Thanksgiving

One of the traditions our family has had for the last several years is the annual England Family Turkey Bowl. Some years it is snowy. Some it is muddy. This year was dry but cold. It was in the 20's. This year Matt and the kids joined in. I decided I would be photographer. There was a good turn out and people seemed to be having a good time. There were even a few big hits...Rissa getting Chris, Mason getting Whitni, Kevin getting Mason. I think the kids would even do it again even if they didn't get shirts!

**The picture of Nick, Joel and Matt is not a sweet family bonding moment. They are watching Mason rolling around in pain after he got taken down by his own dad!

Parent Teacher Conferences

Last Friday and the first three days of this week are all half days at school. Lucky Cade doesn't have school at all because of parent-teacher conferences.
Our conference with Maddy's teacher was last Friday. Maddy is one who always likes to be good so we didn't expect to hear anything too terrible from Mrs K. Maddy is doing really well with reading and writing and is where she should be with math. Mrs K would like to see Maddy take on more of a leadership role in class.
Ryan's conference was this morning. Ryan is a very smart boy but he likes to be first at everything so he tends to rush his work a bit. He gets things right the majority of the time but can be a touch on the sloppy side. When he finishes his work, Miss C lets him help the other kids (especially Bailee who says Ryan is her boyfriend) with their work. He is very good at math and at reading. Writing is definitely not his favorite subject. He is a class rep for ASB and is a Tech Kid which means he gets to help the kindergarteners in computer lab. He loves being busy!
To be honest, Matt and I were a little worried about Cade's conference. He is often in his own world...Cade's world. He used to tell his friends about how I owed people lots of money and how he had another mother but she was in jail. Get the idea? He is also such a 'go-with-the-flow' kind of person. Doesn't have a care in the world. He is also one of the younger kids in his class. Anyway, we sit down with Ms C and she tells us how well Cade is doing. She says she really is a bit surprised because he is so laid back, you can't tell if he has really grasped what is being taught. They do little 'tests' to make sure kids are getting the concepts and Cade is getting it! Ms C says Cade is a really good learner and is further along than they expect the kiddos to be at this point.
Way to go, young scholars!

Happy Halloween

The first Halloween we celebrated in Duvall was cold. The second Halloween we celebrated in Duvall was cold. This year we were prepared. Maddy was ketchup so could easily fit a jacket under her outfit. Ryan not too bad. A bit of a tight fit for the Knight costume but it worked. Cade looked like a swollen Superman with his coat under his superhero leotard. The back couldn't close or else it would choke him. Luckily his cape covered the giant hole on his backside.

We went to our usual Halloween hotspot and the kids got their fill of treats. Someone even turned their garage into a little haunted house. On our way home we stopped by some friends house who serve hot apple cider and homemade donuts to trick-or-treaters they know. Thank you, Powells! Very yummy!

Turning 10

Maddy turned 10 in October. I was really ready for a birthday without her getting a bunch of stuff. Stuff that I knew would get pushed under her bed never to see the light of day until the next time I went up to clean her room. This year, we decided to do something a little bit different. Instead of her friends bringing Maddy a present, we had each girl drop some fleece off at the house the week before the party. I washed the material and cut strips along the edges. Party day came and as the girls showed up, we put a strip of sticky paper on their foreheads with something or someone written on it...Batman, Frankenstein, black cat, etc. They couldn't see what was on the paper. The girls sat on the floor around the fleece squares and had to ask questions about who/what they were while they tied the fleece strips in knots. Maddy donated these blankets to Project Linus. Project Linus gathers quilts for kids who are going thru some kind of trauma. She also was able to give one to a friend's son who just had hand surgery.

This past week, Maddy received a thank you note in the mail with her official blanketeer patch.

Getting Started

When when of my kiddos does or says something funny, I always think that I should write it down. For some reason, I never do. I think that I will do it later and then I forget. Now when I try to remember that funny something or what kid did what when, I regret not writing it down then. I guess this is my attempt to write a journal. Not just for me but for my kids. I read in another blog that you can actually have your posts put into books. I think the kids would like having an actual book all about them. I don't know how often I will keep this up to date but I will try my best. My grandpa would be proud!