Halloween

Last weekend we went out to pick our pumpkins. It was a beautiful day out there and we found some good ones, plus took a ton of pictures.

The girls just love this tradition!

The only thing that wasn’t traditional was the flat tire we noticed when we got back to the car.

 

Then, of course, we came home and got straight to cleaning and carving.

The girls always make me carve the most difficult designs.This one is Anika’s bat.

On Tuesday we had a Girl Scout Fall party. We had an extra Tuesday this month, so I had the girls bring their costumes and dress up after school. We played fun games and had lots of food. My girls just wanted a chance to wear their costumes more times.

Here are the troop moms after playing the “mummy” game! We got wrapped in TP. These are my precious girls! I love being a Girl Scout leader!

This morning I took the girls to the skating rink to start out our Halloween. They had a special session for the kids where they got to wear their costumes. They are all bats, by the way.

 

Then we enjoyed a special treat by going to Krispy Kreme. Yummy!

 

Then we went around town to visit the Greats and Grands, so I could show off my bats.

 

Mike had to stay home while we gallivanted because he has a really bad sore throat. He is pretty miserable. He hasn’t been this sick since he had mono five years ago.

After a lazy afternoon I took the girls out for a little trick-or-treating. We only made a small loop and they were satisfied. I even offered to take them further, but they were done. We came home and ate caramel popcorn while handing out candy to all the little kids and watching a movie.

I think the girls had a pretty good day, but I have decided that Halloween isn’t my favorite holiday (yet again). I eat WAY too much candy and don’t much like all the scary stuff. Earlier this week Tegan came home from school telling all the ghost stories the other kids had told her. Anika was listening, so I asked Tegan if she liked having all those stories in her brain. She said, “no”. So, I had her quit telling all the stories. That night Anika had two nightmares. Tegan said she had bad dreams too. I guess, at least, that is a sign that they aren’t desensitized yet. They are such precious, sweet girls.

Now we are on to the next holiday, but we are looking forward to a visit from Gigi first!

October blows in

I can’t believe I haven’t shared with you all about Mike’s marathon yet. What kind of blogger am I anyway? I’ll tell ya…the kind that has three kids and likes to help with church, school, and Girl Scouts! Sorry about that. I know you all understand though.

Well, Mike ran his marathon and survived, even if just barely! No, really he did great and made it in under 4 hours. He was in the top third of the runners, maybe even the top quarter overall.

When we got to Portland we spent the afternoon driving around and trying to see the route where Mike would run. Once we got to the hotel the girls went swimming. At dinner Kelby started complaining of a headache and ended up with a pretty good fever and sore throat. That messed things up a bit. The next morning Debbie ended up staying at the hotel with the girls while George and I chased Michael around town to take pictures and give him his necessary nourishment. They have food and drinks on the course, but he had special crackers he wanted. I’m so thankful that George and Debbie came down. I would have been in trouble there on my own!

They sent the runners off in waves, so we would watch for the pace runner (one person that was running only half the race and keeping at a certain pace) in his division, then we’d try to get pictures. Then off we’d go to another part of town to see if we could catch him again.

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At the finish line we were a little worried, because he wasn’t in his pace division any longer. He had dropped back a bit, but if you saw that hill he had to run about mile 17, you would know why!

We were happy to see him come in and he was wiped out. I don’t know if he’ll try that again any time soon. He is still keeping up his running, but more like 5 to 10 miles at a time instead up 20! We might be getting a treadmill so he can stay out of the elements this winter…and I might even give it a go then. You definitely won’t find me out running in the dark and rain!

Michael limped around the rest of the weekend, but we enjoyed our last night at the hotel. Kelby even started feeling better enough to jump in the pool and we enjoyed eating out to celebrate.

The next weekend was my vacation! I got to pack up my scrapbooking supplies and enjoy 48 hours on the mountain with some other ladies. They fed us and had beds for us to rest in. The weather was beautiful. I have attended this crop for three years now. It is so relaxing and cozy, plus I got some scrapbooking projects done. I am now caught up on the girls’ school albums and a few other projects.

I’m proud of myself that I already have the girls costumes done. They made it really easy on me this year. You can’t really tell in this picture, but they are bats! They let us use the old “cat” costume hoods and I only had to sew up some black sleeves that are attached to their wings. They’ve already been flying around the neighborhood. They never waste their costumes!

Here they are doing their homework which has really been the bane of my existence since school started. Fifth grade is a whole new world and it has been challenging for Kelby and I. They have a lot of work to do and send a note home on Friday that lists everything that is missing. If she missed a lot, then she had to make that up AND get her current homework done. She is finally getting to be more responsible in getting her name on her work and getting it turned in. I hear that fifth grade is a transition year.

Here’s the other thing that has been taking up my time, but I LOVE it! This is my Girl Scout troop. I am so excited about it. We have had two real meetings so far. I think the girls are enjoying it and so am I. It takes awhile to get things planned and organized for it, but it is so rewarding. The best compliment is that my girls like me as their leader!

So, I guess that is October so far. The weather is getting cooler and the leaves are finally falling. I haven’t slowed down however, so I’m hoping for some of that soon! Mama bear wants to hibernate for the winter.

September Gone

Well, I can’t even believe that September is already gone and it is now October. The leaves haven’t even really started falling yet. It has been a warm fall and only now is the weather beginning to turn cool and a little rainy.

Pizza Party!

I last wrote three whole weeks ago. That was the day that Michael ran his last 20 mile run. He’s been tapering since and this weekend is his marathon! We’re in Portland for that. So, I’m praying that he makes it through the 26.3 mile course and is proud of himself when he is done.

Now that summer is over, there is much less exciting fun stuff going on here and more homework and chores. I really got my act together with chores right before school got started and I’m happy to say I have four weeks into this new system and it’s still working! I even devised an easy AND educational method for paying the girls. They tend to lose money, so I became their account. I printed them a check register each and took their birthday money stash as their initial deposit. Then, every time I owe them allowance, I just record it as a “direct deposit”. The girls get to see the money add up that way and I don’t have to have a lot of cash around. Then, I have a copy of this register in my purse and if we are shopping they can purchase what they’d like with their money as long as they have enough. The only rule I made about spending money is they can’t buy anything at the dollar store…unless it is for something they actually need.

  

So, that leads us to the first big purchase after saving up their money. Tegan and Kelby finally got hamsters. They originally wanted gerbils because the neighbor has some. They babysat those ones and did really well with them. However, the clerk at the pet store was afraid of the gerbils and suggested the girls get these Robo hamsters. They are dwarf hamsters that are just tiny. Oh, my goodness. I had no idea I would just fall in love with these little pets. Once Mike taught the girls how to hold them without panicking, they learned to walk all over and stay nicely in the girls hands.

The other big thing that has happened recently is that Kelby has shown herself to be a very good fisherwoman. She begged and begged Michael to take her out fishing since there is a good salmon run this year. He told her that she would have to clean a fish if she caught one and she promised she would. Her cousin Emma caught two the first time they were out, but Kelby didn’t catch any. Emma did a great job cleaning her fish.

   

 

The next time Mike and Kelby went out, she tried to trick me when they got home and acted like she didn’t get any when she really caught her limit of four! Cleaning a fish was a lot harder than she had imagined and she almost didn’t do it. She really freaked out, but with a little bravery shown on my part (I stuck my hand in the fish), she finally did it. Mike filleted and smoked all that fish, then they went out the next weekend and caught four more!

Kelby wasn’t even phased by the rain. She and Mike went out in the rain at 6:00 am last Saturday!

Last Saturday night the girls and I went with Heather and Derek out to Oak Harbor to watch a drive-in movie double feature. It was a Girl Scout event where we were supposed to camp overnight, but we chickened out of that part and just went for the fun of the movies.

On Sunday Debbie and George came over for lunch and to watch football. We made plans for our trip to Portland. They are coming to watch Mike run his marathon too.

This is my book club! We read “School of Essential Ingredients” this month and it was about a cooking class and yummy food, so we had a fancy dinner together. The book was really fun to read. It was so descriptive that you felt like you could taste the foods they were making! I’ve been in this book club for over four years now.

 

We also had an Open House for the girls this month. Anika is loving kindergarten and seems to be picking up the sounding out of words. They’ve also started learning sight words. Soon she’ll be reading like her big sisters. I realized that this is really the last thing that keeps her little.

The girls had their Girl Scout uniforms on for Open House because we had a table showcasing our troop there. Our troop hasn’t officially started yet, but we are all prepared and excited. We had a parent meeting so all the parents and girls know what have in store for the year.

At the school open house we also found out some frustrating news of what the school is doing. We noticed “All School Silent Reading” time on Kelby’s classroom’s whiteboard scheduled at the end of the day. This seemed fishy to begin with, but I assumed the kids were in their classroom to read. Mike and I asked the principal and found out that they are actually corralling the kids in the gym and cafeteria and making them sit on the floor to read silently for the 15 minutes of the day.

It is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve gone in a couple times to check it out and there is a dull roar in there so that kids really can’t read not to mention how uncomfortable they are on that cold hard floor. They have only one adult per grade level in there to maintain order. Those poor folks have to try to keep those kids quiet and end up yelling at them to be quiet. My girls do not like it. I just don’t know what to do about it. It certainly isn’t what’s best for the kids. It has to do with the bargaining the teachers did for their strike. They wanted that parent contact time, so that 15 minutes is supposed to be for them to contact parents. I would rather have the kids come home 15 minutes early, but then they wouldn’t get enough hours to meet state standards, though I feel like this is cheating anyway. I wish there was something we could do about this. I guess I’ll write some letters to the school board and teacher’s union and the state. They just don’t have enough money to do what needs to be done, so what are you gonna do? I don’t even think the teachers like this solution. I know the principal doesn’t, but he has to enforce what he was directed by the school district and try to make the best of it. Most parents don’t even know this is happening yet. We’ll be keeping our eyes on the situation and see if we can make a positive difference.

Well, October promises to be fun and busy as always. I thought I’d be able to slow down a little or at least accomplish some writing or other things for myself once Anika started school, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. At least I get to escape for a scrapbooking retreat next weekend!