Halloween day

Big Sis and I went over to Little Brother's school today for his class Halloween party. He dressed up as Indiana Jones/an explorer for school because there were rules about no costumes with violent themes, and I wasn't sure how they'd feel about a Jedi. He wore a denim shirt with khaki pants, a safari hat, and a pair of binoculars.


Earlier this week I found out that some of the merchants in town were going to be hosting a community trick-or-treat this afternoon, which of course the kids thought was an excellent idea. Big Sister decided that she felt too self-conscious in the vet costume ("Can't I be a black cat? Everyone else is being a black cat"), plus she kept having to tell people that she was a vet, not a doctor, so she abandoned it to be a butterfly instead. Little Brother went to a party as a pirate yesterday and had a lot of fun with the moustache and goatee, so he opted for that character again this afternoon.





I found this picture on the camera this evening. It's from the other night when Sis sat next to me on the couch taking pictures of this and that. She got a really nice self-portrait of herself and her favorite stuffed animal, Spotsy...



So we've eaten dinner (homemade pizza), and we're now waiting for night to fall so we can head out with the kids around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. With any luck we'll be able to duck out between rain showers. Wish us luck!

Gearing up for Halloween

This year the kids are going with a "future careers" theme:



Big Sister is a veterinarian


Little Brother is a Jedi (yes, that's his Obi-wan Kenobi costume from last year)


From parkday with our homeschool group:



And our family of jack o' lanterns:

Just doing my part...

I spent the past hour making playdough for Little Brother's kindergarten class. At back-to-school night there were sign-ups for each month for playdough, and I took November. Made the stove top kind, with cream of tartar. Makes a nice playdough, but have you seen the price of cream of tartar lately??? I made four batches, which wiped out my large container of c.o.t. so that's all they're getting out of me. I don't really mind though. I kind of find kneading the warm dough to be relaxing, and I highly recommend running to your kitchen to whip up a batch right now if you have any kind of joint pain in your hands or wrists. Feels great. I'm also doing my volunteer stint in the classroom tomorrow. I just found out there have been three car break-ins in the school parking lot in the past five weeks, so I need to clean out the van before I leave in the morning so there's nothing tempting in there. Especially those Christmas presents I've been driving around hidden in the trunk - would be a big bah humbug to have those swiped.

Tuesday catch-up...

Big sister and I took part in a girl scout workshop on orienteering on Sunday. It was ccccc-cold out there! The workshop was great - they had some folks from the Washington Surveyors Association who brought different maps and gps equipment, including a couple of women working in the field who told the girls all about what surveyors do, and how they can become licensed. The ladies were fantastic with the girls. The first half of the day was spent working with compasses, using them with maps, setting pace, and then using the really high-tech gps units that the professionals use. They were accurate enough to find pennies hidden in the grass. Then we broke for lunch, and had some hands-on training on regular, run-of-the-mill gps units. When we were done, we split into group to go do some geo-caching, which was a lot of fun. It's like letterboxing, but with a gps. With gps in hand, Big Sister hiked more enthusiastically then I've seen in quite some time!

Today is our homeschool group's trick-or-treat parkday. Weather looks like it will be good. I need to find something to pass out before then. We'll see what I can come up with.

Oh, I forgot to mention - Big Sis was working on her requirements for the Juniors pet care badge yesterday. One of the activities I helped her with was to determine the cost of caring for a pet monthly and yearly. She chose to figure out the costs for her rat, and we were both surprised by the results. She included things like the cost of water for drinking and cleaning, and gas to drive to the store to buy supplies, and yearly vet checks. We also factored in the monthly cost for the cage that we purchased back when we brought the rats home. Grand total: over $400/year! Who knew? Ironically, the cost of monthly dog food ends up being the same as the cost of all the rat's various needs put together. I'd have thought it cost much more to have a larger pet vs. a small one, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Granted, once you add in licensing, yearly vet and shots, plus any boarding we have to do, the dog is definitely more costly.

Interesting commentary

Singer/songwriter Tom Chapin has written a song titled "Not on the Test" that illustrates what may be taking place in public schools that are no longer providing instruction in art, music, and physical education due to restrictions placed on them by NCLB. The video and lyrics, as well as Tom's experience as a student of the public school system vs. what he sees in his grandchildren's generation, can be found at http://www.notonthetest.com/index.html
As a kid who leaned heavily to the "artsy" side, I'm not sure how I would have fared in school if I hadn't had that outlet. It wasn't until I had the opportunity to pursue my own passions by taking electives in jr. high and high school that I really began to excel academically. I hope the artsy, musical kids aren't forgotten.

Putting the "car" in carschooling today...

No more driving for me. Today was my day for driving drama carpool, so I go pick up our other drama princess, drive to Kirkland, drive back to pick-up my kindergartener, drive back to Kirkland, drive back to drop of drama princess #2, and drive home. We were supposed to have parkday afterwards, but by then I'd already put 50+ miles on the van this morning, and parkday was way the heck out in Brier (which means nothing to most of you, but let's just say it isn't even remotely in my neck of the woods). And it is an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day! I just couldn't make myself drive another mile. I told the kids they had to go play out in the yard and soak up some vitamin D before their bones turn to rubber. Socialization can wait another day. ;P

And speaking of that very thing...

Yesterday, after the "incident" with that sweet little girl during the hearing screening, I finally had the opportunity to meet Little Brother's Recess Teacher. He's been coming home with stories about her since day one of the school year, and he seems to spend a lot of time chatting with her each day. Recess Teacher is actually an office assistant who doubles as the playground supervisor at recess time. When I introduced myself, she said she was so excited to finally met Little Brother's Mom. Apparently she's been working at this school from the time her kids were born (they're now 28 and 26), so she's met a kid or two. She said that every once in a while she meets a kid who she thinks is just really put together, and that my boy is one of those kids (and shush! - she doesn't say that to everyone!). She said he's polite, caring, respectful, friendly, helpful, gets along great with the other kids, and is interesting to talk with. She wanted to know how we (ie. Mom and Dad) had managed to create such a great kid. I said I wasn't really sure, but that it was nice to hear these things because he's been homeschooled since birth, and I was a little worried how he'd get along at school. She responded, "Well, he's so well socialized, you can't even tell he was homeschooled!"

That's a compliment. Right? I'm taking it as a compliment. I think.

Let that be a lesson to ya!

I volunteered at Little Brother's school today. They needed some volunteers to help with the hearing and vision screening they do on all the kids each fall. I found a friend to ship Big Sister off to, and decided to give it a go. I was assigned to test hearing. It went well, with the exception of the poor little girl who I injured shortly after she sat down at my hearing station. I was about to fit the headphones over her ears when I accidently let go of one side, which caused the ear piece to spring back into her face. She looked absolutely horrified, and would no longer make eye contact. I told her that when she got back out with her classmates, be sure to tell them to watch out for the mean blonde lady with glasses. That's right. Don't mess with me.









...only kidding on that last part.... Unfortunately I really did smack her in the face with the headphones. What? It's not like she cried! But she did remain very still and did exactly what I asked of her for the rest of her time at my station.