Lily's Style

November 17, 2009, 9:00 pm

Lily is the only member of our family with any style. I'm not saying she dresses in the style of the day, but the girl has her own style and we love it...

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Reminiscing about Turkeys and Leaves

November 10, 2009, 8:55 am

Lily came home with her Kindergarten turkey assignment on Friday. Every year the Kindergarteners are given a picture of a turkey and instructed to disguise the turkey (to avoid becoming someone's Thanksgiving dinner).

This project brought back memories of Noah's Kindergarten year. He disguised his turkey like Santa Claus which he thought was very funny.

Lily is very creative and artsy and had all sorts of plans for her turkey. She wanted her turkey to be a princess and fairy dressed in pink and red. She cut out the wings and high heeled shoes and picked out lots of gems and decorations for her dress.

Here is Lily's turkey:



And from 3 years ago, here is Noah's Santa turkey:



While looking up Noah's turkey pictures on this very blog, I found pictures of Noah at the age of 5 playing out in the leaves. I was amazed that he was so willing to comply with a photo shoot. Just a few days ago Lily was outside (in her p.j.'s naturally) playing in the leaves and she actually asked me to take pictures of her. Must be the age...




Here is Noah playing in the leaves at age 5 (and excited to have pictures of the event taken):



And here is Noah at age 8 unwilling to pose for a picture in leaves but doing a good job raking:



Don't blink!

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Mr. Competitive

November 5, 2009, 9:28 am

Noah is very competitive. I blame my father…but maybe I’m a little competitive too. He loves sports and always wants to win. Of course this causes problems when he doesn’t win, but he’s getting a little better at losing.

Noah has always done well in school and most of the papers that come home are A’s, so I was shocked to find a math test with a C on it last month. Nathan and I sat down with Noah and asked why he got a C on his math test (the mistakes were things he knows). I thought Noah would start crying for sure as he’s pretty sensitive, but instead he grinned and said, “Yeah, I know…but I usually get A’s on my homework.” We explained that tests weigh more than homework, and he should take his time with tests. I read some of the questions and then his answers and he just giggled a little at his silly mistakes. Frankly it was weird.

Noah got his report card back and got all A’s with a B+ in reading. We were very proud of his grades and his behavior so far this year. We met with his teacher, Mrs. Solomon, and I asked her what she thought about his reading and the C he got on the math test. I know a B+ in reading is good, but Noah has always received all A’s so I wanted to make sure he wasn’t struggling with reading.

Mrs. Solomon showed us where Noah scores in standardized tests for reading, and he is well above average. He is one of her top readers, so clearly reading isn’t a problem. He also grasps all of the math concepts she has taught. Then she told us a story about a class she had 10 years ago that was very much like Noah’s class now. She had a large group of competitive jocks in the class who would finish their tests as fast as they could and then race to her desk and slam the test down. She made the rule that year that the students turn their test over rather than racing to her desk.

Mrs. Solomon’s story spoke volumes. Our little competitive jock Noah is racing his friends and making silly mistakes on tests. When we got home from the conference I told Noah what his teacher said and repeated my warning, “Take your time!” with the added incentive, “Or you can’t play any sports!!”



On Halloween I went to Noah’s class for his party, and he was excited to show me his recent math and science tests. He received A’s on both tests. But my favorite part was not the grade but the words written at the top of the test in Noah’s sweet handwriting, “Take Your Time!”




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Happy Halloween!

November 1, 2009, 8:29 pm

We had a fantastic Halloween week. It seems with kids that Halloween is much more than just one night...there are many parties and events leading up to trick-or-treating. Nathan and I went to Noah and Lily's parties at school. This was the first year where I had to split my time between both kids. I started off in Lily's room, and Nathan went to Noah's room to help him apply camouflage make-up. We all met up in the gym for the parade.

Then we switched rooms for the 2nd half of the parties. Lily was so excited to sing Halloween songs for the parents. Here is her class singing Black Cat:

Click here to see Lily's class singing Black Cat

Noah's class played a fun game where one child was covered by a sheet and another child had to guess which student was missing.

After the class parties, we went to the library's Halloween dance party for kids. We didn't realize how popular the library party would be. The upstairs room quickly filled up with parents and kids in costumes. Loud Halloween music blared as kids danced and chased each other through the room. The kids had a blast, but Nathan and I were ready for some quiet after that experience.

On Halloween we went to Noah's first basketball game. Then Lily came down with a fever suddenly. I got her into the Dr.'s, and she had strep throat. We gave her 2 doses of antibiotic before the evening, and her fever went away and she felt fine. We let her go trick-or-treating with Nathan for a little while and then to bed early. She has felt fine ever since!

Noah spent the evening trick-or-treating with his friend Cade. Then Noah went to Cade's Halloween party (Lily and I were sad to miss it). Noah spent the night with Cade which he loves to do on Halloween.

Here are some pictures from the week:

Vampire Lily:



Our beautiful Monarch butterfly:



Noah and his friend Cade:



Lily's Kindergarten class:



Lily waiting for Halloween treats at school:



Noah at his class party (love his wave):



Mama and Lily on Halloween night:



She's excited for some candy:



Army man Noah trick-or-treating:



Army men Noah and Cade:



I think Nathan did a great job with the make-up...I can barely see Noah's face in the leaves:



Neighborhood friends Ryan, Max, Cade, and Noah:


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Tackett Halloween Party

November 1, 2009, 8:16 pm

So October 29th finally arrived for the Tackett Halloween Party (Lily had been counting down for days!) Noah asked before school, "Is anyone coming to this party?" I said, "Nope, just our family." He said, "Oh."

Lily and I decorated for the party with orange plates and black napkins and plastic skeletons and rings from the dollar store (oh we really went all out). Lily even asked me to paint a butterfly on her cheek. Yes, we had free face painting at this fiesta.

We drank apple cider and ate caramel popcorn and craved our Jack-o-lanterns. Lily immediately drew a scary face on her pumpkin. Noah used a stencil for his pumpkin. This is very much representative of our kids...for Lily is always the one who is creative and has ideas on how to do things her own way. Noah prefers to have a fancy pumpkin and follow a stencil.

The kids had a blast and it was still 2 days until the big event...


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