Festive Fall

 Adrian

I've gotten so used to starting the blog with Adrian that it is completely a habit. He is the one who is changing so quickly and is with me all day, so I always have so much to say about him. He has become a tornado of destruction sometimes and has an urge to cause chaos that I usually see coming, but I usually have to just clean up after him. When we are downstairs, now that the cabinets are baby locked, he gets into the pantry and steals my canned foods, or brings all the snacks out, or gets into the dog food. If I remember to close the door to the pantry, he spends his time spreading the toys around the house and is now strong enough to pull out the baskets to dump on the ground...yay. He is a little easier to deal with outside because he is now bored with the rocks, but in a new place? Like a decorated library? Yeah, there was no looking for new books when we went yesterday because if he wasn't pretending to be on the computer, he was throwing anything he could get his hands on to the floor. He doesn't sit still for pictures anymore, so expect more blurry pictures in the future. 

School

It was parent-teacher conferences this week, so the girls had Thursday and Friday off from school. On Thursday, they finally had fun with the daycare kids and snuck in some reading and homework, luckily. They came with me to the conferences because Chris was gone for the weekend to hunt with his dad and brother, so they were able to show Adrian the playground, and his destructive tendencies didn't ruin any of the books at the book fair. I knew Shay was great at her school work, even though she doubts herself in her self-assessment, and Claire is confident, even though she needs more help with her reading comprehension. I now have some ideas to help Claire, so I hope I can find the time to squeeze in extra homework! Shay will improve as she controls her temper, and I hope to help her here at home by not feeding the flames when they burst.

Weekend

It felt like a VERY long weekend since the girls had two extra days and Chris was gone until late afternoon on Saturday. I tried to keep the girls busy, and instead of just having reading homework like on school days, we did paper homework every day too, if they wanted to earn things they wanted. Friday felt like it should have been a Saturday, but the girls earned a trip to DI by cleaning their room before lunch. We went to Chick-fil-A as well, and then the afternoon was filled with playing with their new toys. On Saturday, went to clean the church, shopped for next week's birthday presents, sent a package at the post office, and visited the library, all before Adrian's nap! We got some good family time when Daddy came home, and watched a Halloween movie as a family tonight. I've been planning out costumes so I'm not doing anything last-minute, and I even tested out Buttercup's look!