You Gotta Recognize!

Brooke and Autumn were both recognized this month at school.
Brooke was recognized for UIL, and by her teacher for being a great kid in class, for being a hard-worker and a good friend!  Both of her teachers really love having Brooke in their classes!  We are so proud of the kind of student and person Brooke is.  And, we love having her in our family!

Autumn was recognized by her teacher as the Dino-Kid for November because she has climbed 11 levels in reading since September.  She has just really caught the "reading bug", and is reading SO well!  We are so proud of Autumn's progress... she really is a DINOmite kid!

University Interscholastic League (UIL)

Every year, in all grade levels above 1st grade, the students in Wylie School District compete in different categories.  The topics range from Math to Art, Music to Geography, and everywhere in between.  One of the areas of competition is Oral Reading.  (Ciera competed in this category in 5th and 6th grade.)  Brooke made it on the 3rd Grade Oral Reading team for her school.  (There were only 3 girls on her team.)  For this competition, they choose a poem and them practice it for about a month.  They work on volume, enunciation, emotion, and overall delivery.  Brooke's poem was called "I Want a Pet Porcupine".  On Thursday, they competed.  It took them about 3 hours... it was a LONG time.  Right afterwards, they had an awards ceremony.  Brooke took 4th place from all the 3rd graders competing!  (There were 5 elementary schools taking place in this competition.)  We are so proud of her.  WAY TO GO BROOKIE!!!!

Campout and Hiking

As I said in an earlier post, our girls have really wanted to go camping... It seems like our weekends are always SOOOO full, we have not had time to plan a campout.  So, one night that we were all home, we decided to let the girls camp in our backyard.  The weather was going to be nice for it, and we didn't have anywhere we had to be in the morning.  So... Dave set up the tent and then we had a movie night and watched a movie until pretty late with the kids.  (We figured they would go to sleep better if we sent them out there when it was already late!)  We figured that the girls would come in during the night.  They actually did really well.  Autumn came in at about 6 am, and then wanted to go back out there.  I didn't want her to wake the other girls that early so I had her go back to sleep on our bedroom floor.

 We slept in and then went to the Heard Museum and hiked around.  It was a great time!!

Lanterns called Jack

Every year we carve pumpkins.  Every year, our girls tell us that they will scoop out all the guts themselves.  NOT!  It always happens...  We cut the top off for them and then we hear things like "Gross!", "Ewww!", and "It makes me want to throw up!"  This year was no exception.  The girls all had their ideas of what they wanted to do with their pumpkins, and Dave and I tried to make that happen.  Ciera and Chloe did theirs mostly by themselves.  I had to look the other way several times and hope nobody cut their finger off.  Luckily, we made it through with no severed digits, and the pumpkins turned out really cute!

Ciera's is Hello Kitty, Brooke's has a mustache, Autumn's has the cat eyes and fangs, and Chloe's is a "baby" with huge eyes and a tiny mouth.  They all did an awesome job!

We took the little kiddos out trick-or treating and left a bowl of candy on the porch with a note that said "Please take one.  Happy Halloween!" After we went out trick-or-treating, we came home to a sign on our door (written by Ciera who stayed home watching a movie with her friend Mary).  Someone had stolen our entire bowl of candy.  Bowl and all!  Those rascals.  The girls all got so much candy though... it was okay that our stash was gone.  (I was a little sad about our cool cauldron bowl though.)  I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Random Happenings

The girls have been wanting to camp for a LONG time, but the weather here in Texas is NOT good for camping except  for about 2 months a year... in the fall and in the spring.  We decided last minute that we would camp in our backyard one Friday.  It was a surprise for the girls.  We planned on using our BBQ to make S'mores and tinfoil dinners.  It was going to be AWESOME!  Someone had other plans for us though...
It rained!  I am a party pooper apparently, because I don't like to camp in the rain.  So... we built an awesome fort in the living room and let the girls sleep in it and watch movies.  (That's better than camping anyway!)  And, I got to sleep in my comfy bed.  Perfect!

For fun, we like to go to the Heard Wildlife Museum and Sanctuary and hike around.  We have been a couple of times this fall, and it is wonderful.  There are awesome trails and it is always a lot of fun!  They recently got some turtle statues out front, which my girls like!  It's the little things, right?!?

One day, Dave brought home a skeleton... it was only a partial skeleton... one arm and one leg.  It didn't matter.  Chloe, Brooke, and Autumn played with it.  They named it, too.  I think it was Steve.  (Or something like that.)  Chloe was playing with the skull mostly, while Brooke and Autumn played with the other bones.  They had so much fun.  Only the children of a scientist would have bones to play with... (and enjoy it!)!!

Halloween 2013

This year for Halloween, Ciera is her Girl Pirate, Chloe is an angel, Brooke is a purple fairy, and Autumn is a black kitty.  They all dressed up today for our ward's Trunk-or-Treat night and got lots of candy (although not as much as last year when it was both Wylie wards combined!) and had lots of fun with their friends!  I have such cute girls!

Happy Halloween!

Another Year Older, and Wiser too!

Today is my sweetheart's birthday.  I love Dave so much, and am so glad to have him in my life!  He is a wonderful father and husband, and I am so proud of the kind of person that he is!

Happy Birthday Dave!  I hope it is the best one yet!