Sunday, December 3, 2017

Family pictures





November

A friend tagged me on Facebook to post b+w photos of my life 7 days in a row.  So...school, scriptures, spin, reading with boys, Saturday trail running, weekday running, wake up call...phew!








Max's class does learning game centers every day, one day his center was picking out letters from a fun box, finding it on their ABC sheet, and coloring in the letter.  He showed me his ABC sheet, and thought it was hilarious he had colored in the "X" as "naked". 


We had parent-teacher conferences at the beginning of November, and both boys are amazing.  Pace's teachers got a little teary-eyed when talking about him, how much they just loved him and how special he was.  Certainly made us smile!  Pace is currently testing at reading level I (they want them to be at reading level F by the end of the year); reads 54 words per minute with 2 errors (end of year goal is 23 wpm); math is testing grade level 2.2; language level testing grade level 2.4.  Pace picked out a donut bigger than his head for a job well done.  Max has mastered all kindergarten requirements...really, he entered kindergarten knowing his alphabet, blending sounds, counting to 100, grouping objects, shapes, etc.  Max picked out a regular donut.


A couple friends and I do a dinner exchange on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  On my night to cook dinner, the flourless chocolate cake slipped right out of my hands.  So I improvised and threw together a hot chocolate bar to go with the creamy tortellini soup and humongo rolls I'd made.



Aunt Donna sent Pace a Walmart gift card for his birthday, and he finally decided he was ready to spend it.  We looked at three or four lego sets he could afford, and spent a good 20 minutes or so looking them all over until he finally decided on the ice spikes minecraft set.  The boys were so excited to build it! 



One quiet night David was working late, so it was a perfect night to finish up some school work and the boys made some pillow chairs and read out loud to me for a straight hour or more! 




Max loves taking selfies.  This little boy is coming out with the most hilarious phrases lately!  He ends his phrases with "you", for example: "It's not that one, you!"  "I already ate that one, you!"  He also says "dude" a lot.  With those big, brown eyes and marshmallow cheeks, you just have to squeeze this boy with whatever he says.  


Thanksgiving was busy!  Our good friends invited us over for their family dinner, and then our other good friends invited us over for dessert later in the day.  So...that meant LOTS of pies!  Two each of Sticky Toffee Pudding Apple Pies, Sweet Potato Pies, Adult Mississippi Mud Pies (they had cayenne in them and were served with Mexican Hot Chocolate Ice Cream), and one Chocolate Silk Torte.  Pretty amazing spread!


Thanksgiving dinner was originally going to be at our neighbor's house, but it moved to his brother's house...so we went with them.  The kids all got along great, running around downstairs and playing on the indoor playset (!).  Their family also has a Thanksgiving piƱata tradition, and the boys loved it!






Dessert part II!


Then we decorated for Christmas the next day.  We got a mini tree for the boy's room, they loved putting the mini ornaments on it.






Weekly sword fighting with Daddy.


The boy's school had a fun run the Wednesday after Thanksgiving.  Grades K-6 participated, and they asked for donations, a flat fee or per lap.  I thought they were going to have the kids run around the track next to the high school, you know, where 4 laps is a mile.  So I pledged $2 per lap, thinking Pace would do 4 laps, and Max would do 1.  They ended up setting up a little--very little--loop on the field right next to the track...Pace did 36+ laps (the payment maxed out at 36 laps), and Max did 24 laps (he stopped when he tripped and fell and the kids kept running around/over/on top of him).








Check out this kid's form!  He was grinning ear to ear every lap!







$72 later...


$48 later...


Another night the boys sat drawing next to each other and giggling for probably an hour.



Family movie night!