Halloween!

It's seriously the most fun we have all year, putting our heads together to come up with the Halloween theme.  I think we did pretty well this year.  (Even if we did have some mishaps in the costume purchasing.)

The Dairy Queen employee had clearly never been asked for an extra cup and lid before.  She was so surprised.  And confused.  But I think my "crown" turned out pretty great! 

I was glad I went all out for the Fall Festival--the Superintendent tweeted the picture she took of me! 

Sarah tried to tell me this costume was too big.  Please.  Hers was the only one we got absolutely perfect.  Except Derek's probably.  His is on point too! 

Libby got lots of "Dorthy," we should have picked up something from Wendy's the night we got the BK crown and the DQ cup.  Seemed like 3 restaurants in one night would max us out.  She rocked the look though! 

Notice that Ben has 2 different costumes.  Derek (rightly) felt like the first costume was too black, and too cowlike.  I put him in charge of finding a replacement.  He got the buffalo hat (Ben wouldn't wear it for longer than 2 minutes--too itchy) and the awesome Pretend I'm a Buffalo shirt and brown sweats.  So Ben wore the cow/buffalo on Friday night to the school Fall Festival.  And the Buffalo hat (sort of) for the ward party.  

I sure do love my Burger King. 

4th Grade Sarah

Sarah has a really interesting teacher this year.  She is very different than anything we've had before.  There is free seating the classroom, lots of exploration, and projects can be done to earn "Denise Dollars."  This is amazing for Sarah--who loves to explore and do research on her own.  But at the same time, there is a massive math packet always looming, due at the end of each month.  This is a bit tricky for Sarah, but she is coming up with strategies to stay on track.  I'm really proud of the adjustments she's made already.  She is my child with the most fixed mindset--meltdown if anything gets too hard.  But she's fighting back against that (even if she says that she isn't). 

She desperately wanted to be on Student Council this year.  She made the sweetest poster (all by herself) pitching her strong qualities.  (I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I tossed it.)  But alas, she lost the election to a boy promising snow cones at school.  Thankfully, (for her) I added a lower grade rep position that she applied for (along with 12 of her classmates).  So, she's in!  First meeting is tomorrow morning. 

Sarah is loving dance, although they are both pretty tired by tap, which is the 3rd hour of classes.  It makes for a busy Monday.

She also enjoys choir, she is hoping to get a solo this year!

Sadly, chess club and board games club are on the same afternoon, so she had to pick one.  She chose board games club and is really loving learning new games.  At home, she and Ben have had an ongoing game of Battleship that is hilarious.  Her other favorite games right now include Code Names, Family Business, and basically anything we will play!  I taught them Sequence a few Sundays ago. 

She has decided not to wrestle this year.  Which I think is fine.  Time to focus on things she likes the best!

Sarah loves to give me hugs and kisses, even in front of her classmates.  She loves having mom at school.  I'm so proud to be her mom!

6th Grade Libby

Libby, Libby, Libby.  I love you.  I love your creative spark, you spunky energy, your determination to do things your way.  Sometimes that works out so well.  And sometimes you just have to learn to listen, obey and do your work.

We have already had two conferences with your teacher (one impromptu after you criticized the Title math teacher) and one after a teacher email pleading for help managing your chatting and attitude in class.  I also had to do some damage control with the PE teacher--who we love.  He has high expectations for you--and you were just chatting away and distracting others.

My favorite quote from you this year is that "Mrs. Sezate doesn't think I can multi-task---talk to a friend and listen at the same time!"  HA!  I tend to agree.

You have already weathered a disappointment when you weren't selected for the Executive Committee on Student Council.  I was sad about that.  You cried a bit, but you rebounded.  You do need to focus on your academic life.  You were selected to serve as a Rep for Ms. Gino's class, so you'll be on Student Council as a Class Rep.  It'll be good to have your energy on Student Council.

You have decided you love reading.  You plowed through the rest of the Harry Potter series as the summer ended.  Now you are reading various Young Reader's Choice books and restarting the Harry Potter books.  I love to see you reading, even though you often stay up later than you should to do it.

Yesterday we got you a gizmo gadget, a watch that we can use to text and call you. You couldn't be more excited! 

Your picture tells me about your current favorite hairstyle (the ELSA braid).  Also you chose this shirt last year at some point--and it still fits.  And of course you wore a t-shirt underneath so you could take it off after pictures. 

Your clarinet playing is getting so much better!  You are doing a decent job of practicing a couple of times a week. I'm hoping that setting alerts on your new gadget will help you remember your instrument on band days and help you remember to practice at home!

You are also singing in choir again. You love it! 

Your dance night has 3 classes this year, Jazz, Ballet and Tap. You are thinking you might drop Tap because 3 hours is a long time.  We will decide after the Christmas show.

I'm really proud of you Libby.  You are making some good adjustments--asking for help in math, not chatting too much in class or PE, and doing your homework first after school.  You're setting yourself up for some awesome successes later. 

2nd Grade Ben

Ben is loving 2nd grade.  He has friends in his class, a young fun teacher that does raffle drawings based on class dojo points, and he has even eaten school lunch once or twice.  (The first time was because he forgot his lunch at home, and he realized it wasn't as bad as he thought it might be!)

This picture says a lot about Ben's personality--he really wanted transition lenses this year so he could have sunglasses.  So, I let him get them.  Bummer that I forgot to have him wear the other glasses on school picture day.  But when this guy is determined to wear something (or not to wear something) it's hard to change his mind.  He loves polos for dress up (not itchy dress shirts), and t-shirts and shorts for everything else (no matter how cold it is).  Yesterday we had our family pictures and he cried and cried that he had to wear jeans.  Seriously.  (Maybe that was getting up at 7 am on a Saturday as well.)

He LOVES to read.  He is reading the Dragon Masters series.  He plows through about 1 a day.  Good thing there are 12 and the Clean Room Fairy bought them all.  He is keeping his room clean to get a mini-Milky Way and/or a Dragon Masters book every day.

I'm not sure what he'll read next, but I love seeing him love reading.  He doesn't fill out his reading log, and sometimes he forgets to return his homework, but we are working on routines.

His teacher also just got married and had a week honeymoon.  So I'm sure that they'll get settled into things and he will start to remember.

His worst moments at school are when people call attention to the fact that I am his mom.  I pick up my students from music when he is at recess.  He runs to hide.  When I announced the student council elections--he was MORTIFIED.  His friends keep saying, "There's your MOM, Ben!" or "That's your MOM, Ben!" and this embarrasses him for some reason.  So I just give him hugs as often as I can to rub it in.

This year his extracurriculars include piano (he doesn't love it), choir (he hasn't started loving this yet either), swimming (we did one round of lessons before wrestling started, and he doesn't love breaststroke, which is the focus of Level 5), and wrestling (which started this week--and he's resigned).  Seems like we are punishing this guy with a lot of things he doesn't love.  But he still has plenty of free time for playing with Juliet, our neighbor who is also in his class, and playing with his siblings.

I am so proud of him.  Every morning he gets up at 6:22 with his alarm.  He eats (usually cereal, and I still have to pour the milk thanks to the Costco milk jugs), makes his lunch (except for the pbj sandwich), plays piano and then walks on the treadmill.  I can count on Ben to be doing just what he's supposed to be doing 99% of the time (and tattle on his sisters if they aren't).

Adding a little addendum.  He got this test back this week.  I thought this answer was worth at least 1/2 credit.  Seems like a logical answer!
I'm so glad to be at school with my kiddos!

A Weekend Away & Sarah's B-day

Last weekend I didn't post because we went to Birch Bay with some of Derek's family.  It was so beautiful and peaceful, (except for the Husky loss) it was a great weekend.  Except for the fact that my headache was getting crazy bad--and I knew for sure that it was sinus related.  So on the way home, I stayed at the Urgent Care in Derek took the kids home.  It's been a weird sinus infection, no cold, no stuffy  nose, I can breathe and taste.  But the pressure and pain were getting horrible.  I felt like I couldn't hold up my head.  The first round of antibiotics didn't really help.  So I went back on Tuesday and got a stronger dose.  The second doctor told me he wasn't convinced that I had a sinus infection and if the antibiotics didn't help I needed to have a CAT scan.  Yikes!  The stronger dose of antibiotics are helping.  Some. I'm still not back to myself, but I now have motivation to do things.  I don't feel like I'm slogging quite as much.  So I have hope that I don't need a CAT scan.  Maybe just a little more time for the antibiotics to work their magic. 

Anyway, back to the weekend in Birch Bay...it is right on the Canadian Border and the water.  It was so beautiful. 

Absolutely magical sunsets. It was conference week for us, so I packed all my conferences into the early part of the week and took 2 hours of personal time on Friday so we could head out.  (In retrospect I should have used those hours to go to the doctor instead, but we did beat the worst traffic and saw this amazing sunset!)

Walking on the beach at sunset.  Emma is at Western now, so it was convenient and awesome to have her come and hang with us.  She took the kids swimming at the OUTDOOR pool 2x!  Love this girl! 

I love how they keep the OUTDOOR pools open during the cold months.  Kids love it.  The hot tub was down or I might have gotten in there.  It would have felt good I think. Look at that sunset in the background! 

The kids play a game that I love.  They have a theme, like Disney or Angry or Sad or Harry Potter.  Then they each do a little performance/jump into the water that fits the theme.  Emma judges who had the best interpretation of the theme and the winner gets to choose the next theme.  Genius.  I know I have been around when they have played it at the MP Swim Club, but I was always reading and not paying attention.  It was really fun to watch their creativity.  

In the morning I was determined we would go for a hike.  But the mountains were too far away to get back in time for the Husky game.  But in Bellingham there is the "South Bay Trail," a long trail along the water.  It was beautiful.  And it kicked us out into the farmers market, just before they opened.  So of course we looked around and ate some delicious pretzels to fuel us up for the return walk. 

Waiting for the "Bell" to ring. 

The big pretzel stick. 

The giant pretzel. 

The Nutella Pretzel

 Oh--and SARAH turned 10 while we were in Birch BAY!  I was really feeling bad--I forgot her presents!  Luckily Derek came up after the Shorewood game, so I called him and he brought them.  The whole Fablehaven set and her photobook.  I'll also take her shopping at some point.  We got this cake at the nearby grocery store after I realized that Saturday night was the best opportunity to celebrate.  The official Norton party will probably be when we celebrate Clark, since most of the Barretts and Maren couldn't come for the weekend. 
Sarah is such a delight!  I'm so glad she's my daughter!

Another Busy Week!

Sometimes I just need to write a rundown to remind myself why I am so tired by the end of the week!

Monday was the start of Student Council campaigning.  I am so proud of the hard work the kids did!  The kids rose to the expectations, and even exceeded them!  The way our Student Council elections work is nice--all the kids running are on the Executive Committee for sure, they are just running for the officer positions.  That means that win or lose in the election, they have already gotten over the toughest hurdle (the application process.)  Not everyone makes it over that hurdle.  Lilbby was one of the ones that didn't.  But she can still run for class rep or for a lower grade rep.  So she can still be on Student Council.

But election week means that I was filming speeches, making ballots and tally sheets, etc. in most of my breaks this week.  The election on Friday was so close!  It showed what a great job the kids did.  I have to remind myself though, that the real work of Student Council is just beginning!  

This week teachers will choose class reps, then the next week I'll choose lower grade reps.  Then the meetings and the fun start.  Whew.

This week was also the Rhinos parent meeting.  We had a good turn out.  The registration numbers aren't high enough for my comfort level yet.  And some people had difficulty with the new website.  I'm still not sure if that has resolved.  Boo.  Rhinos is the straw breaking my back.  But we made it through the parent meeting.  The swag we purchased for the year, new water bottles and custom nail clippers, were well received.  I'll be so glad when this year of Rhinos work is behind me.

It was visiting week at Dance on Monday.  I got to see a few glimpses of the girls before and after my class and running some errands.  Love these ladies!  They are doing so well--especially considering they have 3 hours in a row of classes.  

The other challenging thing is the headache I have had for literally weeks.  Finally on Thursday I went to a walk-in clinic and got some muscle relaxers.  Then on Saturday I saw a PT that I worked with a year or so ago.  Helped so much!  I have been headache free for 2 days.  I am starting to feel like my old self!
I have some new stretches and I am going to do them diligently.  My pec minor and my subscapularis on my left side are all out of whack creating tightness in my neck caused by impingement in my shoulder.  Bleh.

General Conference has been nice and calming.  We went to the Women's Meeting with Grammy Geneva and then out to dinner after. 

Today I am going to keep working through the attic stuff that I pulled out last Saturday.  The filing cabinet went into the attic this week (thank you Derek!).  I am taking baby steps toward redoing the office since Derek's contract finally settled and the retro check is on its way...

Here's to a better week!