Happy Halloween!

Sorry this picture is so bad. Our camera is broken! Debbie took some better ones so I will post them later!

We had a great weekend. Some friends call at about 5:30 on Friday night. They were going out to a bar to listen to a band and wanted to know if Tim and I could find a babysitter and come out too. My mom and Joe just happened to be home and offered to take the boys over night. So we went out and had a great time.

Saturday was full of bowling in the morning and errands in the afternoon. We were all tried from Friday night so we went to bed early. Today we went to church and then went trick or treating at the 2 grandparents house in the afternoon so we could spend some time at each of their houses. We came home and had "mummy dogs" and tator tots for dinner and headed out to trick or treat in the neighborhood. The kids are sugared up and in bed wide awake!

Tomorrow I start my first day of job shadowing. I will be at Horizon Middle school all day. It should be interesting!

As you can tell by the date of my last post things have been busy around here. Last weekend Layne joined a bowling league. One of the neighborhood boys talked us into it and I thought it was a good idea. I was on a bowling league when I was a kid and have fond memories of it. Layne even gets a bowling ball for joining, he picked out one this is black and looks like it has red, yellow, and orange flames. Cool!

I had parent teacher conferences for Brenden and Logan on Monday. Logan's teacher was just amazed by him. She said that she has been teaching for 20 year and has never had a child score so many 3's (3 is equivalent to an A). He excels in math and science and she said he talks about nature and the farm all the time. They don't usually do a unit on farms, but she is going to add one this year just for him! Brenden did great too. His teacher said that he does have to be prompted to finish tasks and that he sometimes says things are to hard for him. I find that extremely funny because at home he wants to do everything "by myself!".

Tim and I made salty bones last night for Layne to take to school for his Halloween party (bread sticks shaped like a bone with course sea salt on top). He is going to be a safari guide, Brenden is going to be a monkey, and Logan is going to be a cowboy. They should make a cute little trio when they go trick-or-treating!

I start my pre-professional experience (job shadowing) on Monday. I will be at Horizon Middle School all day on Monday and Tuesday with a business education teacher. i am really looking forward to it. I then get to go to Bismarck High two Monday's, the 15 and 22, to shadow a business education teacher there. I am very excited!

November is going to be a crazy month. I have my job shadowing, the farm for girls weekend, LWML Board meeting and in the same weekend my mom's family reunion, the twins birthday party, and out of town for thanksgiving. Crazy!

Today is the boys Friday. They don't have school Thursday or Friday for teacher convention. Layne thinks he should get to stay up until 10 tonight since he doesn't have to get up for school! We will see about that! I think we will do something fun on Friday, I think the twins are old enough for me to take all three of them to the science center by myself. Layne is a member there and has been there many times, but the twins haven't. So I think that sounds like a fun adventure!

Last night when I was checking on the boys I got my hand caught in the ceiling fan. I was trying to cover Layne up with his blanket and I was standing on the bottom bunk. I pulled up on the blanket and went a little to far! My hand is very swollen and black and blue today!!

We had Layne's parent teacher conferance tonight. Both his regular teacher and his reading club teacher said he has improved so much. Although he does have a long way to go. He best scores were in science and math. We also breifly talked to the school psycologist and set up a meeting for October 28th to go over what she has found out during her testing with Layne.

Layne was on a local radio station this past week. Tim and I missed the live broadcast but his teacher sent us a voice clip of it. I am going to try to insert the link in here.

Another great fall weekend! Layne spent Friday evening and late into the night at school for the "Night of Frolic". The kids get to rule the school from 7-11 p.m. The PTA rents inflatables, orders pizza, sets up a game room, and a salon. Layne came home with sprayed in black hair! It was great for his Tae Kwon Do Tournament on Saturday!

The tournament didn't go so well for Layne. He got nervous and froze up when he tried to do his pattern and when he was sparring (fancy word for fighting) he got kicked in the groin (he was wearing protection, but it was really hard) and couldn't finish the match. He was so upset when we left he didn't want to go to Scott and Debbie's. I felt so bad for him. But I think it made him realize that he has to practice more if winning at tournaments is important to him.

Today was the first time the twins sang during church and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen!! They sang 3 songs at each service. At the first service Brenden sang a little and Logan just stood there. But at the second service the both got in to it and sang. They did the actions too. So cute!! I can't wait to see them in the Christmas program!

Highlights of the week:

• Took Logan to the Doctor last night, he has pink eye.
• Everyone in the house has a cold, we need stock in Kleenex.
• I am not enjoying mid-terms, take all of the above and add 3 papers to the mix.
• Layne has a Tae Kwon Do tournament on Saturday.

Layne lost another tooth!

I have wonderful boys! But they keep begging for snow. Don't they remeber this day!

Layne is an official blue belt. He broke his board last night on the first try. He was so excited when I went to pick him up he was bouncing up and down. So proud of him!

The twins are loving school. Everyday when they get home I ask them what they learned, they both always reply "nothing". Then when I ask them what there favorite part of their day was they always reply "playing outside".  They great really excited when they get to have chocolate milk or waffle stick for breakfast and today Brenden brought home a book order and is dying to order a book!

Next week is mid-terms for me. Hard to believe that the semester is half over. I already know that I have 2 papers to write, so it will be a busy week. Tutoring is going well. I really enjoy working with the kids. I did have to tell one girl that I couldn't help her. She was taking a quiz on "The Crucible" and I have never read it. So I told one of the other teachers that and she took over helping her. I have taught some students a few new things that I have learn. I helped one senior boy with a computer application so he could write his senior term paper at home.

Weather has been super nice here. It was 82 today and it is supposed to be nice all week. Tim and I are going to work at the pumpkin patch again this weekend so I hope it stays nice!

Whew what a weekend! We found out on Thursday that Layne was going to get to test for his blue belt on Friday night. It was a diffucult testing for everyone in his calss, Grand Master Ben almost didn't pass them, but he felt that if time would have allowed that they all would have been able to do what they needed to do eventualy, so he passed them. He gave Layne his blue belt, but he is not aloud to wear it until he has his next class and breaks his board. My and Joe watch the twins fro us while we were at Laynes testing and she decided to keep all 3 of them for the night.

My sister and her 3 kids decided to come up on Saturday. It was such a beautiful day out that we took the kids to the park for 2 hours. Layne brought his skate board along and found a skate park there (all kinds of ramps for him to skate up and down on). So he has now decided that skating is his favortie thing to do and he wants a better skate board and "skater" shoes!

We got the boys pictures taken today. A new friend of ours is a professional photgrapher so we decided to take all 3 boys to the capital grounds. We got some really great pictures of them in the trees, on the petrified rocks, playing in the grass, on the state library stairs, and in front of the heritage center. I can't wait to get them back!