Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex
Finally Pictures…
Here are pictures from Katherine’s birthday, Halloween, and other activities this month.
Busy Month
This has been an extraordinarily busy month. It started with Steve and I taking a much awaited cycling trip to Sicily. Indeed, it was a very hily ride; a common phrase from the guides was “gently rolling hills”. We did a lot of low grade hills that kept going and a couple steeper climbs. I averaged 25-30-35 miles a day; Steve took a couple extra extensions. Unfortunately, due to rain and a high guide ratio (11:1), he wasn’t able to complete a European century. But, we enjoyed a LOT of food during 3 hour lunches (seriously), wine and very nice hotels. We did some cool local tours – to watch a family make ricotta cheese, a walking tour, wine tastings and pasta making. Steve is working on publishing the Sicily pictures, the bike routes, etc.
Right after we got back, we celebrated Steve’s birthday, and I started up a consulting gig. The kids geared up for two Halloween parties and trick or treating. At school, the teachers requested that the kids dress up as people in the community. Allison chose to be a firefighter, and Katherine a doctor. After school, they turned into Tinkerbells for a potluck party and then trick or treating.
Since Halloween, Katherine caught a bad cold circulating through her classroom – and stayed home from school for three days. She’s still coughing a lot, occasionally having coughing spasms. Allison, Steve and I haven’t caught it yet…
Learning about World Affairs
As part of Halloween and their world learning at school, the pre-elementary kids trick or treat for UNICEF. The teachers explained UNICEF in circle and provided the orange boxes to the kids. Allison came home proudly with her box and told us the following:
Mom: Allison, do you know why your collecting money for UNICEF?
Allison: Because…some children don’t have clean water. They will buy new pumps. If they drink dirty water, they will get sick.
Katherine has been collecting money for a couple weeks from friends’ parents – taking over $39 to school for UNICEF.
The kids also have taken an interest in politics. Thru the fall, they’ve watched debates, provided commentary and even did a victory dance chanting “Obama Obama…” last Tuesdsay. Katherine asked us last week unprompted, “Why does the radio keep talking about Joe the Plumber??” She thought it was really funny that CNN and NPR would talk about some plumber as part of the presidential election.
Dinosaurs
Every classroom at school has “units of study” – basically topics that are woven throughout different works in a section of the classroom. Allison’s classroom is studying dinosaurs. As a result, we’re also learning about dinosaurs. Apparently, Allison has been listening pretty intently to her teacher who’s been presenting this information at circle.
Allison: The tyrranasaurus rex is a very angry dinosaur. He eats other dinosaurs. He’s like the king of dinosaurs. He’s MUCH bigger than our car.
Mom: Really, what other dinosaurs have you learned about??
Allison: The brontosaurus was very afraid of the tyranasaurus rex. His favorite dishes were leaves and bushes.
Mom: Favorite dishes, hm…
Allison: And, then there’s the bracheosaurus, the allisaurus, and the stegasaurus. The stegasaurus had plates on his back and his tail. He had four plates on his tail. He used them as a weapon against the tyranasaurus rex.
Steve and I were rather dumbfounded, since dinosaurs haven’t been a major topic in our house. Katherine kept trying to interject, but Allison kep rolling along with her narrative all the way to school.
Katherine thinks that Allison is very amusing and often says, “she’s soo cute.” Allison pushes her sister sometimes, for instance wanting to play with Katherine’s new toys or counting money in Katherine’s wallet. Thankfully, Katherine is relatively patient with her sister.
“If she likes ponies”
Before the summer, Steve and I met with Katherine’s teacher to discuss progress and the upcoming summer. Her suggestion for reading: find out what she wants to read and then encourage it! “If she’s interested in ponies, then check out books about ponies.” This may seem totally intuitive, probably because its spot on.
Katherine LOVES the Disney Fairies – Tinkerbell, Beck, Fira, etc. She saves her allowance money to go to Borders and buy the big, picture Disney books. (We buy her the chapter books to read.) Her prize possessions are the Fairy Homes and Inside Pixie Hollow. She just started reading the chapter books tonight, carefully using her finger to read the small text and turning the page corner for tomorrow.
Reading Board
We finally took a picture of Katherine and her tattered reading board. We still owe her a visit to Chuck E. Cheese.
Violin Lessons
Katherine got to learn a new bowing/rhythm last week – “Ice Cream <rest> Cone” (ready change). Basically, it’s two quarters, one quarter rest, one more quarter than change string. Katherine and I have also worked on her holding her violin for 5 minutes at a time with her sand timer. She was soo excited to expand her repertoire. ๐
36.5 mpg
I’ve been mulling over the concept of improving our average mpg. So, I went over to Bellevue Honda and bought a Civic Hybrid last week. The car has steadily increased its average mpg during this week.
We are now at 36.5 mpg. What helps?
The kids seem to like the little blue car. Katherine explains that there are two engines – one regular engine and one special engine. Allison asked if the car needed special gas. I love zipping into parking spots.
Where are your manners?
Allison and I had a very amusing conversation several days ago:
Mom: Allison, where are your manners?
Allison: Someone took them.
The next day:
Mom: Allison, I hope someone didn’t take your manners.
Allison: I lost my manners.
Katherine just chuckled throughout.
Mondays at the Playground
Because Katherine and Allison are in different classrooms, they don’t often see each other at school. Monday mornings are the exception, when their recesses overlap on the playground. According to all teachers, both girls are SO happy to see each other and play together until Katherine’s classroom lines up. That’s when Allison has started to tear up, “I miss Katherine…”
Katherine still walks her little sister to the classroom. It’s very sweet.
Developmental Milestones
Katherine finally got to 100 on her reading board. She was so proud of her accomplishment. Her reading these days includes Henry and Mudge, a couple short chapters at a time, and Sammy the Seal. Allison, by comparison, is trying so hard to read. One of her favorite activities is pulling out Katherine’s old beginner flash cards and sounding out letters. Surprisingly, she eked out some simple words last week by herself- JET, HAT and a few others. Katherine and I cheered her on.
Katherine is working hard on her math these days. To help her along, we took out her old bead board. She thinks its a hoot for me to hold up a flash card and see how many she can do in a certain amount of time. She also flips over a 5-minute sand timer. Between holding up flash cards and holding Allison back from our sand timer, it gets a little crazy during math time.
Katherine and Allison are progressing with their violin studies. Katherine is now working on a new rhythm – “ice cream <rest> cone” then changing strings. Allison is learning how to hold the bow like a baby bird and not squeeze the living daylights out of it. I told her tonight that IF she could relax her right hand, we would ask Katherine’s teacher to assess her for readiness. The imagery seemed to help quite a bit; she held it delicately with no pressure for a bit – until she started squeezing again. It really is amazing how little kids can learn correct bow technique at such a young age.
Slew of Pictures
I finally got around to downloading a ton of pictures from our camera. ๐
You’ll see the kids diving off Ms. Suzi’s diving board and swimming across the pool, eating at the Mariners game, a bus trip to the Arboretum, Allison’s first day of school and a Storm Game.
Katherine is holding a signed Storm ball, which she got from a player during the pre-game player announcements…on the basketball floor. Way Cool!!
No…the kids don’t use their goggles anymore for swim lessons.
Chuckee and The Jumbo-Tron
It was a very busy weekend. First, our family celebrated Katherine’s progress with her reading board. Between various trips and activities this summer, we managed to squeak in 50 books (read by Katherine, not us) of increasing interest. Her first couple dozen books were primarily Bob books. Later books included high literature such has “Fred and Ted Go Camping,” “Dora’s I Love My Papi,” “Ruby Bakes a Cake,” and “My Little Pony Tea Party.” All good stuff.
For her celebration we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We bought a bucket of tokens and tried to win as many tickets as possible. Allison also rode some of the kiddie rides and tried to go thru the tunnel, but was scared silly by a large boy perched in the tunnel entrance. Despite some setbacks, we must have earned a couple hundred tickets which bought the kids 4 bubble bath tablets, 2 plastic combs, 2 plastic frisbees, a ring and a plastic lizard. The highlight for the kids was seeing Chuck-E-Cheese himself at a nearby birthday party. Allison just stared at the party, finally turning to me and saying, “Thank you for bringing me to Chuck-E-Cheese. Can we go say Hi to Chuck-E?” She was so overwhelmed that she repeated her thanks in the car, “Thank You Everyone for Chuck-E-Cheese.”
On Sunday, we took the kids to a Mariners Game. I had prefaced the game half-joking by saying, “Maybe they’ll put us on the Jumbo-Tron!!” Well, in the middle of the first inning, lo and behold…we looked up…and Allison and I were on the Jumbo-Tron! The girls ate Dipping Dots, a bucket of popcorn. We made it to the 6th inning and finally left amid a huge rainstorm to go back home. I’ll have to post pictures tomorrow from our non-stop weekend.
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