Halloween starts tonight!

Owen’s school Fall Festival was tonight and we wanted some one-on-one time with him so asked friends to watch Katie. They were going to a Trunk or Treat event so she was excited! She was Rapunzel—with Pascal on her shoulder!

And then we had Harry Potter—SO stinkin’ cute!

With his fresh scar:

Getting his new shoes tied. I bought these shoes on clearance about four years ago and they’re finally the right size…and worked well with his costume!

Couldn’t you just eat him up?


We kept bouncing back and forth between the games in the gym and the music in the cafeteria. He didn’t want to dance but loved playing with the hula hoops! He was very shy because he didn’t know many of the kids.

And you’ll notice he’s missing the glasses. Yeah. He decided about 15 minutes in that he didn’t want to wear them. Or carry his broom. Kids. :/

Back to games!

And then since it was crazy crowded and he was pretty much done, we suggested frozen yogurt—and he wanted to leave immediately. 🙂

Katie actually got home later than us! They said she qas very well-behaved and had a BLAST! And she came home with a TON of candy!

The vampire teeth were the favorite thing.

And, lastly, pics from Katie’s night. Her friend Ainsley is Tinkerbell.

Why are girls such drama queens?

I’ve already gotten more drama from Katie at age 3 than I’ve gotten over Owen’s whole life. 

I get “I hate you” and “I’m mad at you” on a loop most every day. Just now I got both because I told her not to eat such a big bite (she was literally shoving a sandwich in her mouth and couldn’t even chew her mouth was so full).

Or maybe I told her to try to go potty and she didn’t want to. 

Or maybe I told her to step smashing a tomato on the counter. 

Or maybe I sad we couldn’t go to the park now but we could after lunch. 

It’s exhausting. 

Katie’s first text!

So I look over and Katie had the Messages app open on their iPad and she was enjoying looking at and touching all the emojis.

I heard stuff like “Cupcake…heart…pumpkin…flower giggle giggle cat…dog…bunny!”

I couldn’t figure out how she managed to find and open that app since I’ve buried it inside a folder. Then I realized that Tom had texted me and I obviously have the settings configured badly so that my texts appear on their iPad as well…so when he texted me, it popped up on the screen while she was playing her game, she touched it, and it opened the app. Of course, it was all her own curiosity that figured out how to then open the keyboard and emoji screens. 🙂

Anyway, I just sat and watched her…and then watched as she managed to hit send. 🙂

 

Surprise! Katie cat nap!

So she was watching a show on the couch and I was doing my own thing…when I looked over and saw this:

I had to get a closer look at the cuteness.

And then an hour or so in, this happened:

Fortunately…she slept through me watching TV, the phone ringing, Owen coming home, and Maggie jumping up next to her.

Unfortunately…once she did wake up shortly after daddy got home, she was a hot mess for about an hour and spent almost the entire time cuddled on Tom’s lap whining and whimpering.

Katie and the shovel

So we sold our deck box this past week so all of the stuff that had been in it was just sitting outside. Well…Katie saw the stuff out there and took it upon herself to go get it and play with it. This is where I found her when she wasn’t inside:

And then after I made her come inside (and let her bring he shovel because it wasn’t too dirty), I looked up to see this:

And then post-shoveling:

 

Owen’s classroom tour

I had to drop off the table signs for the fall festival and a bag of odds and ends containers to the STEAM class…so just took Owen to school. Since we had extra time before school actually started, I had him show me around his classroom. I learned more about his days in that 15 minutes than I have all year. 🙂

Hallway art:

Color: Blue
Food: Pizza
Animal: Cat
Book: Stop the Bot

  • I will look for [I can’t tell and he couldn’t remember]
  • I will look for ink for writing
  • I will build a house for living
  • I will discover Spain
  • I will discover America
  • I will find fresh water
  • I will find gold and food

I joked with him, asking if that was really his handwriting because it was SO much better than what I get from him at home. 🙂

In his classroom:

I had him walk me through what happens when he comes in every morning.

First, the coat gets stuffed in the box (behind his knees), the lunch box goes across the room to the big lunch bin (the teacher carries it down at lunchtime because they go straight from recess to lunch), the Book Baggie goes in a specific numbered basket (each kid has their own number), and the homework folder goes in a bin.

Some of the book bins:

Owen’s hopes and dreams: to learn to write. 🙂

Some of their daily schedule:

Work centers—he had to point to each column and read all the names and activities:

This picture was sitting on the teacher’s desk and he pointed it out saying “Look! I’m wearing my Minecraft shirt!” Not what the picture was for or when it was taken, LOL. I asked and he said “just because.” I’m guessing maybe it was the first say of school because I know that’s what he wore that day. (The teacher wasn’t in the room so I couldn’t ask her.)

Then he told me about a bunch of other stuff in his room…poetry center where you grab a sheet from the basket and read it, how when they read to self they grab a book and a pillow and can sit “anywhere in this section,” etc. He was so proud and so full of information! I told him THAT’S the stuff we wanted to know when we asked him about his day. 🙂

Lastly, when his teacher came back, I spoke with her separately for a few minutes to update her on his GI issues. We told her he had a change of clothes in his bag and we just recently put his underwear in a separate ziploc bag in case he had to change them during class and didn’t want to be obvious about it. We also let her know that it’s okay to tell him to go change if she notices anything, and maybe she can take special care to let him deal with it after everyone has left for recess or lunch or whatever so that the other kids don’t know. She was very nice about everything.

Sunday walk with my protector. 

It was COLD this morning—in the high 40s, I think—when we set out. We were in multi-layers, Owen had gloves, and we both had our hoods up. 🙂

Today’s weapon was a lightsaber. 🙂

As we were walking along, I was getting the usual commentary about weapons and which bad guys are in the forest and why the minotaurs are no longer there…and then suddenly he stops, turns around, and says “Shhh! We’re in skeleton forest!”

I love this boy. :heart:

Throwback Thursday—In Owen’s jogging suit

This is a 2T outfit—he was in it under 2 and she’s in it over 3! I’ve been meaning to put her in it for quite some time now and finally did it today; the pants are slightly too short but the jacket is almost too big.

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Edited to add: Whoops! Those aren’t the right pants! Now I remember why I haven’t put her in that outfit before now… I couldn’t find the pants that go with that outfit!

Kidisms 17

Tom just came home early and threw Katie in the air a few times then put her down.
Katie: Do it again!
Tom: Daddy’s back hurts. I just had a major back cracking.
Katie: OHHH NOOOO!! Are you okay?

We asked Alexa to play some Christmas music. She started playing O Little Town of Bethlehem.
Katie: That’s not Christmas music. It’s not jingle jingle.

Katie was playing with my pill container.
Katie: Mama, when I want a pill can I have a pill?
Me: You don’t need any pills.
Katie: I KNOW THAT!

My phone alarm rang at 7:45 signaling Owen’s bedtime.
Me: Owen, it’s time for bed.
Owen: I don’t want to go to bed. I’m not tired. He wastes some time whining. I want to go to bed at 7:50.
Me: That’s four minutes.
Owen: Okay! Daaaad! I’m staying up late tonight! 7:50!
Tom: Laughs.

Katie’s first at-bat…and T-ball practice!

We got to the field quite early, so we had plenty of time to use the field ourselves. We gave Katie her first try at batting and she did very well! She missed three right-handed attempts…and then got the first left-handed attempt! Maybe she’ll be like mama! (I also tried and hit 2 out of 3—left-handed of course!)

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And then what I think all the kids think is the best part of every practice or game…snack time!

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Geese up close!

Another nice day, another trip to the playground. But we also went down to the water today because she heard another kid talking about the pond and she wanted to go, too! 🙂

Throwing rocks and twigs in—a favorite activity.

  
  

And then as we were standing there, a bunch of Canadian geese flew in and landed in front of us!

Be sure to listen for this in the last section:
Mom, they’re so cute! Maybe I could be a mermaid and go in the water with them!

And then a few artsy pictures of the boats. 🙂