Mommathon

This was supposed to be pumpkin bowling, but many of the kids found kicking the ball a much more efficient way of knocking over the pumpkins.

Making a spoooky craft

Liam had his fall concert today. This was the first concert he has had with his new teacher. He did such a great job. We were all so proud.

Getting his violin tuned before the concert.

Photo opp with his teacher after the program.

Colm at the pumpkin patch with his preschool friends.

The neighborhood party

My little Jedi fighter

Even Spidey likes to color.

Getting crafty at the church Halloween party.

The boys both still have parties at school, we still need to decorate our pumpkins, we have a violin Halloween party, plus a party at Sean’s work (which I don’t think we will make it to, but we shall see). So many parties…so little time. 🙂

Such a good movie-a great celebration of family. Man oh man, bring your tissues though.

1. He has such a tender heart.

2. The way he gets into things. Right now it is Star Wars. Before that is was Rescue Heroes, then Thomas before that, before that it was Blues Clues and his first love was Sesame Street. There have been others, but those have been the big ones.

3. The way he absolutely will not do anything he doesn’t want to do if he thinks he might get hurt or if he is scared (like swim lessons). The part I love about it is when he finally overcomes it and he is so proud of himself.

4. He loves to cuddle.

5. His love of learning and how he can just pull facts seemingly out of the air, but really it was something he read in a book two years ago and something he just saw reminded him of it. Random.

6. His smile.

7. His obsession with wearing slippers to bed.

8. How much he loves his friends.

9. How responsible he can be. He knows what days he has PE and he has to wear his tennis shoes. He knows when his library books at school are due and he makes sure his homework gets done in time.

1. He always says he is sorry. The funny thing is he usually says it long after the incident has passed. He has to take his time and say it when he is ready. I love it that he does it this way because it totally catches you off guard and because it is so sincere when he says it.

2. The way he chews gum. It cracks me up.

3. The dimples…gotta love’em.

4. The way he treats his friends. He is so loving and kind to them. He loves to hold their hand, give them a hug or just put his arm around them. He has found a little girl in his class who is touchy like that, too, and they get along great!

5. The energy he puts into playing witch. It is a game where a witch is coming. We have to hide from the witch. Sometimes the witch is outside, sometimes she is chasing us…you never know where the witch will be, but Colm LOVES to play this game.

6. His chuckle and the smile that goes with it…contagious.

7. His love of art. He loves to paint, color, you name it. If it is artsy, he’ll do it.

8. How much he loves Sprite, vanilla wafers and chocolate. He loooooooves them and consumes them as often as allowed.

9. His current obsession with the various phases/shapes of the moon.

I got some new wheels this weekend. When we started the search, I knew I wanted a Nissan Pathfinder. We went and looked and test drove one, but they didn’t have the kind we wanted. So we went down the way to the Saturn dealership. They have the Outlook which is comparable and had some standard safety features that the Pathfinder doesn’t come with. We test drove one…it was a little noisy and seemed to rattle a little. So we made our way over to Toyota. We looked at their Highlanders and took one for a test drive. We got a bargain. It had more features than either of the other two cars and we got a 2008 AND it was on sale. Woohoo!!! Then again, the car I was driving before was almost nine years old and didn’t have automatic anything, so it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy. (A big thank you to the grandparents who entertained the munchkins so we could get all of that done, too. )

This is a book of short stories which took me FOREVER to read, but was well worth it. (I think I checked it out from the library three different times.) It is also the first book I have read cover to cover in a very long time. (Selling a house and moving are not conducive to reading.) They are mostly true stories written about sons and the relationships they had/have with their mothers. Surprisingly, not too many tearjerkers. There was one towards the end that got me though. For those of you who do not have a son, there is also a daughter version.

Note to all people who might work with my children…if you have a rule or a guideline that you have established that pertains to the admittance of children into your program-stick to it! We had this problem with Montessori and potty training. Every time I spoke with them about potty training they seemed very willing to work with him. No problem. Send him. But when it came right down to it (and when I read the parent handbook) their policy is they have to be potty trained and when I spoke with the teacher at the back to school parent teacher night she said that he didn’t have to be potty trained, but that if he wasn’t potty trained soon after school started then they would have to dismiss him. Why would I set him up to be kicked out of school? If you have a policy…stick to it! You have that rule for a reason and it is probably a good one. This week Colm’s violin teacher and I had a couple of long talks about Colm’s readiness (or lack thereof) to play the violin. She also let me know that she doesn’t normally take students who haven’t had at least one year of preschool under their belts. Why didn’t she tell me this from the beginning? I would have been totally fine with waiting. We had already started with the other teacher and that is why she went ahead and took him, so I guess she had a good reason, but now I am left to make sure he understands that we aren’t quitting, we are just taking a “vacation” and I also had to explain to him why he doesn’t get to perform in the concert this weekend. He seemed okay with it. We’ll see.

Check it out. Get rid of junk mail and plant some trees all at the same time.