Happy Halloween!!!

This years Halloween was laid back and a lot of fun. I went in to work for just a few hours so I could be home for dinner and help get the boys dressed up. Clifford dressed as wolverine and Kristjan as optimus prime. We drove down to Mill Creek to try out the community event. From 4:30-6:30 kids could trick or treat to all the businesses, and then from 6:30-8:30 was trunk or treat at City Hall. This was our first time attending this. We headed down around 6pm for the trunk or treat. Next year, however, we'll take the boys for the entire thing. Pete and I loved it. It was fun and safe for the boys, and extra Mill Creek police were out directing traffic, so it was very much 'controlled chaos'. And the trunk or treat itself was awesome. The various businesses' that participated did a fantastic job with the themes and decorations. There was King Kong on the Empire State building, Lego men in Legoland, Angry Birds, Camping, Candy Land, etc etc. The entire thing took us about 30 minutes to complete (and it was super crowded!!). I was up to take the boys trick or treating down one of the neighborhoods next to where we live, but as we were leaving the community event, Clifford goes "lets go home and look at our candy" while Kristjan agreed. These boys are so funny. They're content with going out for just a little bit, grab some candy, and then going home. So we came home and went through both boys' pile of candy. The 'unsafe' candy went into the bowl for the Pumpkin King to take (who, by the way, brought them new Bey Blade toys). As for the remaining 'safe' candy, we let them dig in while we watched movies. By the time they went to bed, they were wired, but all the candy is gone and I don't have to deal with it the days ahead :)

Teacher Conferences

Thursday afternoon Pete and I attended both boys' parent-teacher conferences.

We first met with Mrs. Webster (Clifford's teacher). She started off by saying how much she enjoys having Clifford in his class. He can be a bit chatty in class. He's well liked by his classmates. The main thing he needs to work on is his handwriting and spelling. By the way, he has started his reading group in class (kids are broken up into different groups). He's doing really well, and I'm amazed every night at how good he is getting with his reading!

Next, we met with Mrs. Castelle (Kristjan's teacher). This meeting was rushed, since each conference is only scheduled for 10 minutes, and Mrs. Webster kept us for 25 minutes. So we were late for Kristjan's. Luckily, since Clifford had Mrs. Castelle last year, we know the curriculum and how things work in her class, so she went through quickly on what Kristjan does good and what he needs to work on. With Kristjan, we need to work with him on recognizing numbers and the alphabet (why did we pay for two years of preschool???). He'll also will be starting in a speech class (I had to attend one from 1st-5th grade). Kristjan is a bit chatty as well. He's also fidgety and has a hard time sitting still (imagine that!). And he's also very timid, shy and unsure of himself at times when doing classwork. So we have a bit to work on with Kristjan, but Mrs. Castelle loves having him in class and thinks he's a wonderful boy :)

Harvest Festival

Tonight we went to the boys' Harvest Festival at their school. Earlier in the day I went up and helped set up for the festival while our neighbor Elyse watched the boys for me (she's an awesome babysitter, and she lets us pay in her in 'dinners'). I also provided lots of yummy baked goods for the bake sale they were having along with the festival. We dressed up in our costumes. Cliffford as wolverine, Kristjan as optimus prime, me as an angel, and Pete as a demon. The boys had fun running around playing games for candy prizes. We ran into a few of their school friends. We each picked out an item from the bake sale as a treat. Pete stole all the attention with his costume. He played around with some of the kids who were brave enough to come up and talk with him. One little girl asked him if he painted himself, while another asked how he attached the horns to his head. His reply to each was "I was unfortunately born this way" and "They're attached with screws". The little girl stared at him with wide eyes before running away, while the other kid new Pete was obviously pulling his leg. We stayed at the festival for about an hour before going home. Clifford and Kristjan were allowed to stay up late and snack on a few pieces of candy while watching some Halloween cartoons.

This and That...

With the upcoming holidays, daily routines, and me now working, life is picking up speed in our house. I'm having a little difficulty trying to keep up and adapt to a new routine AND still be organized. Here are some 'this and that' happenings....

*Proud to announce both boys had their 6 month dental check up and NO CAVITIES!!!

*We went in for our yearly family eye exams. A few years down the road, I'm going to have to wear glasses (I'm far sighted). And both boys are a little far sighted as well. Kristjan now has a prescription to wear glasses, though the doctor said he technically doesn't need to wear them for another year or two.

*Kristjan was sent home with a letter for school saying he'll be in the Title 1 Reading Program. I guess he needs a little extra help. When we do homework, though, I see the same issues we had with Clifford (though Clifford is perfectly on track on where he needs to be now!), yet Clifford didn't need to be in this class. So we're a little baffled as to why Kristjan is in this program. We attended an informational meeting last week. The ladies in charged weren't even going to talk about kindergarteners until I raised my hand and asked what he would learn from this (they spoke lengthly on grades 1-6 ). His parent-teacher conference is this Thursday, so I'm going to inquire more details on this (though it wasn't his teacher who recommended him for the class; it was someone else during the school's eye exam).

*I'm still working. Last week was week 2 on the job. I was really stressed because my job at home was starting to lack (housework). The paycheck is really nice to have, though :)

*I've added more things to my plate. I just volunteered to help out in Kristjan's class three days a week (30 minutes each day) during writing time. I also volunteered to bake up a dessert for tonights 'teacher appreciation dinner', as well as miscellaneous baked goods for the bake sale this Friday at the school's Harvest Festival. I'm also volunteering to help set up for that event Friday afternoon.

*Pete may go on yet another business trip. This time to San Francisco.

*With me now working and Pete (hopefully) gets another raise here soon, we're already talking about moving. We've been on the fence for a long time now about buying a house or continue renting, the pros and cons of each. We think we've decided to continue renting. We checked out another apartment complex that is literally a 10 minute walk to our work. It's in the school district we've been wanting for the boys. The place is an upgrade from where we live now. In fact, it's nice enough that we could see ourselves living there forever (the layout feels more like a home and not like an apartment). So we're discussing what our new set of finances would look like in preparation of moving there. Wish us luck!

Pete left this morning with Daniel to go on an overnight hiking trip. I had a few errands to run, and since I had to do it solo with the boys, I decided to first make a side trip and treat the boys to a little fun before dragging them store to store. There is a funeral home down the road from us, and they were putting on a Harvest Halloween Festival. They had activities such as face painting, petting zoo, bouncy house, bbq, and a pumpkin patch. So we spent about an hour there, hopping from one activity to the next.

Cooking School

This evening I met Jessica at Snoqualmie Casino to attend the Taste of Home Cooking School show at Snoqualmie Casino. She called me up two days ago asking if I wanted to go. I of course said YES!! I love going to those shows. When I lived in Yakima, I went every year with my mom. Unfortunately, I've had to miss the last two or three years since moving to the westside. So I was very excited to go. Plus, I really needed the break from the kids, housework, job, life, etc.. We ate dinner there and browsed some of the booths. We also learned a few new cooking tricks. I can't wait to go grocery shopping and try making some of the new recipes. Afterwards, we hung out a little bit at the casino. I didn't play, but I watched Jessica. She even let me push the 'button' on the slot machine occasionally :)

Zoo Boo

Last Sunday we met up with Daniel 'n Jessica 'n boys at the Point DeFiance Zoo for Zoo Boo. The weather was gloomy (imagine that!) and really cold, so we nixed having the boys dress up in their Halloween costumes. The kids 'trick or treated' at the various exhibits. It was very relaxing having a total of four adults to help keep track of the five boys (it's usually just me and Jessica with all five boys at the zoo). We were there for a few hours before we went our separate ways. We made a side detour on our way home to visit Michelle and Caleb. Caleb is about two weeks old now, and is the sweetest baby boy! I held him the entire time we visited (Pete and Kristjan both held him for a bit as well before I requested to have him back lol). I even got to babysit him while Pete took Michelle on a quick errand. The batteries in my camera died, so all I could take was video on my FlipVideo. Unfortunately, I still can't upload video on my blog without getting an error message. But a cool feature on my FlipVideo is it allows you to take a snapshot from the video. It's a little unfocused, but the last pic on here is Kristjan holding Caleb. He just loves babies!

Halloween Cookies!!!!

Saturday night we got in as a family and made our annual Halloween sugar cookies. I made up a batch of homemade sugar cookie dough, and the boys helped cut out cookies in the shape of ghosts and pumpkins. Once cooled, we all sat together at the table and got busy frosting and decorating. Pete got creative with his cookies, precisely adding sprinkles to make faces on the ghosts and pumpkins he just frosted. Clifford and Kristjan took a different approach: put on as much frosting and sprinkles as possible onto the cookies! I love doing these activities year after year, and the memories Pete and I are creating for our boys :)

Clifford and Kristjan helping me cut out the cookies!



Frosting the cookies!



Our colorfully ghoulish Halloween cookies!
Kristjan and Clifford enjoying their hard work :)

Pumpkin Carving

After dinner last night we got in and carved our pumpkins. This is the first year where the boys were able to carve their pumpkins themselves with little or no help at all. We had a messy good time :)









The finished product! ghosts (me), a bat (Kristjan), a scary face (Clifford) and skeleton face (Pete)