Quick Takes Saturday

Only a day late to the link-up!!!  Go me!!!

--1--

So, last Thursday (as in, the Thursday before Halloween) was the Halloween Parade at C's preschool.

Since the big sisters traditionally attend the Halloween Parade which happens during the school day, this gave me great motivation to get everyone's costume together and not procrastinate until Halloween Eve.  All Hallows Eve Eve?

Thing is... we didn't really have the costume pow-wow until about two days before the Halloween Parade.  After the pow-wow, it was decided that N would be Rey, L would be Queen Amidala, and C would be Hermione.

I kind of wish that someone had pulled me aside and said "You have an infant in the chasing stage and you're homeschooling and working part-time and managing four kids' busy schedules.  This is not the year for elaborate DIY Halloween costumes."

Long story short, a lot of Mama's time and stress was spent on trying to figure out how to DIY the aforementioned costumes (two days before they were needed), and two out of three girls ended up changing their minds about what they wanted to be anyway.

Soooo... note to self-- either have costume pow-wow earlier next year, or be more realistic about what can be accomplished in 48 hours in the midst of school schedules and Halloween pandemonium.

In the end, we had Rey, Princess Leia (a costume we already had in our dress-up bin), a witch (also a repeat) and Yoda.

Perfectly acceptable and cute all around, wouldn't you say?  No stress needed.

--2--

M has been doing some evening rehearsals on the North Shore with a choral ensemble for their Christmas programs coming up.  Since he went straight there from work the other night, he got himself dinner at one of our old haunts.  The next morning, I almost cried with pleasure at finding a piece of pumpkin cream pie that he brought home for me.  Is he not the very best in the world?  And yes I ate it for breakfast.  No shame.

--3--

The Tooth Fairy has been making quite a few visits to our house lately.  L recently lost one of her bottom teeth and one on the top, and she has another one on the top hanging by a thread.  We joke that she'll be singing "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" pretty soon, as we joked with her older sister two years ago.

N actually had to have three teeth pulled this week.  She has a condition her dentist refers to as BTLH (Big Teeth Little Head).  So to alleviate some of the crowding in her mouth, and give her a better chance at getting her teeth really clean, we agreed to have them yanked.  She was super-duper brave about the whole situation; I was quite proud.  She had been very nervous the whole day leading up to it, so I agreed to the laughing gas the dentist offered and it worked like a charm.  Afterwards we were at the chiropracter and one of her friends there told her that the Tooth Fairy pays double when you get your teeth pulled.  And so of course the Tooth Fairy was obliged to pony up.

I just took her to the dollar store and she bought a sheriff's play set-- complete with badge, pretend walkie-talkie, and gun.  It seems that is what she is into these days!!  She sure has been reading a lot of detective and mystery chapter books from the library.

--4--

Miss J lately has been finding discarded pieces of paper and pencils/crayons/markers and making her first little scribbles.  This at an even earlier age than C became interested in coloring, I think (and she amazed me at the time with her early interest)!  Look at her little pencil grip; can you believe that?  It just goes to show how much they learn by watching.

She also scribbled on the bookcase the other day... so, yeah.  There have been many lectures reminders to the big girls about putting away their writing things after school.

P.S.  J's dance moves are also SICK.  I keep busting out my camera just a few seconds too late at our dance parties, but I hope to have photographic evidence pretty soon.  You'll want to stay tuned for that.

--5--

I have been trying my best to take pictures of the girls' schoolwork this year, so that I can recycle things right away after we finish with them, and we don't have piles and piles of finished work hanging around.  I figure a digital portfolio will suffice and will be much easier to organize later.

I'll just share this cute little writing project of L's from the other day.

<3

Six-year-old writing is the cutest.

Her picture is pretty awesome too, don't you think?

--6--

Tonight spaghetti was on the menu, and rather than purchasing spaghetti noodles as usual when I was at the store, I opted for wagon wheel pasta as I figured it would be easier for J to grab onto.

Lo and behold, wagon wheel pasta also makes for easy forking, and so this was the very first meal at which she successfully used a utensil.

Pretty proud of herself she was!

Of course in her usual ham-ish fashion, she had to impress us with a few other tricks:

{Don't ask me what the big girls were doing?!?!?}

Unfortunately, the brittle old fork that dated back to N's infancy (which the girls already called a threek) quickly became a twook and then a onek as it was thrown on the floor a couple of times.  By the end of the meal it was giving us the bird.

So into the trash it went.  The End.

--7--

Also, this happened.

Never a dull moment here, folks.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

{For more quick takes, visit thisaintthelyceum.org!}