October was a busy month, as I am sure it was with most of you too! One weekend headed up to Maryland to go to the Washington DC temple. After we swapped babysitting with my sister Lois, we headed out to IKEA. Amazingly we were only there for about 20 minutes! I want to go to IKEA on another trip up to Maryland, but I am not sure how to squeeze it in. I think we'll have to forgo it till December. I want to buy a mirror there. I let each kid pick a $1 item (or under) at the snack place by the registers. Always fun to see the different things they pick out.
Though, not very safe, I love it when my kids play games together in the van. They had no idea that I was even taking this picture!
After IKEA we drove straight to a church building for a "road show". I am not exactly sure how to define what a "road show" is, but the different LDS church congregations in the area travel on the "road" to perform a "show" at one location. This year the road show was held in Charlottesville at a church building and the main skits/plays were done by the youth in the church.
This is the group of youth from our ward that participated. They did a great job acting out two different scenarios where they had to stand up for themselves, and then sang a song that some of them had rewritten the lyrics to for Katy Perry's song "Roar". If that sentence made sense.....
They performed fourth and once they were done, we took off to do even more shopping.
Lee had to go to a store to exchange some shirts so I had him drop us off at Trader Joe's (minus Shanna who tagged along with Lee). I love Trader Joe's! They have such fun food and pretty decent prices too! I am stopping by there this weekend to stock up on peppermint Jo Joes for the holidays. YUM!!! After Lee dropped us off, I realized that wasn't the smartest idea I've had! It was kind of cold in the store and I had to buy only a couple of items...but we had more than 20 minutes to kill. Thankfully we found out that the kids could find the polar bear (can't remember his name) that was hiding somewhere in the store and get a sucker once they found him.(And they had free hot apple cider samples!)
Sadly while they were looking some kid realized what they were doing and told them where the polar bear was. Oh well. They got their suckers anyway.
Elden wanted his sandwich cut into candy canes. Lee obliged.
On that following Monday Lee assembled our IKEA purchase! I've said it before but with renting for about 11 years, I had no idea how handy Lee was! Just last week he put in new brake pads and rotors on his mini-van. Yes, we have two mini-vans. Don't be jealous!
And here it is! Our "shoe cabinet" from IKEA. I really like it, plus it adds an extra furniture piece to our house. I have never really decorated before and it shows! Right now the shoe cabinet has a cute wooden pumpkin on it that my visiting teacher gave me.
Another picture with more funky lighting...cell pictures. We wanted to put it right by the door, but there wasn't enough room. I like having it here though. Now we just need to get used to using it all the time. It's great to have a place to put shoes other than in our small coat closet on the small bookshelf in the closet.
I still do copying at the school. I love it! I go in once a week and copy for 10 teachers. Some days I go through many reams of paper!
On to the field trip part of this post. Elden and I went on a second field trip together to Brethern Woods. It's a type of retreat/camp. They had a nature type field trip that day.
Seeing pictures of him doing school stuff and even picking him up from school I can't get over that he looks too young to be in school! I don't have the disposition to home school, so unless there is a dire need, my kids will go to public schools. Plus we are very blessed with such great schools here. I LOVE the schools! I love how the teachers in personal conversations will mention things like prayer and faith. And that at school wide PTA meetings we pray--I got to pray at the meeting last month or the month before, and have prayed at other meetings too. Several of the teachers also have their master degrees, which I think is awesome. The principal is great, the secretaries are wonderful, the teachers are fabulous...I just love it all!
I may have mentioned this before, and I know I've talked to several people about it, but I did not get Elden "ready" for kindergarten. I had great intentions and we did do a little bit. This is not my forte. I can help with home work and studying for tests--I don't mind this at all. But actually sitting down, preparing a lesson and executing it...not so much. He did know how to spell and write his name, knew all his colors...and that's about it. I felt guilty for a long time about it, but basically one day I thought, I am just not going to have him "ready" in time, so I need to just let the guilt go and deal with him starting behind in kindergarten. Elden never went to any type of preschool either. I will say, he did have fun at home! He enjoyed playing by himself at home, going to storytime and playing with his friends at the park. And I loved in the afternoons when he would come and snuggle with me. He is still a snuggler and I love it!
Now that he is in school he has been progressing well. At parent/teacher conferences his teacher told me by January she'd like him to know all the letters and their sounds. He had learned several of them, but not all of them. Last week I heard a great report about him. I went to say hi to Elden in the computer lab as I was passing through the hall and saw that his class was in there. His teacher talked to me for a moment and said that Elden knew all of his letters and sounds! She also praised his hard work and personal responsibility. He and Shanna are on a board in the school hallway actually recognizing them for being students with great character. It was so great hearing this! I've heard from time to time that kids usually catch up to each other by around 2nd grade or so. I still felt bad about not having him "ready" like other preschool-going kids. But now is getting pretty much caught up. YAY! He also knows some site words too which is great. Now we need to work on numbers, ha ha. Great job Elden!
Later that afternoon I took the boys to deliver bags for Scouting for Food. Elden was so excited to help, it was cute.
Another child grumbled about delivering the bags. I of course gave the you're-very-blessed-we-can-do-our-small-part-to-help-those-in-need speech. After the activity was done I heard from said child that an enjoyable time was had.
Now for the last part of the field trip bit in the post....Cal and I went to the nearby James Madison University Planetarium. It was pretty cool! I want to take all of my kids back there. They do free shows on Saturdays too. Something that sounds really neat too that you would love Mom is a star party at their Astronomy Park at night time. During the school year you can go and look through their telescopes at night-time.
I didn't get any pictures at the planetarium, but afterwards we went to Wood Grill Buffet for lunch. Since I was already on the field trip I had to go anyway, but didn't eat. I do like Wood Grill though! I hadn't set money aside to buy lunch and I didn't want to use up some of my play money to do so, ha ha.
When in Rome....you just have to blow the wrapper off of the straw, and of course sometimes try and slide the straw back in the wrapper.
Though, not very safe, I love it when my kids play games together in the van. They had no idea that I was even taking this picture!
After IKEA we drove straight to a church building for a "road show". I am not exactly sure how to define what a "road show" is, but the different LDS church congregations in the area travel on the "road" to perform a "show" at one location. This year the road show was held in Charlottesville at a church building and the main skits/plays were done by the youth in the church.
This is the group of youth from our ward that participated. They did a great job acting out two different scenarios where they had to stand up for themselves, and then sang a song that some of them had rewritten the lyrics to for Katy Perry's song "Roar". If that sentence made sense.....
They performed fourth and once they were done, we took off to do even more shopping.
Lee had to go to a store to exchange some shirts so I had him drop us off at Trader Joe's (minus Shanna who tagged along with Lee). I love Trader Joe's! They have such fun food and pretty decent prices too! I am stopping by there this weekend to stock up on peppermint Jo Joes for the holidays. YUM!!! After Lee dropped us off, I realized that wasn't the smartest idea I've had! It was kind of cold in the store and I had to buy only a couple of items...but we had more than 20 minutes to kill. Thankfully we found out that the kids could find the polar bear (can't remember his name) that was hiding somewhere in the store and get a sucker once they found him.(And they had free hot apple cider samples!)
Sadly while they were looking some kid realized what they were doing and told them where the polar bear was. Oh well. They got their suckers anyway.
Elden wanted his sandwich cut into candy canes. Lee obliged.
On that following Monday Lee assembled our IKEA purchase! I've said it before but with renting for about 11 years, I had no idea how handy Lee was! Just last week he put in new brake pads and rotors on his mini-van. Yes, we have two mini-vans. Don't be jealous!
And here it is! Our "shoe cabinet" from IKEA. I really like it, plus it adds an extra furniture piece to our house. I have never really decorated before and it shows! Right now the shoe cabinet has a cute wooden pumpkin on it that my visiting teacher gave me.
Another picture with more funky lighting...cell pictures. We wanted to put it right by the door, but there wasn't enough room. I like having it here though. Now we just need to get used to using it all the time. It's great to have a place to put shoes other than in our small coat closet on the small bookshelf in the closet.
I still do copying at the school. I love it! I go in once a week and copy for 10 teachers. Some days I go through many reams of paper!
On to the field trip part of this post. Elden and I went on a second field trip together to Brethern Woods. It's a type of retreat/camp. They had a nature type field trip that day.
Seeing pictures of him doing school stuff and even picking him up from school I can't get over that he looks too young to be in school! I don't have the disposition to home school, so unless there is a dire need, my kids will go to public schools. Plus we are very blessed with such great schools here. I LOVE the schools! I love how the teachers in personal conversations will mention things like prayer and faith. And that at school wide PTA meetings we pray--I got to pray at the meeting last month or the month before, and have prayed at other meetings too. Several of the teachers also have their master degrees, which I think is awesome. The principal is great, the secretaries are wonderful, the teachers are fabulous...I just love it all!
I may have mentioned this before, and I know I've talked to several people about it, but I did not get Elden "ready" for kindergarten. I had great intentions and we did do a little bit. This is not my forte. I can help with home work and studying for tests--I don't mind this at all. But actually sitting down, preparing a lesson and executing it...not so much. He did know how to spell and write his name, knew all his colors...and that's about it. I felt guilty for a long time about it, but basically one day I thought, I am just not going to have him "ready" in time, so I need to just let the guilt go and deal with him starting behind in kindergarten. Elden never went to any type of preschool either. I will say, he did have fun at home! He enjoyed playing by himself at home, going to storytime and playing with his friends at the park. And I loved in the afternoons when he would come and snuggle with me. He is still a snuggler and I love it!
Now that he is in school he has been progressing well. At parent/teacher conferences his teacher told me by January she'd like him to know all the letters and their sounds. He had learned several of them, but not all of them. Last week I heard a great report about him. I went to say hi to Elden in the computer lab as I was passing through the hall and saw that his class was in there. His teacher talked to me for a moment and said that Elden knew all of his letters and sounds! She also praised his hard work and personal responsibility. He and Shanna are on a board in the school hallway actually recognizing them for being students with great character. It was so great hearing this! I've heard from time to time that kids usually catch up to each other by around 2nd grade or so. I still felt bad about not having him "ready" like other preschool-going kids. But now is getting pretty much caught up. YAY! He also knows some site words too which is great. Now we need to work on numbers, ha ha. Great job Elden!
Later that afternoon I took the boys to deliver bags for Scouting for Food. Elden was so excited to help, it was cute.
Another child grumbled about delivering the bags. I of course gave the you're-very-blessed-we-can-do-our-small-part-to-help-those-in-need speech. After the activity was done I heard from said child that an enjoyable time was had.
Now for the last part of the field trip bit in the post....Cal and I went to the nearby James Madison University Planetarium. It was pretty cool! I want to take all of my kids back there. They do free shows on Saturdays too. Something that sounds really neat too that you would love Mom is a star party at their Astronomy Park at night time. During the school year you can go and look through their telescopes at night-time.
I didn't get any pictures at the planetarium, but afterwards we went to Wood Grill Buffet for lunch. Since I was already on the field trip I had to go anyway, but didn't eat. I do like Wood Grill though! I hadn't set money aside to buy lunch and I didn't want to use up some of my play money to do so, ha ha.
When in Rome....you just have to blow the wrapper off of the straw, and of course sometimes try and slide the straw back in the wrapper.
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