Happy Halloween!

A soggy wet Halloween was our fate this year. The kids had a marvelous time though. Other than Ollie. He was not into trick or treating at all. Poor little buddy. He rode in the stroller the whole time. Of course once he was home and discovered the candy in everyone's buckets he started shrieking for his share. Now to try and get ready for the sugar crash insanity in the next few weeks!

Pumpkin Carving Insanity

We skipped the pumpkin patch this year (it was a downpour!) and went straight to Winco for our pumpkins.

The kids had so much fun and Ollie thought the pumpkin guts were a ton of fun to play with!

 Everyone worked really hard to clean out their pumpkin and then the carving extravaganza began.

 Top Row: Ollie, Reid, Gwen. Bottom Row: Zane, Andrew, Lucy

Conferences

We had a whirlwind day of school conferences. 8 in all! We were very pleased with how all the kids are doing though and so excited to be able to connect with all the kids teachers. Andrew had the most conferences by far. Now that he is in middle school we had 5 teachers to meet with instead of just one. Andrew is doing amazing in middle school. It is a fabulous fit for him. He is organized and thriving with all the change and hubbub with moving from class to class, keeping his binder organized and tackling all the work and projects coming from all kinds of directions. The best part of the conference about Andrew was when the teachers told us that he is a kind, helpful, attentive student in class. Those are positive character traits and they are more important to us than any number of A grades in classes.

Zane's conference went equally well. He is doing phenomenal and his teacher wants to retest him for the highly capable program in the spring. She said that he is doing beyond extremely well in math and is definitely ready and capable to do the work that the hi-cap kids are doing. She also said that he is an on task leader in the classroom and is hoping to use him to help a couple of kids that are struggling a bit more socially in class.

Lucy is doing really well in school in just about every area. She is testing a smidgen low in reading so they are going to do some pull out extra reading help with her to hopefully propel her up to where she needs to be by the next assessment. That information was no real surprise to either of us. Lucy has never truly enjoyed reading or even being read to. She is very active and reading is an extremely static activity. On the positive side though, she is doing amazing at writing and at math. Lucy's teacher said that writing is a much more difficult process than reading so it is interesting that Lucy loves to write and illustrate books while she does not enjoy reading them at all. I think it is because writing is somewhat active and she can get her wiggles out while she is doing it. Lucy is doing amazing in class and is quite a good listener when she needs to be.

Gwen is doing so extremely well in kindergarten! I was very nervous at the beginning of the year. We worked daily on letter recognition and it was a very slow process to get her to recall the letter names. So I was very curious to hear if she was on track or not. Her teacher told us that Gwen is right where she should be. She knows almost all of her letter names and sounds and is well on her way toward being able to read. She can tap out the sounds in words and is very close to being able to blend the sounds together. I have full confidence that she will be reading by the end of the school year. My guess is she will have the blending piece down by January. Gwen is a great listener in class and her behavior is exactly on task. She does tend to be a perfectionist in her work and will add more details than necessary to her drawings when she should be adding words but that is a problem we can deal with. Gwen and Andrew are very similar in that way.

All in all a fabulous conference experience. I am excited to hear how they go in the spring!

Well Child Checks for 3

 So I had an epic fail with my well child check calendar this year. With Eric changing jobs and then changing insurance plans I let the well child checks that should have been done in August slide completely. Oops. It happens.

I finally took the crew in though and they are all doing well. Everyone is growing as expected and there were no real concerns at all.

Zane
Height: 58" (98%)
Weight: 87# (93%)

Ollie
Height: 32.25" (50% short stuff)
Weight: 27 lbs.3 oz (87%)

Gwen
Height: 45.75" (91% super tall lady!)
Weight; 45 lbs 9 oz (77%)

LIFE

This has been a crazy month and clearly this blog is suffering from all the insanity! We are deep into soccer season and the kids have been very busy with practices, school, Awana and general life. I have hardly had time to pull out my camera at all! I will get back to it. I promise!

Bus Trip!

 Eric was driving the Community Transit bus that goes right by our house this afternoon and we decided to go and visit him!

We were all so excited to see him do his job and experience what he does all day long.

The bus was a fun jungle gym of stuff while we were at our layover stop. It was a very nice way to spend the afternoon.

 We rode the bus to Granite Falls and then back to our house. Lots of fun for everyone!

Elementary Cross Country Meet

The kids participated in the annual elementary school cross country meet and they had so much fun! This is the last year that Andrew will be allowed to participate because next fall he will be eligible to do cross country with the middle school.

Andrew was so excited to take 2nd place among all participating 6th grade students. He was beyond thrilled and so proud of himself.

Zane did great this year at the race. In the past he has taken a very lackadaisical approach to it and walked more than half. This year he ran though almost the entire way! I was so impressed.

 Lucy tackled her race like a champ. She started out slowly but ended up taking 6th place when it was all done.

I think we were both really surprised when they called her name for the podium but I was so thrilled to see her big smile. 

The last race of the day was the kinder/pre-k race and both Gwen and Reid were racing in it. They were very excited to get started. This was Reid's first year doing the race and I was a bit nervous with how he would do.

He started with a lot of energy. Andrew ran with him which was so sweet of him. I knew he would not get lost or confused with big brother as his guide.

Gwen is a beast when it comes to races. This girl has heart like nobodies business. She just wills herself across finish lines. It always impresses me that her drive is so strong.

By the end of Reid's race Andrew was dragging him a little bit. I think he got wore out. He said he had a great time though so I suppose we will do it again next year!

While we waited for the final race awards to be announced the boys went up into the stands. And the lure of electronics wore out. SIGH. What is it with boys and tiny game screens.

Boys of all ages...

Gwen ended up placing 3rd for her race. We were so impressed with her. She is a rock star runner for sure!