Halloween Extravaganza

On Friday we had an all day Halloween celebration. I took the day off and took the kids to the Halloween party at their preschool followed by trick or treating the Goblin Walk in a nearby town. This is always one of my favorite days of the year, but it’s also one of the most exhausting. Bounce houses, petting zoo, cookies, candy, parades, horse rides, and masses and masses of kids in costumes. I tackled the Goblin Walk by myself this year with two kiddos walking. Last year only the fact that Kate could be strapped into a stroller kept me from losing anybody. This year she was walking so I strapped her monkey backpack leash on over her costume, which she tolerated for a little bit before wanting more freedom. We had a very near miss at one point when Nicky thought we were ahead of him and I thought he was behind us and we both ran off in different directions trying to find each other. Luckily a friend caught sight of him and pointed me in the right direction, but it was still a terrifying couple of minutes. I’ve made my annual promise that I’m never going to do the Goblin Walk again, but we’ll see if that holds come next year!

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Happy 2nd Birthday Kate!!

Kate turned two yesterday!  And what a fun day it was (lots and lots of pictures here).  We went to breakfast, where Kate enjoyed a whole pile of french toast and and even bigger pile of syrup and then played at TWO different playgrounds to burn off all the breakfast calories.  After lunch and a nice nap it was time for her birthday party!  She was so happy to be the center of attention and so confident playing…she’s definitely a little girl now and not a baby.  She totally got it that it was her birthday and kept greeting people at the party by saying, “it’s my birthday!” What a fun day!! Thanks to everybody near and far who helped us celebrate our sweet little girl.

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First Book

Nicky continued his reading express today by reading his very first book from start to finish (thanks for the fun Bob books, Jack and Luke!!).  We’re all very excited and proud – Nicky is having a blast practicing his new skill.

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Reading!

Holy coco mo, we have another reader in the house!  Nicky has been working on reading for a while now and could occasionally sound out a word but would mostly guess it based on the context/picture.  Something clicked this week and he suddenly started really trying to sound out words.  Nicky’s style is that he won’t practice something externally unless he’s pretty sure he can do it so I knew we must be getting close.  Sure enough, tonight he was reading all the words we gave him and was kept asking for more. I stumped him with “star”…he thought it was “satr” but right after this video ended he grabbed an n to turn it into “saturn” (spelled “satrn”).  Creative problem solving!

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