Oct 17 - Thursday, Donut Day!
This was my week to teach Joy School. The lessons were all about taking care of the earth, so we watched a little clip of the Lorax, and then drew beautiful earth pictures to which we glued bits of trash. I was pretty darn proud of my Lorax and Thneed trees.
Oct 18 - This was a fun day! It was the first day I've ever been able to celebrate one of my kids' birthdays in their school! I took birthday/Halloween cupcakes to Tyler's class to share with all his friends. Cindy was able to meet me at the school and come in with me, and Tyler was so excited to see us both. We got to watch his class for a few minutes before they ate their cupcakes, and so many things he says about his class makes sense, like what in the world is the "Hang Your Bottoms Down" song? Afterwards, study study. Poor McKay was sick that day, so I took pity on him (read: drove past it and wanted some) and brought him Sonny Brian's for lunch. Jamie happily spent the day in her Rapunzel dress.
Oct 19 - Saturday was Tyler's birthday, #6! I can't even believe how big he is getting. Even just since last year, he's grown so much. He seems so much more mature. He is such a huge help with Jamie, and not just because he has to be (everyone has to be with Jamie :) ), but because he is worried about her when she is in the throes of another tantrum. In fact, he worries about everyone when they are sad. He is always on high alert for Bronx's mood changes, and gets really worried when he thinks Bronx might be sad. "Oh no! Bronx's tail is down!" To celebrate his birthday, we invited a few friends to come play at Legoland with us:
And presents are always fun :)
Oct 20 - After church, we drove up to Plano for a family dinner at Kevin and Cindy's for Tyler's birthday. As per our usual contribution, we brought a chocolate pumpkin bundt cake. And of course more presents :)
Oct 22 - Jamie had Joy School on Tuesday at Tori and Ada's house. She loves her school friends so much, and gets so darn excited when it's not our week.
Oct 23- After Jamie and I picked Tyler up from school, we met some friends at the Dallas zoo. We had a really fun afternoon, riding the carousal a bunch, and agitating some cobras :) This one in particular did NOT like Jamie. Each time she came up to the glass, he would rise up and fan out his hood, and slither up to her face to face. It was pretty freaky. Thank goodness for glass barriers, right??
Oct 25 - My birthday was a very boring affair. I just studied all day long, and most of the night after McKay got home. I did have some super yummy cupcakes dropped off from Sarah, my visiting teacher, who is moving to Belgium next month. McKay treated me to Taco Cabana for dinner, I guess he was unwilling to let me waste the day studying :)
(This is what my desk at school in the computer lab looks like. It's an obscene amount of books, study guides, notes, and papers.)
Oct 26 - On Saturday, I dragged the kids to Target for a big grocery trip and to find Jamie a costume. I had been planning on her dressing up as Merida from Brave this year, with her crazy curls and her sass, but the second her eyes landed on the Izzie costume (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates), it was all over. I'm still so sad about it. But on the bright side, next year when I do make her dress as Merida, those crazy curls will be even longer. For now, this will have to do:
That night, we went to our friends annual Spooky/Gross Halloween Dinner Party. Everyone brought spooky/yucky dishes to share. Ours was Jack O Lantern Guts (Sweet Potato Souffle) Spiderweb Rice Krispie Treats. There were a bunch of our friends there, and we stayed way too late talking and laughing.
Oct 27 - I got released from my calling on Sunday, which was pretty sad. I have been teaching the same kids in Primary for two and a half years. Of course, most of the kids weren't paying attention when I was released in sacrament meeting, and during class, when I let them know it would be my last Sunday, they were pretty upset with me. I felt so loved! They are really awesome kids. After church, you guessed it, I studied some more. McKay took the kids to the Highland Park Centennial Carnival, and they had a blast.
Oct 28 - Dun dun dun, day of The Test. I was so glad to have it over with.
In other news, Bronx found some vampire teeth.
Oct 29 - Tuesday was my day to teach Joy School, and lucky me, I had three very grumpy little girls in my class that day. I guess none of them had slept much the night before, and we ended up cutting the lesson early and playing outside for the rest of the morning. I could't blame the girls too much, their parents closed on a new house the day before and it was been pretty crazy. Ah, well. McKay put a new set of hubcaps on my Rav4, and I was so, so excited. I've been driving around with one remaining hubcap, and I am quite ready to stop fitting into Oak Lawn so well.
Oct 30 - Wednesday was rainy all day, but stopped in time for our first opera night! I got to wear my fancy new dress, which I lamely do not have a picture of. This is the first actual fancy dress that is mine exclusively (all my prom dresses were always hand me downs), so I'm feeling pretty fancy. The opera was Carmen, and it was pretty fantastic. I know McKay enjoyed it on a much higher level than I did, but I thought it was fun, although I am of the opinion that it takes the characters too long to get through a single phrase because they insist on repeating it over and over. Come on! On with the story!
Oct 31 - Both kids had been coughing all week, and it culminated in waking up sick on Halloween. We tried to spend the day resting up for treat or treating, but we did manage to get these guys painted.
We made Sweet Potato Gnocchi for dinner for our Halloween dinner before we left to go trick or treating up in Highland Park. We topped the night off with hot apple cider and donuts.
No funny things to report except his picture of Pierre, the parrot, who I found tenderly tucked into bed one afternoon:
See you next time!
