Pumpkin time

Friday night we hacked into our pumpkins. Every year it goes like this... Kids super excited, "yay! lets carve our pumpkins!" We start, Kids start to loose interest, "mom can you help me?" Later, "I'm going to go play. I don't want to do pumpkins anymore." So it turns out to be starting off with me and all the kids but ends up with generally only me! This year was a little better. Max still will not touch the guts though! If you would like to see him freak out just a little, just flip some pumpkin guts onto his leg!


Lets get started...

Max stabbing away
Joe stabbing away
Is this how we do it?
Cleaning the "lid"
I think he liked this knife!
GUTS!

Did you notice anything? You mean your kids don't all sit around and carve pumpkins in their undies??!! Ike was the smart one.. he stayed dressed.

Sam kept flipping pumpkin guts everywhere. If some got on her hand she would fling it. We had pumpkin guts everywhere. The floor, the cabinets, the dishwasher.... anything within distance of her. I will probably find pumpkin guts stuck to something in like 3 months from now!


Pumpkins
Ike's, Max's, Joe's and Sam's
I am the one who cut the faces. I tried to stay as close as possible to the faces they drew on the pumpkins. Max made a huge mouth but no eyes so I made some up for him.

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Halloween parties 2010

Today school had their Halloween parade and parties.

My kids were the Mario crew.

We Have Mario and Luigi
Princess Peach and Mario
Princess Peach
Toad (with his Sheep!)
Max and a cat, ur... I mean Luigi and a black cat!
Peach and Mario
Mario with his spider cookie he made
Toad and the spider cookie he made
Toad playing games with a princess (or butterfly)... She lives 2 houses down from us.

The kids had fun. Parties are always crazy! Little Mario had had enough before the parties were over. He fell asleep in about 3 minutes after being in the car. We live about 2 minutes away from school but he was so close to sleep I unloaded everything else first and poof-- he was sleeping!

Is that Mario?

OK, So by now you should know Ike is going as Mario for this Halloween. He has been wearing this outfit for about a month now. Tomorrow school is having their Halloween parties and I know Ike is going to LOVE that he will be allowed to wear his Mario out in public.

Why, yes that is his Volcano shirt under those Mario overalls! He will be wearing red when he really dresses up though. Or at least that is my plan... remember he is 3!

The kids made some birthday cards the other day for friends so Ike wanted to join in. He made the card for himself. He carried it around for 3 days. Here is his card that he is very proud of.

And since it is Down syndrome awareness month here is a picture of Max 4 years ago. Yikes- that makes him sound old! Max in 2006....

I know, he is so cute!

Another blogger

Today I wanted to post about how much Ike LOVES his volcano shirt.
One might think the boy only has 1 shirt. He wants to wear it ALL the time. And yes, it does wear it even as Mario.
Funny picture! He was really just dancing around but he looks like he is doing some karate move.

And Max also likes his grumpy gus shirt....

He was playing frisbee at the time so not a great picture. All the teachers from school also loved it.

So where did I get these cool shirts? The Rocking Pony of course! She is a mom to 4 and also has a blog HERE. Her blog is sure to make you laugh or say "awe" when you see her cute kiddos!

I'm not 9, I'm 1!

The other day at the park we went on a walk. Max kept saying,"UP!" But hello, he weighs 70ish pounds! And he could really use the exercise!

After awhile I finally said, "Max you are 9 years old now. You are a big boy!" His reply, he said No and signed the number 1. I asked if he was only 1 year old. He said yes. A couple minutes later I picked him up and he acted as if he was a baby and started snoring! He is such a goof ball and will do anything to get carried!

Max and Tinkerbell

The other day we were getting ready to go to the park. I told all the kids to get ready if they wanted to go. You know, clothes, shoes, bathroom... All that good stuff.

They were doing pretty well getting ready quickly. Then Max, for some reason, decided to capture something. He was rather proud of himself. He carried his catch up the stairs.



Look what I caught mom!!

He had corner the cat, Tinkerbell, in the laundry and somehow got her in her carrier.

He decided to tease her, I think, by acting as if he was going to let her out into her favorite spot... under the couch.
HA! But not really. He wanted to torture her some more.
Finally he let her go so we could leave for the park.

Hummm, I wonder why Tinkerbell runs for her life when she sees him coming!?

Parent teacher conferences part 2

Today was busy.

I had Sam's pictures scheduled at 12:40 (yeah I'm only about 2 months behind getting them done for her birthday) then since we had it them done at Target we went to pick up a couple things there. We then had lunch at target! I needed to drop of Sam's forms (questionnaires) to the ADHD clinic to be prepared for her appointment next week so we did that next. Then we went to Toys R Us. Sam had her $3 gift card from the TRU birthday card she received that has been burning a hole in her pocket! We spent about 2 hours there!! usually that would be a stressful trip but they all did great. The boys had to play with the wooden train set they have set up in the store for the kids. They did that for a long time. We checked out Halloween goodies, and explored several isles! Finally when Sam decided what she wanted we went home and ate. I had Max's parent teacher conference at 6 tonight.

His conference went smooth. I love his resource teacher so that is always a big plus. She seems to have MAX's best interest in her decisions. His behavior, they say, is improving at school. That is always good to hear. His speech teacher wants someone else to come in and observe Max. She has tried so many different things and he still just doesn't do a lot of talking. She wants a new set of ears to see if they have any more suggestions for her. So that is also good.

Starting next week all of 3rd grade will have homework binders to do every night. Oh joy! His resource teacher is modifying all of Max's stuff. So we brainstormed some ideas for that tonight.

That is about it. Overall good day with school being out.

Parent teacher conferences

(picture from 2006)

Parent teacher conferences were today and continuing tomorrow. Today I had Joe's. Tomorrow I have Max's. I was also supposed to have Sam's but her teacher is on bed rest now and the sub has just not been there long enough to know the children that well yet.

So let's talk about Joe's, shall we?

He has the same teacher Max and Sam had. With Max there were some issues with her and Max, but seriously, Max comes with his own issues. With Sam she was fine. No issues. However, she finally told me she thought Sam was falling behind in reading towards the end of the year. Yes, reading in Kindergarten. My how times have changed!

This year with Joe there are issues. I see Joe as a typical 5 year old boy. Full of energy and craziness. She, however, does not. She thinks his behavior is "atypical," "odd for his age group," and just not normal. Whatever! He is a very smart boy. He is going to feed on annoying the heck outta someone if he knows he can. Now, I know some of these behaviors she is talking about are not things to annoy her.

Behaviors she sees are the following (or so she says)....
flapping his hands/arms
spinning in circles
hissing
hissing while waving his hand at someone
some posture thing
and some tongue thrust thing.

I have seen the hissing and hissing with him waving his hands. Flapping and spinning? Not so much. Yeah, I'll see him flap his arms if he is about to 'take off' or something similar. I don't see this as "atypical" though. Not sure about the tongue thing or the posture thing. She also says he just will flat out refuse to do somethings. Yup, that is Joe. And yup, that is ALL my kids. If they don't want to do something, well good luck getting it done!

She asked if I wanted her to wait it out or go to the next step. I told her I think she could wait it out b/c I really don't see him act so oddly at home, but if she thinks we should move to the next step, go for it. So we are waiting. Then she asked me, "what about at the end of year when these things are still going on or his learning is behind?" Me, "well is he behind right now?" Her, "no. He is doing great." Um, OK.

By the end of the year kindergartners are supossed to know 50 sight words. As of now he already knows 29. That is over half and we just finished up 1st quarter. He is great at mathematical things and pretty good at counting. He counts to 100 except he leaves 2 of the teen numbers out. He has NO problems with patterens. Personal safety stuff he is doing well in. That is first and last name, parents names, phone number with area code and address. I have not started on teaching him the address yet because we focused on phone number first. He now knows that with no problem. I will start with his address now and I am guessing it won't be long before he knows that as well.

She just could not stress enough on how "atypical" and "odd" his behavior was. While I was somewhat venting/gossiping with Max's resource teacher afterward, the Spanish teacher walked in to say Hi to Joe. He invited me to his room. He told me what all he does for the grade levels and just some basic info. I thought it was kinda odd but maybe he was bored! He said he never has visitors in his room so he was happy to share. Since I was there I asked for his observation. I asked if Joe acted odd or different in his class. He said Joe is an excellent student. Nothing odd at all. He said Joe is so quiet and does everything he is asked to do. Good to know. Now I think I will email a couple of the "specials" teachers and ask if they see anything odd. I mean really, if Joe is SO atypical, then surely other teachers see it as well, right?

People at school I talk to about this always say, "well SHE is the odd one!"

Seriously, am I going to have 3 for 3? 3 kids with issues in school. urgh!

How long?

Yesterday I called Max's eye doctor to get an appointment. I also called my eye doctor to get my appointment scheduled.

So I already knew Max's doc takes forever to get appointments made. I called October 18th. Guess when his appointment will be? December 23rd! 2 months away!! My doctored, that I called the same day, could get me in tomorrow. It was 2 days compared to 2 months. Irritates me to death. However, Max's doctor is a really good doctor. The wait time used to be very long when she was at a different practice but she has moved since then. The wait time is not that bad anymore. Once we are seen she is pretty quick.


Max enjoying some yummy twizzlers.

So I was reading a....Hey look, a squirrel!

That is what it is like doing homework with Sam at times. Tonight she was to read a very short, simple story then write what it was about.

This is how one page went....
Sam: "This is a picture of Earth from space." I want to be an astronaut when I grow up.
me: OK
Sam: Did you know that in the musical I get to dress up as whatever I want to be when I grow up.
(the school musical for 2nd grade is in February. It is "When I grow up.")
me: OK
Sam: So I want to dress up as...... oooooohhh, I see Trix! You bought Trix cereal?

Focus!! She went from reading about a space picture to Trix.

I am all the time saying, "focus!" Her attention is all over the place.

What a shirt!

I was looking for Down syndrome awareness items at CafePress. I saw a shirt that said this...


Wow!! I would consider that shirt rather offensive myself. Kinda misses the point about not using the R word in the wrong manner. The shirt is here.

What do you think?

Can you guess?

Can you guess what my 4 kids are going to be for Halloween? The princess crown is not the one that will be worn on Halloween because, surprise, Sam didn't know where she left it. So this is a stand in.

Sam and her 2nd tooth lost

The other day Sam lost her 2nd tooth at school.

The first night she lost her lost tooth so the tooth fairy did not make it over. She knows the tooth is not real so no biggie.
The 2nd night she had her tooth under the pillow. The "tooth fairy" came and took her tooth leaving her a dollar bill in it's place.

(ignore the oreo cookies all over her teeth here...)

The next morning she was not that happy. She demanded her tooth back. She was unimpressed by a 1 dollar bill. So after a little bit we exchanged back. I have the $1 and she has her tooth. Spoiled girl!

I'm sure she will change her mind at some point.

Her replacement tooth is already in, as you can kinda see in this picture. Not the most flattering picture but you get the point.

oldies

The day is almost done. I better hurry and get something up!

For this post I looked back at some pictures from 2006.

Here is my Mr Max in October of 2006
My miss SamAnd my cutie pie Joe

Here is another one for the Halloween theme... Max at the pumpkin patch in 2006. (the sign in the background says, "Don't climb on Pumpkins".... oops!)
They grow way too fast!

Thursday, day 14 of Down syndrome awareness month

It's too nice outside to not be out there right now. So this post will be quick.

Today Joe went on a field trip with all the Kindergartners. He is used to half days... Afternoon time. He doesn't go to sleep till 12-1 am. Knowing he would be getting up early I tired to get him to bed early last night. It wasn't happening. And it didn't. He went to sleep around 1. However, he had no problems getting up this morning and getting ready. He must have been excited.

He got out of school an hour early compared to the rest of the school. When the bus arrived and all the kids got out, Joe was fast asleep in his teachers arms. I figured he would fall asleep on the bus. Max has always done that for field trips as well.

Last night Sam cried and cried because she lost her lost tooth. She could not even focus on homework because of her tooth. So I just sent her to bed after about an hour of crying and mumbling while she was supposed to be reading to me. She thought she lost her tooth (in a baggie) up stairs in our bedroom. I looked last night after sending her to bed but I never found it. This morning while getting breakfast and lunches ready guess what was sitting on the stove? Yeah, her tooth in her baggie. She can't keep up with anything! Tooth fairy did not visit last night. I guess tonight she will. Hopefully a lesson in not losing important things. I seriously doubt it though!

Ike is obsessed with wearing his Halloween costume... ALL day long, every day. I'll share more about what he will be later on. I need to get pictures of something first.

Max is doing just fine. He is such a couch potato though. While me and all the other kids are outside, max is inside sitting on his booty most times. If we go to the park he is fine playing and running around. But seriously, I'm not going to the park every single day.

I am loving this fall weather we are having. I have been outside a lot lately. I couple weekends ago I re-did one of our flower beds completely. The back of me legs were sore from digging so much. This week I trimmed a lot of our tree in the backyard. (much to Pete's disapprovment!) Today my upper back and arms are a little sore. I did lots of sawing, with a hand saw. I think it looks much better. The thing was hanging down so low I could barely mow under it. Pete was not too happy that I chopped off so much and did it while the season is still early. Oh well, the tree will live.

I have also extended my strawberry patch this year so hopefully next year I will have tons of strawberries. I also put in a raspberry, blueberry and blackberry patch. The raspberries were free from my in-laws rental property they were clearing out. I have tried raspberries several times but they never make it. Cross your fingers these make it. About half look like they will do fine but the other half, not so much. I am hoping they spread next Spring. I saw blueberries at Lowes so I am trying those for the first time. I only have 2 bushes so I'll see how they do. I was told the soil around here is not acidic enough for them to do well. The blackberries I ordered off Ebay and actually look really good. I ordered 3 but got 5. score! I got those planted last night. I have one more spot I want to do something with in the back yard. I am really thinking about a fruit cocktail tree. It has plums, peaches, nectarines and apricots all in one. I have found a couple online. I would rather buy it locally. Home depot did not have any. I have not checked elsewhere yet. It may have to wait until Spring. One article I read said Spring was the time to transplant them. Still deciding on that.

OK, maybe not such a short blog post.

Max, Sam and Joe have their dentist appointments tomorrow. pray for us! Sometimes it goes great and others, not so much!

Pictures of Max for Down syndrome awareness month

Remember I said my brother got married a few weeks ago? Well he did. The wedding was outside and it was HOT that day. Joe was a ring-barrier and had to wear a tux. He didn't stay in it long. I'll have more pictures but for now here is Max.

Remember he likes to do goofy things as the camera flashes!

However, he saw me about to take his picture with his baby cousin and he smiled pretty. That is, of course, after he picked up his baby cousin to pose for the picture! Max LOVES babies.


He also likes tissue paper. So while a couple of my nephews were rocking the house with their dance moves Max was watching his tissue paper twirl in the breeze.

Sam come out of school with a lost tooth today. This time she had the tooth though! Man, that thing is tiny. And I have NO cash right now. I guess I'll have to go by the bank or borrow from a piggy bank! Her 2nd tooth lost. She already knows the tooth fairy is not real. She plays along though. I'll have pictures of that soon, hopefully.

First day of school pictures

I am running out pictures for Down syndrome awareness month! I need to get some more ready.

My camera died a few months ago. I know which one I think I will replace it with but was waiting closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas because of sales... and I'm still thinking about it. So recently I have been borrowing Max's. He is OK with that sometimes! However, his USB cable stopped working when I plugged it into my computer. I tried the card reader on my computer. It does not work because the driver is not installed. I found the driver on Dell website and scored. It worked. Once. Then it acted like I never installed the driver. Irritating to say the least. So now to get pictures from Max's camera to my computer I have to give the SD card to Pete. He then either puts the files in a "share" file over our network or loads them on a portable drive for me. I can't just go take some pictures and quickly download them to my computer. Yeah, I should probably check Ebay for the USB cable for his camera.

Max can be a tricky guy to photograph. If you can get "the" shot then he looks great! Most times though, he will smile until he knows the camera is about to take his picture then make a silly face. On the first day of school he kept doing some weird hand thing while I was trying to get his picture.He is a goof ball!

Then there is goof ball number 2!
Sam insisted on this umbrella. And no, it was not raining!

And my little Joe. Ready for his first day of school. Apparently Max and Sam forget to tell him he needed to make a crazy face, carry something silly or to include hands in his picture!

School has been going on for a couple months now but I never shared the pictures. In fact, this week is the last of first quarter. The kids all get Friday off for teacher work day. Next week they get a 4 day weekend and lucky duck Joe gets a 5 day weekend. It is for Parent teacher conferences.

Enjoy your day!