I love that the kids’ teachers tweet photos of their daily adventures, below are the ones that include Raine or Carter. Mrs. Schultz dropped off Twitter around the end of October, so I don’t have as many photos of Carter as I do of Raine, hopefully she starts back up soon.

October 14 – Carter smelling a brand-new book during story time with Mrs. Kessel, the librarian.

October 16 – Kindergarten fire safety day (Carter is right behind the fireman’s left shoulder)

October 19 – Raine completed her passion project this week — she studied caterpillars.

October 21 – Dr. Booklove taught the kindergartners how to care for books (Carter is the blur on the right side)

October 26 – Raine is second from the right on the back row

October 27 – Raine is in the middle of the back row, in her mis-matched purple polk-dot outfit

October 29 – Raine and Zoe in their pajamas during red ribbon week

October 30 – Raine listening to Mrs. Marshall talk about resolving conflict

November 3 – Robby, Jules, Raine, and Mackenzie

November 4 – Raine and Zoe in the middle left photo

November 10 – I had lunch with Raine (and Zoe). On November 11, I had lunch with Carter but forgot to take a picture.

November 10 – Robby, Jules, Maddy, Raine

HERE is a PDF copy of a story that Raine wrote for school a couple weeks ago (I typed the story below, but it doesn’t have the same feel without Raine’s handwriting and typos). I really enjoyed her imaginative little adventure, even if it is a tad disjointed! I can imagine what a fantastic adventure it was in her little mind. Someday, hopefully, her writing skills will develop to a point where she can sufficiently describe the images in her head because I’m certain they are quite impressive.

Raine’s Big Adventure
One day Raine was walking in the forest behind her house when a strange noise stopped her. She followed the sound till it stopped. She looked around and got an idea! A very good idea. She snuck away tree to tree till she heard it again then she kept going till she saw it. An old music player laying on the forest floor stopping and playing softly. So she closed her eyes for a moment. A dust whirled around her eyes. When she opened her eyes she found herself standing in a castle full of gold. Raine wandered around the castle. Then a unicorn flew down from the ceiling and started tossing her mane. Raine edged closer to the frightened animal. She reached out her hand and tried to calm the frightened animal. The unicorn looked at Raine with big brown eyes and slowly lowered her head. Raine climbed on its back. The unicorn took her to a door and nudged Raine’s leg. Raine opened her eyes and found she had a day dream back to her house.

As long as I’m posting Raine’s compositions, here is her essay for the “Mayor for a Day” contest. She spent weeks thinking about the things that she would change and I was committed to not influencing her in any way. As you can see, these are definitely her own 7-year-old thinking!

Mayor for a Day
If I was Mayor for a day, I would get the police faster cars to get to emergencies. It would be a good idea because some people have really valuable things getting stolen. When police miss the robbers, the people don’t get their stuff back.

Those are the changes that I would make if I was Mayor.

Yesterday afternoon Daddy and the kids ran in the inaugural Colleyville Pumpkin Mash Dash. It was a gorgeous day for running.

Daddy set off on the 10K. Then the kids took off on the 1K.

Raine is the one in purple and Carter is just right of her in the back.

The course was a simple out-and-back route. Raine was ahead of Carter on the way out, but there was no sign of Raine when Carter came speed-walking back.

I ran out along the course to find Raine and asked the police officers who were directing traffic at the road if a little girl in purple had crossed the road — rather than turning around like the 1K runners were supposed to do. They had seen her pass so they radioed down to the officers at the next road crossing (quite a way down the road) who said they could see her coming. She told us later that she had figured out she missed the turn-around because she didn’t see any more kids, so she turned around before making it to the second officers.

I ran back to the finish line to find Carter before he freaked out and found him sitting in a ditch quite a way behind the finish line. Then we headed back out along to the course to wait for Raine. Soon enough she made her way to us, but that was the end for her. She didn’t even make it to the finish line. She dissolved into tears and just wanted to sit in the car. (We found out later that evening that she had a raging ear infection. Poor kid.)

Daddy finished the 10K in 50:06 which put him first place in his age group and fourth overall.

October 17 – Colleyville Haunted Trail

October 30 – Ward chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat

October 31 – Trick-or-treating

Carter wasn’t feeling well, but he cheered up once he starting getting candy in his bag!

November 1 – Carter didn’t have to dress up in order to look scary today — that pink, oozy eye was pretty creepy all by itself!

Thursday, Carter’s kindergarten class went on a field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. I took the day off work so that I could chaperon. Carter and his two buddies, Will and Ben, were in my group. We palled around with Jace and his parents part of the time as well. Here are the photos:

Will, Ben, and Carter

The lions had just received their Halloween pumpkins and were tearing them apart.

Ben, Jace, Carter, Will, and Mrs. Schultz

The notion of raising “sheltered” children has been a topic of conversation between DJ and me on several occasions in the past year. My line of work is really the antithesis of a sheltered existence. It exposes me to the dark underbelly of society — the bizarre, sometimes disturbing, details of peoples lives that you really don’t want to know. Most of the people I deal with have existed at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder for so many generations that the entire culture has evolved into something that most middle-class Americans can’t even begin to imagine, much less comprehend.

Due to this exposure, I feel strongly that my children need to know a thing or two about “the world” before they go venturing out into it. I make sure that their exposure is age appropriate. For example, a month or so ago Carter was sick and couldn’t go to school. I had a couple things that I needed to take care of before I could sit home with him, so I drug him with me. On the drive between the courthouse and my office, I pass through East Lancaster, where there are multiple homeless shelters and related services for the least-fortunate individuals in society — we like to say that our office is located “where our clients are.”

It is not uncommon for traffic to come to a standstill on Lancaster as a schizophrenic individual stands in the middle of the road yelling at someone that only she can see, or as a homeless man drags all his worldly possessions across the street in a plastic tub. People sleeping on the sidewalk are so common that you will see at least one or two every time you leave the office.

On this occasion with Carter, I pointed out all the people milling around the street corner and sleeping in doorways and told him these were “the poor” that he has been praying for lately. He asked a few questions, wondering if they even had 2 dimes, but for the most part he simply took it in. I think it gave some tangible meaning to his nightly prayer request to “please bless the poor.”

You never have to guess how this kid is feeling; his face tells it all.

Last night, I had another opportunity to give some real-life-meaning to something that he said. As I mentioned awhile ago, Carter had a real hard time dealing with the loss of his first tooth. It seemed to have been short lived, just that first day, until last night when he climbed in bed with me, cuddled up, and started crying about his tooth. He mentioned again that he wanted to put some metal (meaning braces) on his teeth in order to prevent any more from falling out, so I told him about the case that I was preparing for trial the next day. It just so happened that the mom in that case had put a grill (hip-hop style, not bar-b-que) on her little boy’s front teeth when he was a toddler. This prevented them from falling out. As the adult teeth grew in, they pushed the grill-capped baby teeth back into the roof of his mouth. I explained to Carter how this little boy required extensive dental surgery to remove the teeth when he came into foster care.

Seriously, how many people can give their kids a real-life illustration of why their ridiculous, five-year-old idea is a bad one? Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) I can give that gift to my children!

The kids’ teachers post a photo to twitter everyday to keep parents in the loop on classroom activities. Here are the photos that included Raine and Carter during the first six weeks of school as well as a couple photos from family outings.

8/24/15 Carter’s table playing with the math tubs

8/28/15 Carter’s class working with their 3rd grade technology buddies (Carter is on the left)

9/1/15 Raine working on math with Evan

9/11/15 Raine working on math with Jules

9/15/15 Raine on polka-dot day

9/23/15 Carter and Finley playing war (comparing numbers)

9/25/15 Friday night lights at the Grapevine High School football game

9/29/15 A story that Raine wrote called “Disappearing Dad”

9/30/15 Raine’s class made smoothies during science

9/30/15 another photo from when Raine’s class made smoothies during science, this one includes the principal, Mrs. Shimmick.

10/2/15 Carter’s class celebrating Mrs. Schultz’s birthday

10/4/15 Raine and Carter at Kidsville, we rode our bikes over between sessions of conference

10/8/15 Raine’s class doing Maker Spaces in the library

Saturday, September 26 Carter lost his first tooth! It had been a little wiggly for only a couple days before it fell out while he was eating an over-ripe banana. He didn’t even realize it was gone until Daddy pointed out that he had a gap. We couldn’t find the tooth at first and were worried that he’d swallowed it. Happily, we found it on the napkin in front of him.

Carter had been very excited when it wiggled. He was excited when it first fell out. But a couple hours later, you would’ve thought that his best friend had died by the way he was sobbing! INCONSOLABLE! He was beside himself with grief over the loss of this tooth. He even suggested that maybe he could get braces on his teeth to keep any more from falling out.

We tried everything to console him. We told him that a new one would grow in its place — but he argued that it would be a big one (and let’s be honest, big teeth do look a little funny in small kids). We also told him that he didn’t have to leave it for the tooth fairy. But he was committed to the process and that was not a viable option. Somehow he had gotten into his mind that the tooth fairy turned the tooth into money. When I suggested that she simply took the tooth with her and left money in it’s place, he patiently pointed out (between heaving sobs) that tooth fairies are only “this big” (fingers about 3 inches apart) and therefore not big enough to carry money with them so clearly they had to turn the tooth into money instead. It seemed so obvious when he explained it that I felt a little silly for not realizing it on my own!

Eventually, he calmed down enough to eat a hamburger at Mooya. Unfortunately, the waterworks started again at bedtime. And of course, to make matters worse, just three days earlier I had gone to a training about how traumatic childhood losses, if not handled properly, could result in a whole score of issues later in life — think addiction, exploitation, and the list goes on. So I couldn’t help but worry just a little that one small, insensitive gesture could send him spiraling into a life of ruin.

He ended up sleeping upstairs in the playroom that night because the poor little tooth under his pillow was just too much for him to bear. This should have made it easier for the tooth fairy, but somehow, when he came in the next morning with his tooth-fairy haul it included four dollars rather than the three that the tooth fairy thought she left. Fortunately, Raine didn’t seem to notice the discrepancy.

As you can see, the tears and drama of the day before were long gone the next morning.

Raine turned 7 this year — only 1 more year until she’s baptized! Naturally, we celebrated with dinner at a local Brewhouse followed by a concert at the wine festival! (There is actually a very logical explanation for it, but I found it mildly amusing that the two locations we chose to celebrate Raine’s last birthday before reaching the age of accountability, both had something to do with alcohol.)

Since Raine’s birthday fell on a Monday, we celebrated on Saturday. Raine had two requests for her birthday: she wanted a pazookie and she wanted to go to a concert. Naturally, we went to BJ’s Restaurant (& Brewhouse) because they have the best pazookies.

When she said that she wanted to go to a concert, I immediately thought of Grapefest — because festivals always have concerts. Sure enough, they had three different stages with various performers throughout the evening. Raine and I listened to some of the performers online and she decided that she wanted to see Chaz Marie perform.

During the concert I asked Raine if she liked it and whether it was what she wanted. She said it was different than she was thinking but she liked it. Later that night, I probed a little deeper into how the concert differed from what she expected. It turned out that when Raine had said “concert,” she was thinking of a symphony concert, like we had gone to a few months ago. Whoops! That makes a lot more sense!

Carter wasn’t as impressed with the concert so he headed over to Legoland.

After the concert, we visited the petting coral…

…and the carnival.

On Monday, we celebrated with the usual birthday regimen.

Raine wanted pizza for dinner.

Then she opened presents with both sets of grandparents on the phone while she opened their respective gifts.

After presents, we ate cake.

Raine’s gifts were perfect for her: a rock and geology kit, a paper weaving kit, and a robot building kit. Raine has been trying to build a robot — using trash from the recycling bin — for months! Now, finally, she is able to build a REAL robot. Here is the remote-controlled robotic duck that she built first.

Raine is an energetic little smarty pants who loves school and books. She believes that she can do everything and isn’t afraid to try anything. She loves art and music, she doesn’t like PE (because she is the slow one), and she enjoys riding her bike and playing soccer. Raine always wears skirts and dresses, she looks out for Carter, and she is always ready with a prediction or hypothesis to try out. It’s not easy keeping up with Raine, but it is so much fun to watch her learn and pursue her goals. Just the other day, she told me that she wanted to be a lawyer (I was ecstatic) “because lawyers help people.” Raine is always thinking of ways to help the less-fortunate (building houses for the homeless, creating jobs for the poor, etc.), I can’t wait for her to grow up and make those ideas a reality. She will certainly change the world someday.

Daddy completed his first full triathlon on Labor Day and it was BRUTAL! We had record high temps over 100* and oppressive humidity. Daddy wasn’t the only one who struggled to make it to the finish line — Carter was a sweaty little ball of tears by the end of the race!

Swim

300m in 5:08

Bike

15-miles in 50:51 (17.7mph)

Cheering squad (prior to hiking out in the blistering sun along the running route to the finish line)

Run

5K in 30:38 (9:53/M)

Total time = 1:30:35

Even though he hit a wall near the end of the bike ride, Daddy finished 106th overall (out of 312 racers) and 6th in his age group (out of 20). His swim time put him 32nd overall. The full stats.

But most important, he looked a lot better doing it this time compared to last time when he went riding by on a mountain bike in a baggy t-shirt and basketball shorts!

Yesterday after the soccer games, Daddy, Raine, and I were sitting in the library when all of a sudden Carter jumped into the doorway and growled. As soon as we stopped laughing enough to speak, we asked him what in the world he was doing. He said, “This is me being Hulk!”

This picture is going to end up in a Senior slideshow or something many years from now! The farmer’s tan on those skinny little arms is priceless.