Crafty crafty

As those of you who know me well can attest to, I am totally not crafty. However I am so proud of my pumpkin wreath that I made this past weekend (and am devoting an entire post just to show it off!!) :

School

I LOVE the preschool that the girls are going to.  It is like a dream.  The only drawback so far has been the bus.  They get out of school a little after 3 and don't get home until 4:15.  Ridiculous, right?  But I have told the girls that I will come and pick them up if they want, but once we change to the car we are not going back to the bus.  So far they have said that they will stay with the bus but if it gets longer they want me to pick them up.  I am not sure that they really understand how much earlier they would get home.  Time is still so vague to them now.  But on Tuesdays and Wednesdays it would be especially nice as we are hustling out of the house super fast to get to dance and church.  And the church situation should be a whole other post as it has been a real eye opener to teach 16 very active, mainly boys 4 year olds.  As I told D, I leave there and feel like I need a margarita every week.

I LOVE both of the girls' teachers.  They are awesome.  Totally together but totally loving too.  And they still seem like a great match for each of them. 

I LOVE getting a calendar that shows me what they are planning to cover each day.  So nice to know a) that there is a plan and b) what I should ask them about each day.  And even better - they are doing the same curriculum in each class.  So the exact execution may be different between the classes but overall it is super similar. 

I LOVE the uniforms.  I think that I may make my kids wear uniforms throughout their schooling - regardless of what their school is doing.  The only downside to the uniforms is that I did not realize when purchasing them that Brooke would EXCLUSIVELY be wearing a jumper and Audrey would EXCLUSIVELY be wearing a skirt.  I would have definitely bought a different supply with that knowledge. 

I LOVE that they send home a behavior chart that we are expected to initial every day.  Though the girls have been informed that they are expected to stay at the top of the star the whole year.  We shall see.

I LOVE that they are totally emphasizing graphing - I am truly a math nerd at heart!  They did Venn diagrams about school rules vs home rules.  D and I did get nervous when Audrey said that she volunteered a home rule to put on the graph as some rules sound very odd without context (eg: you must at least wear panties when eating at the table).  But she fortunately said that it was a rule that you don't splash water out of the bathtub.  And that firmly fell just in the home rules section. And they have graphed almost everything that they have done: how you get to school, what color eyes you have, how many people are in your family, what type of dwelling you live in....this last one totally cracked me up as the choices here in LA are clearly different than if we were still outside of DC : home, apartment, or mobile home (or as Audrey says "you know those little homes that can move")

And I LOVE that Brooke was chosen to be star student for her class for the first month.  I went to eat lunch with her to see her get her little crown, medal, cookie, and certificate.  She was so proud of herself...and I was probably twice that proud.  Now I just hope that Audrey will be a star student one of these next 8 months (fingers crossed as I basically already told her that she would be it a different month)

My Little Noles

For Labor Day Weekend we made a road trip to Tallahassee to take the girls to their first ever FSU football game.  And as a bonus, D's fraternity was having their annual alumni dinner that same weekend too.  All 4 of us Haddens were totally psyched about the trip.  D and I had not been back to campus for probably 10 years *which does not seem possible as we feel like we graduated just a few short years ago. We were shocked at how much had changed on the campus and how nice everything looked!  It was great to be back and I therefore took a TON of pictures...unfortunately I took them all on my phone so the quality varies greatly from picture to picture.  Here are the best of the bunch.

 Brooke at the pregame tailgate

 Audrey at the pregame tailgate.  One of D's fraternity brothers told Audrey that she could have this little Teddy Bear if she went up to another guy and told him that he looked like a chicken hawk....clearly fraternity boys never really grow up.

 The girls watching the Marching Chiefs march into the stadium

The family heading into the game.  You may be able to tell from our sweaty, red faces that it was HOT that day.

 D with his college bestie Griff

 Cheering on a touchdown.  The girls played with Griff's kids Emily and Gavin the whole weekend and really had fun with them

 Now we are really looking hot!

 Our Number One fans!

 Enjoying the halftime show

 In front of the Westcott fountains and the main entrance to FSU

 The girls taking their first dip into the fountains.  They thought it was hilarious to know that when we were in college we threw people into the fountains for birthdays and engagements.