QUIET TIME

While Cora and Jay were at camp, James and I enjoyed some time out on the deck (whittling soap, building a fire, roasting marshmallows, blowing bubbles, and feeding the curious and friendly chickens some corn), then retreated to the couch to snuggle (where we watched Harry and the Hendersens and Men in Black for the first time - he loved them both!) and eat pizza and popcorn.

Don't tell Cora, but when I asked James at bedtime if he was ready for Cora to come home yet, he said "But it's so QUIET right now..." (probably the opposite of what Jay was experiencing at the Dad and Me Girl Scouts campout!)

CHRISTMAS POO...

I let her dance with the poo. Jay was amused.

And Jay then extended the dancing poo insanity to the house...

WHITTLE FISH

Personally, I'm thankful he takes knife work so seriously!

LAST GAMES

We made it to the end of the soccer season! After a couple of back-to-back rescheduled games due to rain, Jay and the other coaches decided to push the last games to the normal practice times on Monday (U10 Boys) and Tuesday (U8 Girls) nights (because Jay and Cora will be out of town this coming weekend). Both teams had great last games and lots of smiles!

Serious, and not so serious... 

 Not everyone made it out to the last games, but each team was only missing one player. These girls really became good friends and worked so very well together. We're looking forward to Cora, Allie, and Anna moving up together to U10 next fall - they'll be a force to be reckoned with! 

(Kamden's mama sent me these photos, since I had to leave halfway through her game to take James to Cub Scouts)

FRIENDSHIP, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND GRATITUDE

Those were the lessons (and badges) we worked on at Girl Scouts today. We broke the girls into two groups: the first did a sock grab and took turns interviewing whoever completed their matching pair while the second group made posters with encouraging words (to place in the girls restrooms at school) and letters of thankfulness (for their teachers). Afterward, we all sat down to craft some turkeys and had the girls write words of gratitude or encouragement on the feathers. We leaders loved how creative the girls were, how hard they worked, and how unique each turkey was.

Achrislyn and Cora during their interview. We had them ask each other their favorite color, favorite food, favorite thing to do after school, and what they want for Christmas, then they stood in front of the group and reported on their friend. It was really cute and I was proud of them for paying such close attention and giving each girl her due time in the spotlight!

Bailey, Cora, Addisyn, Majestye, and Achrislyn learning about encouragement from our Troop Leader, Ms. Tiffiney.

Back row: Cara Beth, Emma, Bailey, Addisyn, Kennedy, and Celebryte

Front row: Achrislyn, Majestye, Autumn, and Cora

 (We were rushing out to soccer, hence the outfit change)

LIVING ART

Cora spent some quiet time this afternoon drawing a corner of the paludarium:

STACK 'EM HIGH

Jay puts the kids to work this afternoon:

(and he added a few more rows himself after he dismissed them to play)

CORA GETS A NOTE TOO...

...but not from a boy (thankfully). From one of her best school friends, Anna Paiten:

JAY'S PALUDARIUM

When we repainted the kitchen, Jay knew it was the perfect time to redo his aquarium (since he had to drain it to move it anyway). We had only a single fish living within it's darkness anyway (which we tried to save during the move, but it was too much stress on a very old fish). Rather than clean the tank and set it right back up, Jay decided to remodel it and turn it into a paludarium.

 (He also made a planter to hang above it with a cedar board he cut from the yard AND made a new wood hood to cover his new lighting system)

 Once it was complete, he added a lot of the tank items he already had on hand, then scavenged the yard for a few more cool pieces of rock and wood, made a planter box out of slate tiles, and hiked around our ravine to find some plants (which we later added to with some air plants and resurrection fern that we purchased). After it had settled for a week or so, he added some fish (neon tetras, rasbora, kuhli loaches, and catfish), shrimp, and snails. Once he has the aquatic fauna stabilized, he'll be adding some salamanders and/or newts. It's looking really nice and the whole family (including the cats) are enjoying stopping to watch the animals roam around the tank!

MONSTER MASH

James and Cora's Tap / Musical Theater class did a little performance for us this afternoon. The kids had been practicing at home and Cora requested a lab coat for her Mad Scientist part. We thought they were very expressive and pretty darn cute out there!

 (Jay took video, but it's too long to load here - check out his Facebook if you haven't seen it!)

TRICK-OR-TREAT, SMELL MY FEET...

We joined the Hancocks again this year for a hayride (without the hay) trick-or-treat adventure around the Camelot/Lakeside neighborhood. It was less busy than I remembered (but maybe last year's trip up to Chambers street just gave me a different perspective), but there were still a good number of trailers packed with kids, plenty of trick-or-treaters (including a few friends they bumped into throughout the night), and more than enough candy...

 (There was no stopping this song - they were almost unbelievably hyper as we trucked it up to the trick-or-treating neighborhood, but obviously they'd had a good amount of sugar already at their school Halloween parties...)

 (We had a pretty sunset)

 Not a lot of big decorations out this year, but this particular house always does it up a bit!

SCHOOL HALLOWEEN PARTIES

I volunteered to help with both kids' school Halloween parties, so I took a couple hours of leave today (after our own work Halloween party) and went over to the school to help lead a craft and serve treats. ALL the kids were pumped and couldn't wait to get out of there to go have fun trick-or-treating, but I was still really impressed with their behavior. (And since I helped more in Cora's class and visited more in James', I really had a chance to see how his class works, which was fun.)

James' class did a LOT of crafts! We got through one in Cora's class - a popsicle stick "ghost window" that turned out pretty cute (and I especially liked that some kids wanted to do things their own way, like cartoon character ghosts instead of tracing their hands, or ghosts drawn on OUTSIDE the window while they used their paper to creative an indoor scene).

 When we got home from school, the kids knocked out their homework outside (because it was "too nice to work inside" according to Cora) before we got changed and headed out to trick-or-treat.

WE SURVIVED!

My friend Dawn and I attended Valhalla's Frightmare tonight. (It's a haunted house here in town put on by the Warren Central High School "Big Blue" band students as their big fundraiser of the year.) She used to work the Haunted Trail in Natchez and loves all things scary, so she was my shield. Freddy followed us throughout every twist and turn, so he owed me a picture at the end!

ART ROCKS!

The kids got to work on their "You Be You" rocks in art this week, which they've been excitedly waiting for since before school even started (they were asked to bring their smooth rock to Back to School Night in anticipation of this project). Every student at Bowmar will be painting a rock to add to a rock garden at the school that will demonstrate the uniqueness of each student.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."

Dr. Seuss

TWO HAPPY PUMPKINS

We didn't forget to carve the pumpkins, but it was last minute and a pretty much solo effort for the kids. They did a good job (and we ate all the pumpkin seeds within 2 days...)