Thoughts on November

So my thought on November and school, cancel the whole month. Seriously, check this out. The first week, parent teacher conferences, 2 days of 1/2 days. Sorta waste of a week. Second week, normal school Mon and Tues, off Wed for Veteran's Day, normal Thurs. and off Frid for a teacher training workshop. Waste of a week. Third week, only full normal week of the month. 4th week is Thanksgiving break. So yah, school should be cancelled for all of November.

Anyway, this is how our first week went. I had a booster meeting on Tuesday and we got many things accomplished. The National Honor Society volunteered to have some of their kids come and offer child care during our meeting. It was great! Purchased computer programs for the school and bought a new printer for the computer lab. On Wed. I went to all 4 kids PTC's. Everyone loves our kids! They are so great and such a joy to have in class. Yep, that's about how it went. K&K's teacher did have a talk with them about pushing themselves to do better. They have incredibly high test scores but aren't that great at perfecting class and homework. So we are needing to work on doing our best at all times. Broc is perfect, in class that is. I thought maybe a little behind in reading, but she said he is right where he should be and learning quickly. So we continue to work as we have been at home. Chey is amazing, according to most of her teachers. She is involved in every service/volunteer group/club available and still has almost straight A's. She was pretty upset they weren't all A's, but with a 88 and 89, they were pretty close. She plans to really work on those and make sure they come up. All her teachers say she is wonderful in class and very capable of teaching others the concepts being taught.

Needless to say, we are so very proud of our kids!

The next day was another 1/2 day so we went to a big park in Carson for the afternoon. The kids loved it and really want to go back again soon. And of course, I didn't have my camera with me.

On Friday, Nait and I spent the entire school day at school. We make and sell popcorn each friday, so we helped with that. Then we continued to pop 200 bags of popcorn for the teachers fundraiser movie night that night. We also had the lunch table party for the Citizens of the Month students. And to top off the school day, the fundraiser delivery came that afternoon. We had 15 minutes to sort the order and deliver to all the class rooms, and we did! It was a very long day, but we got so much done. Nait was a great trooper, spending all day in the gym. It's nice to have days that so much gets accomplished and you feel very appreciated for it! Have I said how much I love our school and the teachers and administration. They are so wonderful to us and are so grateful for every little thing we do!

Saturday, Thomas spent the morning working on a house for a lady in our ward. Chey spent the morning, until about 2, volunteering at the Dayton Valley Family Fun Fair. She had a blast helping at booths, serving soda, watching kids. Love in service! Anyway, Thomas called on his way home and suggested we take a drive up to Tahoe and hike around Spooner Lake. So we hurried and got everyone ready, picked up Chey and headed up the hill.

Nait loved when Thomas brushed him against the trees!

The girls, with Buddy

Big kids, waiting to go, on the fence

At the trail head, on the way back to the car.

It was a bit colder than I had expected and little bit later that I wanted to get started, but we went anyway. It is so beautiful up there in the fall, well always really, but the fall colors are fabulous! We made the 2.1 mile hike in just over an hour. We kept a fast pace so we wouldn't get stuck out there when it was getting dark and cold. We stopped and talked about different things and animals. We learned Buddy really likes animals, or at least really wants to chase them. We had to keep a very strong grip on the leash. He hasn't been leashed trained very well, so we worked with him the whole time. It was tiring so we traded off between Thomas and I. He is still to strong and untrained for the kids. It was a wonderful afternoon. We got back to the trail head as the sun was setting. The kids are great hikers. I was impressed they could keep up with my fast pace and not complain much. I think they saw the sun getting lower and lower and were realizing the cold was getting colder too. I love living close to so many wonderful and beautiful places. We are really blessed with a beautiful earth that was created for us!

Need I say more?

Buddy and me

Thomas teaching a lesson about pine tree seeds

My crew, aren't they so great!

That's all of us!