Decorating for Halloween

Though it was not yet October, we decided to pull the Halloween decorations out this past weekend.  It felt like Christmas morning as they unpacked our multiple Halloween crates. 

They then spent much of Saturday morning before soccer games decorating the house and yard.  Later in the day, I spotted Witch Ben flying around our front yard. 

Hope we can keep the Halloween spirit alive for another 31+ days!

H's Self-Assessment

Last week, Hayes brought this worksheet home from one of his classes.

 

He said the handout was not representative of the full activity, but I still found the paper and Hayes's description of himself interesting. 

Almost a Big Boy

One afternoon after school while playing out back with Dixie, Ben turned to me

 

and said,"I only need to learn how to put shampoo in my hair, read, and tie my shoes before I'm a big boy."  Obviously, someone's keeping track of his progress towards this milestone!

E's Fun at Madame Tussaud's in LA

I've enjoyed flipping through E's pictures from her California trip.  Some of my favorites are from their trip to Madame Tussauds, where E showed off her spunk.  She probably does not recognize the majority of these wax figures, but she still appears to have had a great time. 

She's way too young to appreciate Eddie Murphy in his prime for Beverly Hills Cop, but she still strikes a pose with him. 

 Patrick Swayze looks like he's not being a good dance partner. 

She's a talented girl since she can bust a move with MJ all the while holding on to her American Girl doll!

Maybe she should think about drama classes since she seems to enjoy hamming it up!

E's California Trip to Hollywood

(a very delayed post from early August)

I went to Hollywood

 

for the first time on August 6th. When we first got there, we went to Santa Monica Pier and we went to the beach. We walked on the pier and we rode the carousel. Then we went back to the hotel and had dinner. The next day, we walked up to Sunset Blvd.

 

and went on a Starline Bus Tour.  On the tour, we rode to The Grove, the Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Bowl, Beverly Hills,

 

down Rodeo Drive,

 

and then we got off at the Walk of Fame to go to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. After that we went to Sweet Candy Store, where I made my own candy bar. It was milk chocolate with caramel, gummybears, and crushed Oreos. After going to the candy store, we went to Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum. There we saw people such as Rihanna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Marilyn Monroe,

 

Moses, Cleopatra, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, E.T., Elton John, David Beckham

Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Jackie Robinson, Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, Spider Man, and Tony Stark. We also got a mug shot while we were at the wax museum. 

 

The next day, we had a V.I.P. tour of the Warner Brothers Studio. We saw where they filmed shows such as Pretty Little Liars(I think)and a lot of other shows.

In the end, we had lots of fun. It was really sad to leave Hollywood!! Thank you Grandmommy and Granddaddy for taking me!!

                      THE END                                                                  

WRITTEN BY ELEANOR HERSELF

Visit from Cousin Cate

We had cousin Cate spend the night with us Wednesday night this week.  With her sister Everly still in a full-body cast due to her broken femur and Uncle Michael having to travel to Boston for work, we tried to help Aunt Ivy out by relieving her of her Cate responsibilities for the night.  The novelty of having a sleepover on a school night was not lost on the kids!

After coming home from school and playing a bit down the street with neighbors, Eleanor and Francie decided to teach the younger ones how to play Four Square.

 

From the looks of what I observed for a few minutes, Four Square has changed dramatically since I used to play it in elementary school on the blacktop!

Summer To-Do LIst Summary

Though I'm a few weeks late, I wanted to take the opportunity to revisit our "Summer To-Do List"  now that summer has come to a close. My goal this summer with this list was to have the kids suggest activities that we might actually complete and based on all of our checks,

 

it appears that they did a great job brainstorming ideas within this parameter.  With the little "free" time we ended up having, I'm grateful for the direction this list provided in helping us choose activities that we truly wanted to do. 

Once Labor Day passes, the kids already start planning activities for next summer.  I can't wait to see what they come up with for the Summer 2014 List!

Math Games

Since Eleanor chose not to practice her math facts over the summer (who can blame her?), we have found that she needs to work on them regularly as part of her "homework" during the week.  Her teacher, on the class blog, posted a bunch of new math websites that the kids have enjoyed trying out.  Their current favorite is a car race done via math speed tests.  The kids can select the math fact test details (such as 6 through 9 multiplication facts) and then race other kids on the website at the same time.  Eleanor and Hayes have figured out a way to race against each other

 

and this has made for some heated math fact side-by-side battles at the dining room table.  I expected screams or tears when the battles grew intense but smiles were all I saw, thank goodness!

Hayes's Most Recent Email

Thomas and I received the following email from Hayes

yesterday:

You made me angry and sad.(just kidding,i love you) 

Love

hgchcgfvghcdndchgnh*

Hayes

*That's Hayes language for you are my best friends

If I were a betting woman (and I'm not), I'd bet that in a few years, Hayes will not admit that he ever called his father and me his best friends . . . so I'm documenting it here.  

H's Chinese Calendar Theory

From earlier this summer and I forgot to post it . . .

One day this summer, I was having a not-so-good day.  (It was definitely an adjustment for all of us to get used to being around each other all day every day.)  Something silly slipped out of my mouth like, "Nothing is going right today!"  Hayes, being the kid that he is,

 

quickly retorted with, "It is probably because it is the Year of the Snake."

Yep.  I had to look it up.  

Ben's First Day of 5/6

Last Wednesday, it was finally Ben's turn to start school.  He is returning to The Preschool for one final year and this year, he is in the 5/6 class. 

 

 

He has been waiting for this year for some time as he finally has the same teacher both Eleanor and Hayes had in Pre-K - the beloved Ms. George. (She moved up to teach the 5/6 class the year after she taught Hayes Pre-K.)

 

Ben also has some of his best buddies in his class

 

so we know this will be a wonderful year for him.  Since this is our final year in The Preschool's carpool, (yippee!) we decided to take a selfie

 

while waiting in the carpool line before school began.  

Art Camp

By the third week of August, Ben was ready for his school to start . . . but he still had to wait two more weeks!  To help pass the time, he attended Art Camp with our good friends the Art Chicks, Ms. Holly and Ms. Lannie.  Over the five mornings, the class painted this chick,

 

this funny-looking bird

and a family of peas in a pod.  Last year, Ben took this same class and they also made a family of peas.  His pod from this year is the one above in the picture below (though Dixie chewed up the vine tail). 

 

What a difference a year makes with fine motor skills!

As usual, Ben loved his time with the Art Chicks and hopes to take another class from them this school year before they officially retire next May.