Halloween Fun...

We had three Halloween parties today at schoolthen went trick or treating. Nicole was a fairy (one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends)-Amanda was a pink flying unicorn-Nate was Davy Crockett-They all had a fabulous day and of course got lots of candy!

There won't be any weight loss going on in this house for a while!

We walked across Washington today...

Through a corn maze! We had to find 12 different locations in Washington while walking through paths marked with highway numbers in a corn maze. This was their version of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which we learned was nicknamed "Galloping Gertie" years ago just before it collapsed into the water. We went with the Brownies and each of us were in charge of four kids. Nate got to join us for this outing and he was thrilled! He was a little disappointed to find out that he was the only boy - even the siblings were all girls! He had a very difficult time letting the girls lead the way but he definitely tried to give up his control of the situation. They played games, went through the corn maze, and picked out pumpkins.

Ice Skating Fun...

It was another busy day today! Nate had a mystery dinner to go to for a friend's birthday party and I went to Skate America with Linda. I dropped Nate off at 5:30pm, and then headed off with Mom to watch the ice skating! It was a wonderful show and we really enjoyed it.

A Few of Our Favorite Activities...

Okay, so I know I already posted tonight. I was looking through my pictures tonight and discovered a few I hadn't had time to share. Nate loves playing the bass guitar and the teacher says he's really good at it already!: Amanda MUST wear this to bed every night to get a good night's sleep:

Did I say that she is my Princess? Both Nicole and Amanda are enjoying their Brownie meetings:

Nate had a wonderful birthday at Traxx Racing in Mukilteo: And he enjoyed the corn maze with this friends:

And in Cub Scouts, he picked apples and made applesauce, and baked cake inside of oranges:

And of course, sold almost $500 in popcorn! It's been a busy month! Now you see a little of what keeps us busy every day of the week. We have orchestra on Monday, Brownies on Tuesdays, Cub Scouts on Wednesdays and the occasional Sunday, and Thursdays are reserved for finishing homework and studying for Friday spelling tests! Now I'm off to bed to get rested for tomorrow's roller coaster:)

Favorite parts of me...

Today I worked with Amanda's class to illustrate a poem each child wrote about themselves and what "The Best Part of Me is...". We read through the poems together, then we talked about what they thought would be a good way to picture their favorite part. See if you can tell what Amanda's favorite part was:

The kids did such a wonderful job with their poems! I can't wait to see the book all put together and published. I'll finish up the pictures tomorrow so the teacher can start to compile everything.

And the verdict is...

Today was the kids first visit to the orthodontist. What an experience! The whole practice is geared towards kids with lots of yummy treats and wonderful activities for them to keep busy. They took lots of pictures and xrays of the kids' teeth and then the verdict came in: two of the three kids need work done already! Not surprisingly, Nicole doesn't need anything yet because she doesn't have her permanent teeth yet. She's still got all but two of her baby teeth and they don't look like they are going anywhere soon.

Amanda needs two baby teeth removed to make room for her permanent teeth, and then she'll need partial braces on both top and bottom front teeth. Nate needs an appliance installed that will be a precursor to braces. It's to help him remember to stop sucking his thumb, and pull the teeth back in to where they should be.

All in all, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, at least in the short term. I'm really glad that the visit is over and we can start working on making our kids teeth perfect!

Nate's first experience with popcorn sales...

Nate and I spent all weekend visiting our neighbors and calling friends to increase popcorn sales for our Cub Scout pack. It was an experience walking through our hilly neighborhood and climbing many many staircases. Nate was able to almost fill an entire sheet and he's so proud of himself! He made over $400 in sales in the last two days, including one Internet order from his cousin Stephenie! Thanks everyone for helping to make the popcorn sales a success for him! He's positively beaming tonight and should sleep very sound dreaming about popcorn!