Southern Babies: Halloween 2013

Halloween 2013 is in the books. It was another fun one.

It was a week full of meetings at night for Drew and me. It was a week of early mornings at the hospital for Drew too. We do mornings with the kids together at our house but I had to do them by myself a couple mornings. I didn’t do it so well one morning because I forgot Lindy’s FM system and had to drive all the way back home to pick it up. Ugggg.

On Wednesday morning we had our first parent teacher conference for Miss Lindy. We were pleased with everything her teacher had to say. She is basically on target for everything. She had been a little low in figuring out the beginning sound of words (I think sometimes she would say the beginning letter. Although she does it perfectly at home every time I quiz her??) but she had improved in that to where she needed to be. She knew everything on the little math review except heavy and light confused her a bit. Her teacher said she was the only one in the class who knew all the 2D and 3D shapes. She counted to 100 and she said she is able to count from any number. If you give her 18 she can start counting. She said some kids have to start from the beginning. Her writing is getting so much better. They finally enlarged the paper for her and that seems to be working better. They had her trying to write on normal paper and her letters were too big and words were getting squished. I think the bigger paper is a good thing for her. We think her writing is so much better than it ever has been. Her only concern was that she would like someone to be with her when she is doing her work. She likes people close by. Her teacher finally told her one day she had to go help other students and told Lindy to get to work. She wrote two sentences all by herself. We know she can, she just likes assurance I think. I think her teacher will be trying to make her more independent from now on. She also said Lindy is the most popular student in the class. ha ha ha!! She said all the kids love her! She said other kids were writing about Lindy when they were writing what they liked best in school. She is a fun kid. The best part about it is that Lindy is oblivious to whether other people like her or not! She couldn’t care less! I love that girl!

We will have a conference with Will’s teacher sometime in November she said. Don’t know the date yet. Both kids start homework this week. They waited till 2nd quarter to get all the kids acclimated to kindergarten. Homework is given and they have a week to get it done. The hard part is that Will’s comes home on Monday and is due on Friday and Lindy’s comes home on Tuesday and is due the next Monday. Why oh why couldn’t they be due the same day? We have to figure out a good system for getting everything back to the right class when it’s due. We’ll just make Lindy work on hers all week and hopefully be done and not have to do it on the weekends. That is the plan anyway. I have a feeling their hour of tv each day is going to be shortened or gone. We’ll see what changes it brings!

Of course Thursday, Halloween, was the biggest day of the week. Both kids had fall parties in their class but they couldn’t wear costumes. I got off work a little early and got home to make some decorations for our car. We ate mummy dogs for dinner and we headed to our church for a little trunk or treat. We stayed there for an hour and came home to do a little neighborhood trick or treating. It was the kids’ first ever time of walking to people’s houses and asking for candy. We’ve always been at trunk or treats with the kids. We did a few houses and then we headed home. They were tired and thirsty and Will couldn’t wait to hand out candy to people. I think he liked that best, in fact. He was telling kids to pick three because we had delicious treats! ha ha ha!

Will was a globe for Halloween and Lindy was the sun. I opened my mouth a month or two ago and told Will he should be a globe. He doesn’t like super heroes which is what most costumes are. He didn’t have a favorite character, either. He likes maps and atlases and globes. He jumped at the idea and kept saying he wanted to be a globe. I thought I could order something online but nope, couldn’t find anything. Instead I just found ideas on how to make one. So one Friday night Katie and I started to put paper mache on a 30 inch balloon. It took way longer than I ever imagined but I was definitely all in now. A week later I had to pop the balloon because it was expanding out the top and cracking the paper mache. But it needed another layer of paper mache. So one night I set to put more paper mache on and it was a disaster. I got two layers on and when I started to do the third, the whole globe started crashing. Nothing we tried was helping. The globe was a heap of paper mache and I was standing there crying when I had an idea. I had other big balloons and I ended up blowing up a new balloon inside the paper mache mess. It worked! The paper mache mess took the shape of the new balloon. I knew it needed to be hung so we ended up hanging it up in the garage for the next week. Amazingly I saved the world! (ha ha!) It kept the shape of the new balloon and it dried! It had a couple rough spots but overall it was exactly how it was supposed to be. A week after it dried I cut the head, leg, and arm holes in it. The next night I traced on the 6 continents. (Antarctica got lost in the leg hole.) The next night I painted the ocean and then finally the last night I painted the continents. What an adventure! When he tried it on he complained that it was cutting into his shoulders – which I could see. We added some padding and he was in business! The proudest globe around. We threw in the sun and they were a set! Most things that go on in our house revolve around Lindy so it was fitting that she was the sun and Will was the globe revolving around her!

The kids didn’t have school on Friday which was perfect! It was the end of the first quarter. Couldn't have been planned any better. We all got to sleep in which was awesome. I headed to work while the kids spent a lazy morning at home. I met them for lunch and then they visited Barnes and Noble and ran some errands with daddy. I got home and we had a lazy evening at home. I was able to pick up Halloween decorations and change out my summer and winter clothes in my closet. Definitely needed to be done.

Saturday we all slept in again and the kids had a ‘lazy bum Saturday.’ So lazy that they didn’t get our of their pj’s until about 3pm when I bathed them! ha. I worked around the house and got a bunch done while they just played. Janice came over to watch the kids last night so Drew and I could go to a housewarming party. One of Drew’s college roommates moved back to NC and we went over to see the new place. The kids were SO excited to see Janice. She hasn’t watched them all year I don’t think. They were counting down the hours until she got there. It was good to see her.

Today we had church and the kids and I went to play in some leaves. We had a nice little time until it started getting chilly and noses started running.

Without further ado…

Spooky boy!Mummy dog!The Sun and the Earth (or globe).The best globe in the world. The back of the globe. ‘You are my sunshine. My only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear how much I love you.”With our outer space car. I had colored Jupiter on the other side of the big round one but the wind kept blowing it. Trunk or treating at church They always love Ms. Martha in her car!Ms. Ruby’s cool cat eye trunk.Mr. Donald was trying to pick him up so he could have ‘the whole world in his hands.’ ha!The first door to door trick-or-treating they have ever done!Will with his loot!Lindy with hers!The holiday wouldn’t have been complete without the threat of throw up. Amazingly she didn’t yak. Amazing.”Pick three delicious treats!” ha ha. Giving our neighbor friends candy!

Today we went to a nearby spot and took some leaf pictures. I keep thinking Lindy will one day learn to look at the camera and smile a pretty smile and not the yucky fake smile. One day. One day.Man going down! Will checks it out for 2 secondsand then goes back to his perma-grin! ha ha!She was getting cold. ha!Will needs to work on his posing!Love her.Finally, a decent one!And then we had fun throwing leaves!

The progression of the globe…
The first night of paper mache. Claire took pictures!After a few days of drying.The balloon exploding and cracking things.First time on his body.Arm holes!Oceans painted!