realized that only 7 Garden families were unable to join us. We loved having such a lovely time visiting with the adults and seeing all of our wonderful students at one event! It was so great for the staff to be able to join you all. Three cheers for the room parents that organized this outing!

We’ve had several absences this month- and although a few of them were for travel, most of them have been illnesses. Thanks for reading your kiddos and keeping them home when you know they are sick or just not themselves. The teachers have been tag-teaming with some bugs as well. We are all in this together!

We want to let you know that we don’t allow running and chasing games around the courtyard. The bricks get slippery when damp, the gardens get pretty muddy and we have had sooooo many of our students and siblings get hurt – bumps, bruises and broken bones. Please help us and remind your kiddos that after school, we go to the gazebo and then we can have a playdate at the park or at our home. Thank you!