Octoberfest

We went to the St Charles Octoberfest on Sunday. I know, Octoberfest in September doesn't make any sense to me either. There was an antique car show on Main St. and Gene's friend Harrell came and looked at cars with us.

Jenna's favorite part of the day was a performance artist who painted with spray paint. She watched him for a long time.

Will's favorite part was the funnel cake that Gene bought him.

Construction

An unexpected surprise. Some road
construction equipment on our street. First a "crusher", then a backhoe and dump truck, with a skid steer and mixer for the finale. We sat in the neighbor's yard to watch. I don't need to tell you how happy Will was. The skid steer and mixer will be back tomorrow to finish.

Zoo

We went to the zoo. Highlights included:

Hippos (of course). One swam around in circles for a long time and then the hippos talked to each other. This was the first time Jenna had heard hippos talking first hand.

Will got to be the Junior Conductor on the train, which means he got to say "All Aboard" on the speaker. He's been wanting to do that for years. He was so happy.

We also saw the baby giraffe (Will's favorite animal), the 5 baby tigers, a baby snow leopard, and 3 baby donkeys. Actually the name of the donkeys was Somali Wild Ass, which Jenna corrected for me and told me it was ok to say Ass when you're talking about a donkey.

And the winner is......

Hippo !!

Jenna's awesome report card

I'm so proud of her. Esp. her grades for the Listening, Work & Study Habits, and Citizenship.

Air Show

We went to the Scott Air Base air show today. It rained at first but then cleared off resulting in a really nice day. The kids' favorite parts were eating lunch next to the hot dog stand (Jenna) and everything (Will).

Soccer started Saturday

God Made Will Special

Jenna uses resources creatively

Jenna didn't have any paper left after I cleaned her desk off. She got desperate and drew a picture on a square of toilet paper.

Campfire

Jenna had a Girl Scout campfire last night. We got most of it in before it started raining. The girls in her troop all wore little pink hats to put their Swaps on. Swaps are little craft pins that the kids make and trade with other troops.

Will enjoyed Grace's birthday party

Untitled poem

Jenna wrote this poem (or as she says -- "pole-em"). It is about a chicken being barbecued on the grill.

"The cikn wus vare wiguly on the gril it wus swrmy and jiguly like jely on bred."

Translation: "The chicken was very wiggly on the grill. It was squirmy and jiggly like jelly on bread."

She says she might write some more poems and make them into a book, but did not specify as to whether all of the poems would be about grilled chickens or whether she might expand into some other themes.

Choir

Jenna sang with the Sunshine Choir on Sunday morning.

Goalposts

We went to Home Depot for the craft day and the kids made football goal posts. Jenna did hers almost entirely by herself. Will was interested in hammering but not in gluing or using the screwdriver. Now they are going to make paper footballs with Daddy.

This is what Will did today

Ways to show Jesus's love

Will's ideas for showing Jesus's love to others. Another idea he had was that you shouldn't pee in your pants because it makes your mom mad, but Mrs. Robbins wouldn't write that one on the page.

Mask

This is what Will made at his first day of school. It's a mask of himself. If you look carefully, you can see two button eyes under the hair. The two green lines are his lips. I asked him where his nose was but he was tired of talking about it.

Jenna was sorry

Jenna didn't clean up her desk when asked, so I cleaned it for her. And you know what that means -- the desk is a lot emptier and the trash can is a lot fuller! She went to her room to cry while I started dinner. While I was in the kitchen, she came out and wrote me a note on her easel. She told me, "I had to write it on the chalk board because I didn't have any paper left."

Aren't they cute?

Will was much happier on his first day of school (top picture)

than on Jenna's first day of school (bottom picture)

Will's first day of school

Will started preschool yesterday. This year he is in the Butterfly afternoon preschool class and in the Ladybug class for his extended day session in the morning. This is a picture of him hanging up his backpack in the Ladybug room with the help of Mrs. McQuade, one of the Ladybug teachers. He wouldn't let me take any pictures when I picked him up at the end of the day from the Butterfly room. Maybe on Friday.....