"Gotta Keep Reading, Ooh Ooh" (put to the tune of "I Got A Feeling")

We are off to a great start to the school year at Shady Lane! So far we are all very pleased with the move, and everyone that I have talked to says the same thing. Even though all of my concerns from the beginning are turning out to be valid, it is okay so far. Connor has a large class of 24 students. I'm get the idea that Mrs. Berry got the biggest class, probably because she is the oldest teacher there. I think it is assumed that she can handle it. Connor asked us the other night why he doesn't get very much attention from his teachers. I wasn't sure how to respond to that. In the past I feel like he has gotten plenty of attention, most of the time I am wishing that they would ignore him for a couple of days. :) I think this is a good thing though. He is starting to see the difference in good attention and bad attention. Hopefully he can keep going on this track he is on and see how much nicer it is to get good attention. I think what happens is, he tries so hard to get the attention from his good reading, etc. and when he doesn't get it he gets louder and louder about it. :) He is never intentionally naughty, so that is good. Anyway, at the open house last week, all of the kids put together a flash mob dance, like what was on Oprah with the Black Eyed Peas. It was so cool! Some of the high schoolers came and sang "I Got A Feeling" and the kids and teachers danced. They are calling it "Gotta Keep Reading." They have t-shirts and everything. The goal is for the school to read 1,000,000 minutes by the end of the year. I know that Connor will have no problem reading his 20 minutes a night so it is fun for us. :)


Last weekend Michele and Russ came up here to celebrate their 40th anniversary. I am so glad they decided to come up here and share it with us. We went out on Friday night to a fish fry, which was great and right by our house so that's a plus. Then on Saturday night we went out to celebrate their anniversary. We went to the Harbour House on Lake Michigan. It was beautiful and the food was wonderful. It was kind of fancy, so I was a little worried how Connor would hold up. He did great and so did Maddie, although I felt a little bad when we left because the floor under the high chair was a disaster. We just talked and had a really nice time. I also enjoyed listening to all the people around us talking. I actually heard someone say, "Oh daaahling! I just saw you in New York! How woooonderful!" Really!!!! People actually talk like that! Come on!!

This weekend Connor had a soccer tournament in Madison. It was fun to stay the night on Friday night. We had 2 games on Saturday, and 1 game on Sunday. We had a late check out on Saturday so we could swim and enjoy the hotel a little bit before we had to leave. We lost the morning game but won the afternoon game on Saturday. On Sunday we lost 1 to 0. We totally should have won, but I think the boys have to get used to staying the night and then playing the next day, they were pretty worn out. :) Poor Tom was juggling work and this soccer trip. I was so thankful that he was able to do it though. I don't think the trip would have went as smoothly if I would have been trying to manage Maddie, get Connor everywhere he needed to be, and checking in and out of the room all by myself. It is amazing how much you pack for an overnight with a 9 month old! Which by the way, she had her 9 month appt. She weighs 17 lbs. 8 oz. and is 28.5 inches long. She LOVES to eat! I think her favorite thing right now is blueberries. I seriously think she would eat all day if I let her. :)


We raked the leaves for the first time this year. This is one of Connor's favorite things to do, of course because he knows in the end he can jump in. Maddie wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but then decided that this could be fun. She probably ate a couple of leaves while I wasn't looking. So far the leaves are manageable, so 2 rakes are enough. Later we will break out the leaf blower and I'm not sure how well Maddie will take to that. I know that Zak freaks, but Connor loves it.