Life with a 6 Year Old

 When your 6 year old wants to make you a special treat...

#peanutbutterandjelly

#onacupcakewrapper

#sprinklesmakeitfancy

When your 6 year old's homework assignment is to write a sentence with the words "it", "do", and "like"...

#nocaptionneeded

When your 6 year old is trying not to be wasteful with food...

#areyoureallygoingtofinishthatlater

When your 6 year old is the last one to use the shower...

#crowdedshower

#showerasaurus

When you live with a 6 year old, you just never know what you are going to discover.

#6yearoldselfie

#lifeisfullofsurprises

#lovethisboy

Family Pictures

We up-dated family pictures with my side of the family in October.  We had a gorgeous day, cooperative kids, and a great photographer.  The result...

Basketball

Staley just concluded her season of basketball.  This was a little different season for her.  She was signed up for the in-house league for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade girls.  Due to lack of volunteer coaches, instead of practices and games, all the girls just completed a basketball clinic where they worked on skills and then did some scrimmaging several times each week.

With the local sports leagues, travel options are available once kids get to 5th grade.  Most of the girls in 5th and 6th grade signed up for travel basketball, so Staley was just one of three 5th and 6th grade girls in her clinic.  She didn't seem to mind and still had a good time.

Staley worked hard and enjoyed her clinic.  She improved with her dribbling, passing, and understanding of the game.  She demonstrated increased aggressiveness and was a tough defensive player when guarding her girl.

Staley always enjoys playing various sports throughout the year, but as her schedule gets busier, it will be interesting to see which things continue to be priorities for her.  Although she had a good time and improved with her basketball skills, she noted that she wasn't sure if she would play again next year.  If not, I'm glad she had another fun and successful season of enjoying and improving.

My basketball player!!

Good-bye, October!

October came and went in a flash.  We enjoyed some beautiful weather, fall colors, and fun activities to fill in our month.

The kids and I rode in the homecoming parade on the Eureka Library float.  The kids loved throwing candy to all their friends.  We then enjoyed going to watch the homecoming football game with friends.

We celebrated Uma and Papa's 50th anniversary with dinner out and a surprise get-together at our house.  Adelie even sported the flower girl dress from their wedding.

The kids loved spending time with their cousins at the anniversary dinner.

We had a beautiful night for a celebration with family!

We also got together with my side of the family to celebrate Grammie and Uncle Erik's October birthdays as well.  My kids are always excited about time spent with cousins.

We made an afternoon trip to Ackerman Farms to pick out our Halloween pumpkins and see the animals.

The girls and I took Grammie and Miss Vickie to see the play 'Anything Goes' at a local theater.

Some of the girls' friends and teachers from Stage Kids were in the show and they enjoyed getting to see their big kid friends perform.

We took advantage of the nice weather for some outdoor fun.

There was lots of outdoor playtime with neighborhood friends.

Staley enjoyed a fun evening with some friends for dinner and games.

And I even got to catch up with a few friends when I joined Zach to watch Eureka College cross country run at Greenville.

October is one of my favorites.  It's a great time to enjoy beautiful fall weather, colors, and activities before the cold sets in.  It was another fun October!!

Halloween

Halloween is always a favorite for my creative kids who love to dress up.  From classroom parties to school activities to trick-or-treating, we filled our Halloween with fun times...and lots of candy.

Briggs is my most self-conscious child and never wants to go over-the-top with anything he does.  He decided he just wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween (and wouldn't even wear his hat for his school party).  An orange shirt, some electrical tape, one of Daddy's Bear's stocking caps, and a creative sister was all he needed to make his costume a reality.

Adelie wanted to be Ginny Weasley (from Harry Potter) for Halloween this year.  Luckily we had Staley's Hermione costume from last year, so all we needed were some pins to make the robe a little shorter and a red wig to complete the ensemble.

Staley wasn't sure about dressing up for Halloween, but her enjoyment of all things creative got the best of her.  She decided to be a strawberry.  Although she chose not to wear her green wig for school, she did dress up for school on Halloween and then donned the green wig for trick-or-treating that week-end.

We kicked off the Halloween fun with the Boo Bash at the grade school.  Staley opted to watch a movie with Grandpa while Adelie and Briggs enjoyed hanging out with friends and playing games at the school.  

Although it was a little cold and slightly rainy, having it outside was way more tolerable for this Mama.  I'd rather be cold and wet than packed into a hot, crowded, LOUD gym full of chaos.

Although we weren't ahead of the game on pumpkin carving, we did get it done a few days before Halloween.  All 3 kids were able to design and carve their own pumpkins!  Winning!!

Adelie was determined to get a "unique" pumpkin to carve this year and loved her little green one.

And Staley mixed things up with some musical notes on hers instead of a face.

Zach, like usual, went all out with his Ironman carving.

Now that Staley is in middle school, they don't have classroom parties, but I got to enjoy some time with both Briggs and Adelie at their school parties.

Briggs enjoyed playing games, eating snacks, and doing Halloween crafts with his friends at school.

Adelie did too!!

We finished off our Halloween fun with trick-or-treating with friends Stella and Olivia.  They joined us to trick or treat in our neighborhood and then we joined them in theirs.  Twice the fun...and twice the candy!

It was a happy Halloween!!