Christmas before Thanksgiving

Since we were planning on going on a loooong trip for Thanksgiving, we decided to send a letter to Santa early to ask for some special things for our trip. Luckily Santa got our letter and decided we were good enough to get our presents.Santa gave Jacob, Amara, and Ethan new sleeping bags and Jacob, Amara, Ethan, and Keira personal DVD players with head phones.

Soren got an Einstein ball.

My new favorite new teaching tool

One day Amara came home from school with crackers that spelled that spelled her name. I asked her where she got them and she told me that a friend had brought them for her to eat. While shopping at Smith's I found them. They are about $2 in the cookie section. Now we play with them everyday for lunch. We spell out names, word of the week, and count too. I love these and the kids are having so much fun with them too and them don't even realize that they are learning.

Reflections

Reflections is a nationwide contest that encourages children to take a topic and then express it artistical. This years topic was "Diversity means....". Jacob decided to do photography. He took his sister and 3 of her friends to a park to take pictures. He had them playing and walking while he took pictures of them.
These are some of the pictures he submitted in a collage.

Jacob won 2nd place. He was awarded a medal with his name on it from the principal. I think he might have done better if we had submitted one big picture instead.


Amara entered the visual arts. She found some pictures of 8 different irises.

October Update

Jacob

He is doing well in school and is really loving being in ballroom. He started the tutoring program at the library and enjoys reading with his tutor. He entered the reflections contest at school but I'll post on that more a little later. He has been working towards getting his bear, he even talked with Grandpa Chipman about what it was like when he was a cub scout. We are hoping to have his bear done by January but our pack is in the process of getting set up so hopefully that will get done soon.

Amara
She is still loving school and has only missed getting a 100% on her spelling test twice. She also is being tutored in reading at the library and has made several new friends there. She was one of Jacob's subjects in the reflections contest and also had her own entry. We had a really good time working on her Halloween costume.


Ethan
He loves going to school just so he can play on the playground and with his best friend Paysen. Like the older kids he too is being tutored at the library but also gets special tutoring by Paysen's mom (starting today). He decided he and Jacob needed to remodel their room. He cleaned their room and moved out some toys to the playroom and then moved the lego table and chairs in. Now I often find the boys playing legos at their table instead of sleeping.


Keira
She loves going to preschool (taught by Paysen's mom) and is mad that she doesn't get to go everyday like the big kids. Her teacher is very clever and comes up with the cutest crafts for the alphabet. Here she is wear her "D"inosaur feet. She has made "F"lamingos and "E"laphants from her own picture. She knows all her letters and sounds through F. We got to go to Cornbelly's on a fieldtrip. It was pretty cold but a lot of fun. She wanted to wear Soren's owl hat.


Soren

He is growing way too fast for my likes. He had his first taste of squash this week. He loved it. He is very clean when he eats. I don't have to use a bib, I just usually do for just-in-case. Unfortuneatly he is sick again, this time his first cold. He is still as happy as ever but isn't sleeping well at night but his napping is getting much better.

Jake and Jill

Jake got to spend all of October at home and not traveling, but did end up working every Saturday. He did get to take of Fall break and we went to the movies and out to dinner and watched movies at home on our new tv. I spent most of the month working on Halloween costumes. We decided to make Jacob a Ben 10 jacket this year. I died a jean jacket green and made and glued white stripes and then ironed on a 10. I bought Amara a southern Belle costume but when I got it out of the package it was plastic white sheeting so I made her 2 more layers and sewed them on. I finished sewing her costume at 10 pm on the 30th. We also glued flowers on her hat. I was estactic that the weather was so nice and warm for trick-or-treating. We went for about 2 hours with stops at Great Grandma Harvey and Grandpa & Grandma Chipman's houses.

Halloween

HalloweenThis was a great Halloween. The kids choose great costumes. And I can't tell you how happy I was this year that the weather was warm. Jacob as Ben 10 (again)

Amara as Scarlet O'hara (the dress was made of white plastic sheeting and I had to sew extra layers of fabric under. I finished sewing on the 30th at 10 pm.

Ethan as Captain America. After school he decided he didn't like the mask and changed into his firefighter costume (I didn't get a picture).

Keira as Hello Kitty

Soren as a tiger or Rath from Ben 10