Halloween 2011

 Trying on the costume last night, "just to see how it feels," and in honor of carving the pumpkin.  Matt loves to watch "Nightmare Before Christmas" around Halloween, so in honor of the tradition we have a Jack Skeleton pumpkin face.  The helmet technically isn't part of his costume, but he couldn't find the mask that goes with it.  The mask doesn't really fit or function well anyway, so it won't be used.  We have other plans...

 Step 1.  Spike the hair in place of having horns.  Outline the grand design on the excited boy's face.

 Step 2.  With engineer-like precision, begin applying the yellow...

 Step 3.  Sit still!  Sit still!  Okay, yes, you can smile at mom while she takes pictures.

 Step 4.  Dad, how long is this going to take?  Contrast color being applied.

 Step 5.  Whoa!!!  I am looking awesome!!!!

 Step 6.  Blow dry the face so the paint is dry before the boy is allowed to move anywhere else where he may bump against something that smears off or absorbs wet face paint.

 Step 7.  Starting to look familiar?  Time for clothes!!

 Step 7 1/2.  Explain to Hannah that Christopher is almost ready and that we will go trick or treating soon.  Yes, she can  play with the taken apart computer while she waits.  Yes, she can hold Christopher's sword while she waits...and waits...

 Steps 8-10:  Pose for the camera!  Anybody recognize the character?  It's not Darth Maul, but very closely related.  He's a character from the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series.

 Complete with the double-sword.

 Which can be used together or apart.  Got to love the options!

 What a team! 

 Savage Opress.  No, I'm not kidding.  That is his name.  I'm not making it up.  But I did manage to capture a little bit of beautiful sunset behind the fierce warrior apprentice.

 One more pose with Savage and Jack. at the end of a fun evening of trick or treating.  We left part of his haul out as a donation for the tooth fairy.  She's going to come pick it up tonight and go share it with other children who maybe didn't to go trick or treating and didn't get any candy.  She leaves a present in its place.

All artwork from this evening - Savage Opress and Jack Skeleton - created by Matt Truitt.  He's got skills!  I took the pictures.  :)

As promised....

The picture of Matt in his referee outfit!

The beginning of soccer season!

Christopher was so excited for soccer to start this year!  Even though we were lucky enough to get the earliest game of the day this morning, it was still pretty warm in the sun and the boys played for a full hour.  He still loved it - and it was more organized of a game than two years ago when he was in the 4-year old league....

 The prerequisite picture of him in his new soccer uniform before the game absolutely had to include his lego pyramid!

 Warming up before the game.  That's Christoher in the front, with his face turned away from the camera...my fault...

 Christopher got to be the goalie in the 2nd quarter.  He was thrilled!  He did great, stopping three goals.  Unfortunately the other team was made up of boys all about a foot taller and a year older than our little guys, so (even though they don't technically keep score) our team was beaten soundly.  A hard lesson for the little ones, but it is only their first game and they're learning to work together as a team.  See the referee in the fancy black and yellow outfit?  It's not Matt.  But next week it will be...so stay tuned....I guarantee pictures.... :)

Halftime pep talk.  Christopher is #2.  Again, the shot is from the back.  I'll work on it, I promise....

July - Matt's birthday

 Christopher decided to dress up for Matt's birthday morning.  So he went into the closet, pulled out an old suit jacket and slacks and dress shoes.  He was pretty proud of himself!

 Cousins came over after the birthday lunch for some swimming.  Then it was time for presents and Christopher couldn't find the time to change out his suit before helping with presents.

 Matt got miniature lemon cakes for his birthday.  He usually gets a lemon cooler cake from Costco, but for some reason they didn't have them for his birthday this year.  Imagine!

Birthday present from the cousins for their engineer uncle!

Developing Self Reliance: Our Story

Our friends just started this new blog and I'm so excited to share it! Read the "Our Story" and then explore the rest of the site. Even though they just started it, they're off to a great start with ideas for how to use zucchini and squash from a garden. I've seen the transformation of their yard over the years and it is amazing to see what they're able to do with the time and resources they have!

Developing Self Reliance: Our Story: "My husband, Todd, and I have six children (ages 1-13). We are busy just like you and just like you, we are figuring out how to make self-re..."

Karate!

I'm going out of order now, putting up a current event before catching up on the past.  I hope you can all forgive me.  ;)  Christopher did his first belt testing in karate yesterday and moved up from white belt to 'high-white' belt (they add a black stripe).  He was so excited!  And he looks really cute too:

He's wearing the new belt and holding the old one.  They earn stripes on the ends of the belts for getting notes from home and friends for service, and for passing off different forms they learn.  We're going to take a little break for a couple of months as school starts and we get settled back in to that routine, but then we'll pick it back up again.  I need to see how the schedule shakes out between his school, me teaching 5 classes at my school, and the soccer team we signed up for several months ago before we went back to karate!  This kid has definitely got the energy for all of that - I just need to see if I do!  :)

November 2010

I am rocking and rolling now!  Not a lot of detail, but I'm at least posting the highlights and remembering a few things.  November brought one significant change for us as we decided to move Christopher to another school.  It's difficult to explain without sounding snobby, but he wasn't learning anything new.  He was so far ahead of most of the class in reading that he was being singled out to work on something else while the other class groups learned their alphabet and what sounds the letters make.  When he started choosing easier work so that he wouldn't have to sit by himself, that really concerned us.  When the teacher told us her biggest challenge was keeping him challenged - and then did not provide any kind of plan for how she was going to do that - we knew it was time for a change.  We moved him from Zaharis Elementary which is northeast of us, to Franklin Elementary which is just about as far southwest of us.  But there is a big difference in the curriculum: Franklin works about a year ahead of grade level academically.  He was able to be with the same age of kids and still be challenged and learning new skills.  This school uses the Spalding method and does phonograms to help with reading.  They are also really big on penmanship and within just a few weeks Christopher's handwriting had noticeably improved.  He was much happier at the new school and made new friends quickly. 

A slightly out of focus picture.  Christopher's old class was sad to see him go and gave him a cute going away party at the end of their "Harvest Festival."  We moved him to the new school the week of Thanksgiving.  His old class sent him home with the costumes they had made for their Thanksgiving lunch and also gave him a cute book where each of his classmates had designed a special page.

He also got to bring home his math book from the first kindergarten class.  He was very excited about these items and wanted to make sure I took two separate pictures of him with each thing - oh, and also the sucker.

Thanksgiving Day - We gathered the boy cousins together for a picture in the backyard following their after-lunch soccer game.  Dara's boys are so wonderful with Christopher.  From left to right, looking at the picture, are Adam (12), Arch IV (15 at the time, now 16), little Christopher in the middle (5), tall Aaron in the back (14), and Austin in front of him (7, now 8).

Matt's dad, Darrell, in the plaid with his sister Susie next to him, his brother Rob in front with the glasses, and his dad Herman.  Herman and his wife Joy always make it out for either Christmas or Thanksgiving each year.

October 2010 - Part III - Halloween Night

Our traditional Christopher & Hannah picture for Halloween - Darth Vader and The Witch

Christopher and his best buddy Caleb as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker

Caleb's dad as Obi Wan Kenobe - The link between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker is now complete

Not long after Halloween -  These kids can't get enough of the costumes, but this day was just a "get your helmet and a weapon" day.  The unique creation modeled by Hannah was Matt's early creation of an open-faced Boba Fett helmet.

October 2010-Part II

I'm realizing that I've forgotten how to get these pictures to do what I want. When they post, they're in the opposite order of how I uploaded them and I can't get the top picture to scoot down for me to give an intro. So...the late middle of October led us to Boo at the Zoo. The Phoenix Zoo puts on a great Halloween celebration for the kids. Christopher got to throw bean bags at pumpkin faces.


A couple of pictures with some mascots. One of Christopher's favorite 'puppet people' has always been the "Moo Cow" from Chick-Fil-A and he always makes an appearance here. This year it was especially nice because they did away with the Mascot Parade (after one of the people in the puppet suits last year had to go to the hospital with heat stroke - it's still hot here, even in October) and had them all set up in the barn at Harmony Farm. Cooler for everyone involved.

A little promo for a movie that came out last fall...

Christopher and Caleb's first attempt at a sleepover fell somewhere during this time. Caleb ended up missing his mom and going home, but they had a fun time setting up for a movie before bed time.

Back at the zoo - the goats in the petting zoo at Harmony Farm. They let the kids brush them and they show off a little by butting heads with each other. A good time was had by all.

October 2010 - Part I

We went to Utah over October break last year to visit my family. The kids got to walk through a corn stalk maze at a farm.

My sister, my mom, and me.

Most of the cousins outside together. They needed to get outside and run off some energy after dinner!

Collin was fascinated (obsessed) with the iPod touch. And Christopher was more than happy to show him how it worked.

Jimmy, looking like he smells something funny over his right shoulder (probably me) while Christopher 'drove' one of the old tractors out at the farm.

September 2010

I'm still working on my goal of not being a full year behind on this blog, and September is making that easy. The main event of September was my birthday. Not because it was anything significant. Mostly just because it was apparently the only thing of which I have photographic documentation for the month. My favorite kiddos made this cute sign for me and put it up before I got home from school that afternoon. Apparently I was so excited about taking a picture of it that it didn't occur to me to make my bed first. Oh, well. It was a really cute sign! Beyond that I can't really remember what I did for my birthday. I know my 7th grade Latin class sang to me - they were pretty excited about my birthday. I probably went to dinner too...I'm seeing more and more the point of updating the blog as things happen....

Use the force...

I got an email this week about Christopher from his school teacher:

Emily,
Here is what happened:
Christopher asked me a question, don't remember the question, but it was funny. I started to chuckle and several students looked at Chris. When they looked at him he raised his hand midway in the air, swept it from left to right and said "this is not the person you are looking for." It was hilarious and I laughed off and on all night. I shared his story several times. He is so clever and adorable. Thanks for bringing him to Franklin!!

I feel the guilt...so here is August of 2010

So after a month went by and I hadn't posted anything new to the blog, my sister-in-law sends me a message saying, basically, "What was that about being back to blogging?" She's right, and I need nudges like that, so here goes. I believe I left off last July, so here is August - at least as far as I remember it:

Christopher started kindergarten on the same day that I went back to school too, but he was a first-time student and I was a first-time teacher. No pictures of my first day of school, but here is Christopher's.


I was worried that he would get nervous and want me to take him to school, but he was so excited to ride the bus that he jumped right on and never looked back. I was hoping for a picture of him getting on the bus, but he got on there so fast that this is all I got as the bus drove away:

I'm back.....

In more ways than one! I'm back to blogging after nearly nine (!!!!) months. I got caught up in the Facebook craze and I'm getting a little tired of it. And half my family doesn't do Facebook anyway, but I can send them email updates from the blog, so that works.

And I'm back from a week long vacation in Florida. As soon as I figure out how to upload all of the pictures from the camera on my phone, I will post some of the those.

In the meantime, I'm tired and going to bed. It's been a long week, my body is still recovering from the travel, the touring, and the time change, and I'm going to bed. The lesson plans can wait until tomorrow to be reviewed. The steel-cut oatmeal is happily sitting in its soy milk in its pan on the stove, getting ready to be tomorrow's breakfast. The boy is in bed with the Motrin and Amoxycillin on board to treat the double ear infection he woke up with this morning. The suitcases are all unpacked and everything is put away. I'm calling it good enough. Time to brush teeth, wash face, and go sleep.....