Halloween

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween! We sure did. The kids had a great time and loved their costumes. We did a Toy Story theme this year (Livi's idea) she was Jessie and Ian was Buzz. The town I work in shuts down the main road and the businesses pass out candy from 4-6 pm. It's nice with our new salon location we're more in town and can participate in events like this. My mom had so much candy and pretty much got rid of it all. After we did the trick-or-treating down town we got Papa Murphy's for dinner then headed back out to a few houses in our neighborhood and my parents house.

500th post and Fall leaves

I just realized while I was starting this post that this will be my 500th blog entry. I started this blog the day Alivia turned 6 months old. Crazy how much our lives have changed and the things we've done since then.

Saturday after work the sunshine was out so the kids and I played in the leaves in our backyard. I love when all the leaves are on the ground. Always makes for a great photo op.

Wall family visit

On Friday Matt's sister, Jennifer and her family spent the evening with us. They drove up that morning from Elgin, Oregon and were spending the weekend in Washington. It was so nice seeing all of them. It has been over two years since we've seen them. Matt's brother, Chris and his family also came over for a while to visit. Both the kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

Rainy day activities

I've been trying to find new activities to do with the kids on the wet, cold fall days. I have found lots of ideas on Pinterest and tried a few this week. I'd say the biggest hit was putting glow sticks in the bath tub and turning the lights out. The kids didn't want to get out.

Livi and I have been working on writing her name, and learning what sounds each letter makes. She's also enjoyed learning how to make patterns this week.

Glow sticks in the bathtub were a big hit.

Alivia's been learning how to write her nameWe've also been learning how to do 2 and 3 color patterns. I've been using Trix cereal. She's done a great job.

Grannysknits

We had family photos done on Sunday morning. I'm hoping we have at least one decent family photo to use for Christmas cards. Gidian was a little pill, he wouldn't stand still for anything. Just wanted to run around and I had what I consider a horrible hair day. So fingers crossed for one good photo.

While Matt chased Gidian around Livi modeled some hats Jennifer had. I think she modeled four or five of them. The ones in these photos I'm posting are made by GrannysKnits http://grannysknits.etsy.com you can find some cute hats at that link. I love these photos of Miss. Alivia. Jennifer does such a wonderful job. www.jennifertibbetts.com

Isn't her sweater adorable? Got it on sale for $13 originally $40 at Fred Meyers

4 year photos

I got the rest of Alivia's 4 year photos back today. I love how they turned out! On Saturday we're doing our family photos so fingers crossed it doesn't rain. Thank you Jennifer for capturing sweet images of my little girl. www.jennifertibbetts.com

Ready! For Kindergarten

A few weeks ago I was able to snag one of twenty spots available for a new program in our school district http://www.readyforkindergarten.org/ Since Alivia will miss the cut off for kindergarten next year I thought this would be a neat way to get a jump start. I debated on whether or not to bring her along and in the end decided to so she could play with the other kids. It was the first time I have ever left her in the care of people I didn't know. She had a blast though. For the two hours I was in the class she played games, colored ate snacks. What's not to like? She didn't even seem to care I was leaving. I admit it kind of broke my heart, I can't believe she's getting to be so grown up.

During the class we were given over $200 in learning materials/games for our kids and were taught ways to teach them. I honestly don't think Livi will have a hard time in Kindergarten almost every thing the Kindergarten teachers would like the kids to be able to do, Livi knows or is way beyond. The only real thing we need to work on is starting to write her letters. She knows the whole alphabet upper/lower case, can count to twenty and point out any number if you write it down. Can count to ten in Spanish, knows all the colors and shapes. The nice thing is I'll have all these tools to use to teach Gidian. I'm happy I was able to be apart of this program. It has three different classes through out the year and I'm on the list to attend the next ones.

I also learned through this program that our school district offer s a Pre-K class to kids who don't meet the birthday cut off to attend Kindergarten. I got all the info on when to get Livi signed up. She's so excited about school and I'm happy she'll be attending elementary school where I did.