Fall Break officially started with a half day of school on Friday, Oct 11. That morning was grandparents’ day and Raine had a great time with her Grandma DeeDee. Raine adopted Grandma DeeDee, aka Sally Barnhart, a few years ago. Raine loved to make crafts — still does — and Sally loved to receive them. They have shared a very special relationship ever since. When we were trying to think of a good surrogate grandparent, I suggested Sally and Raine jumped up and down squealing “Yes! Yes! She will be the best grandma!” Sally was equally thrilled to fill the role and from what I hear, they had a great time.

When we picked up Raine from school, we headed straight over to the zoo for one last visit before our membership expired. “Fortunately” we arrived just in time for the zoo show, where Raine anxiously volunteered to hold the snake.

We made sure to see all our favorite animals, especially all the babies. We saw the baby jaguar for the first time.

(My photos didn’t turn out so here’s one from the zoo.)

Everyone was feelin’ the love as we snacked on fudge and played in the barnyard!

Saturday, one of Raine’s kindergarten-friends, Corrine, had a birthday party at Trinity River Farms. We got soaked by a downpour as we fed the goats and ended up waiting it out in the car. Afterward, we got all sorts of muddy as the birthday part resumed. The car ended up a muddy mess, but it was worth it to Raine to ride a horse and hang out with her friends.

Wednesday we decided to take Carter to school and then head to the museum. This was Raine’s first time. She *loved* all the craft stations and opportunities to build something. Our backpack was full of crafts by the time we left!

We also visited the new Curious George exhibit for the first time. There were plenty of fun things to explore there.

The rest of our week was filled with sleeping in late, home-cooked breakfasts, . . .

loads of crafts, . . .

playing outside, . . .

and . . .

. . . flying around the house in nothing but fairy wings, a butterfly mask, and underpants! This girl is a *NUT*!!!

I LOVE hanging out with Carter! He is so much fun to pal around with while Raine is at school. He is very affectionate and a bit of a home-body — he is happy to play by himself… with his dinosaurs, in Raine’s doll house. (It is hilarious to listen to!) His goofy sense of humor always makes me smile!

I’m not much of a home-body so I drag Carter out to playgroups every so often. He is infinitely more social than he was a year ago — I think the speech therapy played a big part in that. Once he figured out that other people could understand him, I couldn’t get him to STOP talking! The other day we were out for a walk with the neighbors and I had to do something that I NEVER thought I would have to do with Carter (it’s par for the course with Raine). I had to physically pick him up and have a little face-to-face about how he needed to STOP TALKING because no one else could get in a word! Having said that, Carter despises playgroups when there are more than a couple kids running around. He will park himself on my lap or hug my leg and refuse to play. I can’t figure it out, but I really like him so I don’t mind!

Carter is having a hard time giving up naps. He will take a nap whenever and wherever he feels the need. Riding in the car puts him out in the afternoons. Eating dinner, or even a snack, will do it too. Then there are those days when he just climbs onto my lap and falls asleep without a word.

The problem comes at bedtime. If he takes a nap, of any length, he can’t fall asleep before ten. So he comes out of his room, over and over, until I finally give in and let him stay out with me so he doesn’t wake up Raine. He knows I can’t resist his little puppy-dog eyes and he uses them to his advantage — he knows they’re especially effective when DJ is out doing Bishop stuff! He will get himself a whole stack of his favorite books and then snuggle down in my bed so I can read them to him. Am I enabling a very bad habit? Absolutely! Do I care enough to stop it? Not even close!

Here are some photos from a recent playgroup outing to the zoo.

This was the first time we had seen the two baby elephants.

Carter and Hudson (or “Hudsy” as he calls him) watching the white tiger.

Hudson, Carter, and Cade ‘riding’ the turtle.

“Do not be afraid, Man Cub. Trussssst me.”

Fearlessly touching the rat snake.

We decided to let our zoo membership expire and get a membership to the Fort Worth Museum of Nature and Science instead. Carter calls it the dinosaur museum because it has an exhibit of dinosaur fossils and interactive activities as well as an outdoor dinosaur dig. Needless to say, he loves it!

Carter’s favorite part of the museum is the wind-energy room. He is OBSESSED with paper airplanes and can’t get enough of the launcher — fortunately, Momma has some pretty good paper-airplane-making skills!

Pony rides at our neighborhood block party.

Raine had her well-child checkup on September 27. She was 47 inches tall and weighed 47 pounds, she is square! Raine is still above the 97th %ile for height, in fact, her current height places her above the 75th %ile among SIX-year-old girls. Her weight places her just below the 90th %ile for her age.

The doctor also confirmed what the school recently told us, that Raine may need glasses. Her right eye sees at 20/30 but her left eye is seeing at 20/70. It isn’t terribly bad, so we are going to wait until January to take her to the ophthalmologist — in other words, we are going to wait until we can get her on the vision insurance!

Raine didn’t just have a birth-DAY this year, she had an entire WEEKEND of celebration!

It started Friday, the 20th, at school. Carter and I joined her for lunch. Mrs. Boegner stood her on a chair and all the kids in the cafeteria sang happy birthday.

Then she handed out the cupcakes we brought to her classmates.

Raine and Addison.

That evening we had our family celebration at Chuck E Cheese. The kids had a blast!

I couldn’t believe that both of them wanted to stand by Chuck E — especially Carter, he is usually terrified of characters like that.

Raine had so much fun playing the games. She even won a 100-ticket jackpot on one of them, that was the highlight for her!

Saturday was Raine’s real birthday so she opened her presents that morning.

First order of business: put on fairy wings . . .

. . . and fly around the house until very hot and sweaty!

Mom and Dad spent most of Saturday at the Bishops and Wives Conference — seven hours to be exact. Fortunately, we have some fantastic families in our ward and one of them watched the kids while we were gone, making sure they had ample fun without us.

Raine had been planning her birthday for at least a year. About a week ago, she described in intricate detail what her cake was going to look like. Under the influence of extreme guilt — knowing that we weren’t going to be home for her birthday — I agreed to do my best to recreate the image in her mind.

I searched the internet for hours before I found a Rapunzel cake that was within my limited cake-making abilities, yet still met the approval of the Cake Boss. It wasn’t the most glamorous cake in the world, but Raine was thrilled with it!

We invited a few friends over to help us eat the cake Sunday night.

Raine is a great girl. She is obedient and kind. She is creative and imaginative. She is smart and funny. Raine is a social butterfly who loves to be around people. She loves to make new friends and is happy playing with anyone who is willing. She loves to play make-believe and to fight off evil villains. Raine loves school (except P.E. — sorry Grandma Anderson, somehow the athletic gene missed her) and she is excelling in every aspect of Kindergarten. She taught herself to read and write before she started school and is now honing her skills nicely. Raine’s favorite thing to do is to make crafts. She always makes them with someone else in mind and has brightened the day of countless people with her creations. Raine is a fantastic big sister. She watches out for Carter and encourages him. The two of them can’t wait to get home from school so they can play together. Raine is a very special girl and we love her dearly!

June 20
Raine, showing Daddy how she opened her string cheese all by herself: “Look! That means I’m ready for kindergarten!”
Daddy: “Oh yeah? Is that what it means?”
Carty: “When I’m a big sister I will be ready for kindergarten too!”
Daddy, laughing: “You’re not going to be a big sister.”
Carty, disappointed: “Oh.”
Daddy explains the whole brother vs. sister gender thing. Two minutes later Carty says: “When I’m a boy big sister I will be ready for kindergarten!”

Carter’s nursery leaders call this his Popeye face!

June 23 — This one needs a little explanation: Carter is at that really awkward-for-adults height where his head and shoulders are as high as the average rear-end. It drives Daddy crazy when Carter hugs him from behind or pokes him to get his attention. This little exchange occurred at one such moment.
Daddy to Carter: “We don’t touch other people’s bums!”
Carter: “You’re not other people. You’re just Daddy.”

Carter always wears his glasses.

July 5
Carter playing fetch with Raine: “Go get it boy!”
Raine: “I’m not a boy. I’m a girl.”
Carter, defending his prior statement: “You have a head.”
Raine, not fooled by this ridiculous argument: “Yeah, girls have heads.”
Carter, now sidetracked from his original argument: “Girls have heads under them hair.”
Raine, still in argument mode: “No. Girls have hair on TOP of their heads.”
By this point, Carter’s attention was drawn to something else and he wandered off.
We’re going to have to work on his trial skills!

July 7
Carter, telling Daddy which way the spider went: “The big dude go-ed that way!”

July 8
Me, cutting Raine’s fingernails: “These are some dirty fingernails, Rooey.”
Raine, just as I was cutting a particularly dirty one: “I think that brown stuff is boogers from picking my nose.”

Raine dressed up as the Lollipop Princess from Candy Land during Homecoming week. The theme for the day was your favorite toy or game.

August 6
Carter: “Mommy, can you help me get my juice?”
Me: “Yes, if you say the magic word.”
Carter, in a sing-song voice: “salagadoola mechicka boola . . . ”
Me, laughing: “No silly, not those magic words! Say ‘please.'”

August 18 — Carter and Raine hula hooping

August 25
Raine, riding into the kitchen on a PVC pipe: “Here Carty, wanna ride?”
Carty, climbing on the back: “What is it Raine?”
Raine, as they ride out of the kitchen: “Oh, it’s just a pole.”
Carty, obviously expecting something a little more exciting: “Oh . . . why am I riding on a pole?”

Carter riding his horse, pulling Raine’s wagon — I’m not sure what they were playing.

September 1 — Daddy sleep-reading to the kids. He will sit down to read them a book when he gets home from church but every couple pages his voice trails off to gibberish as he falls asleep mid-sentence. He usually wakes up before it goes too long, but occasionally the kids will have to turn around and sternly tell him to “READ” before he wakes up. Apparently all that napping he does up on the stand isn’t quite enough!!

September 21 — This one didn’t involve the kids, but it was pretty funny.
Our Stake had a Bishops and Wives Conference that started with a meeting at the church and then moved to the Dallas Temple. As DJ and I drove to the Temple, he told me about how he feels so young and out-of-place in meetings with the other bishops in the stake. I emphatically assured him that he didn’t look that young, that he fit right in, and that his “baby-face” was a thing of the past. We arrived at the temple at the same time as President Hollinger and as we stood there at the recommend desk a temple worker approached DJ and asked if he was Elder Hoffman. He politely told her that he was not and turned back to the desk. President Hollinger turned around and laughed, “You just got mistaken for a young, eighteen-year-old missionary!” I just rolled my eyes as I watched my entire argument get thrown out the window and trampled under-foot!

{Most of the photos are of Carter because he’s the only one around to photograph now that Raine is in school! But I figure there have been enough posts about Raine lately that this just helps balance it out.}

Thursday morning during Chapel, Raine received the Honor Eagle Award! The award recognizes students who exemplify the five Rs of the Character Behavior System:

1. Respect – manners, cooperation, wisdom
2. Responsibility – diligence, self-control, orderliness
3. Relationships – kindness, servant, encourager, forgiveness
4. Righteousness – obedience, honesty, courage, and
5. Reliability – attentiveness, preparedness.

Honor Eagles are selected six times during the school year. One student from each of the eight Elementary classes is recognized by their teacher as the Honor Eagle. (There are two kindergarten classes, two 3rd grade classes, and one each of 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th.) They are awarded a certificate and a chocolate eagle medallion during Elementary Chapel.

We are very proud of Raine for being such a terrific girl! She is a good example of all the Honor Eagle characteristics and really tries hard to choose the right in everything she does. It has been fun to serve in Primary the past two years and see how she interacts with others. She is like a little sponge, absorbing everything being taught. She loves learning and loves the structure and rules of a classroom. We are very proud of everything she is accomplishing and of the beautiful girl she is.

Daddy and I had a parent-teacher conference with Raine’s teacher, Mrs. Boegner, on Tuesday where she told us that Raine was going to receive the award — she told us when to come so we could see it awarded. She also told us how she frequently uses Raine as an example of good behavior in class. Raine is doing very well in school all-around. She has an A+ in both Bible and Behavior — the only two grades they get during the first 9-weeks!

School has been a fun experience for us so far. Raine’s class and teachers are great. This is Mrs. Boegner’s 21st year teaching; she definitely knows what she is doing. There are 13 kids in Raine’s class so the teacher has the opportunity to work with them one-on-one and really get to know each of them. When Raine missed school because of a fever, Mrs. Boegner personally called to check on her.

Raine comes home each day and tells us all about her adventures, it’s very entertaining! One day she told me about how her friend Emily didn’t have any food for snack time and how she shared her snack with her friend. I praised her for being such a good friend and sharing her snack. A few days later she told me about how her friend Mayla wanted some of her lunch but she didn’t give it to her, citing the rule about not sharing food as her justification. I had to laugh because this rule didn’t come into play when she was sharing the applesauce that she didn’t like, but now all of a sudden it was an absolute law when someone wanted the crackers that she really likes! Ah, the politics of kindergarten!

Since Raine’s school is K-12, they have a football team. We attended the first home game and tailgate party this Friday night. It was great . . . unless of course you cared about winning. I think we were down 35 to 7 when we left half-way through the second quarter. But Carter loved it!

Once the M&M’s were gone, Raine was more interested in playing on the playground!

We had so much fun traveling down to Austin last year for Ophelia’s birthday party, that we decided to do it again this year. We headed down after school on Friday, partied with Ophelia Saturday morning, and then drove home Saturday afternoon. The kids always have a blast together — it takes some serious effort to get them settled down enough to sleep — you would never guess that they had only seen each other once in the past year!

Ophelia’s party was at a splash park.

Yummy, cake!

The birthday girl enjoyed her cake too!

We love catching up with the Kinzlers, they are great friends. This tradition will definitely be one we continue.

Carter FINALLY had his first day of preschool today. Raine started three weeks ago and Carter has been counting down the days until he got to start school too. He was double-excited because he has Ms. Melissa as one of his teachers again.

He didn’t want me to take a photo of him on our way out to the car — he told me he was going to do a mopey face.

But he just couldn’t hold back the giggles!

It was really weird for me to take Carter to the same class that Raine was in last year. Raine was the oldest in the class because her birthday was just after the cut-off; Carter is one of the youngest in the class because he just made the cut-off. I think Carter finds it a little odd too, but he is happy to be a “Big 3” (as he calls it) since Ms. Melissa is there. It will be interesting to see how he does with the older kids!

Raine has been excitedly anticipating the start of kindergarten for at least six months, so when the big day finally arrived she was ready to get going.

Mom, on the other hand, was not as prepared. I turned on the camera to take this picture of Raine outside her school and realized that the battery was dead. Fortunately, I brought a second camera and so was able to get a picture before she lost all patience and headed to class.

Once inside, she sat right down and got to work storing her new school supplies in the table-caddy. I stood there trying to get the settings right on the back-up camera in order to take a photo with Mrs. Boegner. But alas, this was all I got before it was time for parents to get out so they could get down to the business of kindergarten.

Raine is going to love kindergarten. I have no doubt that we made the right decision in starting her a year earlier at a private school. It will be fun to see her learn and be challenged academically this year!

We celebrated Daddy’s birthday a couple days early, while Grandma and Grandpa were here. Unfortunately, I did a terrible job of photographing the event and these are the only good ones I got. I guess we were just having too much fun to capture in pixels!