Catching up

Okey dokey, I have a little free time this morning so I'll play catch up for a minute... Shall we start with Halloween? With it falling on Sunday we didn't actually go trick or treating but we (and by 'we' I mean Dan and the 4 older kids) had fun going to the 'trunk-or-treat' and chili cook off at churchthe Friday before. Tyler decided he was a bit too old for playing dress up so he just handed out candy. That was nice because it freed up Dan to take Aaron around. We L.O.V.E. Phineas and Ferb around here so the kids decided to go with that theme, it was so fun. Katherine was Candace and enjoyed carrying a cell phone for the night..."Mom, Phineas and Ferb are going trick-or-treating". Kyle wanted to be Phineas but since he couldn't figure out how to get his head to be a triangle shape he went with Dr. Doofenshmirtz instead...that was better because he was able to 'collect all the candy in the tri-state area'. Aaron was ecstatic about being Perry the Platypus and a big thank you to Grandma for whipping up a green platypus suit before she left town. Elizabeth didn't really participate in Halloween but she got a tutu, etc. as a gift when she was born. We decided to put it on her for Halloween. She hated it--but we thought she was cute.

Most of November was pretty uneventful...Dan took a week off so I could rest and he also had a full week off for Thanksgiving. It was fabulous! We really didn't do anything. Just a lot of hanging out, taking naps, playing with the kids...we saw a movie at the dollar theater. Thanksgiving day was pretty normal, we had a nice dinner but we didn't overdo it, it was more like a nice Sunday dinner than a Thanksgiving feast but I don't think anyone noticed.

December has FLOWN by...in fact I forgot to pay a bill because I didn't realize what week it

was, but that's another story for another day. We have been busy, but in a good way. Tyler has been working on a really fun science fair project, I think I will blog that when he's totally done but it involves corking a bat so the boys have really enjoyed it. Homerun derby at the Hoppie's house! Tyler also spent a large part of the fall making duct tape wallets. Why? He was involved with a class entitled "Kids mean business" which essentially taught the basics of starting and running your own small business. The culminating event was a trade show where the children actually got to sell a product. We wanted him to get the full experience so we made him purchase his own materials, etc. He learned a hard lesson when he really wanted to buy a new bat and didn't have enough money for both the bat and the business supplies...he wanted to borrow money from us and Dan told him that was fine but we would charge him interest...and it was a really high rate! Tyler decided to buy his business supplies and wait to buy the bat. It was really hard for him but I'm so glad he is learning patience and getting control of his money at a young age. The trade show was 2 weeks ago and he did really well. He turned a pretty nice profit and he is really glad he took this class. He was a bit disappointed to not sell out his whole inventory but he did sell more than half. If anyone wants a duct tape wallet for Christmas let me know, HA!

Of note for our Miss K is that she now has "real braces". According to my bank account she has had "real braces" for a long time now but now she has them where the whole world can see them. This is a very big deal in the 3rd grade, she is the first one in her class to get them and she's pretty excited about it. We started this journey before we left on vacation...so we're glad to see some progress. She has been a trooper with all the surgeries and appliances leading up to the ultra cool real braces you see here. The journey is far from over so we are glad she loves them.

I guess that's really it for now. There is probably more to post but I really want to take a bath and don't think I should take the computer with me. We have been having fun with all the Christmas preparation and have a few birthdays coming up...more fun pictures on their way ;-) Have a happy day...just a few more days of school...