Halloween 2013

Busy, fun day today!  The kids were up early - so excited to go to school.  Fortunately for the teachers, today was a 1/2 day at school.  It's always a nutso day with kids bouncing off the walls!  The kids had a serpentine parade and class parties.  Cupcakes and soda at 9:00am.  You know...  Good, sugar-filled fun!  

I got home too late last night from mutual to braid Boo's wet hair, but I found a blog tutorial that showed how you can get that same crimped look by braiding and then flat-ironing the braid and letting it cool!  Worked like a charm!  

A witch and her two cats at their class party :)

Favorite Teacher costume went to Mrs. Patera and her husband and son as Peter Pan, Smee and Hook!

Favorite Kid costume:  This kid had this detailed leather jacket, buckles, fasteners, and leather pants!
He was an awesome "Once Upon a Time" Captain Hook!  Bonus - he was giving all the younger kids low-fives.  :)

Speaking of dressing up, this little one has had a fun time creating costumes and doing lots of pretend play this week.  

"I a carry woof!"

What big eyes you have!

A witch on her broomstick.  Smart girl to wear goggles!

Now, for our costume picks this year.  Nothing super-special.  Diddles bounced back and forth from last-year's ladybug to Boo's old Tinkerbell costume.  Tinkerbell won out, thanks to her fairy wings.  

I asked her to "act like a fairy" and would always get this cute pose.  

Pixie face

 Yaks wasn't sure what he wanted to be, but we found this fun costume idea on Pinterest that was pretty easy and clever.  Turned out it was quite the math lesson, as we figured out how many legs and eyes a spider had.  He wanted to count his arms and legs as "legs", so we bought a couple pairs of tights, and stuffed them with batting, then stitched them closed.

Made him into a black widow with some red felt, and sharpie-colored googly eyes.  I stitched the legs to the back of a black shirt, and used some black ribbon to tie them to his sleeves, so they would lift and lower with his own arms.  It was a really comfortable and no-fuss costume.  He really enjoyed it!

Boo re-used her witch costume from last year, when we couldn't really find anything we liked better to make or buy.  Unfortunately, she left her witch hat at the school, and didn't realize it until the school was locked up for the day!  

She handled it pretty well, with only a few tears, and was just happy she still had her dress.  I was glad we took the time to crimp her hair to make it witch-like!  

Lots of fun!  Happy Halloween!  

Goof-balls.

We went trick-or-treating in our old neighborhood and stopped in at our old house to see if we could find Milo, the cat.  He wasn't home. :(  Then we met up with our friends, P and M and went trick-or-treating around the old neighborhood.  

"M" (a ghost) and Boo (a witch)

"P" (Dark Sailor, the chicken), and Yaks (Spider)

Diddles lasted a few houses, and then announced that she was done, had plenty of candy, and wanted to go home!  Josh took her home and passed out candy to kids, and then picked us up later when Yaks was thirsty and tired.  On the way home, the glow-stick he had gotten burst open and then he accidentally rubbed his eyes!  He was screaming and panicking that he couldn't see and was worried he would either die or have to go to the hospital!  Poor kid.  A little eye rinse in the sink, followed by a shower solved the problem, but it was sure an exciting ending to the night!  Glad everyone's asleep and in bed!

Shhh, I'm going to go steal some of their candy. :)  

Heading for Halloween!

  

Lots of excitement leading up to Halloween!  It's such a fun holiday.  We had our ward trunk-or-treat on Friday with a chili dinner afterwards.  Yaks and Boo invited their friends, P and M to come.  I think they had a fun time!  I didn't get any pictures of the rest of the family's costumes, and I only remembered to snap some selfies after we had gone home!   

Another friend from school came with a family in the ward.  She's also on Yaks' soccer team!

P in his "Dark Sailor" costume.  Yaks is in the back in his black widow spider costume.

 This year I went as Mary Poppins.  Realizing I had every item to put together the costume except for the hat and some trimmings, I knew it would be an easy one to create!  I found the child's straw hat at Goodwill, and bought a yard of lace, ribbon and flowers for a few bucks.  I spray-painted the hat black, and glue-gunned the flowers on it.  One of my easiest costumes ever!  

Friday morning was Yaks' last soccer game!  With my creativity sparked by the Halloween costumes, I thought it would be fun to do a poster, so I stayed up late Friday night making a little "Thunder Pickles" poster to cheer them on.  What a name...Thunder Pickles!  So funny.  

Awesome coaches and such a sweet team!  Yaks had a fun time with them.

 Later that day, P and M had us over for a fall frolic in the leaves and in the woods behind their house.  The kids had a great time having a leaf fight, and wandering in the woods finding pinecones, huge leaves and other treasures.  They served cake donuts and apple cider, and I learned that Rhonda grew up in upstate New York!  It was perfect weather, and we it was nice to enjoy the sunshine.  My allergies made me pay later, but it was a great day!

Sunday we had Stake Conference.  The entire stake was all together in our stake center, which is unusual.  Josh scored us some great seats on the stage with a lot of leg-room to let the kids spread out.  After that long meeting, we treated ourselves to some pumpkin carving.

Diddles very meticulously cleaned out her pumpkin of every. single. little. seed.  It was quite impressive!  She did it all by herself, too.  

Can we talk about this shirt for a moment?  I know it's hard to miss.  It was an old DI when I dressed up as a "tourist" for Halloween years ago.  It's 100% silk, and Yaks discovered it and LOVES to wear it.  He's always loved soft things.  Rubbing baby's skin, fuzzy blankets, and now the feel of this shirt.  He looks like such a goof-ball, but he doesn't even care!  I told him he can wear it around the house, but by NO means can he even go to the mailbox wearing it!  

Hawaii Five-O

As a joke, Josh changed into his Hawaiian shirt to see if Yaks would notice.  

Funny moment when he realized it.  

I'll post some photos of costumes tomorrow!  

Self-Managers

Last month, we got a note home from the school explaining a new program to encourage positive behavior called the "Self Manager" program.  Students are expected to display the core school values of "respect, responsibility, and being safe".  This includes completing work on time, being prepared, making good choices, etc.  Students "apply" for the program and were required to demonstrate 10 consecutive school days of positive behavior.  They had to get signatures from their teacher, each specialist, as well as the lunch and recess duty!

Recipients of the "Self Manager" are presented with a certificate and given a silicon wrist band to wear, (color-coded for each grade level) which shows an adult teacher at-a-glance that the student is a self-manager and can be trusted as such.  :)

Oh, man, oh, man, were my kids on board!  It's all we've been hearing about - "self-manager" this, "self-manager" that!  "I have to have my art teacher sign off on my self-manager sheet."  "She was NOT acting like a self-manager!" "Only three more days until I get to be a self-manager!" etc.

When asked, "What do you get to do as a self-manager?"  Boo replied,"We get to go get a drink whenever we want, we get to go to lunch and recess early.  We get special privileges.  Teacher know they can trust us when we are wearing their bracelets.  If a teacher notices you NOT being a self-manager, then the bracelet gets taken away, and if you lose your bracelet, you have to start all over again."

It reminds me of a teacher I observed while doing student teaching.  She had what was called the "Inner Sanctum".  Students who were prepared, on-task, respectful, etc. got to join the middle desk clump in the center of the room.  They got to sit with their desks facing each other in "clusters", be first to recess, etc.  You could lose your spot in the Sanctum by being unprepared, not following directions, etc.   Kids who misbehaved, or weren't prepared, had to sit in solo desks on the outside.  I don't remember if she had a name for this or not (Laura tells me they were called "Outer Darkness"!  Haha!).  Geez, those kids were the best-behaved kids I have ever seen!  So, kind or not, it was sure effective.

Boo and Yaks came home today beaming like they'd been inducted into the National Honor Society, waving their certificates and their bracelets.  Big, proud day.  SELF MANAGERS.

Josh had the good idea that they should have a line for parents to sign, stating that they are good "self-managers" at home, too.  His other funny question:  "So, when you you get to start managing OTHERS?"  That might take more than 10 days, I'm afraid.

WIN

I had a Sunday School teacher in my youth who would always start the lesson out by asking the question, "Who's had a WIN this week?"  It was meant as a time we could share any news we were proud of, an obstacle overcome, some way we shared the gospel or were a good example.

This is just some odds and ends of wins we've had lately:

Diddles has been doing great in school!  I'm excited to learn the details at Parent/teacher conferences in two weeks!   I got a note home from the speech therapist yesterday that said, "Diddles did a nice job with the "L" sound today - I asked her to put her tongue on her teeth and say "L" and she succeeded with just a little extra effort!"  This is a huge win for her, especially since her name has a "L" sound in it (she substitutes the "Y" sound)!  I couldn't get her to do the sound for me after school, but the fact that she's ABLE to produce it is a great first step!  WIN.

The back of her head is featured here in their weekly newsletter! :)

She has been down for a solid week with a fever-turned-cough-turned-cold, and is just now getting back to herself.  I even took her into the doctor, fearing she had Whooping cough.  Turned out it was nothing, just drainage in the night that had a ghastly sound.  That Pertussis test was NOT fun ("let's stick this Q-tip down your throat through your nose and then hold it there for five seconds!")  Afterwards Diddles let it be known how she felt.  She stamped her foot and told the nurse, "I be mad at you!"  She gave her a Hello Kitty sticker tattoo, and all was forgiven.  WIN.

A little craft they did at school - cute!

Patiently waiting in the exam room.  This was obviously BEFORE the test!

Yaks feels quite overwhelmed with 2nd grade.  It's a big leap going from the fun-and-games of first grade to serious learning in 2nd.  They have spelling tests and math tests and comprehension tests.  It's all quite a lot for a little boy.  He's expressed several times that he doesn't really find school fun.  Awe.  We finally found a book series he can read and enjoy.  Magic Treehouse books have been a good start for us (we alternate pages), and non-fiction books about animals.  WIN.  

Reading still isn't his favorite, but I'm glad he's at least willing to read with me.  I determined that with that window of time I have in the mornings, I would volunteer in the kids' classrooms.  I signed up be the Art Docent for both Boo's and Yaks' classes.  We come in once a month and teach an art lesson about a famous artist, then have the kids do a similar project on their level.  I went and taught Yaks' class this past week about the artist Henri Rousseau, and had the kids draw tigers in a jungle with oil pastels.

Henri Rousseau's "Surprised! Storm in the Forest"

They all had a really great time, and Yaks was beaming while I was there.  WIN.  After school he said so sincerely.  "I really liked having you in school today, Mom.  Your lesson was fun!  I sure love you."  He's wrapping up his soccer season, and although he won't be joining the professionals anytime soon, he had a great team and coach, and seemed to at least enjoy himself!  WIN.

Boo has FINALLY gotten the reading bug.  I was beginning to lose hope that any of my children would be readers!  She'd read through books, but could tell me few details about them afterwards.  She was decoding, but not really comprehending what she read.  Despite reading through all of the Rainbow Fairy books last year, I don't think she really enjoyed them.  We read some more classic chapter books together this summer: Ralph S. Mouse and The Boxcar Children, and she seemed to enjoy that storyline a little better.  I had the idea to have her start a written list of the books that she's read since the beginning of the summer.  I should have known that for her type-A personality, seeing a list of accomplishments would kick her into high-gear.  She is plowing through the books, and can tell me all about them.

She's found much more interest in the A-Z Mystery books, and has really enjoyed the surprising plots!  She quickly writes them on her list and has enjoyed seeing it grow!  WIN.

After receiving my speeding ticket from our Canada trip, I knew I had to face the music.  I really didn't want to get a ticket.  $113!?  So much money that could be spent so many different ways.  It was so disappointing, but what can you do?  It is what it is.  Reading through the paperwork, I noticed that I could challenge the ticket in court.  It's a 1 1/2 hour drive to the courthouse, but I decided that I would try the option of contesting the ticket by letter.  I quickly outlined a brief defense, my one and only leg to stand on was the fact that I hadn't received a ticket of any sort in over 10 years!  I figured it had to count for something.  Maybe not, but at least it would buy me another month to pay the fine.  Imagine my surprise when I got a letter back in the mail decreasing my fine by $41.  Yeah, it's not much, but still, for me, it was a WIN!

I've never been much of a home decorator.  I don't really know how things should be put together.  I still have original home decor from 9 years ago when my mom and sisters came to stage our house for sale.  I'm sure it's outdated, but I don't have the know-how or money to do much about it.  Our kitchen has a large bare wall on the opposite side that needed SOMETHING.  It's right above the kitchen table.  We spend a lot of time there!  It needed to be something special.  This past summer I splurged and had some family photos done.  I've never paid for family photos before, but I really wanted to let someone else worry about the results.  Mariko took some nice shots, and for my birthday, I bought some inexpensive frames at Ross and had some prints enlarged to put up on the wall!  Boo had the idea to reuse this great President Hinckley quote.  I quite like how the arrangement turned out!  

It makes me happy to look at, and coupled with our new houseplants, this place will suit just fine through the dreary WA winter.  WIN.

Finally our fearless warrior, Josh.  The dear boy is going to school and working a new and VERY challenging job, with very few bright spots.  He's facing unrealistic expectations, difficult personalities and a heavy work-load.  His classes are demanding, time-consuming and often frustrating.  And yet...he brought me home a pint of Pumpkin ice cream the other day, because he knew I'd love it.  He goes to Yaks' soccer games and cheers on the whole team.  He is Boo's piano teacher, and their two similar personalities CLICK!  She's really enjoying that time with him.  He met us at the park yesterday, and he played Diddles' favorite game, "Chased by the monster!". You should have seen her face - pure joy!  

Last weekend, he took Yaks and Boo to a WSU football game.  It was a night game, and it was pretty chilly!  They packed hot chocolate and treats and he bought them pizza at the stadium. He brought along blankets and a thermarest pad.  You can always rest assured that you'll be prepared for the elements when Josh is in charge of an outing!  The kids enjoyed the game comfortably bundled and on a warm, soft seat.  I picked the kids up at half-time (it was late, and they were tired), and they had wonderful tales of all the fun they had with Dad!  I know Josh probably doesn't feel like he's had many WINS in the past several months, but the dedication he shows to loving his family makes him the biggest WINNER of us all!  

Birthday Weekend

I had a lovely Birthday/Conference weekend!  I hope yours was lovely, too.  We had perfect weather - sunny and 60's.  Just enough crisp to feel like fall, but just enough warmth to only need a jacket.  My birthday fell on Saturday this year.  I took some initiative and picked out some things that I wanted for my birthday:  Some indoor plants, frames for the wall, some place mats, and a new pair of casual boots!  The kids made the morning so special by tip-toeing around and letting me sleep until 8:00am!  BLISS!  Then they honored my wishes that lieu of decorations (= mess), I'd love to just have a nice clean house all day.  They obliged.  It was magical.

Yaks had a soccer game, and Boo had swim practice in the morning.  I listened to conference while watching Boo swim.  Afterwards, Boo and I went on a much-anticipated date to the store to buy a training bra (for her, not for me).  Yes, it's THAT time, I can't believe it!  After her well-check at the pediatrician, and my expressed worry that Boo had a tumor, turns out she's just developing.  Duh, Amy.  The doctor agreed that a little "support" might help with the discomfort and sensitivity she's been experiencing.  She got to pick and try on a pack of trainers, and proudly brought them home in her little bag.  She's excited to be growing up!  We also got a cheesecake and I noticed that they had all their house plants 50% off of what they were earlier in the week, so you'll notice the forest in the back seat!

Mommy/Daughter Date

I can't believe we're entering these waters already!  A nice book we were recommended and checked out from the library was "The Care and Keeping of You" (American Girl).  Tasteful illustrations, explanations and lots of fun and interesting information for the TWEEN girl.  Covers development, menstruation, general hygiene, etc.  We read a chapter each night and had a good Q&A on the subjects.  Boo felt really special having the "girl" time.

Following our shopping, we loaded up in the car and went to WSU's Apple Orchard, where they had a Fall Harvest celebration.  We wandered around the pumpkin patch (we didn't buy any, thinking $.75/lb was a little steep for a pumpkin), and picked a small bag of apples to taste.  

Venturing into the orchards

Boo read this sign (GUESS THE COMBINED WEIGHT)  then said (in all seriousness),
"This calls for some estimating and rounding!"
Those college kids at the table got a kick out of it.

Yaks in the pumpkin patch 2007 - I love this photo!

Yaks in the pumpkin patch 2013

Josh finished his schoolwork for the day, and then took the kids to the pool, which they loved.  I fixed a simple dinner for the kids, and Josh and I ordered some take-out, and had a little date at home.  My dear friend Marie and her daughter (my new Beehive, who also shares my birthday) came over with some sweet cards and a gift.  Lots of wonderful messages, texts and phone calls.  Birthdays sure are a great way to help one feel loved!  Thanks, friends!

Cheesecake!

Sunday we had cinnamon rolls and lots of yummy treats and snacks while enjoying conference and watching for our sister-in-law Catherine to appear on the screen with the Tabernacle Choir.  I didn't catch every talk, but I'm so grateful I can go back and listen and study the messages.  You can too!

P.S.  Our family photo shoot was featured on Mari's blog.  Check it out!