We are now a little over a month into the school year, and all the kiddos are doing great! We've done well to find our back-to-school groove and get back into the swing of things! Of course, there's always some bumps and hiccups along the way (like being late for soccer practice because of road construction, or forgetting Tim's homework at home so it's a day late to be turned in, or just figuring out what in the hell is for dinner tonight when we have to leave in 30 minutes!?....) but, for the most part, we're doing just dandy!
It's been really fun watching Timothy adjust to school. He's taken a liking to two boys at school, and it makes me cry tears of joy to hear him come home and talk about playing with them on the playground. We are so proud of him for opening up and participating in regards to his peers! He really just continues to blossom.
He's also loving his homework! Haha! He comes home and gets right to it at the kitchen table. I love that! He's so proud of his work, too. He always shows me his papers from his back pack, and tells me exactly what he did. It's adorable watching him. He has nothing but nice things to say about his teachers and class time. All is well and it's just a huge relief for this Mama's heart!
What a good little school boy!!
Molly has, of course, aced every spelling test she's taken so far, including the challenge words, and zipped through 5 books already. She's our little book worm for sure! We've learned that she has to work a bit at math, which ruffles her feathers a bit, but I told her it's good to have to work hard at something. If things always come easy, you don't learn what it means to work for it and feel the pride that only comes when you've tried your damnedest to do something. You can't be great at everything! She's not a fan, but it's good for her to struggle, lol. She'll get it.
Anthony is doing smashingly well in 5th so far. They have more self responsibility and self accountability in the middle school, but so far he's doing just fine. No forgotten assignments, comes home with the right homework and gets it completed, asks for help when needed, and talks to the teacher when something needs to be gone over or clarified. We are very proud of him! There is an online system that I can log into whenever needed to check on grades and assignments (he can do this too!). I think that's great. I can keep up with his grades and work and "check in on him" without having to verbally ask him and be in his face all the time about stuff. I think this works to put more of the responsibility on him in a controlled manner, but less nagging from me. ;)
Great work, kiddos! Keep it up! We are so proud of you all! It feels great to hit our groove.
With love,
Mama Hauck
Ah, October. My favorite month!!
In celebration of the first day of October, Sammy and I loaded the kids up and headed to Packer Orchards in Hood River, OR! What a great start to the best month of the year!
Anthony's friend Kevin joined us and the kids just had a dandy time! First up, the corn maze! Anthony and Kevin took off on their own, while Mols and Tim hung out with Papa and I. The boys made it out first, then actually came back in to find us and "help us" find the exit, hahaha.
The maze this year was great! Larger and a bit more difficult than last year (....though still nothing like our old favorite in Toppenish!). There's nothing like a good 'ol corn maze to put you in the Fall fun spirit. Great work in the maze, kiddos!
Packer Orchards has tons of other fun things for kids to do as well! We didn't go on the tractor ride, but we did spend some time playing tag on the huge straw mound, playing on the playground, pumpkin bowling, and playing in the corn pit! The kids took turns burying each other in the corn pit, corn was just flying everywhere, haha.
We also stopped in at the shop and enjoyed cider, ice cream, and my personal favorite, fresh sugar doughnuts!! Nothing in the whole world beats a freshly made doughnut at a pumpkin patch. It was divine.
This year we are growing our own pumpkins in our own little pumpkin patch! We have lots of tiny and small pumpkins, and four giants currently growing. However, we didn't get very many of our carve-able jack-o-lantern size pumpkins to come in. A few....but not enough for the whole family. So we told the kids they could choose one pumpkin, and this is to be their carving pumpkin!
Honestly, even if we didn't need a pumpkin, we sill would have frolicked around the pumpkin patch for fun!
Hooray for pumpkin patch fun! I'm hoping we'll still go to Renken Farms in The Dalles, OR later in the month. Not because we need anything, but you know, just for fun. ;)
With love,
Mama Hauck
