A busy couple of weeks

Okay, to bring things up to date I will start with last Thursday. I had to go to parent teacher conferences for the girls. First was Claire's teacher. She told me how wonderful Claire is doing and how smart she is. She can read over 300 words, and they only expect them to maybe know 100 at the beginning of first grade. She is so eager to learn and is just a sweetheart when it comes to helping out her classmates. Her only criticism was that Claire is too much of a people pleaser and perfectionist. She gets so upset with herself when she can't do something exactly right or if she feels she has upset the teacher.

Next up was Madeline's teacher. She had fantastic things to say about Madeline. She did say that Madeline is very much a fact person, and that can make some of the lessons a little difficult for her. We are trying to get her to think outside of the box more. The teacher told me that Madeline writes incredible stories, and I have to agree. I read one of the stories she wrote using her spelling words, and it was amazing work for a third grader. One of her stories made the wall outside of the classroom for everyone to see. No other stories were out on the wall except hers. I'm so proud of her. Maybe we have a little author on our hands.

After the conferences it was time for Madeline to go to her Brownies meeting. We were to make cookies for the firefighters as a thank you for everything they do. The girls then made cards thanking them. We all piled up in a couple of vans and surprised the firefighters at the station down the street. They were shocked. The girls all stood together and said thank you, handed them the cookies and cards. It was all so sweet. The firefighters were amazing. They were so sweet to the girls. They explained all about firefighting and about the truck and what all of the knobs and hoses were for. The girls got to go inside the truck and the station house. Some of the girls got to try on the fire hat. They were all so excited about everything. Oh and a bonus to the whole visit was that the girls earned a patch for touring the fire station. It was all really cool.

Over the weekend Madeline had to finish a project on a plant or animal that lives in one of the habitats of Georgia. Madeline chose to do the coyote. She did all the research and poster making herself. I take that back. She let me glue down some stuff and paint the coyote. Her idea was to take a stuffed animal that she had, it was a small husky dog, and paint him brown like a coyote. She then cut off some white hair of another stuffed animal and put some red paint on it and around the coyotes mouth. She then had me glue them to the poster and she made trees with facts about the coyote on the tops of the trees. You can see it in the picture up top. She did an amazing job.

Okay, moving on to the next week. Claire lost a front tooth Monday night. She came running into the living room saying, "While I was trying to sleep my tooth started wiggling a whole bunch, and I'm afraid it will come out while I sleep!" She started begging Michael to pull it out. Michael did because he was afraid it would come out in her sleep, she's a tooth grinder, and she might choke on the tooth. He yanked it out and she started laughing and dancing around the room. She was way too cute. So now she has no two front teeth. I told her she looked a little weird, and her response was, "Yeah, but I'm a cute weird!" I said, "Yes, that you are." She is so stinking funny. Well, the tooth fairy came and left her $3. The next morning she told me that she saw the tooth fairy. I said, "Really? What did she look like?" Claire said, "She has brown curly hair, brown skin, wings, a crown on her head and a beautiful pink dress! And I really wanted to reach and take the crown off her head, but I thought that might not be too nice." I breathed a huge sigh of relief and said, "She sounds beautiful." "Oh mommy, she really is!", is what Claire replied. She was so excited to be able to run to school and tell everyone.

Madeline was unfortunately sick Monday and Tuesday as was Maxwell and I. Oh, I forgot to mention all of the rain we got over the last few days. Places were flooding all over. It was awful. They even canceled school on Wednesday. When I told the girls school was cancelled they started planning a party. They said, "Oooh, we can have popcorn, play the Wii, watch a movie! Yay!" Too funny!

Well today was Claire's 7th birthday. She asked me to make tie-dyed cupcakes for her classmates, and I have to say they turned out pretty good. They could have been better, but I say that about anything I make. The kids loved all of the cupcakes and she enjoyed sharing them. When she got home Michael took her on a date to eat Mexican food. She felt so big and grown up. When she came home Madeline had a present she had picked out for her earlier in the week. She opened the gift and they ran off to play with her new toys. She also received a card from Great Granny with $5 inside, a card and gift from Granddaddy, and Mamaw sent a beautiful princess dress and cape for her party and Halloween. It is gorgeous. She also sent some stuff for the party! I can't wait to share the party pictures with you all.

I am sure there are things I'm missing, but I will post again soon. It's late and I'm getting tired, so forgive any typos please.

Night all!