October

Well a lot has happened since my last post about the first day of school.  An entire season of soccer has come and gone and I missed Halloween.  Here is my attempt to catch up.

We are finally hitting our stride with school and homework.  It has been an adjustment.  Kenna doesn't love doing school work but she really enjoys going to school and seeing her friends.   She couldn't care less about being able to read and gives about as much thought to her math problems as someone in a coma.  We did hear from her first parent teacher conference that she is a pleasure to have in class.  She never complains and always does her work without being reminded.  Despite all the good behavior she is more than happy to have a skip day and stay home.  Kenna has been to the nurse several times already.  One day she got hit in the eye with a hula hoop at recess which resulted in quite the shiner.  Every time I ask Kenna what the nurse tells her to do she responds, "Put some ice on it and rest."  Apparently that is a cure all.  It worked well in this case and Kenna told me that she felt well enough to go back to class and when her eye started to hurt again she just colored without looking.

Kenna likes to accessorize.  Sometimes she borrows my things.

Kenna is also on track to become a gymnast extraordinaire.  At the beginning of the school year her coach told us she wanted her to be on the pre-competative team.  We debated back and forth about this, worrying about the time commitment and strain it would add to her life.  We finally decided to try it out thinking we could quit if it became too much.  That has not been a problem at all.  Kenna goes to gymnastics three times each week and loves it.  On Monday she got the gymnast of the day award for working harder than anyone else.  Toward the end of the summer she sort of stopped playing with toys when she doesn't have a friend around.  Gymnastics has been a good outlet because she will flip and twirl around the house all day long.

We wrapped up an entire soccer season.  Kenna loves soccer much less than gymnastics but it is good for her to learn to play on a team.  She did pretty well this season and with the help of an opposing player even scored one goal for her team! 

 

 

Callie is now talking up a storm.  Sometimes she's hard to decipher because she will say a statement or ask a question but will throw a bunch of gibberish and random phrases in the mix.  She's still very sweet and loves to be held.  The other day she asked Kenna to hold her while they watched a show. 

Callie is obsessed with her baby dolls.  Last Christmas she got a baby Anna doll (from Frozen) and that thing goes everywhere with her.  She changes her diaper, feeds her, and puts her down for naps.  One day while she was supposed to be napping I went up to see her holding her babies and singing to them.  It was too cute to get mad over.

Callie sings all the time.  She know the words to all the songs we sing in nursery and I hear her singing them throughout the day.  She loves to be outside and every time we leave the gym she asks if we can go to the park.  All her time at the park has made her an expert scooter rider.  She's getting fast and can maneuver it pretty well.  We've started riding to and from school which is a big highlight of her day.

 

 

Callie has also been obsessed with the book, 'Click Clack Moo.'  She sits down with the book, looks at the pictures and repeats phrases she knows like, "click clack moo," "no eggs farmer brown," "impossible," "no milk farmer brown." 

Nate got very busy at work there for a while thanks to Ebola.  His hospital had to have a bunch of protocols and procedures put in place which meant more work for him.  For a while there I think I was a single mom, although it's only been in the last couple weeks since it has calmed down that I've noticed.  It's been a couple weeks since I've had to take both girls to gymnastics or soccer practice then come home and feed them and put them to bed by myself.  I like it much better when Nate is around.  Not just for the help but also because everyone is happier when he is home.

We have also been able to enjoy some truly terrible fall weather.  The hot summers here don't bother me, but when it is midway through October and I'm still sweating buckets at a soccer game instead of enjoying changing leaves and a crisp breeze I start to hate Texas.  That combined with the fact that Nate was working more meant I was slightly miserable.  Fortunately Nate is around more now and we have moved on from summer to winter.  Fall lasted about 2 weeks and consisted of 50 degree morning/evenings and 90 degree afternoons.  Oh well.  This is the time of year when Texas makes up for it since I know I will be able to run outside most of the winter.

We were thrilled to run into an old friend during a Sunday morning stroller ride.  You will see from the picture that the girls are in their pajamas.  That is because they've started waking up at 6:30.  Anyway, we found Kenna's old friend Rosie the swan with a new friend at the park.  Kenna was thrilled and tried to run to her until Rosie started hissing.  Then she backed off and spoke to her from a distance.  Pretty soon she had Kenna joining in yelling, "Hi wosie!  Eat some bed (bread)!"

We've had visits from my parents and Nate's parents which we all love.  We got to do fun things like shopping trips and jumping at Urban Air and skipping school.  It's sad to see them go and makes me wish we were closer to grandmas so I could drop my kids off when they're driving me crazy.

 

That brings us to Halloween.  We celebrated for two weeks.  We went to the pumpkin patch, had a ward trunk-or-treat (Callie was barfing and couldn't go), trick-or-treating at Frisco Safety town (a miniature village attached to the fire station), a little party for Kenna and her school friends at our house and finally the real deal.

We let Kenna play hookie and go to the pumpkin patch.  It was definitely worth it.  We got to pet some farm animals, ride a tractor, play in a corn maze and pick pumpkins.  The animals were a big hit.  Kenna was a little disgusted by them licking her as she tried to feed them and in my mind I could hear my little cousins saying, "city kid".  Callie LOVED the animals.  She was especially fond of the goats and kept trying to hug them when they stuck their necks out of the pen.  The tractor ride had signs along the path with a story about a missing farmer.  At the end you saw some pants and boots sticking out of a hay bale.  Kenna thought that was pretty funny.

"eeewww duh cow!"

 

 callie trying to hug the goats

 

 

 

Kenna's party was fun.  We had rootbeer with dry ice, cupcakes, donuts on a string and some festive crafts.  All the kids wore their costumes and had a great time together.

Halloween night we went to Lixi's house for a bonfire and dinner before headed out to trick or treat.  Kenna changed her mind several times but finally landed on a 'spider girl' costume and Callie will tell anyone who listens that she was, "Neh Neh bat-girl man." 

We had a 'bon bon fire' (that's what Callie called it).  Callie ran from house to house with the other kids for a while before she sat in the stroller and I pushed her from house to house.  She really got the hang of the candy and went for a sucker every time she was allowed to pick.  Eventually she even learned that if they offered the bucket she could grab two suckers.  It was pretty funny to watch her because she knew exactly what she wanted.  Kenna had a great time but did fall and get some nasty road rash on her knees and elbow.  The candy high numbed the pain though.

 

 

After trick-or-treating we let Kenna pass out candy which she always loves to do.  Callie loved Halloween and keeps asking me, "Where duh Halloween go?"  Referring to the giant marshmallow man from Ghost Busters our neighbor had in his yard.  I told her Halloween was over but that Christmas would be coming next.  We talked about Santa and presents and she told me to please call Santa and have him bring her a dress (referring to an Elsa dress that sang 'Let it go' and twinkled that she saw on Halloween).  Then she told me, "Santa Kaws wants come my bewfday (birthdy).  Pweese cawl (call) her and come."  It's pretty funny to hear her communicate things like that.  She definitely keeps me laughing.