HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

A mischievous witch out to make some magic.

A confident, witch-hunting cowboy

He finally catches her, but the witch isn't worried...

She still has her wand and he's no match for her magic

Better luck next time cowboy!

Hallow Eve

How do you prepare for Halloween? This year we dressed up early and took pictures in the leaves (pictures coming soon...stay tuned), made pumpkins and ghosts and goblins and hung them on our walls, carved jack-o-lanterns for FHE and to top it all off, went to the dentist for a nice new protectant coat on the teeth before inhaling high doses of sugar tomorrow night.

Alex bounced off of the bus this afternoon with a grin on her face exclaiming "I just had the best day EVER!". Today was their harvest party at school, a great big party with treats and goody bags and she "has been waiting forever to show me what she got". So she shared a little bite of her candy with her brother, put big black stamps all over his arms and face ("because he asked her to") saying "BOO" and begged all day to eat her ghost sucker even though she was too full on treats to eat her lunch. After all of this week's preparation they are exhausted and fall asleep in the middle of their books, excited for what tomorrow brings.

Of course I'm finding out lately that even though Johnny doesn't seem to be eating much at the dinner table he is finding nutrition elsewhere. Twice now I have caught him outside munching on leaves (the boy does love his vegetables) and once I have found remnants of leaves while brushing his teeth. How many times does he snack on them when I'm not looking? He's also quite drawn to eating soap, something about it when mixed with water in his bath is just too tempting and he can't help himself. Last night as I was going to get him out of his bath I noticed a few more suds than there should've been. I asked him if he had been playing with the soap and as he's trying to talk his way out of it a big 3 inch bubble forms outside of his mouth. He got a mischievous grin on his face because he knew that he had been caught.

Johnny has mentally blocked the letter E

With Johnny starting preschool this year I have been trying to be more dutiful with my teaching skills. I was so good with Alex and she really excelled. I know it really didn't have much to do with me because she has always loved learning but I'm sure it didn't hurt that I always read her ABC books and we always sang the song over and over and practiced counting all of the time. I think we did it a lot though because she liked it. With Johnny it's more of a chore. So every night we have been going over the alphabet and I have been seeing improvements. But no matter how many times we go over it and no matter how many times I enunciate it he always leaves out the letter E. He sings the song "A B C D F & G, etc". So last night I laid out our flash cards from A to G and sang the song with him over and over again. We would take turns saying the letters until he got all of them down except that crazy letter E that apparently doesn't belong. I would point to the letter E and say "this is an E, what is it?" "E" he says. He says E about 20 times then we start at A and by the time we get past the first 4 letters he has already forgotten what letter comes next. What does he have against the wonderful letter E? It starts things like Elmo and Elephant and his best bud Ethan. I've never forced him to eat Eggplant, he does like Eggs and Easter and Exercising. He even likes taking trips to Eureka and loves all forms of Entertainment. I'm baffled. Please Johnny, come to terms with the fact that the letter "E" is a very important part of the English language and I can't do anything to change it.

She never ceases to amaze me

The other day I was irritated with my kid's attitudes and sentenced them to their rooms for a nice long time out. I was on their heels up the stairs and peered into their rooms to make sure they were where they were suppose to be and upon opening Alex's door I found her counting her coins wearing her favorite curly blond wig. I was caught off guard by her instant transformation in the short amount of time it took me to check on her. It made me laugh and once again reminded me that this little girl never ceases to amaze me.

Here are a few more examples:

Putting her training wheels back onto her bike all by herself with the right wrench and everything.

Asking me about something we went to almost 4 years ago when she was only 2 year old.

Reciting an entire episode of Transformers that she watched last week to me with punch lines and all and laughing to herself as she recalls the oh so funny story line.

Reciting a story her teacher read to her that day with animated actions and character voices and all.

Taking a loud group of kids at the McDonald's play place and lining them up like her little ducklings as they follow her through the play set in a quiet and orderly manner (The parents of all of the children were also quite amazed).

Coaching her brother on how to make a new friend. As the boy is standing in front of Johnny she whispers in his ear "hello, my name is Johnny. What's your name? Do you want to be friends?" Johnny dutifully repeats it out loud and all of a sudden has a new friend. Apparently she is a pro at this because two months into school she is already best buds with everyone in her class.

The other day I was holding her in my lap and remembering how little she used to be when I held her as a baby. Some day she won't fit on my lap at all, nor will she allow it. I don't ever want that day to come.

Field Trip Time!

Alex's Kindergarten class took their first field trip yesterday. I guess they are usually only allowed one field trip but since the fire department is only a 15 min walk from the school they will be allowed one more trip to the zoo this year via bus. Alex always made sure she was up near the front of the line and was always walking with a different friend in her class, (or skipping, dancing, or hopping, I don't know that she did much walking) continually humming a tune to herself or chatting with the person next to her. She's not the shy little girl I was as a child, that's for sure.
So the crew of parents and 22 kindergartners put on their walking shoes and headed single file (kind of) through the neighborhood to the fire department where they got a run down of the truck and gear they wear as well as a few safety tips. Of course the fire fighter giving the tour was always open for questions and more often than not he got a "what if" question from each and everyone of them. "What if a tree was on fire?" "What if the TV was on fire?" "What if the road was on fire?" and I kid you not "What if the Earth was on fire?" When he asked if any of them had a planned meeting place in case of a fire in their home the only one who could think of one was Alex (our mail box); nice job Alex. Way to show that we're prepared. Yesterday was also their first "tie dye Tuesday" so all of the kids wore the shirts they made at school last week.

Since Johnny's preschool class had a field trip to the fire deptartment this week as well I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and snuck him in on the walk. He followed his sister around very well and sat up front listening intently to the firefighter and putting in his two cents whenever the opportunity arose.