Trick Or Treat!

Pre-school Picture 2013

Maybe next year we'll get a smile!

Pre-school Halloween Party!

Dance Class

Amelia had a private dance class today because the other little girl who usually is in her class was at Disney World this week. Here are some pictures -- sorry for the poor quality, they were taken through the glass of the waiting room window. 

Pumpkins

Halloween Gymnastics

(Those are witch hats on the balance beam.)

And we need to work on our forward roll:

Sous Chef

Meet Swiper The Ferret

With Checkers the snake being MIA for day 5 and below freezing temperatures at night, we are thinking he didn't fare so well in his new home behind the wall... 

I told Charlie that we were going to have to try something other than reptiles, since our track record with those isn't so good! 

Charlie latched onto wanting a ferret since his Uncle Tom is a huge ferret lover and because Charlie apparently can't consider anything normal like a cat or a Guinea pig... 

So this afternoon he cashed in his savings and bought Swiper the ferret :-) 

Amelia loves Swiper, and Charlie is admittedly a little freaked out about actually having something with fur ("Oh my god, whiskers freak me out!!") but seems to be adjusting to his new friend, whom I have to admit is a lot more playful than a snake :-)

Here are some pictures:

And We 're Starting To Look A Little Bit Like A Jack 'O Lantern

Just in time for Halloween :-)

Snake Lure

So it happened -- Charlie was playing with his snake on the stairs and it slithered into a tiny hole between the carpeting and the baseboard and is presumably lost in the wall... Awesome! I've been shaking out blankets and shoes in case the snake came back into the house somehow... The picture below is of our attempt to lure the snake out overnight -- I took the hiding rock from its cage and put it on top of a nice fuzzy blanket with a, err, dead mouse inside. We're hoping that the snake will smell the mouse, come out and eat it and then stay put under it's hiding rock where it's warm and cozy. Good luck to us!

We're Officially Ready For The World Series!

Go Red Sox!!

Got Enough Pizza?

Last night Dave & Deb babysat while me, Mike, Phil, Sue, Tom & Sharon went out for pizza and drinks and then to see "Evil Dead: The Musical". Afterwards we managed to catch the last three innings of the Red Sox game, which made for a very late (but very fun!) night. As you can tell from the picture we ate quite a lot of pizza!

Blue Belt!

Are We Ready For Picture Day??

Since Apparently she was immediately terrified of the camera man when Mike dropped her off this morning, this may be the only picture we get. (I wonder if they offer refunds??)

On The Rings

Last Boat Ride

We spent a relaxing Columbus Day up in NH today, where we went on one last boat ride and attempted to fish for one last time (there were none to be found.) Grammy & Grampy also cooked a yummy turkey dinner and of course had plenty of Halloween candy in the house :-)

Here are some pictures from the boat ride:

Random Updates

It's been a pretty busy week so here are some updates:

On Monday Amelia managed to drop my iPad and shatter the screen into about a bazillion pieces. It was entirely not her fault and I couldn't even raise my voice at her, especially when she looked mournfully at the broken iPad, then back up at me and said "Well at least you still have your iPhone..." Since I famously never buy protection plans I had to settle for trading the broken one in towards a new one, to the tune of $219. And no I STILL don't have a protection plan! (I'm not a fast learner.)

Tonight Charlie's Taekwon do studio sponsored a "parents night out" where we were invited to drop our kids off from 5pm to 9pm for a movie and pizza party. At $15 per kid Mike and I happily obliged, and had dinner across the street and then drinks at the sports bar next door; the kids had fun eating pizza, watching "Monster House" and playing relay races. 

Tomorrow Charlie is testing for his blue belt in Taekwon do, so has to be at the studio at 11 with the test starting at noon. After his blue belt the only belts left are blue with a red stripe, red and black. I was given The Lecture by his teacher that those next belts are extremely difficult to get and that if Charlie wants to progress past his blue belt he will have to come to class more than twice a week, and really apply himself. So yeah this is probably going to be his last belt, seeing as Charlie does not have a particular desire to do either of those things ;-)

Monday we are heading up to NH for the day since Mike & Charlie both have off for Columbus Day. We are hoping for one last boat ride on the lake and to see some pretty fall foliage!

An update on Charlie's belt test will be sure to follow :-)

Everybody Loves Tigger

Aquarium

Just In Time For Picture Day!

A Prize Bucket And Googly-Eye Stickers...

... Is my latest attempt at a behavior plan for the kids. It is based on the school-wide behavior system they use at Charlie's school in which they get stars for demonstrating the Three Rs; Respectfulness, Responsibility and Readiness. For today it seems to be working -- at least, I have never heard so many pleases and thank you's during lunch. Apparently the chance to pick a prize from my Bucket O' Dollar Store Toys is very motivating. We'll see how it works for the long term :-)