September Fun and Other Stuff

Labor Day found us in the house all day cleaning. Fun stuff. It was a major necessity though, and I sure do feel better about some of the rooms in my house that had been seriously overlooked. I should have taken a before/after photo, but why scare innocent people? Seriously people, I run a childcare business. I don't need the law on my tail. Anyway. While Chris and I were cleaning, our kids were running around like this...

... yep, they put on the dress up outfits and grabbed the stick horses and went on a ride up and down the sidewalks of our street. I particularly like Harrison's too small chaps. He has gotten so tall! Last year this time, they were fitting him as they should. Amazing. Maia had on all sorts of stuff, mainly accessories. She is an accessory whore. This is a pretty tame version of what she really looked like. At one point she had 4 of those claw type hair clips in her hair on the sides as "ponytails" and a headband. She doesn't wear it correctly, so it is very funny to see. She has on this ridiculously long strand of pearls, and, harder to see, a pink sparkly diamond necklace. She certainly outdoes her mom in the jewels department. Maybe I should have her advise me? That's a thought. Here is another of Harrison...

Darn, they are some cute kids! I am not sure what they were doing with the wagon, but it was somehow involved in their play. My neighbors got a good chuckle from their play, I am sure. Glad I can do my part to provide the neighborhood comedy act from time to time.

On another note... Last Friday, Harrison had his first spelling test. I was stressed about it. I have this fear of screwing up my child, since parent's are really responsible for a great deal of their child's success, especially in the early years. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law is a second grade teacher so I can turn to her for the "how to's" of early education success. She told me not to be suprised if he (and most of the class) failed the first test. (Maybe fail at grade 1 is too strong a word, let me rephrase... don't do well on the first test!) I am such a perfectionist when it comes to all things school. Each night after homework was done (all homework for the week mainly revolves around the set of 10 spelling words) we did a mini test. After my SIL suggested a dry erase board I think it became easier. My hubby drilled him the last night. I couldn't do it anymore for fear of scaring my child for life. DH told me I was too hard on him the last time I had drilled him, that I left it in his capable hands the last night. Am I rambling?? That is about where my brain was after that night. Well... let me just get to the point. He took the test, and here are the results...

For someone who had resigned herself to seeing maybe one -four correct answers, this was a mother's dream! I figured he would at least get the word "a" right. I was so proud of him! He was proud of himself and said that he thought about each word and wrote what he thought first. Good plan, I told him. The first answer is 95% of the time the right one. This will be a weekly occurrence. He is an eager student and he may not always do great, but as long as he tries his best, then that is A-ok with me. I, in the meantime, need to work on letting up a bit on the poor kid! Way to go Harrison!!