October Fun!

Well, it's Halloween and everyone is sleeping but me, it's 12:54am & I figured I'd better update now to get caught up before picture-fest begins (Halloween AND Ella's birthday!)

So, Wednesday night we went to a Halloween thing at church. The girls looked super cute and had a great time! They had dinner, played games and won fabulous prizes (read: candy!)

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Tonight we carved pumpkins. I should say I carved pumpkins and they played with pumpkin guts...

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(I am not sure why Emily looks drugged in these pictures, she wasn't AND was very happy!)
And that's about it! Later today (like 6am I am sure!) the girls will put on their Halloween costumes and spend the rest of the day asking if it's time to go trick-or-treating yet! After we actually go trick-or-treating the girls will come home to a great surprise, Grandma & Grandpa from New Jersey will be here! Hooray!

No "All Day Every Day" this month...

All Day Every Day is a silly thing that Emily's school does to promote good attendance. I do understand the need to impress upon these kids that school is important and that it is in their best interest to come everyday and stay everyday BUT they are also young kids who actually do not have much control in their attendance. Anyway, this is a coveted prize for Emily but sadly, I have thwarted her efforts once again! Yesterday I had to get Emily early from school so we could go to the doctor for what I knew was a bad sinus infection. What I was not expecting was that she also had a wheeze low in her lungs. She was given an albuterol breathing treatment at the doctors office and sent home with Mr. Neb.

Mr. Neb is the penguin shaped nebulizer that Emily gets to use 3 times a day for the next 2 weeks to help clear the wheeze. If she still has the wheezing when we go back to the doctor, we will be sent to a pulmonologist. I fear that she has inherited my sinuses...poor thing. I honestly don't think it's anything more (based on the medical degree I earned from watching TV of course!)...my poor perfect baby already has scoliosis she shouldn't have asthma too!

Report card time!!!!!

We LOVE report card time around here!!!! (Hope that is always the case!) Today was our teacher conference with Emily's teacher. Not to brag but it went a little something like this:

For the first 9 weeks of school Emily scored 100% for Language Arts/Reading, Emily scored 100% for Language Arts/Writing, Emily scored 100% for Science, Emily scored 100% for Social Studies, Emily scored 99% for math (miscounted 1 thing on 1 test in 9 weeks!)!!!! Emily is doing fantastically! By the end of first grade the kids are supposed to read 60 words per minutes (when reading a story), at present time Emily reads 156 words per minute!!!!! By the end of first grade there are 220 sight words that the kids have to know, tested on these words back in the first couple weeks of school, she already knew 217! Emily is going to be given a second grade math workbook to start working in so she has something to do when she has finished her work (takes her less than 1/2 the time the other kids need).

I know it might not always be like this, but we are loving right now! What can I say, she's FANTASTIC!

Pumpkin Patch

We took the girls to a pumpkin patch Saturday (met some of our friends there too!) The girls had a blast, despite the rain! Not only were there lots of pumpkins but there were also lots of other things to do. We went through a corn maze (it was very muddy & I was wearing worn out crocs...this equals a very slippery situation!), saw baby baby animals, the girls jumped off of some strange hay bales, played some duck race where you pump water through a pipe & it pushes a duck (odd I know). The best part was the little hay ride. We rode out to the pasture & then fed the cows! I am NOT a nature person at all but it was cute to see them come up to the wagon & the girls thought it was FANTASTIC to feed them! The farm is great, it used to be a commercial dairy farm but they decided that wasn't in the best interest of anyone so they down-sized to 60 head (I think)and now the cows are 100% grass fed with no antibiotics & no hormones...if we were milk drinkers I'd have to seriously consider forking over $6 a gallon for their extraordinarily fresh milk ( never pasteurized or homogenized...therefore, in Georgia, not able to be some for human consumption, but they can sell it for "pets")

Here is what it looked like...

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Sunday School

I think the girls forgot that we go to an EPISCOPAL church, not Pentecostal...that or they watch too much of 18 Kids & Counting!

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Venture!

Hooray! A packet was sent home with Emily yesterday to start the process of testing her for the gifted & talented program in her school ,it's called Venture. There are several forms to be filled out plus I have to submit samples of her work, not regular homework or drill sheets but things like artwork or short stories, things like that. I hope it's a little lenient since she's just in 1st grade but I do have 2 short stories she wrote that I can send in her artwork is, well...prolific! I have to return the packet by next Thursday... then the testing starts! I don't know what to tell her about it because if she is not accepted i don't want her to feel bad and I do not want her to be anxious when she is taking the tests. If she does get in, she'll be in until we (or she) wants out or her grades in regular classes suffer (so hopefully never!)

On a Beanie note, both of her teachers have said she has the most extensive vocabulary in the whole Pre-K!!!! Yesterday at lunch (she was eating corn) and was explaining the digestive process to everyone. It apparently went like this "after you chew up your corn & swallow it, it has to go see the big contestant & then it goes to see the small contestant"...not quite the right words but she gets the idea.

My smart little people, I just love them!

Me

I officially have a large thyroid. My regular doctor doesn't know why so I am going to a metabolic endocrinologist. Sounds like fun, huh?


*****UPDATE - I have a goiter. Why we still don't know, I go to the Endocrinologist on November 13th*****