October Activities

-Parent Teacher Conferences: Pierce's teacher just did a quick call on the 1st. I learned that he is very quiet (not too surprising). She was surprised to find out he can be aggressive at home, cries when he is told no, and wondered if he talked very much (which he very much does!). So that one was entertaining. The girls we scheduled for the 2nd. Cara is still testing off the charts for her grade, even being in a more challenging class. They also said she needs to work on participating in class discussions more. Gwen is testing pretty high as well and knows most of the basics they focus on at the beginning of the year, so the teacher suggested she bring in books from home to read during reading time and she'd work with her on comprehension more. Lucy is good, but forgets what she knows when the teacher tests her so we'll have to work on that. As always, the book fair is always fun (I almost didn't buy as much, but when I went back the 2nd time I suddenly found lots more, haha). I also got each of the classes a book from their stack they had on the tables.

-Volunteering at Humane Society: My work gives us volunteer hours (separate from regular PTO) to use up, which is nice. One of my friends reached out to me saying she was setting up a group to volunteer at the Humane Society on the 8th. I love animals and since she set everything up it was nice to just need to show up. We got to see all the animals (so cute and hard not to grab one to bring home) and just helped clean windows. Unfortunately, after about an hour or two, they ran out of window cleaner and apparently had nothing else for us to do so it was a quick volunteer job. I learned about so many fun volunteer programs and events they have for kids (reading to cats, camps, and birthday parties!). I would love to do the reading to cats a lot, but they are a bit further away, so it won't be as often as I'd like.

One of the friendliest cats they had there

-Getting the house more in order (12th?) has been so much fun this month. I added hanging shelves in office to clear off our mantle (the kids semi destroyed my Friends Legos so I have to rebuild and get some cases for those so they don't get so dusty. Bonus: now I can add seasonal decorations to the mantle!). We got organizers for kids rooms, from Ikea, to help keep them looking more cleaned up. We also got a huge dresser to clear out 2 other dressers and offer more storage (from Wal Mart that has EXCELLENT customer service. One piece was cracked and we were able to get a replacement for just that piece within a couple weeks). I also added in dusting the main level on Fridays which is helping a lot! Since the rooms are more clean, I also have claimed Pierce's old room as my wrapping room so now I have a place to lock up that the kids can't get into during the holidays :)

-We used the Fall Break time (14th-20th) to have our Dentist and Eye Dr checkups. Everyone is cavity free! I was smart and decided to watch AFV during my visit (best idea ever). Pierce actually let them look at his teeth (and then liked pretending to be a "teeth doctor" and check on our teeth after his visit). Lucy still has a while until her one tooth will grow in. Cara has small teeth blocking her big teeth from fully coming in so we need to work on getting those ones out next. Gwen just rocked it all chill, like she is. Everyone still loves the prize drawer, haha!

-Soccer is over (for the 1st half)! So now it feels like we have SO much more time in the week. Their games on the 4th got canceled due to rain, but it meant we got to have a free weekend and a peak into what it will be like after it's done and it felt so freeing (haha)! We'll have to really prepare ourselves for the Spring session (which was supposed to be just Cara and Gwen at that point, but Lucy's coach said they could extend and she said she wanted to). Wonder what things will be like when Pierce is in sports too.

-Best pics of the kids this month: