Ariel, Luigi and Lady Guinevere

Halloween night + 3 kids trick-or-treating = A BOATLOAD OF CANDY! What about you guys?

Sienna family campout

This past Saturday night we participated in the Sienna family campout. (for out-of-town family if you are unfamiliar - Sienna Plantation is the name of our subdivision). We set up camp "next door" to our friends Stuart and Natalie Jackson and their kids Sierra, George and Olivia.

All of the kids played out on the playground until our scrumptous gourmet hot dog dinner. (it kept me out of the kitchen so I was happy!) Then Jeff and Stuart took the kids tent trick-or-treating while Natalie and I handed out candy. Afterwards, there was a magic show and smores. At 10 o'clock Alex and I excused ourselves for the warmth and comfort of our beds and left Jeff and the girls to rough it in the tent... on the ground... in the cold... being startled by the train passing through at 2:10am... Seriously though, overall a good time was had by everyone and we will do it again next year!

Do This!

My daughter now has a blog and I was nice enough to tell people how to get there. So go to

http://www.rebekahscoresagain.blogspot.com/ try it

Hopscotch and the pledge

This is a picture of Alex with his hopscotch game. He wrote numbers 1-20 (the picture only goes to 15) and I am so impressed. He has been my "late bloomer" with writing letters and numbers. He can write his name but has no interest in much of anything else. So when he said "I'm gonna make a hopscotch" I was eager to see what he would do. Well, he got right to work. The first 5 numbers had a square around them just like a hopscotch game should. Then he wrote the remaining numbers by themselves. I am just thrilled!

On another academic note, he came home from school Thursday with a little American flag because he can now say the Pledge of Allegiance by himself with no prompting. What a smart little guy!

Power washing and nosebleeds

Between Thursday and Friday I spent 6 hours powerwashing our driveway, sidewalks and front walkway. Whew! What a remarkable difference this made in the appearance of our house. Check out the pictures.

Good thing I waited until Friday to powerwash the driveway because last night sweet little Alex threw the Frisbee and it hit Emma smack dab in the nose and caused, you guessed it, a brutal nosebleed. Not only is she prone to them just by genetics (Jeff's side) and weather changes, now we are compounding the problem with accidents. (BTW - last Thursday night Jeff was taking off her cleats and one flew up and hit her in the nose and brought on a nosebleed. Poor kid can't catch a break!)

Current events

No pictures today, just a written post of our recent activities. Last Thursday I stepped into a hole near the soccer fields and sprained my ankle. Well, I wasn't certain it was only a sprain so Friday morning Alex and I visited the local hospital to get an x-ray. Not broken, just sprained. So now I have a goose egg on my ankle and am keeping it wrapped. Not doing too good on doctor's orders of "stay off of it." Imagine that!
Friday night we went out to dinner with the Jacksons. Ate good bbq and then went back to their house for a mean game of ping pong! Saturday morning both girls had soccer games. I took Emma and a teammate, Aileen, to have their soccer team pictures; and then we came back to the house for a playdate. At dinnertime Rebekah's friend Alyssa came over to spend the night because Sunday after church they were going to the 4th grade movie and pizza party that the church was hosting.
Our Sunday was overcast and sometimes raining but that didn't keep us inside. After church and a yummy lunch at Pei Wei we played outside while Jeff trimmed the backwall jasmine. The Jacksons came by for a minute and Olivia, Emma's friend, stayed and played. It started to rain and the kids put on their bathing suits and jumped on the trampoline. All in all a good couple of days!

How to clean a fishbowl

Believe it or not, this is not a "posed" picture. I took this tonight while Jeff supervised Rebekah writing out her flow map for her "How To" project. She chose how to clean a fishbowl. I cleaned it out today and walked her through the steps and then she wrote out the steps, how and why. Next week she will be giving a presentation to her class using the flow map and visual aids. Good work Bekah!

Emma's teacher conference

Today I had the Fall conference with Emma's teacher. Here is the report -- Emma is a model student. She works hard and eagerly completes her assignments. She gets along very well with all classmates and is always in a good mood. Her reading level is at the beginning of 2nd grade; and she excels in math as well. She is a joy to have in class. Anyone surprised by this feedback?!? Not me! Love you Emma!

Columbus Day per Wikipedia

The first Columbus Day celebration was held in 1792, when New York City celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event in 1892. Since 1971, the holiday has been commemorated in the U.S. on the second Monday in October, the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada. It is generally observed today by schools, some banks, the bond market, the U.S. Postal Service, federal offices, and most state government offices; however, most businesses and stock exchanges remain open.

Emma's soccer game

This morning I had a soccer game. My team is the Wildcats. I ran hard and fast and scored a goal! And I am so happy to be playing soccer. I love it! I am so happy to see all my friends again.