October in Snippets

I love looking back at my stash of "everyday" photos at the end of each month, and seeing the here and now moments that were captured, telling the story of our lives perfectly... and sometimes blurrily, thanks to my phone!

 

 

 

A regular day becomes a lot better when you can run across the street and join your buddy for a playdate!

 

Joey now knows how to play liar's dice. I'm not sure if we should be proud of this or not.

 

Meanwhile, Clara is absolutely obsessed with writing stories on the computer. so far, her creations include short stories entitled "My Best Friend" and "The Candy Witch." Every spare moment she has she is hunting and pecking and typing away.

 

 

This little munchkin is chipping away at the reading lessons in our old faithful, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We're about 2/3 of the way through the book, believe it or not! We usually make time for a lesson or two at the dog park while big kids are at school.

 

 

Molly had her last "Farm Day" at her preschool, and was thrilled to wear those red cowgirl boots of hers!

 

Clara has a "Skout Skate" at a local roller skating rink on a school holiday. Joey was dismayed to find when we got to the rink that he was one of only approximately 5 boys in the whole place... and three of them were toddlers. He tried to hide in the bushes at the entrance, and almost refused to come in. But he ended up loving the skating, and someday he'll appreciate that lopsided ratio at his sister's activities!

 

Clara's school had a Halloween Bingo night, which meant Clara got to break out her costume before the big day. She was pretty jazzed, and her Bingo assistant was, too.

 

A Moraga friend is helping start up a new backpack company, and asked our kids to be in a photo shoot with the bags. We added to the diversity of this shoot by singlehandedly representing the "optically challenged." 

 

 

 

Clara had a chance to be "Star Student of the Week" in her class, and was allowed to invite one guest who would be interviewed by her classmates. She decided to bring her pint-size sister, who was grilled with questions like, "What school do you go to?" "Do you know how to ride a bike?" and "What's your favorite cartoon?"

 

She sat in that chair and swung her legs back and forth and loved every minute of it!

I love that Tim snagged a picture of one of my weekly activities... making sure the kids' nails are trimmed. It's a never-ending job!

And finally, we may be burbs people now, but we still appreciate some urban sights, especially when they're this spectacular! We took this while driving across the Bay Bridge to meet friends for dinner at the end of the month.

Halloween 2014

The days of matching Halloween costumes are officially gone in this house, much to this mommy's chagrin. We almost had our trio sold on being matching minions in blue overalls and yellow shirts, and almost got sign-off on a threesome from Little Red Riding Hood, but in the end, everyone decided to go their own way.

We had an ultra-cool Joe Montana, a delighted Jack-o-Lantern (with a smile to match), and an adorable Little Red Riding Hood. They all had a day jam-packed with Halloween festivities, including three costume parades and three Halloween parties.

To top it off, we had a small 40th birthday celebration for the daddy in our house, who insisted on wearing a gorilla suit for most of the day.

 

 

 

When I agreed to marry this Halloween baby, I had no idea that I was signing up for a doubly crazy October 31st... candy AND cake, trick-or-treating AND birthday fun. Luckily, two grandmas stepped up to the plate to help do the last item on the Halloween checklist: carving pumpkins. They finished with only minutes to spare before the sun went down that evening... phew!

 

 

We ended the night by trick-or-treating with cousins Tommy and Lucy, complete with choruses of "Thank you!" and "Happy Halloween!"

 

 

Pumpkins Without the Parents

What to do when your parents sneak away to Florida for a quick work trip right smack dab in the middle of pumpkin season? Convince your grandma to take you to a favorite haunt that includes pumpkins, tunnels, tractors and more... Farmer John's Pumpkin Patch!

We missed being there in person, but were glad that the kids managed to sneak in this trip during a very busy October! Thanks Grandma!

Authoress

She's not going to be earning any spelling awards any time soon, but Clara is all about putting pencil to paper, creating a story, and illustrating it. I usually find these creations littered all over the kids' art desk, but she brought one home from school the other day that she created during free time. Her teacher loved it so much she had Clara stand up and read it to the class. Does that count as her first live author reading? ;)

Here it is, in all its phonetically spelled glory ... see below for the translation!

 

 

One morning a boy named Joey lost his dog. It was a puppy and it was a white dog with brown spots.

"Wait, there's a hole in the fence! My dog must have went through the hole. But I don't think my dog would do that. But let's see. Wait, I hear something. It is behind that bush. I found him!"

And they lived yappily ever after.

Jumpin' Good Time

There's nothing that super-charges a bunch of six and seven year-olds like a jumpin' good time at an indoor trampoline gym. I've never seen kids with redder cheeks, crazier hair, or sweatier bodies... and wow, I'm glad they all weren't at our house!

 

We celebrated Clara's 7th birthday with a whole bunch of her classmates and a few of her cousins, with pizza and rainbow cake, and with decibel levels approaching insanity.

 

In summary, baths and wine were a requirement when we got home.

 

 

 

(I love this picture, even though it's blurry and you can't even see Clara's face. But you just know what's plastered all over it... joy. How lucky are they?)

 

Seven!

The eternal, amazing fact about motherhood is that our babies just keep on growing, whether we like it or not. They morph from sweet-cheeked angel babies who give you no trouble at all, to spirited, pig-tailed, sassy little toddlers, to independent, determined, still spunky little girls.

 

For our Clara Jane, this year of change between being a six year-old kindergartner and a new seven year-old first grader has been almost shocking. She's finally lost that adorable toddler tummy that I loved so much, she seems to be stretching out and growing taller by the minute, her brand-new big front teeth are giving her a brand-new look, and her new love for jeggings, cowgirl boots and jean jackets are all conspiring to make her look like a teenager.

 

Sigh.

But while we're losing those sweet rounded cheeks of old, we're gaining a new maturity that has us pinching ourselves.

It started during the second week of school when Clara's new first grade teacher walked her to me after school, and couldn't stop gushing over what a wonderful helper she was in class, what an amazing reader she was, and what a good example she was to others.

Some sort of magic was apparently afoot.

She started bringing home multiple "red cards," which despite their scary dangerous-looking color, turned out to be a card that only the most well-behaved child in the class gets to bring home.

Then, one day while I was helping in the library, the teacher's assistant came up to me, and asked, "Are you Clara's mom?" When I nervously said yes, she leaned in and whispered, "Is she your oldest child? She has to be!" When I told her that she was actually a middle child, she almost didn't believe me, and said, "That's so strange! She acts like a classic oldest child. She's so responsible, always follows the rules, and is such a leader in our class!"

Looking over at my angel child, standing quietly in line to check out her library books, glasses perched on her face, and books clutched to her chest, I had to agree that she definitely looked the part.

Now excuse me while I look for some wood to knock on!