Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween!  The kids have been looking forward to this for months!  They got to wear costumes to school for their school parties and had a blast at those!  

 Kayda is the pink power ranger mega force (yes power rangers... I know), Carson is bumblebee from transformers, Dillon is robo knight (a power ranger ally).  It's heroes all around here!

 Power Ranger poses!

 Carson's getting in on the action!

Getting Ready for Halloween!

We live conveniently close to Spooner farms now and they happen to have a pretty good pumpkin patch!  So we went there after Daddy got home from work on evening.  

Pumpkin launching!

Can you see the pumpkin?

See it?

Duck racing!

"Take a picture mom!"

 Carson didn't understand that you weren't supposed to go under the ropes in the rope maze.  He went everywhere he wanted with just the tiniest duck of the head!

 This morning we carved pumpkins!  Carson and Dillon don't like the goo.  They both say "eww".  Kayda still loves it.

 "Show me your pumpkin Carson!"  He picked out the shape eyes, nose and mouth he wanted (I drew options on a piece of paper and he pointed to what he wanted).

 Drawing the face for Daddy to carve for her!

 Carrying out Carson's pumpkin!

 Left to right: Mommy, Carson, Daddy, Dillon, Kayda

Happy Halloween!

Parent/teacher conferences!

Daddy and I always look forward to parent teacher conference time!  We know our kids are fantastic so we go in all giddy ready to have the teacher inflate our already gigantic parental egos.  We started off with Kayda's teacher Ms. F.

Kayda is above average in pretty much everything.  She gets 100% on almost every test she has.  She is pretty much already where she is supposed to be at for the END of first grade.  She is WAY above the district averages. We don't know her reading level yet, they do those tests in December.  Apparently the teacher has decided that Kayda needs more of a challenge and is intending to start sending home "challenge" homework in addition to Kayda's regular practice.  In the teachers words Kayda's strengths: "loves school, well-liked, lots of friends, respectful, leader, follows directions, listens attentively, takes pride in her work, responsible and on task."  We were also told Kayda has "beautiful penmanship".

On to Dillon.  Ms. M seems to LOVE Dillon.  She immediately told us about how nice it was to have him in class, how sweet he is, he's always on task, listens well, gets along with the other kids and is always calm.  She told us that he has wonderful fine motor skills and seems to have much better control of the pencil than most kindergarten boys so he has great penmanship as well.  His reading test scores weren't great but she was confident in his abilities.  Apparently the tests are timed and that might be a little strange for him.  There are also some skills that need extra practice that I didn't even know to have him practice.  He knows all his letters (upper and lower),  recognizes his numbers 1-20 and could count to 39 without error.  I'm not sure why that was as high as he could count.... he's constantly counting around the house!  He loves to count to 100 so it's just a matter of getting that through for the teacher.  His math score was already where it needs to be for the entire year!  Apparently I have a couple little mathematicians on my hands!

Kayda and Dillon both LOVE to learn.  At home Dillon will sit down with the entire week's packet of homework and finish it in one sitting, then he'll pull out his workbook and spend long periods of time working on that.  Kayda also loves to work on her workbook but likes to space her homework out a little more just because she gets bored doing the same thing over and over.  There have been several occasions where Kayda and Dillon have played school together for hours at a time where they are doing actual school type work.  They also like to try and teach Carson his letters and shapes.  Both kids are very interested in improving their reading skills and take great pride in their knowledge and skill.

We are the luckiest parents alive to have three wonderful children!

On a side note the kids were home sick today so Grandma H came down to watch them so we could go to conferences.  Thanks a ton!

Kayda's 8th Tooth!

Kayda's tooth has been loose for what seems like ages!  She's been tugging on it and pushing it around and finally today she said it was the day to pull it out.  Initially SHE wanted to pull it out herself.  Then she decided she wanted Mommy to do it.  First I tried to get the floss on there like I did with Dillon.  It wouldn't stay on there.

 So finally we grabbed a tissue, I was able to get me fingernail under the back of the tooth and quick easy tug to get that sucker out!  

Look at that beautiful girl!  So proud to have ANOTHER tooth out!  As Daddy keeps saying, these kids are going to make the tooth fairy go broke!  Fortunately there aren't anymore loose teeth.... at least not today there's not. 

Dillon's SECOND tooth!

Dillon's front bottom teeth both became loose at the same time, wiggle one, the other one wiggled too.  Today he was showing me his tooth, it was sticking out perpendicular to it's normal position.  I asked him if he wanted me to tug it out so the tooth fairy could come again.  He said "yes".  So I got the floss, wrapped it around and out it came.  He is super excited to have another tooth fairy visit!

Dillon's First Tooth!!!

Dillon has had two very wiggly front, bottom teeth for the last week or so.  Today I was checking them out and noticed that his lower central right tooth was completely free along the back and you could see the new tooth poking through behind it.  I told him it should pull out pretty easy, it would hurt for a short while but would feel better quickly.  He decided to give it a go so that the tooth fairy could come tonight.  I wrapped some floss around it and POP!  Out it came.  It bled a little bit and it hurt.  He cried for a couple minutes but then it stopped hurting and he was SUPER excited!

 Right afterwards, trying to soak up the blood so he didn't have to swallow it. (he's holding the tooth but it's in front of the paper towel so it's tough to spot)

 Check it out!  Happy guy!

See the new tooth already through?  It's just behind the red spot.

Pumpkin Fest!

 Today was our little town's pumpkin fest!  They had booths and games for the kids and were going to have a kids' parade but our kiddos lost patience.  Before we get to that... Kayda is going to a friend's "rock star dance birthday party" and wanted to look like a rock star.  She requested colored hairspray and such so we went all out... Let me just say, we're screwed when she starts getting interested in boys...  They're already interested in her.  Apparently there is a little boy in her class (Brock), she came home and told me "Mom I made a new friend.  Sometimes he's not very good but I'm letting him be my friend anyway.  He always wants to sit by me and play with me!"  I am SO glad she's oblivious to that stuff still!

 They had quite a few games set up at the pumpkin fest.  They had to dig through straw to find toys and candy!

 Bean bag toss!

 Potato sack race.

 The older kids chose these teeth as one of their prizes and were having quite a blast with them!

Gotta love our little town!