You know you have a kindergartener when....

Tonight Sadie gave me a message from the bathtub, it was "Hey, M-O-M, I'm going to tell you something...I, finger space, L-O-V-E, finger space, Y-O-U." For those of you aren't familiar with finger spacing it is apparently the current method of teaching writing, Sadie very carefully puts her finger at the end of the word before starting writing the next one (or in this case, spelling out the message for me). She brought her first progress report home the other day and it appears she is perfectly average for her grade-level, which I am happy with. Truly, she is learning a lot and seems to love it, for me that's more important than what reading group she is in. My mom likes to read the John Roseman (not sure if I spelled that right) column in the newspaper and she cut out an article for me to read. He spoke of a school advertising the high grades of their students and also the colleges their students were accepted into, never mentioning anything about their character development focus. I know that the majority of character training is to happen at home but I think that education in general is losing the "well-rounded" emphasis it used to carry. Truthfully I think education is slightly over-rated, I don't intend to send my children off to a 4 year school for the experience of it. I pray that by that time we have helped guide them into decisions for actual careers, unfortunately a college degree alone will not get you a job anymore. I feel like we are just getting our feet wet with this whole school thing, as our first-born is just a couple months into school, so by no means have I figured this thing out. I often wonder, "should I be homeschooling? Should they be in private school?"  But for now my goals for Sadie, and hopefully the rest, are to learn how to learn, to enjoy the process, to be a good friend, to learn to respect authorities besides her parents, and (like I tell her everyday) to "shine as a light for the Lord."
As for my boys, they are finally starting to bond a little better. When David was born Sadie and Eli played so well together, but their personalities are night and day from each other. Sadie was bossy and Eli allowed her (and still does) to direct all play, so it worked well. Eli's favorite activity with David is still to touch his face, which now just irritates the fire out of David, so we have daily talks about "all having fun" and Eli has found a few other little games that make them both laugh. Steven apparently has said one too many times that Eli needs to get tough because tonight he was crying after getting hurt and I said "Eli, you're ok, you need to get tough," then Sadie replied with "Yeah, Eli, if you don't get tougher Daddy is going to sell you or something." Poor little guy. At this point it appears that David is plenty tough, too rough to be exact. Thankfully he redeems himself with sweet snuggles and his vocabulary is really growing, but man is he intense. It's amazing how different kids can be, I'm so thankful for the little boogers. I don't think I'll let Steven sell any. :)
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you can count your blessings this week and enjoy the family and food! I know I will try to keep a thankful, joyful heart, remembering most of all my salvation. "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift," (we read that today in church but I can't remember the reference). Goodnight!

A Halloween Tale

 Once upon a time there was a little girl named Cinderella who got to wear her pretty dress to school for "Character Day." Not surprisingly, there were several other Cinderellas (she had to bring in a book about her character as well which ruled out several other costumes). She got to have a party and of course bring home some candy. Her Nana had come for a visit the day before and she, Eli, and the cousins got to carve pumpkins for the porch. 

 While Cinderella was at school Mama, Nana, and Grandma took a Chicken, a BumbleBee, and Woody the cowboy to the preschool Fall Festival. Once the chicken found the basketball goals Mama couldn't get him to do any other games. He's a bit of a sports fanatic. Thankfully, there was a goal he could reach (if not he simply goes up to the nearest adult and reaches up so they will lift him up to shoot). He's a strong-willed little Chicken.

The Bumble-bee was just as sweet as ever, he enjoyed all the games and especially the candy. He didn't sting too many people but he does still have his face-touching obsession with the Chicken. The Chicken will soon fight back, I feel sure. 

On Halloween Cinderella had a Teacher Workday (now she is expecting to always be out of school on Halloween) so they enjoyed their lazy day with Mama and Nana, including a trip to the library and Walmart (it gets pretty crazy around here). Papa came up for a short visit, too, so they decided to show him their costumes. Cinderella turned into Little Red Riding Hood, a costume her Grandma had made for her aunt when she was a little girl. Precious!

 Since it sometimes proves to be a little tricky, the kids decided to practice their trick or treating with Nana before actually going out. 

 Was that a chicken in the house? A little while later the cousins came home and everybody ate a quick dinner so they could head out trick or treating. They went a little early, interrupting at least one family's dinner (oops!), the kids had a blast and the Chicken quickly figured out the deal and was crawling up the steps as fast as he could, then holding out his hands for candy. Instead of "Thank you" the Bumblebee just said "Trick or Treat" but the kind neighbors seemed to understand. It was so fun for the Mama to watch kids in this stage, when getting candy is about as exciting as it gets. They went out early so the kids could still go to AWANA, Mama didn't want to set a precedent of skipping church on Halloween, and the kids were happy to go. Mama seemed to be the only tired one that night, maybe she should have eaten as much candy as they did! 

Peace out! (aka...The End)