helpful elf

"mommy, will you show me how to do all the stuff you do, like dishes and lunches and cleaning? so i can help you?"

if only.

3rd tooth down

 

caroline lost her 3rd tooth today.  she requested play doh from the fairy.  ugh.

yes quentin...

Q saw a commercial today with a "classy" christmas tree. he looked at me and said, "mommy, they really don't have enough ornaments on that tree."

that's my boy.

happy thanksgiving!

these turkeys have been passed out for hours. so here's a picture of them from 7 years ago and some thanksgiving decorations instead.

sandy claws

Q too

this kid had a great teacher conference too. he is a perfect gentleman in class and loves to participate. grades are great too.

hard to believe he was expelled from his daycare two years ago. clearly, he was not the true issue...

report card

she got straight p's and her teacher expects her to be reading and writing at a 3rd grade level by year end. oh boy.

now with decorations

o christmas tree

vintage vinyl

"this is the biggest CD i've ever seen!!!"

birds and the bees

Q: mommy, am i pregnant?

me: uhhhhhh, definitely not

Q: what does pregnant mean?

going postal

parents were invited to Q's classroom today to assist with a lesson. they are learning about letters and mail. the school has its own little pretend postal service. the 4th graders get to be the mailmen. each classroom is a street and each hallway is a city. each kid gets a house number on the class's street. they can then write letters to friends and teachers.

the activity was helping them address  letters to one of their other teachers and then write them.

Q's address in 13 apricot avenue (can'tremember the city.)

he wrote his letter to his gym teacher and thanked him for being his favorite gym teacher ever. also his only gym teacher ever.

freeze!

kid ain't right

medals

standard issue northeastern soccer uniform

book un-fair

today we entrusted Q with a $20 bill for the book fair, where he was to buy a book for himself and one for his sister.

we pretty much guaranteed it wouldn't go to plan. 

he would lose the cash.  spend it on doritos at lunch.  give it to an older kid who tricked him.

or he might not buy any books and spend it all on the dumb stuff they sell like erasers or cat posters.

amazingly he bought two books.

but they were both for himself.

he was left with under $2 so he got caroline two 50 cent bookmarks.

so close...

momster jam

Q was very pleased with the monster truck course i set up for him. he told me i am a monster truck genius.

the trucks seem happy too.

whoa

each of the past two nights, caroline has asked to get her haircut. up until now she's been terrified at the prospect and has insisted she's growing it as long as rapunzel's. 

we will see how she's feeling this weekend...

the scholar

after hauling around any one of his "diary of a wimpy kid" books for the past week, quentin declared tonight, "i'm into reading now."

higher learning

while helping Q with his homework tonight i pointed out a math problem I wanted him to double check. he had 11 - 8 = 4. he grew quite frustrated with me, insisting he was right and it was me who was wrong. at one point in the argument, he said, "i don't think you went to college mommy because you can't even do 2nd grade math." ouch.

to be fair, he's right in one respect, with all this common core nonsense. 

daisy scout

caroline went to her first daisy scout meeting yesterday. they had crayons, so she loved it!

big hero 6

movie night!

highly recommend.

it's the little things

$9 well spent. this little "as seen on tv" toothpaste dispenser is singlehandedly restoring my sanity. there's no toothpaste anywhere. not on the tube. not on the sink. not on the counter. not on the stool. not on the floor. 

the old "squeeze the tube until there's toothpaste everywhere and on everything all the time" approach is no more!

another tooth bites the dust

#7

it's starting

"i love aaron. aaron is my seloth."

not sure what a "seloth" is but i'm guessing it's a boyfriend in caroline's ever-evolving made-up language.

aaron is a boy at daycare. she doesn't deny liking him but does deny that he is her boyfriend. the other girls in the class were teasing her about him today.

when did kindergarten become middle school? i'm not ready for this.

he likes warm hugs

quentin spotted this olaf bank at target and had to have it. he cried when i told him no. not bratty tantrum tears though. like actual heartbroken, "how can i leave my best friend olaf behind" tears. he gave it a hug and a kiss and kept whimpering. he either the sweetest kid on the planet or an evil genius because i totally got it for him.

black cat

in the spirit of halloween. kitty remains terribly confused by trick or treaters.

halloween: part 2

(slightly) better photos from the camera

halloween part 1

have to get the rest of the photos off my camera