...brings on the beginning of the next--the "holiday season!" I am semi-excited about Christmas but still not where I need/want to be. I do feel good about the jump start I've gotten on buying/getting/making gifts. And if nothing else, I have a pretty good list of things for the people I haven't already bought for.

Tonight was trick-or-treat night. The kids had a blast. We went with 2 other families so there were 7 kids total. Little Bit (also known as Princess Peach) had another girl her age (which made her the happiest child on the block) and Little Monster (also known as Mario) just ran with the crowd. He sticks close to his sister, anyway.  I only got to see them hit about 4 houses because I had a Zumba class to teach but the great thing about T-or-Ting is that once you see one house, you've pretty much seen them all. I mean, how much different can it get? One difference that I didn't know about until after T-or-Ting had started is that Little Monster decorated his bag with every sticker he could get off of a sheet that he found in one of his workbooks. I didn't even take them off :)


School was good last week and so far so good this week. This is a big grocery shopping week so I've decided that school is having to be shifted around for that. We are couponers (not the crazy extreme people but one of the normal coupon families just looking for a good deal) and Kroger has a GREAT ad this week.


I'm not sure what is going on with the Android software but I am having issues with photos that I take "disappearing" from my devices (whether it be my phone or my galaxy...which are both Android devices) so I had pictures of the kids doing their school work dressed up but they are MIA. If they return, I'll be sure to post them. Here are our pumpkins. We carved Rapunzel and Perry the Platypus this year. I think pumpkin carving is such a waste. I know it is fun but surely there is a more cost effective activity. I'm such a stick in the mud.

Here is our watercolor art from 2 weeks ago. The one on the left is Little Bit at her friend's birthday party. It is her on a waterslide. The yellow thing is the deck with a table and the cake on it. The blue is the slide and she's in the pink bathing suit. Little Monster colored the pumpkin I drew and then made his own lines and squiggles.

One cool thing Little Monster did today was try to write words. Little Bit did her journal entry about going Trick-or-Treating so Little Monster decided to write it too. He wrote "I M G" and to translate--the M is "am" (but you say it more like 'em') and the G is the beginning of "going." He wanted me to help him with the rest but when I asked him what he thought was next, he proceeded to just draw lines. This is the beginning of learning to read. Again...just something else I haven't taught him. I have no idea where he comes up with stuff. One thing is for sure--he is constantly listening and absorbing everything we say!! When Little Bit was in preschool and I asked her if anyone got in timeout and what they did her response was almost ALWAYS "I don't know but at least it didn't happen to me." If I ask Little Monster, his response is "well, I was standing in my chair and Brody was on the floor beside his chair, and Caroline and Chandler were under the table but they had their hands on the table and we were supposed to sit down and so we got our apples flipped (their equivalent of a green/yellow/red system)". It is so funny the details he notices and remembers.