Beverly Crest Halloween 2015

Halloween Beverly Crest style -- block party, parade, trick-or-treating and lots of bonfires! 

A Rehab Halloween

We had a Halloween party at work yesterday -- the rehab department got kudos for 100% of us dressing up. I was Little Red Riding Hood but I have to say I will be retiring that costume as of yesterday -- or at least not every riding my bike to work and back in it again --lets just say  I had enough big bad wolf comments to last a lifetime lol. 

Tailgating

Mike, Joel, Ben and Charlie went to Mike's work's tailgating party at the Panthers/Eagles game this evening. Joel and Ben had tickets to the game afterward and Mike and Charlie just went for the free food and fun. Looks like a good time!

My Little Ghoul

Today involved a 20 mile run and taking this little ghoul to the neighborhood Halloween party ;-)

How Long Do You Think The Garage Windows Will Last?

We bought Amelia a soccer goal and ball so she can practice at home -- with the aim of the neighborhood kids I am wondering how long it will be until a garage window gets broken?

Saturday Sports

The kids had a great morning on the field today! Charlie scored his first touchdown, with his team winning their game, and Amelia scored THREE goals in soccer and won this week's sportsmanship award (the theme this week was courage) out of 18 five and six year olds -- way to go kiddos!!!

Back To The Future

We took the kids to see Back To The Future tonight, as it was in the theaters tonight for one night only, as today -- 10/21/15 -- is the date that Marty travels to from 1985 in Back To The Future II. They were showing the whole trilogy and I was hoping the kids would last to see some of the 2nd movie but Amelia was thoroughly cooked after the first movie, and needed to go to bed. 

It was still super fun to see the first movie on the big screen again, though, as it was one of the few movies I remember seeing in the theater as a kid, and I was exactly Charlie's age when it came out (eek!) Charlie, for his part, thoroughly enjoyed it and Amelia was thoroughly stressed out by the end when Doc is trying to reconnect the wires up on the clock tower to send Marty home, which is funny because I remember also being thoroughly stressed out by that scene as a kid too ;-)

Parent Teacher Conferences

I had parent teacher conferences yesterday sandwiched somewhere in between running, work, de-lousing the kids and babysitting at the Kaplan's. 

Amelia's conference went pretty much as I expected: her teacher said she is a pleasure to have in class, that she is "a talker" but that she waits until her work is done before she starts talking and that she is not disruptive. Academically she scored 100% on all of the first quarter assessments and scored "exceptionally well" on the limited standardized testing they do in kindergarten, which includes a measure of phonemic awareness and I forget what else. Reading-wise she is "cruising along", is bringing home "B" level reading books every night and is able to read them with a combination of sounding out and sight recognition.

I was a little bit worried about Charlie's conference, as I felt like he has had trouble getting in the groove this year so to speak. His teacher said he is a very sweet kid with a great personality and is doing well in school. He is currently in the top math and literacy section and is in Talent Developmemt for both math and literacy this year. His teacher said that he uses his time well, gets his assignments done on time, is "just as organized and responsible" as she "expects a 4th grade boy to be", and is doing well academically. Her main concern was that she had asked all the students to write down something they wanted her to know about how school was going before parent teacher conferences, and Charlie wrote that he felt "overwhelmed" with the volume of work and the pace of the work, that he worried about not being able to complete his assignments and that he sometimes had trouble sleeping at night because of this. So we had a long talk about this, because Charlie has come to me 2 times over the course of this quarter and has told me the same thing. But, at the same time, he does 90% of his work in class, turning it in before I ever see it and thus not allowing me to help him with it (and also clearly having the time to do it without even bringing it home.) The other piece is that he definitely brings some of the stress on himself -- the last time he told me he couldn't sleep was because he was worrying about typing up an assignment that didn't even have to be typed. (And which I just typed for him in two seconds to save him the trouble anyway.) 

Some of the stress definitely is caused by the extra assignments he has for Talent Development, so we considered moving him to the next section down which is still TD but without the extra assignments. However, in the end we decided to leave him where he is for the time being, as it has been a boost to his self esteem to be in the top sections even though it is kind of a reach for him to be there, and his teacher is going to encourage him to bring his work home for me to help him with, rather than doing it all on his own in school. And I need to make sure I really check in with him to make sure he's not feeling overwhelmed, as fourth grade is a biiiig leap from third grade. 

But all in all good reports for both :-)

Nitpicking Part Three

After combing through the kids' hair yesterday afternoon and finding yet more lice (after doing a third lice shampoo treatment Sunday) I decided it was time we called in the professionals ;-)

So this afternoon our family of 4 was professionally de-loused with follow up instructions to comb olive oil through our hair every night for the next week and every other night for 2 weeks after that to ensure that any microscopic eggs will be smothered. Which means getting up extra early every morning to wash the kids' hair in dish soap to get the olive oil out -- yaaaay so fun ;-)

Sunday Snuggles

Finally Back On The Field Again!

After a month of rainy Saturdays. 

Scarowinds

Mike and Charlie braved Scarowinds last night -- Carowinds turns into a giant Halloween attraction after dark in October. Charlie was reportedly ridiculously scared the whole time but at least he went to bed with no problems so that's a plus ;-)

School Pictures 2015

Charlie smiling through clenched teeth:

Amelia with her headband upside down and no smile:

Nitpicking Part Two

After shampooing and combing through Amelia's hair and coming up empty handed, I turned to Charlie and did the lice shampoo treatment on him. Immediately upon commencing the comb out I realized which child actually had the lice problem. Omg. And Charlie, just so you know, has WAY more hair than Amelia and needed a haircut weeks ago. 

After going through his head with the nit comb and having a decidedly bad case of the heebie heebies, I took my lice shampoo over to Mandy's where we spent two hours in her bathroom after the kids went to bed, lice shampooing each other and combing through our hair like chimpanzees. (And fortunately coming up empty handed.)

This morning, after lecturing the kids on the entire way to the bus stop that they didn't need to tell the entire world they had lice, Amelia immediately turned to Rebecca while they were in line for the bus, put her hands up like claws, and announced loudly, "Don't stand too close to me! My lice might get you!"

This afternoon brings a continuation of ridiculous amounts of laundry, more spraying, more vacuuming and more de-lousing. Fun, fun times in the ROBINSON household!

Nitpicking

I finally know where this word comes from! It's because the tiny little larvae (or is it the eggs?) of lice are called nits, and the process of picking through your child's hair in an attempt to comb them out is very detail oriented, laborious and time consuming. 

How do I know this, you might ask? Because the school nurse called at 8:30 this morning to inform me that Amelia was in the office with a case of head lice, sigh. 

Mike had to pick her up from school and start the below outlined process until I managed to get home 2 hours early after pawning off several of my patients. 

All bedding, sheets, towels, blankets, clothes and heck even bath mats washed. All stuffed animals, bolster pillows and various other items too big to wash bagged up and put in the garage for two weeks to ensure anything that might be on them dies (as apparently lice cannot survive without a human head.) 

All mattresses and other surfaces sprayed with lice killing spray. All carpets vacuumed. Amelia's purple shag carpet joined the stuffed animals in the garage since I didn't think vacuuming it was fully adequate. 

And Amelia herself went through the lice killing treatment and comb out 2 times. During neither time did we actually pull anything off her head, but as of this writing Mandy has apparently found one dead louse on Rebecca (the girls were brushing each other's hair yesterday with the same hairbrush omg) and I am feeling decidedly itchy! 

What a way to start a Monday!

Another Busy Weekend

And it's Sunday night again, the end to another busy weekend!

Friday night we went to Family Fun Night at the kids' school which involved pizza and Bingo followed by a trip to the school book fair. Afterward we went to Target to get a birthday present for Amelia to bring to a birthday party on Saturday. We ended up getting Charlie a much needed new bike while we wee there -- so much for the quick inexpensive trip we had planned. 

Saturday involved football and the aforementioned birthday party. When we pulled up to her classmate's million dollar house (I looked it up on Zillow) Amelia piped up, "Wow, I didn't know Siena was rich!" As long as she doesn't say that to her at school tomorrow morning...

While Amelia was at the birthday party the rest of us went to lunch and did the Costco shopping. 

Today involved a 17 mile run and putting up Halloween decorations after which we met Heather and Matt out at Buffalo Wild Wings for the first half of the Patriots game (half a football game is all the kids can manage before they start getting whiny.) 

Then home for baths, bedtime and the start of another work week!

Halloween Time At The Robinson House

Trader Joe's Why Do You Do This To Me??

Playing In The Rain

Amelia's soccer game remained cancelled for the millionth week in a row (ok 4 out of 5 weeks) but Charlie's football coach decided to muscle through and have the kids play in the pouring rain. Amelia and I made it through practice and then retreated to the car for the actual game, at which point it started pouring. Charlie's team lost but the kids still had fun!

The Newest Harry Potter Fan

Charlie started reading the Harry Potter series back when school started and declares them "the awesomest books ever written." He is currently halfway through the third one and here are a few of the completely adorable conversations they have spawned:

Charlie: "Mom, do you believe in magic?"

Me: "Umm..?"

Charlie: "Well do you think there's a chance -- just a CHANCE -- that I'll get a letter from Hogwarts when I turn eleven?"

Then a few days later:

Charlie: "Mom? Just say I DID get a letter from Hogwarts -- just say I did. Would you let me go??"

And my favorite:

Charlie: "Mom -- TELL ME YOU NAMED ME AFTER CHARLIE WEASLEY!!"

Yes That's My Boy

Rocking the Peek-a-choo sweatshirt.

Officially an ELE Hawk!

Inspirational Sneaker Jewelry

Just in time for this weekend's 17 mile run. Thanks Mike!!

What Are The Chances I Can Train Him To Wash Dishes?

Rainy Weekend

An exceptionally rainy week ended with an exceptionally rainy weekend! The kids' soccer and flag football was cancelled AGAIN which brings us to 3 out of 4 Saturdays so far rained out and the season stretching till the weekend before Thanksgiving :-(

Saturday night Amelia went to Becca's birthday party and Mike and I hired a babysitter and spent the evening out at Cork Buzz, a new restaurant / wine bar in South Park that was extremely delicious -- thanks for the restaurant tip, Mandy!

Today involved another 16 mile run and not much else. Another work week begins! 

Another Running Update

This week in marathon training adventures: I somehow managed to get infected blisters under my right big toenail necessitating a trip to the emergency room on Thursday to have them drained and to get a prescription for keflex. I have pictures but I will spare you. 

Despite this setback I still managed to get all of my runs in, running a total of 34 miles this week. 

Bring on week 11!

Looking Forward To House Guests!

November is bringing not only Grammy and Grampy for the week of Thanksgiving but also Phil and Sue the weekend of my marathon -- we are so excited!! 

Feels Like Fall