Halloween School Festivities

Before we even began to think about trick-or-treating on Halloween night, we had to take care of some business at school Halloween morning. (Ben's school actually took Halloween off which really threw off my Monday morning schedule.)

Hayes started us off with the annual MB Kindergarten costume parade. Dressed-up kindergartners walk throughout the Primary Center for parents and first graders to see. It is a sort of kindergarten right of passage that Eleanor went through, though kindergarten was at the Main Campus three years ago! Lucky for us, Hayes's class walked by us twice so we caught a few brief glimpses of him in all of the chaos. We snapped this picture of his class once the parade was over. (The school gets away with a costume parade in this ultra-sensitive world by labeling it as a "Book Character" parade versus a "Halloween" parade.)

We left the Primary Center and drove over to the Main Campus for the third grade's big event of the year . . . individual BOOO-ook Reports in all classes! The third graders all dressed up as the main character in their books and presented their book reports to an audience of classmates and their parents. Eleanor's book choice was "Happy Birthday, Kit!", an American Girl story. I think she picked the book because she is a doppelganger for Kit Kittredge so the costume was quite convincing. She did a great job, and the class celebrated with cupcakes once everyone's report had been heard. Shortly after the finish of the Booo-ook Reports, I was back at the Primary Center for Hayes's class Halloween party. After a quick Halloween post-lunch snack, the class made some bat pins that the boys enjoyed flying through the air.
I'm exhausted just remembering that morning. To think that I had not even donned my costume for the neighborhood Halloween party later that afternoon! The kids had a ball at school though, and that was what mattered.

New York Journal

While in New York with his grandparents, Hayes kept a journal. Grandmommy had a notepad of paper that she gave to him at dinner their first night in the city and he immediately began writing! From reading these notepad pages and from hearing his stories, we've pieced together much of his trip. He worked so hard on his journal (with some spelling help from Grandmommy) that I wanted to share it.


Page 1: We are in New York. Mom & Dad & Ben & Eleanor & Baxter. We startid when we were at G & G's. I was asleep when Gdaddy woke me up then we went on the airplane. I got a spill. (He supposedly spilled his drink everywhere.)

Page 2: When we were at New York we went to the apartment. (They stayed at Thomas's friends, the Solomon's apartment while they were away for the weekend.) Gdaddy could not open the door then He got it. We went in. then it was lunch. I got a Grilld cheeese with Fench Fries. then went to

Page 3: American Museun of Natural History! I got this Space thing. I playd with it all day. for Dinner We Went to

Page 4: the Boat House. I got Pasta With Marinara sauce. i got chocoite from the waiter at the end. ZZZZZZZZZ. Wake Up!

Page 5: What? Wake up! in the Moning i got a Donut and Orange Juice and a Blueberry scone. We got reddy for

Page 6: the Statue of Liberty. I got stuff for ec & bc / Eleanor /Ben. I got a torch. then We Went on the subway. When we were inside. I playd

Page 7: with my torch. then I went to the bathroom (poo poo) then We Went to Dinner Osteria al Doge. I got cheese Pizza!

Page 8: At the lion king. the king's Dad Died. So Did the lion King!

Page 9: Wake Up! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Ok Today We are going to the

Page 10: Empire State Building. (includes a picture he drew of the building) It was A Great Sight. I could see

Page 11: Our last thing Was A Ride on a Double Decker Bus. We Saw Chris before we Left.

Page 12: the Statue of Liberty! See You When I get Home! Bye!

Lots of Scarecrows

This morning, we were blessed with beautiful weather. We had not yet made our annual October trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to see the "Scarecrows in the Garden" exhibit so away we went! As usual, the scarecrows were top-notch. There were quite a few with a "Pirates of the Scaribbean" theme. We also noticed many had a recycling theme. (I've since learned that "recycling" was the official theme of this year's competition.) Who would have thought that we would find R2D2 and C3PO scarecrows? This Star Wars pair elicited a loud response from our three kids. Hayes also liked the "Captain Scaremerica"-themed scarecrow, while Ben told me that he agreed with my opinion that the "Ghostly Gaudi" scarecrow was cool. Eleanor loved seeing her school's mascot, a Brandon Bee, turned into a scarecrow by a second grade class at her school. While constantly searching for scarecrows throughout the garden, we also decorated some pumpkins, bowled with a pumpkin, and searched for tadpoles. Most of our efforts, though, were concentrated on the scarecrows. Some of my favorites included "Cruella DeVille and her 101 Spotted Pumpkins,"the Venus Flytrap scarecrow,and the "Twitter" scarecrow with a skirt made out of printed out tweets. In the kids' humble opinions, the Carroll Family's "Best in Show Award" goes to the six astronaut scarecrows and their space shuttle. An October visit to the ABG is a great family tradition, and one that we look forward to each and every year!

Hayes's Room

This week, Hayes brought home from school a map of his room. My mind raced back to the last time he had this assignment - January 2010. It was an assignment that we worked on at home together, and it was a struggle just to get him to sit down and put crayon to paper. Here is what he came up with almost 21 months ago.

Now, take a look at what he produced just this week. The detail and effort are totally different, aren't they? We did re-arrange his room a bit from January 2010 (we moved the bed on the left against the windowed wall and parallel to the big windows while also moving a bookcase over to the left side of the room) so the pictures are not exact replicas, but I do love to see how his perception and drawing ability have grown since last year.

Pumpkin Art

Yesterday, while pulling out of our street to begin some after-school shuttling, we noticed that our neighbor David had a bunch of pumpkins in his yard. When we returned home, we saw David on his front steps carving the pumpkins. The boys were dying to go see what David was making so we headed straight over to his yard. There, to our bemusement, we found David carving pumpkins for the kids. He has done this in years past, but the surprise of each new creation always brings huge smiles to the children's faces. Here they are with their individual masterpieces from David. Ben was eager to get his picture taken making a silly face so here he is.

He discovered Hayes's old Spiderman costume and begged to wear it this afternoon. He walked around showing everyone his "muscles".)

Thanks for the amazing pumpkins, David! You've saved us from having to make a last-minute trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Scariest Houses

Any time someone comes over to our house, Ben always says to them, "Do you see our scary house? It is soooo scary, isn't it? We have the scariest house!" He definitely takes pride in what I deem "less-than-desirable" Halloween yard decorations.

What do we have gracing our yard? This creature was present last year

and hung from our front tree. This year, he's lost his hanging ability so Thomas dressed him up with the chain around his neck! The newest addition to our yard trash decorations is this ghoulish bat.

When you press his mouth, as Ben is doing below, he makes some frightening shrieking sounds. Lovely, isn't it?

Of course we have our glow-in-the dark spider webs all over our front bushes but I'll spare you from having to look at them as they've been outside since late September and look worse for the wear. And, to round out our yard decorations, we have the ever-present tombstones

and the skeleton heads on our step railings (see blog header for picture).

As we've driven around town throughout the month of October, I constantly hear,"Ooh! Look at that house!", and "Wow! Look how scary!" as we pass by decorated houses. I truly think that the kids would enjoy driving around to look at Halloween decorations, just as much as they like to look at Christmas decorations in December!

Also catching some of the Halloween spirit, our neighbors have all decorated their homes. We have lots of pumpkins,

some spiders,

and some more scary creatures.

Though last year Hayes created a "Halloween Decor" competition on our street, this year, Ben has switched the focus of the competition from "quantity" of decorations to "the scare factor" of the decorations. If you asked him, he'd humbly proclaim that we have the scariest yard on the street!

Ouch! But Lesson Learned . . .

Last weekend, before heading to the Morris Brandon Jamboree, Eleanor and Ben were running around the house "playing" Star Wars. Unfortunately for Eleanor, she made the decision to wear sandals instead of tennis shoes to the Jamboree and had actually taken off her sandals so that she could run inside the house before we left. After less than one lap around the house, Thomas and I heard a loud crash and some immediate screams and tears. Eleanor had tripped over some piece of furniture and her foot (toes specifically) hit a door frame. Thomas was pretty convinced that she had broken a toe or two. I was flustered as I had to get to my volunteer shifts at the Jamboree so I left Dad and E at home to figure out the next steps.

About a half hour later, they arrived at the Jamboree after having taped her hurt toe (the middle toe on her left foot) to her second toe to keep it straight. Eleanor looked very uncomfortable, but she wanted to be at the Jamboree to have some fun with her friends. After I ran into a friend who is a nurse, and she told me that you don't do anything for a broken toe anyway but tape it, ice it and elevate it. So, that was our course of rehabilitation.

After school Monday, Eleanor came home complaining that her toe really hurt. I called our pediatrician, and described how the top half of her toe was sitting at an unusual angle. They told her to come in, and eventually sent us over to the hospital for x-rays. The concern was that she broke a bone in her foot. Luckily, that was not the case, or at least according to the x-rays. She did, in fact, break her middle toe.

On Wednesday morning, we visited a pediatric orthopedist's office where he expressed his concern that she still might have broken a bone in her foot, but that due to her young age, it would not show up in an x-ray. He wanted to cast her foot/leg, but after living with a cast for a few weeks in kindergarten, I asked for a boot instead. I'm so grateful that he obliged!For the next three weeks, Eleanor will be walking around with her foot in a boot. Her soccer season is officially over, and she will not be able to run in her first 5K with her Girls on the Run program in November. I think once the initial peer attention wears off, she'll be very upset about missing these two events. I know she'll also admit that she's learned her lesson about (1) running in the house and then (2) doing so without shoes. Hopefully, these next three weeks will be smooth sailing!

Lines

Ben loves to play with "collections" of things. Each day, he carries a new grouping around with him. Some days the grouping consists of alphabet cards, other days he'll focus on markers or superhero figures. What does he do with groups of items? He lines them up, of course! At school, they've just introduced the concept of patterns. I'm hoping that we can start putting this habit of forming long lines to educational use by incorporating some sort of pattern here eventually!

Good-Bye Hayes!

On Thursday night, we said good-bye to Hayes for the weekend. He was taking a trip to NYC with Grandmommy and Granddaddy. (It is Carroll tradition for Grandmommy and Granddaddy to take a grandchild to NYC after they turn 6.) Hayes was thrilled beyond belief to be going while the rest of us were quite sad to see him go. Before he drove away with Grandmommy, we took advantage of the photo opportunity. It is comforting to know that these kids truly love each other and enjoy each other's company. I just need to remind myself of this fact when they fight for days on end! The photo below is so sweet. If I had asked them to pose like this, they would never have agreed so I love that it was just spontaneous good feelings. We can't wait to see Hayes when he gets back and hear all about his trip!

Boo!

"Booing" and "Being booed" are October traditions in our neighborhood. On our arrival home from Isle of Palms, we quickly noticed that we had been "booed" while we were gone. How did we know? We found this sign taped to our front door and a bag of candy was right in front of the door. The kids were thrilled! On seeing this "boo" message at our house, they immediately were ready to "boo" some neighbors back. Eleanor hopped on the computer and typed up her own "boo"note. Later in the week, we made a trip to the grocery store to purchase some candy to be used to help "boo". With the "boo" notes and the bags of candy, the children were armed appropriately, and away they went down the street to "boo" the homes of some unsuspecting neighbors.

Shirtless Wonder

Numbers, Anyone?

Right now, Ben seems obsessed with numbers. He walks around the house counting. 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 30 . . . When he gets stuck on a number, he'll ask me, "Mom, what's next? What number comes next?" I'll give him a quick answer, and then he'll continue with his counting.

My problem occurs when he hits 100. After 100, he has no idea where to go. So, after I answer his standard question with the following number, he'll immediately respond to my answer with his question again. It goes something like this . . .

Ben - "100. Mom, what number comes next?"
Mom - "101."
Ben - "101. Mom, is number is next?"
Mom - "102."
Ben - "102. Mom, what number is next?"
Mom - "103. Ben, why don't you start over with 1?"
Ben - "Alright. 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . "

And so it goes.