Happy Fall!

Yikes! It's been awhile since I've updated my blog. . .guess we've been busy.

Our fall routine has been going well. Kylie has settled into Kindergarten and has yet to be sent to the Take A Break chair (is it possible to channel some of that good behavior at home???). She is excited about all the new friends she has made. On her second or third day of school she ran off the bus and said, "I made a friend today and she sucks her thumb too!!" She is finally showing a real interest in letters and numbers and forming words. Melanie was doing this when she was 3, so I have been patiently waiting for Kylie and now it's happening - right when it should!

Melanie seems to really like 3rd grade. She has already shown great improvements in her reading and math skills. She's already read 7 books on her own at home just since school started. That's without me making her! Her favorite subject is social studies. She is definitely a history buff (her first grade teacher picked up on that before I realized it). They just finished their unit on Sandwich history (not the peanut butter and jelly kind, Sandwich is the name of the town we live in). I learned right along with her that Sandwich became a town in 1639 formed by the 10 men of Saugus and that Thorton W. Burgess wrote 150 books and 15,000 stories! Wow!

Melanie is enjoying her first experience with a formal dance class. She has taken years of gymnastics and a hip hop class here and there, so this is something new for her. She is in a combo class that teaches jazz, tap, ballet and acrobatics. Kylie's class this year (her 4th year of dance!) is also a combo of all of the above except acro. They have their observations days coming up so I can see how they are doing and get it on video. Luckily their dance classes happen on the same night but are staggered a bit so I end up sitting in the lobby of the studio for 2 1/2 hours.

Kylie is in cheerleading again and Melanie is in Brownies. We have a Brownie blog this year which is cool. Melanie was in charge of the first story. Check it out at : http://www.btroop782.blogspot.com/ I am doing a Daisy troop for Kylie as well - keeping it small to 5 girls. We had our first meeting the other day. Here is Kylie is her Daisy smock and reciting her Girl Scout promise.

This past weekend, Tom's Aunt Jo Ann and Uncle Don came for a visit. They were in Maine on vacation and were able to spend some time with us before flying home to Florida. We were able to enjoy two nice meals out and a few drinks at home during Friday night's Red Sox game. We took them to a farm Saturday morning to go pumpkin picking which was a lot of fun. Here are some pics from the day:

That's 41 pounds of pumpkin!

Popcorn on a hayride. . .what could be better?

We had an impromptu Red Sox party Saturday night with a few friends. Too bad they didn't win! The kids had a blast running around with their friends and the grown ups enjoyed a few beers/wine and lots of snacks. I think I gained 5 pounds just Saturday. Uggh.

Today we have a day off of work and school (I have been working 2 days a week at Tom's office and 2 days as an OT around Kylie's kindergarten schedule). We enjoyed the morning in our PJs watching a movie and now the girls are dressed as fairies and planning for the next big adventure.

Health wise - Melanie has had more doctors appointments and is doing well on her meds. We got a second opinion of a neurosurgeon in Boston who agreed that her spinal cord hangs low and it is hard to really tell what is happening in there, but if it was his daughter he wouldn't do surgery. She's doing so well, that I don't see the point either and wouldn't dream of pushing for it. My dad has had a slight setback. Some of his blood work came back elevated and he has to have a CT scan sooner than expected to see what's happening. That's scheduled in a couple of weeks. I like to think they are just being overly cautious. . .keep him in your prayers!

Tom is having some video done of him in action for his website. Check them out at:

Cape Cod Wedding life

Oh, I have to share a website that I've been following and think is pretty cool. The Barnstable High School Drama Club put on the show Wizard of Oz last spring and it was a really good peformance. The WB network did a bunch of behind the scenes footage about the show -everything from the auditions to the actual performance. The episodes (or webisodes as they are called) are being shown on the WB website. In the beginning of the second episode, they show the BHS panoramic photo that Tom took. Cool. Two new shows go up every Monday. I'm hooked already (mostly because I'm such a WOO fan). You can check them out at:

http://www.thewb.com/shows/high-drama/

Ooooh. Episodes 3 and 4 just went up. Gotta go!