October 2016

 

Happy Halloween from the Little Engine that Could, and our spooky ghost!

not factoring in for the wind... Bruce's costume lasted less than a minute...
Good thing he wore his skeleton pajamas underneath!

The babes are tucked in for the night after a wonderful day celebrating CANDY!  We trick or treated down main street this afternoon, enjoyed a free hot dog dinner at a local church, and wrapped up the night trick or treating with some friends around the neighborhood.  We had great weather, saw a lot of cute costumes, and came home with a great stash!  

"Please I can pet your dog?"

Bruce made that paper bag for holding candy and insisted on bringing it

Bruce and one of his besties

Abby found a random girl and quickly because friends...

Because Bruce made his costume entirely himself, and Abby's was a last minute throw-together after deciding she didn't want to be Wendy from Peter Pan after all, we didn't spend all month getting ready for Halloween this year, which made lots of time for other fun things!

 

Other Highlights and Kidbits of the month:

We spent the first weekend of the month at the wheat farm in Kansas.  Now that Charlie's parents are living there full-time, the old farmhouse is really coming alive again!  They've worked really hard cleaning out rooms, painting, etc.  Charlie worked on some landscape maintenance while we were there, and the kids ran around hunting for barn kittens, playing at the creek, riding in tractors, and catching up with grandparents.  

washing their clothes on the old wash board

lounging and waiting for the clothes to dry

the new swather 

happy K's book collection was unpacked at the farm house!

looking for arrowheads

a clamshell with both sides still!

I took the kids to Lake Murray one day to meet up with my friend-from-college Melissa, and her two boys to celebrate her birthday!  We thought we would just hang out and picnic by the lake, but because the weather was amazing, the Littles stripped down and had a great afternoon swimming!

Bruce was so proud of this doll head he found - he couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him bring it home...

"fishing"

Bruce found this partial telephone pole that he rolled all the way to the water...

...once it started floating, he hopped on.  He was determined to float to the other side of the lake...

when it kept rolling over, he settled for just playing on it!

Bruce attended a couple of Lego events at the Lego Store in OKC!

We got a new-to-us van!  We were getting to the point with Charlie's car where we didn't know if impending repairs would be worth the money, or if it would be better to get a car we knew would last us for many more years.  We had some money saved up, Charlie has a Craig's List obsession, and in the end, we went with getting a new car.  And what kind of car did we put our faith in?  Another Honda Odyssey, of course.  We looked at one in Tulsa, one in OKC, and finally found a sweet deal in Stillwater.  The kids were troopers about tons of seemingly pointless traveling that week, but in the end it was worth it.  It's a little ridiculous to have two vans parked in the driveway, but if you ask anyone who owns an Odyssey - they don't disappoint.  

We found a little science museum in Tulsa while car shopping that's in our museum membership network!

there was a whole tunnel system built entirely out of packing tape!

trying his hand at "noodling" 

Our Edward Jones guy hosted a fun fall party and we got to have a great BBQ lunch and paint pumpkins!

We had a pumpkin carving party!

it's not a party until someone flings pumpkin goop in your ear! 

love these sweet friends

We went to the History Museum for their Halloween event!

For school we focused on an Autumn theme this month and had a lot of lessons, crafts and activities centered around pumpkins, leaves, and warm, rich colors.  For field trips, we went to two different pumpkin patches, and also discovered how amazing the Oklahoma City Science Museum is!  Since we just completed another six weeks of school, I gave Bruce another round of math and literacy assessments to check his progress - and he's right on track.  We've found a really nice rhythm with school, and I was happy to see that even though he's still struggling in some areas, he's also making some really great gains.  

the pumpkin kitties were the best part!

 

at first Abbs was terrified of the anamatronic dinosaur exhibit at the science museum

but she eventually warmed up to it

and I think it was their favorite part of the museum - we came back two or three times!

there were dino costumes you could wear 

Mother Bruce guarding eggs

each one of these lights was a knob you could turn and the color would change

Bruce on a bed of nails - Abby at the controls to raise and lower them

building magnet cars

the first pumpkin patch was free, but the second pumpkin patch had a lot more activities!

 

Abby in the corn crib

a girl after my own heart!

picnic lunch

we also took a quick field trip during our rest week to the fire station for Fire Prevention Month

I love how our mornings aren't rushed.  Even though my kids are typically early risers, we usually cozy up in front of the tv for an hour before we get around to having breakfast together.  Dinotrux has been a popular show this month.  It's not as educational as some of their previous favorites, but they both love it, it makes them giggle, and the characters work together, so it's not too bad.  After Charlie gets out the door for work, I let the kids decide how to spend the morning.  I've quickly learned that if I try to get started with "school" too soon, Bruce is too distracted by his personal to-do list that he doesn't cooperate well.  I really don't mind giving them the morning though, because they often choose to do really fun and creative things together, and are figuring out how to play well with each other.  So that's practically school, right?  

Bruce helping Abby put together a Lego set

We still go to the library for story time on Tuesdays, and make a trip to Walmart another morning.  And then we try to schedule at least one play date, usually in the mornings, every week.  Some friends of ours recently had twins, so we've invited the older brother to come play with us a couple of times this month, there's a new home school family that moved to town that we've met with a couple of times, and we've had two "Lego Club" meetings with our old home school family friends.  We've even had a few opportunities to see our camping buddy Baxter!  

Halloween party

When Abby tucks in for a nap, Bruce and I huddle up for school lessons.  I try to keep things light, and catered to his interests, while still pushing him with things that challenge his weak areas.  He spends some time on the iPad everyday working through tailored lessons on ABCmouse, an on-line program that we've subscribed to.  One down side to being so protective against too much "screen time" is that Bruce has hardly any tech skills.  These lessons have been a nice touch of technology for him, without going overboard.  I'm still not pushing writing too much for him because he hates assigned writing, but I'm not too worried because he does ten times more than what I ask him to do when he's just playing around making signs and decorations, and he's definitely making progress with his letter formations.  We do a little math and literacy work everyday, but we spend a lot of time with extension activities.  We try to strike a balance between art and science activities - I need to get better at incorporating more music though.  With any of the extension activities, I usually have a general plan, and let Bruce take it from there.  This past month he got super excited about our science experiments on light, and is already designing experiments for next month when we plan to study electricity.  

There's usually one afternoon each week when our old library friends (that now go to public school all day) come over and all the kids have a great time running around the backyard in various costumes while the mamas enjoy some adult conversation.  And we try to get together with our church small group to share a meal and play once a week, too.  Bruce may not have a classroom of peers, but I think he's getting plenty of social interaction!  

more fishing... I guess we need to get that boy a proper pole and really take him out fishing one of these days

Bruce has turned into a craft machine!  Not only does he still love ink painting and tape - he's now incorporating glue, tempera paints, and yarn into various "projects" he works on throughout the day.  His drawing is improving by leaps and bounds daily, even though he's still fisting his markers, and he's made so many interesting decorations for our house this month!  And he has also been cranking out clay creations left and right - I'm running out of counter space to let them all dry before tossing them in the kiln!  Even though it inevitably leads to a never-ending mess, I try to leave a box of supplies accessible so he can get them himself whenever he feels the need.  Which is all the time.  It's been an interesting process for both of us, I think.  I am far from a "Pinterest mom" but often I have an idea for a project, and will have a general outcome in mind.  And it NEVER works out like I think it will, and Bruce always only halfway completes it - begrudgingly.  BUT, when I just let Bruce do his thing, he comes up with the most interesting pieces - and he is so proud of them.  Like he asks to sleep with them, proud.  So if you're ever at our house wondering why quirky trash-like things are displayed in nearly every room, it's because Bruce's motors crank a little differently than yours, and he's been in the zone lately.  

Bruce was incorporating the typewriter that we found for $2 at a garage sale into his art,
 until the ribbon broke and I haven't gotten around to shopping for a new one...

Abby still loves being characters.  If she calls me "mother" - I know she's Little Foot.  If I'm "Sally" then I know she wants to be called Linus.  (It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was a big hit around here this month.)  She also alternates between characters from Dinotrux, and unfortunately, they've been introduced to Power Rangers now, so she also likes to be Emma, the Pink Power Ranger... (Thanks, Mack)

One funny thing that Abbs has started doing this month, is that she'll tell you what different animals are saying, in a really dramatic and enthusiastic voice.  If there's a dog barking at a fence, she'll say, "I think that dog is saying, 'Hey!  Get me out of this fence!'"  or "'Hey! Don't pee in my grass!'"  Total silliness.

"I think this caterpillar is saying, 'Hey!  Give me back my tomato!'"

We're really struggling with how to parent Abby through a really bad habit of constantly saying that she wants to hurt or hit something.  Oddly, it started a couple of months ago with her saying that she wants to hurt babies. (!?!)  She never really physically hurt a baby, but she would yell loudly in public when she saw a baby that she wanted to hurt it.  Over and over again.  At first, I thought she was just doing it to get attention and I wanted to chalk it up as "freaky-weird stuff kids say," so I tried to ignore it, but it's just gotten way out of control.  Now, any time she's upset, or doesn't like something, or even when it seems like she just doesn't know what to say, she'll say that she wants to hurt/hit a particular thing.  In addition to it just being a really rude and hateful thing to say, she (both kids, actually) is also starting to get a lot more aggressive in general.  So, it's worrisome.  And we've instituted a zero-tolerance policy with her saying the phrase.  Even if she's just saying she wants to hurt a marker because I told her to put the cap back on.  Straight to time out.  I don't know if it's an effective consequence, but it's the best we've got right now, and it seems to be helping some.  She still revs up with the emphatic, "I will..." but instead of saying "hurt" she'll stop herself and say "play with" most of the time.  Progress?  I don't know, but I hope we pass the phase quickly...  

 

We had one week of slightly chilly temperatures, but for most of the month we've had gorgeous weather!  I think that quick dip in degrees gave me and the kiddos all colds, but I guess compared to the strep throat and hand, foot and mouth disease that's going around Noble right now, we faired pretty well and are all on the mend now.  Charlie had to go out of town for a few days right when my cold turned into a maybe-sinus infection, which was kind of a bummer for me who still had to tend to two Littles when all I wanted to do was sleep, but he came back with a promotion to Associate Principal, so I won't complain one bit.  I don't brag about Charlie much, partly because I suffer from wind-beneath-your-wings syndrome, partly because I find braggarts incredibly annoying, and partly because I never really know which projects are politcally "ok" for me to brag about - but I'm going to brag about this one, because I'm super proud of him!  Because of how the voting for promotions works with his company, people who are in satellite offices typically have a harder time climbing the ranks - and only four people in the entire firm received this promotion this year - so this is a big deal!  Not only does Charlie work hard, and is talented at the work he does, but his character is so well-respected by the senior leadership within the firm - and this promotion just affirms that.  We're celebrating around here!

As has become tradition around here, we picked back up with our evening walks this month and have been enjoying chatting with neighbors - some who we go visit, and some who have started to walk with us - and looking at all the yard decorations.  Now that Halloween is over - we're on the fast track through the rest of the holidays to the end of the year!  Hard to believe, but I love it - this is a great time of the year!

coming out from the "underworld"