Happy Thanksgiving!

 Festive notes from Emily to the rest of our family:

She's a cutie.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope we could play fun games together.

homeschooling update

The entire time we were homeschooling I worried about three things:

1. Were the kids enjoying themselves? Am I boring??
2. Did the kids feel secluded and cut off from other kids their age?
3. Were we covering everything we needed to for them to go back to school later on?

I think numbers one and two were reasonable concerns, though the kids did not seem to suffer or mind those things in the least.

The third point, however, was something I continued to wonder about. This year when we put them back in school it was interesting to see how they integrated with their grade levels. I recently attended parent-teacher conferences for them last week and was relieved to hear that all was well.

Emily (2nd grade) is ahead of even the enrichment math assignments in her class, and I have been discussing the possibility of coming up with an alternative math curriculum with another mom whose kid is ahead. She is reading at a fifth grade level and was the only kid in her class to know about artists and art that a visiting teacher was presenting on.

Caleb (kinder) is reading at at least a level E (the goal in kinder is to get to level D). His teacher said they ran out of time to continue testing him after they reached level E, so that is where she is keeping him for now. Basically, he is in the highest reading group and she has him read the book they are working on three times by himself so she can help the other kids in his group. I don't know if they really do much math, but he has a lot of experience there too that, if our experience with everything else holds true, none of the other kids have. This is actually concerning to me, since he is definitely not socially ready to move up a grade, but it seems like a waste of time to have him learning the letter "k" and the word "like" when at home he is able to take his turn reading out of the Book of Mormon independently. And I don't think having him read the same story silently to himself three times is conducive to cultivating a love of reading. As I've mentioned before, I've had a bit of a struggle finding books that are interesting for him at his reading level.

Overall, I am amazed at how much more efficient and effective homeschooling is than public schools. We only had to spend a couple of hours each morning to get Emily and Caleb to where they are, and I did zero work with them before deciding to homeschool last year. There are many times (like when we're rushing to get the kids to bed on time or when the school is asking for donations or when I want to visit a museum or park that I know will be crowded on afternoons or weekends) that I wish we were still homeschooling, but there are good things about public school too. While they are ahead academically it is so much fun for them to have all the extra activities that their teachers are able to do with their classes. There is also a lot more exposure to different cultures and ideas, which I like. They also love having so many kids their own age to play with and form friendships with. And honestly, I love having some quiet time at home just with Elinor and Jacob.

There are good and bad things about both, and I am not convinced there is a "better" option. I often wish I could have some sort of part-time option, like MWF at school and T/Th at home, but I think that sort of discontinuity in public school would really cause problems for them, especially Emily. For now we are happy with where things are, though I am certainly going to keep my mind open in the future.

Paparazzi

Saw this super star walking through the park and snapped a quick shot before her handlers chased me off.

Long rambling post that might best be skipped.

Today I am going to showcase my insecurities. Let's jump right in, shall we? You see, my traditional baby gift for good friends is a pair of handmade reversible pants (Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Trousers). They're awesome. We've used them in our own home with Elinor and Jake and loved them. BUT, I usually just give these, along with a treat of some kind, as a "hey, we're thinking of you and excited for your family" kind of bonus gift. The lady in question today was having an actual baby shower (for her fourth girl... what?), so I felt like a single pair of pants was not enough.

Here are the pants, which I was absolutely in love with.

Those bunnies. They kill me. Really, they are on par with the fish pants I gushed about a few weeks ago. I literally carried these babies around the house for a couple of days to prepare myself for letting them go.

Then, I don't know what possessed me, but I decided to turn back to one of my favorite patterns, the Oliver + S Playdate Dress and whip one of those up for her as well. I agonize over things like this. You'll see.

I spied the bird fabric and loved it immediately. I originally had it paired with a dark grey for the yoke, but it looked horrendous once I got it in. Absolutely hideous. So I literally rolled the little dress up and stuck it in the back of a closet for a couple of days while I tried to figure out what to do with it. I didn't even let Joseph see it, I was so horrified. I needed some time to pass so I could evaluate it with fresh eyes. I pulled it out again yesterday and decided to try this light blue fabric that I found in my stash. Better... I think. Still not totally sure. This morning I found myself hemming the little dress and sewing the buttons on 20 minutes after the shower had already started, all the while just beside myself trying to figure out if the dress was still an abomination or if it was cute. Honestly, I'm still undecided. It's totally scary to me to be putting it up here. But, I had to get to the shower so I hastily snapped these pictures so I could agonize over the issue later, stuffed everything into a bag (dress and pants plus a coordinating shirt from Target), and gave them away before I could chicken out.

The whole time Joseph was reassuring me while more than likely wondering how he ended up with such an insane wife. Honestly, another issue I had with this whole fiasco is that I don't want to be the crazy lady who foists hand-made gifts onto her friends and thinks they're awesome when they're really... not.

And really, I am not looking for a weighing-in here of whether or not this dress is a monstrosity. It might be something I need to decide for myself. I just sort of wanted to record a little glimpse into the sort of process I go through sometimes when I sew and also to have this picture here for later reference and deliberation.

Moving on, here is a wonderful memory from Colorado that I've been meaning to share.
The primary visited the Denver temple one day and we took a few pictures.

All the kids were supposed to be touching the wall here. I suppose I took the picture at the wrong time.

Inside the visitor's center.

With friends.

Outside at the fountain.

With those same friends.

And this picture cracks me up because it captures the reality of the situation. This is what was really going on. Getting those other pictures was a challenge. :)

Elinor's art

Elinor has taken the crazy little kid art to a whole new level. We knew her drawings were different from the other kids' at this point, but she has continued to experiment and push the envelope.

Here are my favorites, just from today:

My favorite is "Nintendo" written upside-down in the octopus(?) tentacles.

Pokemon.

And here's what Jacob's been up to today:

Helping to prepare lunch.

After his nap, sitting grumpily in a drawer with a cup of milk.

Cry Baby

Jacob was having a rough morning a couple of days ago and just would. not. stop. crying. Or fussing. Or whining. Or throwing himself on the floor because the world is ending because no one understands him or the difficulty it is to be a baby in a first world country.

Well, I had had it with him and his noise. So had Elinor, apparently, when she came to me with this scarf wrapped around her head and asked me to tie it so it would cover her ears.

It was a great solution. That is, until we were at the grocery store and she kept wandering off and not being able to hear me call her back...

Halloween!

This year's Halloween was FABULOUS!!!

Emily and Caleb were both able to wear their costumes to school and march in the costume parade. Elinor made the most of her morning by first marching with Caleb in the kindergarten parade and then joining Emily in the 2nd grade parade as well! 

This year was the kids' very first time going REAL trick-or-treating and they were over the moon excited. They couldn't believe people were giving out candy for free and all they had to do was knock on the door and say "trick or treat!" Jacob was super cute, trying to keep up but always a little bit behind, ending up on his own at the door step saying "twick-weet" and then, "geenku."

Here they all are on the porch before we left. Joseph stayed home to answer the door (he wore his Cat in the Hat costume to work, which meant biking in a tux and with a tail!) and I was dressed to match Jake as a chef.

It was a pretty good haul this year. We just trick-or-treated down the street as far as a friend's house that we had decided on before and came back. Can I just say that we live in a prime neighborhood for trick-or-treating, and it was so fun! So many other groups of trick-or-treaters and so many well-decorated and lit-up houses. One even had a full-on haunted house in the back yard with fog machines and black lights. The kids loved it.

Does anyone else remember doing this as a kid? Dumping everything out right in the doorway to count, sort, and eat your hard earned candy?

Jacob was certainly happy with the whole Halloween thing.

He loves him a good lollipop.

And two is even better!

This was Caleb's design for our Jack-O-Lantern this year. Joseph stayed pretty true to the picture. I don't have a good picture of the pumpkin (you can sort of see it in the first picture), but when we first lit the candle and turned out the lights to check it out, it gave Jacob a good fright. It's a pretty creepy face.

This is Emily's Elsa costume. She opted to go as Tiana to the ward trunk-or-treat, saving this one for the school Halloween parade and real trick-or-treating. She was very specific this year, telling me she wanted to be Elsa and she wanted it to be homemade and out of these very specific, hand selected fabrics from JoAnn's. I probably shouldn't have complied, but I sort of enjoyed putting it together! And it was mostly impossible to not sing "Let it Go!" in a super dramatic, Elinor-esque manner as I was working with any of this fabric.

And to round out the night, a late night movie with pillows and blankets in the living room. Em was working on a secret project for the first little bit.

I love that Halloween was on a Friday this year. It was really nice to be able to sleep in the next morning. I hereby proclaim this one of the best Halloweens ever!

Costumes and notes

Here's my real Jacob.

We could NOT dig up the costume we had planned on when it came time to leave for our ward party, so Joseph had the genius idea of pulling out the aprons Grandma made! This also provided a costume for us, which was a nice bonus.

Caleb got this handwriting book from a kid at school and I have been astounded by his diligent practice. He does this totally on his own - it's way more work than I've ever assigned! I also love the little Doc McStuffins picture he drew at the bottom.

Caleb and Em got in a fight this afternoon. Emily delivered this note afterward. She's a sweetheart. (I promise, this was out of the ordinary. Our house and family are not of the storybook perfect variety.)

Gifts

So, last Christmas my awesome family got together and gifted me a bike. Fixed it up, packaged it, and sent it in the mail to Boulder. I was so excited, but the time was not right for us to ride as a family. El was still on the Strider, I had Jake to finagle as well, and I didn't want to buy a big double trailer just to move it in a couple of months. Anyhoo, fast forward about 9 months, and here we are in Sunnyvale in a more permanent situation and with Elinor now a seasoned pro on her two-wheeler. The time seemed right. So I found a bike seat on Craigslist and it has been awesome. Jake loves it, I love it, and the older kids think it's great having me along on their bike rides. We often ride to the grocery store a block or two away when we need to pick up only a few things. And California weather is great for bike riding. It's worked out so well and I am so grateful to my family for giving me this bike!

I don't have much else to say today, but while we're on the subject of gifts, aren't these Japanese postcards great? My sisters brought them back from Japan for me and I finally got them framed and hung. I love them.

Sorry about the angle - it was very difficult to not get a crazy glare.

Whenever the camera comes out, the kids want a part of the action. This is totally typical, by the way. Sweet, cooperative Emily, Elinor doing something all her own, and Caleb feigning coolness/solemnity. Jacob is probably in the kitchen playing with knives.

Um, and yes. This strange scene...

I was freezing ground beef (we buy it huge and freeze quarter pound chunks) while the kids were working at the table. Then I turned around and noticed just how strange the whole setup seemed. Anyone up for a snack??

My cute babies licking the whipped cream beaters, sitting atop Jacob's beloved blanket.

 PS - Jacob's Halloween costume...

Nah, just kidding. It looks like him, though, right? We just found it here. It cracked us up in these wee hours of the morning.

Rancho San Antonio

15 miles for the morning run today. It was a doozy. But the views were amazing!