Halloween & Prepping for Christmas

Well, we got the house put back together!  The kids now have carpet and it looks like we won't owe anything for it due to all the work we did on our own.  Insurance settlement still to be signed off on.

We left off in Mid October.  I started tutoring 4 4th grade girls next door.  It's been interesting seeing how math is taught differently than I was taught and It's going alright.  We're making progress and I can see that it's helping. After one teaches them how to multiply 2 digits x 2 digits using distributive property apparently my old school ways make more sense.  I showed the kids and H was particularly interested to see how it worked to go up to really big digits. 

V caught up to H weight wise and now weighs about 54 pounds, H weighs just over 50.  He's still taller and about a size up in clothing. We'll see how long it lasts.

V's started educating me about things she's read or learnt in school. There's not much warning except that it usually starts before I've had coffee, over breakfast.  Her talk about Komodo Dragons:

Paul got to talk to Glen Howard, the best Canadian curler, ok, curler EVAH!! Here's proof! they were in a bonspeil together, not on the same sheet of ice, but he did offer to buy Paul a drink.

I baked cookies for H's class at school.  I had enough left over to make "poop" cookies to try out my newest cookie cutter. 

Halloween: C went with a friend, V stayed home to pass out candy, only H trick-or-treated around our neighborhood, up and down about 2 blocks.  It was actually kind of nice! H likes to chat people up and usually his brother and sister are more down to business and quick, H had a chance to talk to all the neighbors and it was pretty neat. 

 

H lost the last of the 4 teeth on top. He's now eating lunch at the hockey player table.

 

 

 

V learned a Remembrance Day song

 

 

 

We got our first carton of Egg nog. 

F V says, “oh egg nog, we’re back with a old friend.” She drinks it at every meal if possible.


Parent conferences were the best ever. Worst problems are that oldest is sometimes not interested in topic and middle is not eating enough lunch. All are doing fantastic-V does math and reading at a 4th grade level.  The boys are at the top of their classes. Well, C still has issues with French and P.E., but I'm not so worried about that.


We had a bday party for H with a few friends from school.  C and I made a bit of a treasure hunt/role play for the goodies. 

 

 

After H's birthday we decorated the Christmas tree

 

 

We put the lights up!

 

 (Note that this plus the tree lights are all the lights we own!)


A Christmas miracle, all 3 children had school pictures worth keeping

 

Paul and I had our 14th anniversary!

 

 

I finally installed towel racks in our upstairs bathroom.  Why it took me 4 years and why there weren't any in there in the first place I'll never know, but now that a certain someone is showering daily we need more towel racks that people can reach.

 

V practiced for her school Christmas concert.  A lot.  The boys are going to be excited when it's over and she stops practicing.

 

H and V are back to curling.  I've kept H with the 6-8 year olds that I instruct due to his size and maturity level. This means my kids make up about 1/3 of the Little Rockers at our club.

 

  There is a competition for curling in Ontario where they have to draw, hit and tap. He's been playing with the 6-8 year group even though he turned 9 last month because he's tiny! They play with little rocks (about 20-25 pounds) on a 1/2 sheet of ice rather than a full sheet. He's been a great help to me as he's experienced in the game and does demonstrations and is a leader for the other kids (it's his 3rd year). Unfortunately when they are 9 they have to do the contest on a full sheet of ice with rocks that are regulation (about 42 pounds). He tried for 1.5 hours to push the rock with his 50 pound body and can't get it a full sheet. Even though there were lots of tears of frustration, he did not give up. I was proud of his spirit!  We've since done some brainstorming and are working on some ideas of ways to help him throw the full sheet of ice.  I'll keep you all updated after the holidays. Meanwhile, his speech after playing in the Holiday Bonspeil (a competition-2 games with lunch in between.) We played a total of 7 ends.  As per usual, H got pretty frustrated by the end of the second game so as soon as the game tied up the other adult and I looked at each other and called it finished.

H's acceptance of prizes speech on behalf of all the players as the other boy had to leave and none of the girls would speak into the microphone.

 

 

 

We've had snow-last week we had 3 dumpings of about 3-4 inches each.  It then warmed and melted but there's a fresh dusting tonight. It's looking like a White Christmas is in our near future.

 

 

I've started physio (physical therapy for you Americans). My 13 years of diagnosis of carpel tunnel looks more like TOS (basically a neck that needs to be stretched out and the nerve pathways between it and my hands is messed up).  So between physio, tutoring, reading with V's class and curling I've been keeping busy.  Oh, not to mention both H and I had a wicked 24 hour stomach bug over the last week.

But tonight the holiday concert!

 

 

I'll show pictures of how the house turned out and my recent furniture projects when I get them done in the next few days.  Merry Christmas!