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....