Halloween

Okay, I've tried over and over to upload the Halloween pictures and over half of them aren't working, but that's okay, they'll work just fine for my blog book ;)

We had a fun Halloween. I went into Alissa's class for their Halloween party and ended up meeting and chatting with a lady in our neighborhood the last half of the time while the other moms did their activities with the class. The kids had a blast with BINGO, word finds, egg walks and more.

After school, the kids were pretty anxious to get out and go trick-or-treating. Zach and his friends ran from house to house getting pictures with "this mom and that mom" and they were itching to go. As soon as I gave the kids dinner and took MY pictures, Zach was off. It's weird to be a mom when the time comes when they would rather be with friends. It happens, I know, but it's new and different for this momma!

Alissa was running back and forth from our house to Katelyn's house and we had some drama unfold for a little bit. Mindy, John and the boys wanted to come over, but I didn't know the plan. I knew Zach wanted to be with friends and Alissa wanted to go with Katelyn. Alissa and Katelyn had the plan to go out and Alissa was waiting over at our house, when she saw Katelyn's dad and Katelyn drive away. We assured Alissa that if he said she could go, he wouldn't just leave with out her. Non the less, Alissa was in tears. A few minutes later, they pulled back in and then it was time for Katelyn to have tears. She was sad about her clown smile and it looked liked the girls weren't going to go out and Alissa would be "stuck" with mom, Mindy and the boys. When all seemed to be lost, Katelyn and her dad walked over to take Alissa with them down the road to a few houses.

Mindy, John and the boys showed up minutes later and we waited until Alissa came back and headed out. Half way through, we saw Zach and his friends and Zach joined us for the rest of the night. At the end of the night, the kids got to divvy up their candy and trade it in for some predetermined alternatives. Zach wanted money and Alissa wanted stuffed animals, so it all worked out great. Zach only kept 4 of his candies and Alissa chose to keep all 10 that we told them they could keep. It was a fun night.
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Pumpkin carving

We had fun over at Mindy and John's carving punkins. Grammy and Grandpa Greg where there and they turned out great. Alan came along with us this year and we sat in the garage and created our fun pumpkins. Alissa's was a kitty, Mine was the traditional jack-o-lantern, Zach's was a Minecraft creeper and Alan's was an owl.
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Fun with Aunt Amber

Alissa has been wanting to do Yoga with Amber again. Amber came over for lunch and then waited for Alissa to get home from school, I kicked the boys out and they did yoga! Alissa did great and Amber is a great instructor.

After they were done, they did some singing! Alissa wrote down all the words to a song she's been liking and along with that song, she's been tapping her hands all over the house. She taught Amber the tapping and I was cracking up because by the end, Amber was just tapping without doing it "right".

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When he GETS IT!

Earlier this month when we went to parent teacher conferences, we found out that Zach was struggling with math. Apparently this year they switched the work books for 5th graders and even the teacher admitted that the other teachers and herself were struggling with teaching it and understanding it.

Today Zach emptied out his backpack and his math scores were really low. As a mom, it's hard when kids are struggling in any way, shape or form. I've been thinking of what I can do to help, but he's been doing so well with after school stuff. He gets home and is great. He whips out his homework, gets it done, does dishes, cleans his room and is off to play. We used to struggle with homework, so I've wanted to take a more standoffish approach this year. I figured as long as he was doing his stuff smoothly without arguments, then I'd let the cards fall where they may.

Well, when I saw a stack of homework with low scores, I immediately wondered what I could do that wouldn't cause stress to his every day homework time. I decided I'd have him give me his work when he was done and I'd correct it while he was off getting his other stuff done. This way I could figure out what he wasn't getting and try and help.

He's working on the FUN stuff right now like 3 + 3 - (5 x 2) - 1 x 5. I love that stuff and I knew if he understood how to do it, he'd like it too. So after I corrected, I sat down with him and went over the steps that were laid out on his paper. I showed him how to do EACH and EVERY step, one step at a time and how EASY it was when he did it the right way.

After he got going, man, he just GOT IT. We started out with tears because he kept telling me that he knew what he was doing and I kept explaining to him that if he knew what he was doing, the answers would be mostly right, not mostly wrong. As he worked the problems the right way, his whole demeanor changed and he was smiling and saying "this is so easy!" I sat with him through 16 problems and we talked about how things can become fun and easy when we know how to do them and by the end, he was all bubbly and proud of himself for kicking maths butt. As his mom, I just watched him and even got a little teary eyed because I saw that spark when he GOT IT.

It was a good reminder to me that my kids might be going through life seemingly happy like they get what's going on, but a little help and encouragement from mom can go a long way!

by the way, the answer to the problem above is -9 ;)
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Sick day

Over Fall Break, Zach got a little cold. He had a cough Saturday and it turned into a sore throat on Sunday. It wasn't horrible, but we made it a nice relaxing movie day. I love our couches because you can rearrange them into one big couch and it's so comfy...PLUS, both kids can be on it and not be TOUCHING!

The kids watched all sorts of movies like "The Witches" and "Charley and the Chocolate Factory" (the new version). I loaded Zach up on vitamin C and gave him some tea to sooth his throat and thankfully it didn't get any worse.

Hee Haw Farms

It's been quite a long time since we've hung out with Ian, Sarah and the kids. Alan got a text from Ian inviting us to Hee Haw Farms and of course we wanted to go! We went with them two years ago and this time they had their little guy, Gibson. It's always a good time getting together with them and for sure something that needs to happen more often!

We did things this year that we haven't in the past. They had big old bails of hay to run and jump on, pony rides and rabbit holding. Of course the slide was a huge hit like all the times we've been and the corn maze didn't get us lost for over an hour this time! Good time!

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It's offically Fall

Although I am saddened that summer and warm weather is (mostly) over, It is BEAUTIFUL out right now! The tree right outside of my office window just turned orange and I have to admit that this time of year is certainly beautiful.

Alissa does Yoga

On Mindy's birthday, Aunt Amber showed the kids how to do some yoga into a head stand. Alissa has been at home practicing to see how long she can stay up and is excited to do more yoga with Amber some day!

New lens, quick shots

Sometimes life gets rough and we struggle. It's all part of life, but Alan and I have had to sell somethings that we really loved like his motorcycle and one of my lenses. Because I'm trying to jump back into photography, I did need a lens to replace the one I loved, so I bought one from a girl on I Love Photography forum. Otto was the only one around when I got it and wanted to test it. He's a handsome cat! Then Alissa came home and I grabbed one of her too. I hope I get the chance to use it more through photo sessions.

Party in Alissa's room

Alan and I mention some what often about how it's very cool that we have little creatures living with us, who love us and who share their lives with us. Alissa really forms great bonds with our cats, especially the male cats. Bob and Otto seem to be fairly the same in that they both put up with Alissa's torture and make special bonds with her. But lately, we have found that Tiss loves Alissa's room because there are lots of places to bundle up in. Tiss loves boxes, drawers and places where she's protected. Otto loves Alissa's bed. We love these little creatures! I also love the little things I find, like Alissa covering her door in cute pictures and taping mini studded animals to her door. Someday they will be replaced with posters of cute boys and other teen stuff. I'll take the kid stuff a little bit longer, thanks!

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Alissa's ouchy

Alissa seems to be prone to getting ouchies. She had what looked like a little pimple on her knee and the next night it was looking pretty dang bad with red working it's way up her leg. So that evening we did a little "surgery" on her. She was scared because Alan kept joking about burning her with the needle and having to pop an infected ouchy on her leg. I'm also guilty of saying it was either this or the doctors could chop her leg off.  It was all in good fun and It all worked out in the end.. We applied a warm wash cloth and she got a little pinch and Alan was able to squeeze soft enough to get some of the puss out (gross) and the next day it looked a lot better.

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