October

Well, it is officially Christmas time in the city!  But before I get too far ahead of myself, I need to catch up on October.  It was a fun Fall with the kids.  There's so much going on in their world that I don't want to forget.  Plenty of pictures, but probably more words in this post than usual.  I just know I will lose these memories unless I write them down.  So here we go...

Claire and Henry's school pictures.

We had Parent-Teacher conferences in October.  This is Claire's second year with Ms. B.  It has been a great year for her.  Ms. B. said Claire is the sweetest girl and she loves having her in class.  She said Claire is still a bit shy, but has shown great care and leadership with her new desk mate, Alena.  Last year, Claire had struggled with friendships, so Ms. B. took her aside at the beginning of this school year and asked if she could take a new 1st grader, who is also shy, under her wing.  This has been such a positive role and wonderful relationship for Claire.   

And Henry...the first words out of his teacher's mouth were, "Henry is perfect!" She loves having him in class and shared how he has become a natural leader. When it is time for "Works", he always starts with his decimal work.  She said it is like his morning coffee; he just has to get it done before moving on.  Then as soon as he is available, he has a group of three pre-schoolers who love to follow him around and sit with him while he teaches them lessons.  

And George is doing great with his speech therapy.   He was officially diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech this summer.  We currently attend a speech group once a week where he works with 4-5 other kids with similar challenges.  And we also have a speech therapist, Ms. K., who comes to our home once a week.  She has been such a gift. Apraxia can be a difficult diagnosis as there is such a range between children and often, an overabundance of information.  Ms. K., is great at providing us with the information we need, as we need it, to best help George with his care.  And after 6 months in the program, he is making significant progress. He has met his goal of 25 words and is beginning to work on his new goal of stringing words together. 

Also in October, we spent a good chunk of our free time painting our house.

We had been chipping away at the old paint throughout the summer, slowly scraping it as needed. But our insurance company was pushing us to complete the project by the end of the year, so we took a couple weeks and buckled down to get the job done.

Dad and Joe were great at getting those hard-to-reach places.  Thanks boys!

After a lot of scraping, more scraping, and scraping some more...we finally started Phase 2 of the project: Priming.  We were ready to get those paint brushes in our hands.

Once we had the house primed, we organized the "Puplis Painting Party", inviting some family and friends over to help us put the finishing coat of paint on before the weather cooled much further.

The kids had to earn their keep by slinging some paint.  And boy, did they literally "sling some paint". Not sure if they got much on the house, but it was good practice for them.

All three of our Dads were involved, which was pretty special.

Sam and Hannah from our church.  We figured if they are brave enough to sit behind us in church, they could handle a morning of painting.  

Don't look too closely at this corner of the house as the painters were pretty squirrelly.

Uncle Ron wasn't afraid to tackle the peeks.

Joe and Casey did just as much chatting as they did painting, but they did a great job.

Claire was in her glory, organizing snacks for the volunteers.  Her sign pictured above reads "Meet Up. Eat Up."  That's my girl.

And now...drum roll please!

Tah-Dah!

We got it done!  I think most people were skeptical that we could do it, yet we remained resilient. But oh man, we are so glad to put that behind us for now.  Some new doors and landscaping may be in order for next year, but for now, we are glad to hang up our paint brush.

Our 2016 "Hart Prize" contribution.

We called it "The Uninvited Guest".  She sat in the corner with her very own contribution to Hart Prize.  We had fun with it, but needless to say, we did not take home the prize.  Maybe next year!

I'm always a little nervous when it has been too quiet in our home for more than 10 minutes.  Okay, 5 minutes.  Our kids have many wonderful qualities, but "playing quietly" is not normally one of them. So I was pleasantly surprised to find them in Henry's bedroom reading books so peacefully.  Look at those perfect little angels.  I had to get a picture, before the moment passed!

And of course, we had to take an afternoon to venture out and pick some pumpkins at "Under the Pines".  

Couldn't resist taking some pictures of my lil' pumpkins.

And in other news, Joe takes home the award for dish stacking.

Way to go, Joe!

Scooping pumpkin seeds with George's speech group.

George doesn't usually like to get his hands dirty, 

but as long as he could use a spoon, he was excited to dig in.

Trick or Treating in our old neighborhood with the Lanser Family.

We had so much fun visiting all our old neighbors!  We do miss them!

We did stop in at some of our new neighbors as well, but it's not as much the Trick or Treating hot spot as our old neighborhood was.

Examining and trading their loot.  

Whew, that was a doozey!  Thanks for hanging in there.  

More to come for November, hopefully sooner rather than later.