HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!

Happy Halloween!  This year, Ciera is a Zombie Bride, Chloe is Katniss from "The Hunger Games", Brooke is Hermoine from "Harry Potter", and Autumn is a black widow.  We had fun going to "Trunk or Treat" last weekend.  For our Family Home Evening activity we carved our pumpkins and then Dave told the girls the beginning of "The Hobbit" while we sat in the light of our Jack-o-Lanterns.  Tonight, we will go Trick-or-treating, and then we will eat lots of candy and look forward to next year!

Awards and Red Ribbons

This week was red ribbon week, and each day the kids' schools had spirit days with a theme.  Some days were simple, like red shirt day, and some were a bit more crazy, like crazy hair day and nerd day.  It was fun to dress the girls up each day!

 

This month, Brooke was named the Dino-kid for her class!  She received an award this morning... it said that Brooke was "a ray of sunshine in the class" and that she is "not only a leader, but a friend to all".  She is a ray of sunshine at home too!  We are so proud of her!

While we were at the school to see Brooke get her award, Autumn received a "high-five" for this week.  These are acknowledgements for kids who do something nice, or go the extra mile.  They are nominated to receive these by a friend or teacher.  Autumn got hers for "sharing her markers with a new boy in class who did not have his yet".  We are so proud of her for making good choices in school!

My Favorite Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to my favorite person in the entire world.   I love Dave more and more each day, and I am so glad he is in my life!

Smarty-pants Tanners

Wylie School District has a grading period every six weeks.  The kids receive six report cards each year, which is good and bad.  There are less grades each grading period, so if they are doing poorly, they don't have much opportunity to pick it up before they are receiving grades again.  However, if they do well in school (like all my girls do...), they have more opportunities for praise and adoration.  The first six weeks ended last week.  Ciera and Chloe both received mostly A's with a couple of B+'s on their report cards.  Autumn received SD's (which in Kindergarten lingo means she is performing on target for her grade) in all subjects, and is doing really well getting used to being in school all day.  We are so proud of all of them!!!
Brooke was recognized this morning at their 6-weeks recognition assembly for getting Principal's Club.  It is not only getting straight A's, but getting a 95% or above in ALL of your subjects.  If you get Principal's Club two times in a row throughout the year, you get a limo ride with the Principal and all the other club members to Chuck E Cheese at the end of the year.  Brooke is doing so well in her subjects, and we are so proud of her!

Missing our Chloe Girl

Chloe is gone at 5th Grade Adventure camp.  She left Wednesday morning, and will get back this afternoon.  She was super excited to go, and didn't even get teary when I dropped her off at the school (unlike someone else I know...).  They got to spend 3 days/2 nights doing all sorts of fun outdoor activities like archery, hiking, canoeing, and other fun games.  I would bet she is having a lot of fun, but we sure miss her around here!

Unexpected Visitors

The end of September brought two visitors to the Tanner house.  Our first visitor came in the mail.  It was "Flat Chadley".  Our cutie-pie niece Chadley was doing a project for school after reading the book "Flat Stanley".  Flat Chadley got to come to our house for some fun adventures, then we had to mail her back.  Also, Brooke's class pet guinea pig, Cupcake, got to come home with Brooke for the weekend.  The girls all LOVED it, but I am sure glad we don't have a guinea pig for a pet!  I was not sad to send her back to class on Monday!

(I was a little sad to send Flat Chadley back though... she was such a polite visitor!  :) )

Busy September

The month of September flew by, and I didn't have a chance to post much of what we were up to.  The weekend after Labor Day, our ward was able to do a big service project for the Trinity Trails Association.  We cleared equestrian/hiking trails all along the outside of Lake Lavon (near Wylie).  It was a lot of walking for the kiddos, but we cut branches, cleared weeds, and removed trash and debris from the trails.  It was an absolutely beautiful day to work.  The weather was perfect, and it was fun work!  We ran into a Professor from UT Dallas with a class collecting insects, so of course Dave had to stop and talk.  He got a collaboration out of it!  It pays off to do service!

The girls were busy with school in September too.  In addition to getting into the routine of school, Ciera had to practice her french horn to prepare for their Play-a-thon fundraiser at the end of the month.  They had to learn 20 songs the first month of school.  It was really difficult for her, and she got frustrated several times, but ended up doing really well.  It was really fun to go watch her perform her songs after hearing them rehearsed so much!
I am so proud of all my girls and how hard they worked all month in school and at home! 

We had some weird weather in September here.  It was mostly hot, but we got an occasional rain storm that blew through.  The girls loved going out and playing in it!! (I didn't love it when they came back in dripping all over the floor though!) 
We had a great September overall!