A Lovely Week

 Claire

Two noteworthy things happened with Claire this week. Tuesday was her picture day at school and I curled her hair so she could be extra cute. Then she picked a cute outfit and Shay wanted to match and look cute too so they wanted pictures together before going to school. On Wednesday there was a day off of school so I planned to have them come run some errands and go to DI to spend the money they've earned from reading books. We passed the collection of Halloween costumes while there and they decided their costumes and I was able to make both happen! Claire saw a mermaid costume that was way too big so I made her a skirt that goes with her swimsuit so she looks like a cute little mermaid. We will have to put a shirt underneath to keep her warm when we are walking around to get candy!

Shay

Originally Shay was going to be Catboy...again, but she found a supergirl toy that made her really want to be supergirl for Halloween. I found the skirt and shirt there at the DI and made the 'S' symbol on the front after she had asked a million times. I didn't have the yellow felt at first and she couldn't comprehend that for some reason because she just kept asking over and over again. We went on a mission to find felt the next day while Claire was at school because she couldn't wait and we found out that Walmart doesn't sell it anymore! So we drove all the way to Joanne Fabrics which was good because I could get Claire's mermaid skirt material. Now Shay dresses up as something every day and has another new costume to add to her collection. Enjoy the video of Shay and her new favorite lunch! She likes to make her own little sandwiches so she asks for crackers, cheese, and ham and I can't stop laughing at how focused she gets when she is putting them together.

Family Time

We had a really run evening last Sunday playing games together and it made me want to do it more so while at DI we found two more to add to the collection so that the girls can easily understand the rules and play as a family. We now have Sorry, Candyland, Trouble, Matching, Spot It, and Guess Who, and I've tried to introduce Yahtzee but it was like playing with myself because they don't know what to pick to roll but love to roll the dice. I'll be looking for more games to play together that are simple ways to play together so they don't always want to watch movies. I know it's nice to get out in the nice autumn weather but soon we will be stuck inside and I think games are a fun way to spend together. We also went on a family date to eat dinner after Chris got off from work on Friday and I'll be making that happen more often too!

Simple September

 Claire

This week, Claire had a field trip to learn about Idaho agriculture and told me all about it after school, she was most excited about the bees she saw. She rode the bus for the first time and hopefully, we can figure out how to be in the right place to pick up and drop off. We visited the library after school one day and they really loved the little play area, if only they were more interested when I wanted them to read the books we borrowed. On Saturday, we went to a birthday party she was invited to by one of her classmates. It was at a park with a bouncy house, lawn games, snacks and cake, and very little shade. Shay came with us of course because I can't leave her behind and I tried to teach them checkers but Claire didn't like losing and Shay didn't understand and just liked stealing the pieces. 

Shay

Almost every day, Shay ruins my couch by stealing my cushions and making herself a house. I bet she would love it if we were able to get one of those playhouses that are more permanent, but I doubt she would stop making her own houses too. The real fun is when Claire makes a house and they are neighbors who decorate their houses and visit each other. I've noticed her getting better at pronouncing things and not getting as mad when I help her fix the way she says some things so I'm excited. It's a slow process, but learning sometimes is and now I can add on and teach more reading and putting sounds together into words. I have Claire's old sight words from kindergarten so I want to use them to start with the easy words and see how many she can learn.

Finishing up Summer

Claire

On Friday, her school had a grandparent's day where visitors could come during lunch for the students but since we don't have any here in town we didn't go. When I picked her up she told me she was sad that we didn't come to her school and it made me feel bad...luckily we planned to go visit so I could tell that's why. We went to visit Blackfoot so Chris and I could do our final race in the series in Pocatello and the girls played at their grandparent's house. We had a nice day with the girls playing and playing even though they didn't get to see any cousins, we had a meal with family before coming back home. 

Shay

I feel like I have more things to say about her now that I spend all day with her and Claire is gone at school. We borrowed an Encanto CD from the library and have been listening to it in the car when we drive places. One time when we were going to the store she asked me "Mom, why don't we talk about Bruno" and I've been obsessed with it because it's so darn cute. She roped Claire into it on our drive home from Blackfoot and they would say things about Bruno and giggle when I told them to stop talking about him. Shay is also very interested in helping me with things nowadays and will help me cook, clean, and measure stuff when I am planning a DIY project. 

Holiday

When we first moved in, we got a grill from someone who was moving away that Chris knows so we've been able to use it several times. We had a yummy kabob as our first experiment a while ago and we've used it a few times and this past Labor Day we did some steak! Chris got pretty grill lines and it was so juicy and delicious and now we are never going back to cooking it any other way. I wish we did more fun things when we have days off of school and work but we are kind of bad at planning beforehand and ended up trying to figure out what we wanted to do. It feels like we are finally creeping into Fall with the temperatures in the morning being so cold and we got some weather early in the week. I saw a few leaves on our tree turning color and I wore my hoodie from the race series and decided I'm ready for colder weather.

September Begins

 Claire

Another week of school down! Her class just started tracking the days she is reading so I have to be more on top of finding the books she wants to read daily. We went to the library after school on Friday and they found a few but she hates that I make her do some of the words again. Her old school had books for her to read in a progression of learning words and I wish I had access to them again! As much as she fought it, I noticed how well she did when we did it regularly. I've noticed her coloring seems to be so much better! She has the patience to color inside the lines which also translates to her writing looking better and when she does it carefully. If I'm making her do her homework before she can play she rushes and it looks sloppy, but at school her teacher is getting good results. I didn't get a picture, but as I was doing the planning in our garage for our project, Claire played 'Islands' on the boards we used.

Shay

Shay always says they never get to play together because they have to fit it in between breakfast and leaving for school or before bedtime. Her new 2nd favorite phrase is "but we aren't done playing" right behind "I'm hungry" so that's fun for me. I think the cutest thing she does is at church when there is a song, she gets a hymn book out and has to find the page we are singing from. I hope they both are singers when they get older and join me in the choir, Shay definitely likes to make up songs and asks us to listen to her. She helped out during our project too but when she found out how heavy things were she wanted to ride her bike instead. She was excited she was practicing her breaking and would make us watch and clap for her, of course, she was also mad at Daddy for being so loud with his tools. I wish I was better at getting pictures of things but this week was bad!

Project

Chris and I did our first home improvement project yesterday and were pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out and how nothing went horribly wrong! The project we were going to do was go buy fruit trees to plant in our yard but apparently, a lot of places are out of the kinds we want so I'm going to be looking at the places that were closed yesterday next week to see if anyone has any at all in the area! I had mentioned when we first moved in I thought putting shelves in the garage for storage would be nice then found examples of what I wanted on Pinterest and then took scrap wood from some of the trash at houses being built around the neighborhood. The wood had been sitting and waiting for us to buy tools and screws for at least a month! Since our first planned project didn't happen Chris went and bought the tools we needed for the garage project and I measured and started figuring out the dimensions. We had a few tiny 'duh' moments proving we are newbies, but only one small injury on Chris's finger and we now have storage shelves!