Halloween 2016

Of all the holidays, Halloween is probably my least favorite.  Ok, it was fun when the ladies were little and we dressed them up for a night and did the trunk or treat thing at church.  Then they got older and discovered that they could be scary creatures and go house to house for candy.  That wasn't fun for me any more.  And, it's all about me, remember.  So now they are even older and too big for trick or treating, really, except JMichael, and he isn't interested in walking through the dark to get candy he can't eat 50% of anyway (his nut allergy is still severe).  So this year we did things a little differently.  We did the church trunk of treat - pictured here, we rocked it - and we split up for Halloween proper.

Appy Halloween, y'all!

Rachel - as an 80's chick - and Samantha - as a Razorback cheerleader - were working at Tasty Freeze Halloween night, so they dressed up for work.

Josephine - as Where's Waldo - and Charlotte - as a hippie - went out with friends and canvased the neighborhoods of strangers.  That's just good parenting.

JMichael was my date.  After dropping the ladies at their various destinations, we hit Tasty Freeze for Halloween ice cream - dyed orange and purple.  James stayed home to watch the Vikings play Monday Night Football.  Let's not forget our priorities, now.

But the big news of the evening was from the little ladies.  While Josephine was getting dressed, Charlotte said, Hey Joey, why does Waldo wear stripes?  The answer - Because he doesn't want to get spotted!  Hahahahaha.  Another Halloween in the books.  And it was great.  Boo!

Splash - October 2016

How many of you can identify each member of the BallTeam in masks?  Thank you, WalMart, for the easy peasy set up.  The answers:  Rachel the Cat, Charlotte the Creepy Spooky Baby, Samantha the cool shades emoji, JMichael the ghoulish scream, and Josephine the oversized toddler.

Parent Teacher Conference - JMichael

JMichael is in third grade.  He is amazing at soccer and any sport, really.  He loves math and he understands the way things come together and are taken apart.  He's just a fantastic kid.  One thing he's not so great at, however, is reading or writing.  It's a serious struggle and he get help from a specialist at school.  He's dyslexic and letters are garbled for him.  So while he understands math, he will struggle with the actual numbers.  And while he understands ideas and processes, he will struggle with letters and spelling.  At least that's how his teacher explains it to me.  Parent teacher conferences are a great way for us to touch base - we see his teacher and his specialist - and we can get our own homework to help him "see" straight.  This was his "glow" on the wall outside his classroom this time - his poem about his grandparents.  I'll reprint it here cause it may be tough to read:
Granparents are fun
Really fun
And fun
Never give up
Denver
People are great
And probably sleeping
Rosey
Expert
Never give up
Text me
Super

He cracks me up.

Homework Hero

With five kids in a family, you can imagine that we have a spectrum of personalities.  I had to snap this quick shot the other day of Charlotte, eighth grade, struggling to do her algebra homework.  I'll be the first to say that I was no help whatsoever.  Who ever thought that letters belong in math?  Luckily, Samantha heard us from her room and arrived to save the day.  Look, she says, it's easy.  Do it like this.... and I sat back to watch Samantha, twelfth grade, and in algebra three, effortlessly explain "Greek to the Roman".  Sisters, yes, but, such different people and different strengths.  Beautiful.

Warning - This post is Rated R

This is a screen shot from my phone - Samantha's texts are in white and I'm in green.  Samantha has been dragging and generally blah, so we let her stay home to rest a day from school.  James took her to the doctor and I was texting her while she was at the doctor.

I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Hair

Our ladies spend a lot of time on their hair.  We have a lot of hair.  Here, Charlie demonstrates the process - half straight, half natural curl.  We are so blessed with beautiful children.  If we have left no other mark on this world, we sure did create five beautiful people.

Red Dragons, Soccer Fall 2016

 Soccer season was tougher this year than last year.  JMichael is now playing on the bigger field, and it's seven on seven.  His coach is stressing the shapes of soccer, staying in position, passing/dribbling skills and footwork.  I've seen him make some amazing passes and call out plays to his teammates mid stride.  They didn't win every game.  They did learn and run and sweat up a storm.  JMichael was always winded - it's a BIG field all of a sudden - and he worked hard and enjoyed himself.  He even spent some time as goalie - something he thought he wouldn't like - and he did great.  He dove on the ball, kicked it to midfield and fearlessly fell on a ball while feet were flying!  I already can't wait for next season.  It's so fun to watch him play.

The Fair

This year for CabotFest the Junior High South Choir sang a few numbers.  Here's Charlotte in the center, in what is her first official public performance.  I note that here since one day hence the folks making her documentary might need this picture to show where she began - a street performance in rural Arkansas.  They sounded great.  They performed the Star Spangled Banner and The Climb, by Miley Cyrus.  

This is the bottom of JMichael and Josephine's feet.  For her birthday Josephine got $25.00 from her Poppop Jim.  Since the fair was in town, she wanted to go ride rides.  I said no, because I didn't want to spend the money, it's just too expensive.  She says, I'll pay for it.  Charlotte was at a friend's house, and the big ladies were working, as usual.  I said if you are paying, you have to take JMichael, too.  And so we went.  As it turns out, $20 buys just enough tickets for two kids to ride three rides.  Robbery.  But, hey, maybe she'll learn a little about spending, or not spending, money.

They both loved this ride, they rode it twice and since it wasn't very busy, they had super long rides.

So much for my plan.  She loved spending her money at the fair.  I bet you next year her birthday money will go they same place since they happen - usually - at the same time - the first weekend in November.