Halloween 2012

October is over as of tonight and we've had a fun last few days... carving pumpkin faces, getting dressed up and rounding up candy in the neighborhood with our friends, Jackson and Henry. It didn't even rain but a few sprinkles all evening! So, costumes were not drenched and we didn't break out any umbrellas or raincoats!

 This year Zane chose to go as a basketball player. Katiree was our beautiful ballerina. Kezia was a fabulous chicken (bock, bock). And Hotdog Tate went as a hotdog (he calls Auntie Chanda, "Hotdog" and she calls him "Hotdog" - so it's very fitting).

 

Happy end of October!

"Little a, b and c" by Katiree Armstrong

Following is a story written completely by Katiree. In school, she's wanted to write imaginative stories. We've been working on making sure she has a problem and a solution. This is what she wrote one day. I typed it exactly as she wrote it in her writing journal:

 Little a, b and c

by Katiree Armstrong

Once upon a time in letter kingdom little a, b and c lived with mothers upper case A, B and C. The kingdom is garded by 1 throw 26. Sooper V and S helped too. Dad letters were youshley at work. Even little a, b and c Dads. Little letters go to school 2 days a week and some times go nacher walking. Little a, b and c went to alfabit forist and walked and soon went home. Two letter thevs were in the forist. Little a called the dateckivs and cot them. "Mothers," cride Little a, b and c, "We're pretending we're dragins. Stomp stomp raaarr!" "It is dinner time little a, b and c!" said there mothers. They had chicken noodle soup for dinner. Little a, b and c love chicken noodle soup. For dezert they had puting. They went to there bed. Mom and Dad went to bed. Little a, b and c got out of bed and went to big alfabit forist and got lost. When mothers A, B and C wock up they looked but they could not find them. They asked Sooper V and S to find them. They looked every where then went to big alfabit forist and looked. Finally they found little a, b and c in a tree house in a coconut tree. Sooper V toled there mothers. They ate lunch in the tree house. They lived happly ever after.

The Pumpkin Patch

We procrastinated on going to a pumpkin patch this year. It seems like every weekend was busy with other things. Travis teased the kids that we'd just go to Albertsons and pick up pumpkins (nothing wrong with that, but our kids are sort of used to this little tradition). Anyway, we finally made it on Sunday - rain and all! Welcome to the Pacific Northwest! We are thankful we live where we can get pumpkins from a farm that grows them (we have tried, but they take over our garden)... but it also means we live in the unpredictably rainy northwest.

The Armstrong kids at the pumpkin patch - and Kezia's fabulous "OH" face! Notice Kezia's dirty pants. She just had to run...and topple a number of times in the mud.

 Zane and Tate in the corn teepee.

 Katiree in the corn teepee and Kezia in the straw maze. Unfortuntately, due to the weather, I didn't get as many pictures as I'd have hoped... plus some of the ones I did get ended up blurry (sorry for the not-so-great pictures) as I rushed to get the camera in-and-out of the rain.

Tate's Gecko Report

We are just finishing up learning about reptiles in our home school. Katiree and Tate both researched a reptile of their choice, wrote facts, made a report and made a diorama of the reptile's habitat. Here is Tate's report  below:

Geckos

researched and dictated (to Mama)

by Tate Armstrong

 

Do you want to learn about geckos? There are lots of different geckos.

Tate's green gecko habitat diorama (these geckos live in rainforests).

Geckos are lizards. Some geckos are green. Some are dark brown, and some have a lot of different colors on them. Some are mixed with blue and brown. Some have spots on them too. Geckos have four feet. They have little hairs on their toes that help them climb. They can climb upside down. Geckos are small lizards.

 

Geckos eat insects. They also eat eggs and small birds. Sometimes they eat small animals. They like to hunt a lot at night. They can see really well at night.

 

Snakes are the worst enemy of geckos. If something bites a gecko's tail, it can lose its tail and grow another tail.

Geckos can live anywhere. They can live in rainforests, in deserts and in grassy places. Different types of geckos live in different places. They usually live where there are things around them that are the same color as they are. So, for example, green geckos live in rainforests, in grassy places or in marshes. Darker geckos and brown geckos live in the desert.

 

Geckos don't have eyelids. If they need to clean their eyes, they lick their eyes with their tongues. Geckos are the only lizard that can make noise. They make squeaks or clicks.

Now you know about geckos!

 

Katiree's Komodo Dragon Report

We are just finishing up learning about reptiles in our home school. Katiree and Tate both researched a reptile of their choice, wrote facts, made a report and made a diorama of the reptile's habitat. Here is Katiree's report (typed by Katiree!) below:

The Komodo Dragon

researched and written

by Katiree Armstrong 

Katiree's Komodo dragon habitat diorama

Have you ever wondered if there is a really large lizard alive today? I can tell you about the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard.

The Komodo dragon is a lizard with scales. It has a longer tongue than a snake, but it is forked like a snake. It has claws for gripping meat and climbing trees. The Komodo dragon has four legs and feet to help it swim and walk. A Komodo dragon can be as long as a small car. It has saliva to help it hurt its prey.

The Komodo dragon eats birds, wild boar, water buffalo, deer and snakes. It likes dead animals more than attacking animals to get food. Sometimes it will bite an animal and then wait up to two days for the animal to die so it can eat it.

The Komodo dragon lives on three islands of Indonesia. There are some hills. It is dry on the island. The plants are dry because there is not much rain there. They live near sea water, but cannot drink it. There are trees and bushes on the islands.

To protect itself, the Komodo dragon has claws. It has saliva that helps kill animals and enemies. The Komodo dragon has strong jaws.

The Komodo dragon is big enough and powerful enough to kill a person. It can swim.

Do you like Komodo dragons? Now you have learned a lot about them!

Soccer Weekend part 2

Amber Young (AKA "Auntie" Amber) loves, yes... LOVES soccer. Actually, her whole family does. So when she proposed coming up to watch Katiree play soccer, it just so happened that Katiree's soccer club offered discounted tickets to the Seattle Sounders vs. Portland Timbers game in Seattle. It was the icing on the cake. Kezia stayed with our friends, the Blickenstaffs, while the rest of us drove up to Seattle, met Amber's brother and sister-in-law (and later her mom, too), went to Ivars and fed the seagulls (I don't know if my children ate their food or threw it to the seagulls, but it was just so much fun!).

 

Then we were off to the Seattle Sounders game. It was a record breaking night - there were 66 thousand people at the game. Our children haven't ever seen a professional soccer game, but Amber soon had Zane and Tate pointing out Freddy and Eddie and cheering for the Sounders. Zane didn't leave Amber's lap the entire game!

Now, because we live so close to Portland, it is often expected that we would root for the Timbers, but we actually live in Washington state - the home of the Sounders... PLUS... the Armstrongs have always rooted for Seattle teams... and this is just the way it will be. It doesn't help that the kids think that everything Amber says about soccer is golden! So she says "Seattle Sounders" then Seattle Sounders fans they will be!
 

And the Sounders beat the Timbers 3-0.

Amber and the Armstrongs

Amber with her mom, brother and sister-in-law (all avid Sounder fans).

Soccer Weekend with Auntie Amber

"Auntie" Amber came up from California for a weekend to visit... just to watch Katiree play soccer (Amber's favorite sport EVER). It was super special for Katiree to have "Auntie" Amber come up to see her game. Thank you SO MUCH, Amber!
 

 

 

Kez joins the fun...

And just so you don't wonder what happened with Kezia and Western Day... she joined the fun! Once home, she enjoyed trying on hats and walking around. The hats were often over her eyes, but she didn't seem to care. So funny!

 

Western Day at Friday School

It was Western Day at Friday School (a co-op we go to each Friday morning). Katiree, Tate and Zane were happy to dress up... even though their hats were off by the time their first class started! Thank goodness for a neighbor and a sister with western attire to borrow!

 

Soccer 101

We became soccer parents this year. Katiree finished all the swimming lessons she could take without going to pre-swim team... and she started first grade... which was the year we had promised them they could pick some active sport or event to try. Katiree picked soccer.

Her team is the Princess Tigers (fitting, if you knew Katiree's longstanding love for fancy things, especially princesses). We've made it through some practices... and games. Just last weekend was our first game where it rained at the end. As hard as it was to get to the field by 8:30 AM, I sure was thankful we didn't have a later game as the Northwest weather hit at a little before 10... just as our game was coming to a close.

But, until now, we've enjoyed beautiful non-soccer weather. And Katiree continues to improve and make friends with the girls on her team. For this, we are grateful... and proud of her effort!

 

 

Oh, and if you think that this is just darling... like maybe Tate's seeing how her game went, or what she liked most... he's not. He's asking her what's in her snack bag that she got after the game was over! Little stinker!

Zane turns FOUR

Why is it that four years go by so quickly? I know years, in and of themselves, tend to just slip by... but it really is something that four years ago this little boy made his appearance a bit earlier than planned. Then he spent extra time under the "spaceship lights" for jaundice. Now he's moved out of toddlerhood... sigh.

At four, Zane is all about cars... cars, cars, cars... demolition derbies with cars, races with cars... yep - if it has to do with cars, Zane's your kid.

We started a tradition of a birthday date for your birthday. Dad takes the day off (or a day near your birthday if your birthday falls on a weekend). We get a babysitter for the other kiddos. The birthday child plans the day. So... for Zane we went to the toy store to pick out a present with his birthday money. He picked a pack of 20... you'll never guess... oh, bummer - that was too easy... CARS. From there, we went to Red Robin for lunch (free birthday lunch!), then near the airport to watch planes take off and land. After that, we rode the Max train, followed by a trip to Starbucks for a birthday coffee (half shot latte - which he GLUGGED down). We ended our date by going to the train depot to watch freight trains and the Amtrak train come in and go by. The only thing missing from his day was watching some sort of car race or something like that. But, he was a pretty happy boy!

When it came time for gifts, he was so happy to get a long race track to race cars (all the kids love it). We've tried it outside, down the stairs, over garbage cans, over people, made into loops... and yet, it seems that their favorite is any time they can just race two cars side by side and see which one wins.

Grandpa, Grandma and Auntie Chanda came down. Auntie Marjie helped celebrate too, along with a couple family friends. We celebrated with a race track cake... change that - a race track ICE CREAM cake... as the youngster just doesn't like cake at all. Even when he thinks he should try cake, he ends up taking one bite and giving the rest back. It's quite humorous. So, I got to design the race track cake made out of ice cream instead. It was pretty fun... and a lot less work than some of the cakes the older two ask for!

So here's to year FOUR... may blessings abound as you grow even more, Zane!

 

Ah... Kez's personality...

Kezia's personality has been portraying itself more and more. She's the girl with many faces and loves to copy new expressions she sees. She goes from an "OH" face to a grumpy face... which was funny until she wouldn't stop the grumpy face and glared down a few people at the grocery store. They'd laugh because she went from OH- to grumpy- to cheesey... but then would go back to grumpy. We had to put a stop to the grumpy faces and have been focusing on "HAPPY!" after the Oh face. She thinks that's great now and we may have lost that glare!

She thinks covering her face means she's hiding and giggles when she's "found". She makes animal noises (Oh, an elephant gets the hand up to her face like an elephant trunk before she blows hard to make a funny noise).

She repeats words. "Kezia, say (insert word)" is commonly heard around here. Our favorites are: "Kezia, say cow." "Tow" "Kezia, say pig" "Pid" "Kezia, say chicken." "Bock, bock." Chickens are one word she won't repeat. She'll only make their sound! She loves singing "Happy Birthday", "Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't let the Bedbugs Bite" and "Where I Belong" (Building 429). One of my happiest times is getting her into the van. We start moving and she starts singing. "Da dee dee da dee da... I BELONG" She has the intonation to the song and BELTS the words, "I belong" every time. I can't help but just smile!