Last Week's Highlights

Monday we had Wyatt's first conference. They have moved them up in the trimester, and made them a "Goal Setting" conference, instead of a conference based on assessments. So, we sit down and the teacher (whom I like) tells us he's working right at grade level, and that she doesn't have any goals for him. What? Hmmm...so our take-away from that is that he needs to be pushed, and I guess we'll set some goals for him. The best thing she said about Wyatt is, "I've never seen a kid so into an overhead projecter!" That's our Wyatt. I'm sure he's spending his time figuring out how it works.

The oldest and the youngest in our family have horrendous colds. It hasn't slowed us down, too much. We're just all snotty and have tough coughs. The middle ones had it a couple of weeks ago. We thank them for sharing!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch on Thursday with some friends. It was a great day - cool, but not cold, bright and sunny and we practically had the place to ourselves. A small group came in for just a little bit, but other than that, it was empty!

Hannah playing with Daphne!

Annabelle jumping in the lima beans!

Daphne bamming her stroller w/excitement!

Wyatt and George in the dried lima beans!

Daphne checkin' out all the new things!

Annabelle didn't like the pokey hay!

Friday was costume day! The kids must have asked at least 200 times a day, for the last 10 days, when their costumes would be here. They actually came on Monday, but I didn't tell them, and made them wait! They were so, so excited to dress up. They both look adorable. Don't ask my how Annabelle ventured away from the Princess thing, but I'm glad she did!

This is how I found them watching TV later in the day!

Saturday we took the big kids to Star Wars in Concert. It was a fabulous production! A live symphony played Star Wars music set to clips of all 6 movies. There was a chorus for some of it, too. Anthony Daniels, who was C-3PO in all of the movies narrated the whole show. The kids were on the edges of their seats and took it all in. It was a really special event, and we're so lucky to be able to take our kids.

Daphne started clapping on Saturday, too! She points at EVERYTHING, and tells us something about what she's pointing at. I really think she's trying to talk!

Sunday was Matthew's Speedo Cup Qualifier tournament. He went in to it with just a little hesitation, knowing that so many of his players had just aged up onto his team. He only has 2 returning kids. But, like I knew they would, they won all three games (only the first one against Stanford was a nail-biter), and he will be taking his team back to Michigan in November, for the third year in a row. Go 680!

September Projects

Whew! I'm going for it! Two posts in less than a week! I must have nothing else to do!

In the event that Daphne decided to get mobile, I decided that I should be as prepared as I can with all of the big kids' bagillion little, itty-bitty, teensy weensy, very hazardous toys. So, I set out to organize!

Here are the labels for Annabelle's bins in her closet. Each one is a picture of the bin that I wrote what it contained, to make it easier for her to get things where they belong. So far, it's working out pretty well!

Here's Matthew needing a picture of him showing me up with his snack preparation!


Here's the little banner I made for Wyatt's soccer team. The design is courtesy of Mr. Michael Ageno! Thanks, Biga!!!

And, I built a Lego table for Wyatt's room. This is a "hacked" Ikea table. I put the table together, then used a jigsaw to cut out the holes for the bins to drop in. We have recently acquired a ridiculous amount of Legos from a water polo player, and organization of them was a MUST for me! I thought my head might explode as we were sorting these Legos, but, as it turned out, it was all for a great reason!

I had to put up a shelf for all of the ships that Wyatt wanted to keep!

And, it was so great to see Wyatt, his buddy Hugh and Annabelle all hard at work at the table, using it exactly as it was meant to be used!!! Pretty cool!

And then there's our sweet little Daph! Doncha just want to take a little nibble of her?! We sure do (and I actually do from now and then!). Another month has come and gone...she's still not movin' around, and I'm o.k. with that!