First Quarter Report Cards

First quarter report cards came home on Halloween...and it was all treats for us!  Both Emory and Ellie are off to such a fabulous school year.  They are both doing well which is great but equally as important they are loving going to school every day.  Ellie wasn't feeling so well one day last week and I offered to let her stay home and rest and she actually cried because she wanted to go to school and be with her teacher...so off she went.  After a not so grand year last year, this is such a blessing.

Emory has made a seamless transition from elementary to middle school.  In fact, he loves everything about middle school so much more than elementary.  It doesn't hurt that his school is awesome in every way and he has really great teachers who give it their all every day and really seem to make learning fun from what I see at home.  Emory got straight As again and some of those As were in the upper 90s!  Way to go Emory!!!

Ellie is also loving her teacher this year and learning a lot every day.  She is so excited to go to school and doesn't mind the additional homework and projects that come with third grade.  This is the first year that she has received actual letter grades on her report card.  She too got honor roll and we are so proud of her accomplishments.  She received three As and one B.  Her B came in social studies and it was a high B at 87.  Such a great way to start off third grade!  Awesome job EllieBean!!!

Halloween Fun

We had another fun halloween this year!  The weather cooled down a little bit...not cold, but cool enough for us to know that summer is finally over.  Halloween did kind of sneak up on us though.  One day it seemed like it was the beginning of October and then the next it was the end.

We did not make it to the pumpkin patch this year but picked up a couple of nice pumpkins from Publix.  Ellie decided that hers would not have a face this year but rather her monogram.  We went with just a curly e and it turned out really cute.  She was a huge help punching all of the holes for the pattern and cleaning out her entire pumpkin all by herself!

Emory did not do quite as well helping out.  He chose his face for his jack-o-lantern to be a face with a mustache.  A really cute idea I thought!  He was good and getting the pattern on the pumpkin but from there he quit because his pumpkin was a little mushy inside.  (That's all part of getting pumpkins here in FL because they have to be shipped in and are picked earlier than they otherwise would be I think.)  After he saw what was inside, he was done...and I got to finish it.

The end result was pretty cute though and they were just perfect on the porch on Halloween night!

On the Saturday evening before Halloween, we took the kids to a corn maze.  The corn was so tall this year compared to years past!  All was well until Dan decided to jump out and scare Ellie half to death.  Then she was ready to get out of there, but she was really brave and went back in before we left.

The kids had a great time going through the maze pathways and also making their own paths through the corn.  Emory was going so fast and it was so dark that at times it was tough to keep up with him!

They also have farm animals to see and Ellie and I just loved these two goats who were all cuddled up together in the chilly evening air.

On Halloween day, Ellie's class had a big Halloween party.  We made crafts, had pizza for lunch and yummy cupcakes.

 Finally the big night got here and the Solms family joined us for dinner before heading out to trick-or-treat.  The kids were all dressed up and ready to go.  From left to right, Sydney was Lady GaGa, Ellie was a cave girl, Emory was a scary guy in a black cape (without the face mask here) and Mack was a Georgia Tech fan.

Here is Emory in full (first) costume.  Can't see a bit of him other than his feet!  This proved to be a challenge with running and seeing anything at all in the dark through the fabric of the face mask...maybe I might have mentioned something like that to him at the time that he picked this one out?!?!  So it was a problem and Emory went off to make up another costume....

 Another neighbor showed up to trick-or-treat with us and the girls were happy to continue to pose.

 ...and act silly!

We managed to remember to get a picture of all of the kids together this year before they headed off to trick-or-treat.  As you can see they started pretty early as it wasn't even dusk yet, but it was a school night and they were dying to go!

Emory ended up following Mack's lead and going with the sports fan costume.  He was a jaguars fan and actually did look pretty cute with face paint under his eyes and his big jaguar claw that he carried all night.  I'll have to remind him of this next year when he wants to go out and buy another costume!

At the end of the evening we came home and checked out all of the candy.  Waaaayyyyyy too much as usual.  The kids had a fun time running around collecting it though so it was a successful Halloween!