The rest of October 2009:

The rest of October 2009: Well, it has been a month since I’ve written, so I can’t really remember what happened each week. The kids got a fever/cough thing one week and cleared up pretty quickly. We went to a family party for our cousins Sarah and Cori. My friend Jamie took the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese for a belated (and much appreciated) birthday present. We carved pumpkins, had a vocabulary parade and Halloween party at school, and went to the community Halloween party, and went trick-or-treating.

The kids have been doing really well adapting to school. They seem to have gotten used to getting up to an alarm clock and having to focus on getting ready for the bus. We have missed the bus one time, so that further enforced that if they don’t do what they are supposed to in the morning, they will miss out on that time with their friends.

Alex got upset a few weeks ago because he got put in “sit and think” (got in trouble) at school for not following the rules. Recently he told me “Mom, I haven’t been in ‘sit and think’ in a long time. I’m good at school!” He was proud of himself, and I’m proud of him too.

Chloe has been recognized for her artistic abilities. One of her pictures was sent to the office, another was held up by the art teacher for the rest of the class to see. While I was in class volunteering the teacher whispered to me “Chloe’s project will probably look like a Rembrandt when she’s done.”

Both kids have been bringing home papers with letters and numbers and words that they have written themselves. Over the summer I couldn’t seem to get the kids to be interested in writing at all, but the teacher has got them motivated. She told them not to worry about spelling, just to sound the words out and write them down. She calls it “Kindergarten spelling”. Chloe especially likes this lack of pressure so much that her writing has become prolific. The teacher told her she could be an author one day since she practices so much. Chloe was really pleased by that idea so she decided to write about it. She spells author “ofr”.

It was our first time going to the community party and the kids loved it. Before the party adults had filled small plastic pumpkins with candy and hidden them in the softball field for an Easter-egg-type hunt. There was also pizza and the general joy of getting to see all the costumes of the kids in the community during the day light. Alex dressed as a Clone Trooper (from the latest Star Wars movie), and that turned out to be the most popular costume as there were 4 total Clone Troopers. Chloe dressed as Mulan. Blade, Skye, Tricia and Grammy Barb came over for trick-or-treating. When the moon peaked out from behind the clouds we noticed that it was a full moon. Blade said “Watch out for werewolves!” Chloe said “that’s just a Halloween legend”. Aunt Tricia couldn’t believe knew how to use the word “legend” in that context.