It's been a big jump for Lily from kindergarten to first grade. Homework, spelling tests, and as she put it, less time to do whatever they want in class. She was very anxious about homework and about first grade in general, but once she understood that it just picked up where kindergarten left off, and that the homework is the same stuff they're learning, she got with the program. She seems to be a pretty good student so far, not having too much of a hard time but starting to flub a few of the spelling words as the lists get tailored to test results... do well on the tests and you get harder words week by week.
Paul and Elise are having a grand old time in preschool as they're now in the middle of the pack there age-wise. Hard to believe they still have another year of preschool after this one, kindergarten feels pretty far in the future. Paul had an exciting start to the school year as he gouged his head on a table while jogging over to hug mommy goodbye and ended up getting a stitch. He was back to his usual self by the end of the day and got the stitch taken out earlier this week. He's enjoying riding his bike more now, though he ended up taking the turn into the driveway a bit too fast and face-planting in the neighbor's bush, coming up with a bloody lip. I guess he's a stereotypical boy. Elise is really blossoming into a social butterfly, being quite a chatterbox at school and more and more at home. She gets really exasperated when she has something to say while someone else happens to be speaking, slowly raising her voice until she's yelling over the top of the other person.
Nicole has been biking with the kids to school every day it's not raining, which has been just about every day so far. The twins still fit in the trailer and Lily's faster than ever on her bigger bike. And now that Lily doesn't need to be walked to the classroom door the morning drop off is a bit more streamlined.
I've been heading down to California for a day or two every week for work for quite a while now, meeting up with the team I work with. Finally managed to do something fun a couple of weeks ago as I took the train up into San Francisco and went to a Giants game. It had been a long time since I had been to an MLB game, too bad I couldn't catch the Tigers at the A's on one of their West Coast swings. Maybe next year. Those trips definitely make me appreciate the lack of sprawl and the relatively tame traffic of Portland, not to mention the proximity of the office to the city... a half hour here vs. an hour plus from San Jose to San Francisco.
Ok, a few (very few for us) pics from the month. If you just skipped to the pictures, tsk tsk.
Oktoberfest at Mt. Angel. Not quite the same as the real thing but still fun.
Bagel reward after Paul's stitch. Looks like he's not quite sure Elise did anything bagel-worthy. At least she's pretty cute in a 2nd hand flower girl dress.
Costume time can lead to some interesting combinations... babushka + clown?
Fresh picked organic children, headed to market. Or family weekend at Zig Zag Mountain Farm where we enjoyed some good times with friends and slept in a yurt.
