Happy Halloween ... BOOO!

Or as Trina said this morning ... "Happy Boo Day!"

Speaking of Trina - I completely forgot to give her a Happy Birthday post on Tuesday!!!!  I didn't MEAN to forget, I actually meant to post one after having some pumpkin birthday pie at her house, but I am a dork.

Big Day at School!

Emily went to the Principal's Office on Friday ..... no, no, it's not for what you think ... HA!

She received a Positive Office Referral.

I am not really sure what it means, but she received a certificate, a free meal from Applebee's AND she had her name announced over the loud speaker - she thought that was REALLY cool!

What a great day for her - a hot dog for lunch, positive office referral AND a ride on the school bus to her friend Rebekah's house ... !

School Update

Here is a brief overview of what's been happening at school ...

We had our first Parent Conference. I didn't know what to expect, but it went well - I think. Em's teacher said Emily is doing really well so far! She tested ahead of where she needs to be for this point of the school year .... no, no, she's not a genius - she just already knew her letters, numbers, colors, etc before school started. She's enjoying school so much that in the morning when she's stalling or whining or both, we can get her attention by telling her if she doesn't stop whatever it is, she can't go to school. I realize this will not last forever(bummer!) but it's good to know SOMETHING makes her stop the whining!

We've already battled lice (yes, already) ... a very small case that we were able to get rid of very quickly - thank goodness! I read horror stories and was VERY worried! Does your head itch yet?

We had our school carnival and a fund raiser.

Emily had a fire drill after one of the AC units froze up and started smoking.

She says her favorite part of school is PE and recess - HA

Over all she's really having a GREAT year and has already had a play date with a friend from her class.

Wayne and Elliot help out in class on Wednesdays and Emily thinks that is very cool.

The only negative for ME has been Daisy's (Girl Scouts) - it started with a bad experience with the coordinator and ended with an awful experience with the troop leader. Needless to say, we are not in Daisy's - HA!

I am sure I've missed something very important ... hopefully Wayne will update if I have ... HA!

Sweet

Favorite Pumpkin Pictures

Here are my favorite pumpkin pictures so far.

You can see more in the Snapfish links and the McLarty links!

Rachel's Trip to California

I went to the beautiful Bay Area to visit Mike and Amanda. I planned to convince them to move this way ... like anywhere in Texas ... but by the time I left I had Wayne looking up jobs in their area instead. OOOPS! I'll have to work a little harder next time huh?

Thursday - I flew into Oakland - weird tidbit - a girl from my office was on my flight! She was on her way to see her daughter at USC. The flight was horribly packed, so I didn't get to sit by her, but very cool!
We went to Amanda's cute grocery store (NobHill) and bought some Ravioli for dinner and drank some yummy wine and visited! It still wigs me out that you can buy hard liquor at the grocery store - even on Sunday! We played Wii Fit and I decided if we had a Wii with Wii Fit I'd probably end up hurting someone .... it's a meeeeean game ... told me I was overweight .... AND told me my Wii Fit age was 51 ... WHAT??? I mean 51 is still 15 .... crap, really? .... years away!

Friday - we went and checked out downtown Martinez - what a cute little town! Fun antiques shops and a unique little boutiques. We ate lunch at this little diner that had home made onion rings - yummy! The town has a big beaver controversy happening right now ... we tried to see the beavers when we were there, but they were hiding.
Then we went to the mall and shopped until we dropped! After shopping we came home for a bit then decided to get our toes done in Walnut Creek. For dinner we went to a Mexican food restaurant - not Tex Mex, but pretty good - very yummy margaritas - HA
We came home and stayed up waaaay too late playing Rock Band (such an addicting game!!!) - I thought I went to bed at 1am ... mike said it was closer to 2am .. YIKES! That's super late in Texas :-)

Saturday we went to the hotel where Amanda works (The Claremont) and had some wonderful massages. It is such a beautiful resort!!! Great views of the Bay ... just amazing! If anyone is wondering what to get Mike for Christmas .... massage gift certificates will go over really well - HA ... Wait, while I am here I MUST tell you about the showers at the spa .... man .... there were 9 shower heads, a hand held and a cool rain shower head .... I could have stayed under the water for hours .... would have if there weren't other women waiting patiently for the shower - HA
We had dinner at The Outback (yummy!) Amanda and Mike were thrilled to find out they have blue bell ice cream at The Outback - poor guys - they don't have Blue Bell here in California .... the little waiter made us giggle - Amanda wanted to make sure it REALLY was Blue Bell since they can't buy it anywhere in California ... and he said yes ... she said "where do you get it???" Hoping she could find some Cookies and Cream ... he looked at her as serious as could be and said "Texas .... " .... we giggled about that all night!
We came home and played some games - one waaaay too hard - I thought I'd like it - it was called Name that Tune the 80's version - but I realized I don't know as much 80's music as I thought I did! Then we played Wits and Wagers - that was a fuuuuun game!

Sunday we went to Walnut Creek for a bread bowl .. we thought about heading to San Fran, but it was Fleet Week and Mike said everyone from California would be there! So, after bread bowls we shopped some more (and more and more and more!)

Thanks Mike and Amanda for having me!!

I'm posting the only picture we took ... this was at El Charro's ... remember, yummy Margaritas!

Star Steppers Dance Clinic

The Vista Ridge Star Steppers put on a dance clinic four times a year.
Emily, Emma and Anna Marie attended the fall clinic and had a great time.
They learned a dance and performed for the parents at the end of the day.
It was super cute!
They received a TShirt, CD of their songs and a certificate.
Emily's favorite part of the day was seeing their girls in their "real" outfits!

Eating ... Eating ... Eating

I am catching up on pictures tonight (I know I know, it's about time) and these made me giggle

Big Bike News!

Emily started riding without training wheels today!
Wow - she's officially big! She really didn't need much help. Wayne had to run around with her for a couple of cul-de-sac laps, then she said "I can do it Dad" and did. I am so proud of her!




*as you can see, our neighbors are showing their party pride with their yard signs!

Random....

I know I know, I owe you updates and info ... but I don't have time yet, I promise to get to it as soon as I can.
I couldn't resist posting the interesting exchange I heard in my living room a few minutes ago.

Elliot and Emily were having a spat over the PlayHut tunnels we set up.
Once the dust settled I hear this from Emily ....

"Mom, Elliot is smiling at me, make him stop" .... siiiiiiiigh ... sibling love!

I am a blogger slacker!

I promise, I'll try to blog when I get back from Sunny California!
I have pictures to post on Snapfish and everything :)