Halloween seemed to start early this year and is just finishing up. We went to several Halloween parties this year...even Cindy and I donned costumes. It's been a fun month of spook.

Last weekend the kids spent the night at Tia Jo's and Uncle Randy's. They spent much of the day at a corn maze that had giant spiders, vultures, and pumpkin launchers. Sarah and Kyle joined them. The kids had a blast and told us a hundred stories.





When Kenzie and I started talking about costume shopping, I told her that she could be anything except a princess. She has been a princess for the last two years, so I thought she should branch out. We went to a vintage costume shop in Issaquah for inspiration. After a while of looking on her own she found me and said, "Mom, I know what I want to be." I said, "okay, anything but a princess." She said, "yes. Not a princess. I want to be a queen."

Ugh.

But rules are rules.

In the end we compromised on an Evil Queen so we could paint her face white and her nails black.

Mason wanted to be a vampire so he could have blood dripping down his face (most of which was worn off by the time this picture was taken). We got some black hair spray and darkened the crowns of both of them...not my brightest idea.



This year they opted to help raise food for the food bank, which is very low on food right now. In conjunction with our church (and friend Josh here), each kid is trying to collect their weight in food. So, Kenzie has about 49 pounds to collect, and Mason about 36. Each house that they visited, Kenzie would wait until the adult offered the candy jar, then would very seriously say, "We are collecting food for the Issaquah Food Bank. Do you have any extra cans of food that you would care to donate?" As you can see, they were quite successful! Toward the end Kenzie decided she didn't want to collect any more candy, and just went straight for the cans. (By the way, if you're interested in helping them collect their weight in food, you can either donate cans or cash. We're planning on shopping for heavy protein-rich foods.)

As Kenzie wrote a couple of days ago, she was the first grade's first Writer of the Month this year. Last year she was also October's writer of the month (except we were invited to the assembly last year). She came home so excited. Between that and her "wiggly tooth" it's a pretty great time to be a first grader!

My father has been into model airplanes forever. I bet he cannot count how many planes he owns with any degree of accuracy. Certainly he has no idea how many he has owned over the years. And, over those years he has searched for someone in the family to share his joy, his love, of these planes.

I do not fully grasp the phenomenon - this club of people who share their afternoons in a field of grass with their necks cranked backward, whiffing the gasoline, demonstrating the dexterity of their thumbs. But, I digress. Grampy has been slowly introducing--some might say brainwashing--Mason into this world of model airplanes. And, despite my best efforts, the kid is fully hooked. He throws those little wooden planes at least 500 times in a row. He finally splintered the latest balsa wood plane, so he fabricated his own. Paper will have to do for now, but I'm sure that somehow another wood plane will soon make its way into our house. It's a love I don't understand, but it runs deep.

I whent to a asemble there was a lot of kids I whent to the front becas I got a writing aword!

I can not wate to put it under my pilow.I like to wigle my tooth a lot.

I have a picture from my childhood of my Big Sister Carol pulling me around on a towel or a blanket. So, I had to snap this one!

Halloween is coming up, so the kids are practicing their best scary faces!

These pictures were taken when they went to the bouncy house with friends Josh and Luke. I admit that it's possible that Kenzie has become over-photographed. She seems to have perfect sense of when the camera is just about to click, regardless of what she's doing. She can be in the middle of, well, going down a bouncy slide, and is still able to lock her gaze with the camera in time for the snap.

I walked in the house and Kenzie immediately showed me her daily report. Instead of a star, her teacher had written words: "Kenzie had a VERY difficult time being a good partner today."

I was immediately glad that she had showed me and wanted to stay open minded and hear her entire story without judgement. It became more difficult as the story progressed. It went something like this...

"We did stations today. Everybody got a partner. Maggie was my partner. At the first station she wanted to go first, but I told her 'no.' She told Miss B that I wasn't letting her go first.

Then, at the next station she wanted to go first again. I didn't let her so she went and told Miss B again. She came over and told me to share.

So, we went to the third station. AGAIN, she wanted to go first and again I told her no! [Incredulously] She told Miss B AGAIN that I wouldn't share. And Miss B came over to talk to me again. Every time she got more fierce and stressed!

So, the fourth time when Miss B came over she told Maggie that she could just join a different team. So I started crying. Then Maggie told Miss B that she didn't want to go to a different station, that she still wanted to play with me.

So I let her go first."

Kenzie wrote a sorry note to Maggie and claims that they're now friends. Although I'm not sure I am always getting both sides of the story.

I think I forgot to mention that Cindy and Mason actually saw The Bear (or a close cousin) a couple of blocks from our house. Mason was so excited and loves to talk about it.

(A neighbor saw a cougar in Our Yard a couple of weeks ago, but we're not so excited to talk about that.)

This morning he showed off his tattoo that we got at Salmon Days, saying that it reminded him of the bear he saw. Cindy asked him where he thought the bear was now. He said, "I think it's hibernating."

So I asked him, "what would you say if he was sleeping under our house?"

He paused and then very seriously replied, "I think I'd say...you go first."

On the car ride home yesterday I was looking at Kenzie's school work. She's doing great. Every day she's getting "a star" for her behavior. She also got a perfect score on her math test. I was telling her how fabulous she's doing.

That reminded her of something.

She said, "oh, Mom, I was wondering...what reward do I get if I get all stars?"

Not really needing to ask I said, "What do you mean?"

She told me "Well, a friend in class is getting a fish from her parents if she gets all stars. I'm just wondering what I'll get."

I explained to her that she gets to be proud that she did her best work, learn a lot (and that's the point) and know that we're equally proud. I talked about the fact that we don't pay for grades, but always expect her to do her best. She was buying none of it. I reminded her that she gets lots of privileges and rewards every day because she's so fantastic and we love her so much...but we don't believe in bribing. My message was still not sinking in so I asked her, "if I were to offer to get you a fish, would that mean that you would try harder?"

Sensing a trap she replied with her most stern face, "No. Mom. Listen. I was just wondering what my reward would be."

Still trying to get her to see the inherent wisdom in this...and failing miserably...I said, "how does it feel when you get all stars? Aren't you proud of yourself?"

"I don't want to talk to you anymore."

We had such a great day on Sunday hanging out in the yard on possibly our last nice weekend day of the year. We just hung out and played with everything that was either a ball or had a wheel (bikes, scooters, basketball, baseball, etc). Then, for even more fun we decided to take one of the training wheels off of Mason's bike. He did pretty well, but ended up leaning left quite a bit.