Halloween Eve

Macy and her "Jaw cancer survivor" that didn't make it so well. SHe was a car hop this year--reusing her dance costume from April. For various events, she has worn that outfit about 6 times--making the $70 we spent worthwhile.

Kaylin and her pumpkin from the other night. She's Gabriella this year, reusing Macy's Halloween costume from last year. We're all about recycling this year.

Girls and their cousin Hannah, a pretty witch this year. We always go up to the downtown area, where the businesses hand out candy.

It was verrryyy windy and pretty chilly. Here's the girls jumping around to keep warm while in line.


Arriving at Grandma and Papa's house for a treat and birthday celebration.



Tonight as I put them to bed:
Kaylin: I love you.
Me: I love you.
Kaylin: You're supposed to say I love you too!

Up next: pictures from trick or treating and jumping in the leaves!

Parent Teacher Conferences

Good round of parent/teacher conferences last night.

Macy was up first. Her teacher only had good things to say about her--organized, helps other kids, not a problem, and she wishes she had 20 other Macy's in the class! Love to hear that. She's reading above grade average, which she has been for a while now.

She had been going to speech twice a week for her "th" sound. We met with the speech teacher, and she feels Macy has conquered that in just a few weeks, so she was dismissed. The speech teacher said she thought about holding on to Macy for another quarter since she is such a good role model for the other kids.

Kaylin was up then. I was worried about this one, as Kaylin can be fiery little thing. Her teacher only had good things to say also. She needs to learn to tie her shoes, and not rush through her work quickly, but that she is a kind and sweet girl who is a joy to have in class. Her reading level hasn't been determined yet, but she has hit all the milestones with sounds, recogzing letters, knows her address and phone number, and behaves well in class.

No concerns regarding the girls. I'm so thankful they at least behave themselves at school, since they don't at home. :)

And once again, as I've mentioned before, the reason they are so far ahead of their classmates is the wonderful preschool education they received.

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger...been crazy busy at work and at home lately.

Friday I took 4 little girls to a friend's pumpkin carving party by myself--felt like SuperMom for a bit, until we actually started carving the pumpkins. :)

Here's Macy with her "goo" from her pumpkin. She wasn't bothered at all.

Kaylin and her "goo"--she didn't really like it, and kept wiping her hands on a towel.

Macy and the pumpkin she named Mike. Her pumpkin was rotting through on the bottom (that's what I get for a free pumpkin, huh Jesse?) so she cut a huge mouth and then made a monster with one eyeball. She really did a good job--I was proud of her.

I didn't get a very good picture of Kaylin's pumpkin, but I carved it myself--the first one I've done! It was hard work-her pumpkin was huge, and it was cold in the garage. But it got done, with the help of my friend Amy on the kitty's tail.


Tomorrow is the Halloween-- ahem, excuse me, Fall Festival party. I'm sure I'll have interesting pictures of that!

And Wednesday is Parent/Teacher Conferences...can't wait to hear how they are doing!

I'll try to be better this week. Things have calmed down, thankfully.

Sleepwalker, Part 352

Kaylin is the sleepwalker at our house, as I know I've mentioned before. We've found in her some strange places, and seen her do weird things while she's asleep.

Tonight she was super tired for some reason, and fell asleep absurdly easy for her. About an hour later, I took a shower, and was sitting at the kitchen table researching how to rescue a cell phone that went through the washing machine (yes, I know. I'm not even going to write about it.) when something caught my eye. Here's what I saw:

Guess she wanted to lay on the couch! She cracks me up--she's such a spirited, funny child that is a contradiction: she is independent and needy all at the same time, and outgoing and shy at the same time. She's the best of both worlds. (he, he. Get it?)

I just pray she doesn't injure herself one of these days while sleepwalking.

48 inches

Kaylin had a big day yesterday. After years of waiting, and countless times of measuring, she is finally 48 inches. Barely. And I mean barely. And the rolls of tape from First Aid in the bottom of her shoe didn't hurt, either. :)

And if you don't know what 48 inches means, then you haven't been around our house much. :)

A windy trip to WOF was in order. Here's our big girl on the Mamba. She rode with Bobby, and she has been so excited about riding this for two years now. For those of you who don't know, it kinda tricks you at the top--you don't go straight down. Bobby said she had her hands up, yelling, on that trick part, then when we started down, she just stopped yelling and stared. It was extremely windy yesterday, and I was even blown away going down the hill. She says she loved it. Judging from her grin and the round of high-fives, I would say she did.

Macy and Kaylin in line for the Timber Wolf.              Here's the girls on the Timber Wolf. I am so thankful KK can now ride it, because I hope to never sit foot on that thing again.                            Little snake outside Spinning Dragons.

                                               Kaylin getting ready to get on the Prowler. We rode this one twice. This one is my favorite--Bobby and Macy both love the Mamba. Hopefully KK likes this one better, so she and I can ride it together. We rode this one first, and she just grinned and grinned.

All in all, it was a special day for Kaylin. She has been begging to ride these rides since Macy could two years ago, but was really bad this year. And she watched friends ride with Macy. She got measured at the front gate and got a wristband, so she never got measured at the gates. She was tickled pink. I bet she slept well last night.

My baby's growing up.

Next stop: Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Home to 17 roller coasters.

Recap

Recap of the last few days:

Thursday brought many a counseling session with a senior whose parents kicked her out the night before, because she had been texting during the school day. Now, they've had that rule for the two years I've had this student, and she's been consistently breaking it. I have no idea what happened in that house, but I sure hope it was something other than just that she'd been texting during the day. I can't imagine kicking the girls out of my house for something like that. At the end of the day, she left with her mom after an hour in the guidance department. All appears well.

Monday and Thursday were parent/teacher conferences. I usually only see the parents whose kids have A's. Funny thing--the kids who are flunking  and reading way below grade average have parents who don't ever come to conferences. Direct correlation? I think so.

There's an interesting age difference at conferences. The students are between 15-18. Since I have a low turn out, I usually parent-watch. I see young parents--in their thirties, who had their kids young. Sometimes these parents also have a baby or toddler. Then I see the older parents--in their fourties/fifties, who had their kids  in their twenties/thirties. These parents usually look tired.

On my day off yesterday, I decided to go for a run. I haven't ran in several weeks. I cranked out 3 miles, every step painful. Today is even more painful. I was just happy that after not running, I could pick up pretty much where I left off.

I ate lunch with the girls yesterday. Kaylin wanted me to bring McDonalds, and I had a great time listening to the kindergartners yabber. I don't know her friends as well as I do Macy's, so it was nice to see them in action. I'm not sure how much longer it will be "cool" for me to eat with Macy. She didn't want me to bring food, so she could buy her lunch and sit by her friends. Because I've known many of these kids for two years, I hear choruses of "Hi Macy's Mom!" every time I go in. Somehow I always end up sitting across from this boy Landon, who was in Macy's kindergarten class. He talks my ear off everytime.

Are you still reading this mammoth post? Yeah for you!!!

Introductions

Yesterday my dad surprised both girls by showing up to eat lunch at school with them. They were extremely excited to tell me about it. Later, when talking to my mom, I got another detail.

Apparently Kaylin introduced her friends to Grandpa, but then said, "And this is Calvin Newberry." Not, this is my Grandpa, but this is Calvin Newberry.

Too cute!

FYI--Yesterday's post with the excited faces was Number 400.