Parent/Teacher Conferences

Last night we went to Ben's first Parent/Teacher Conference. The grading they do for the Kindergarten kids (I'm not sure how they do it for the older grades) is with a Y for Yes, an A for Almost, or an N for Not Quite. Ben mostly got Y's, with a few A's and even an occasional N (for things like bouncing and catching a ball). We did think it was kind of funny that on the alphabet testing they did, he missed the T. We thought he would miss the b and d, since he mixes those two up a lot, but he got all the lowercase ones right. His teacher told us that the beans are working really well, that sometimes all she has to do to get Ben to stop doing something is to say the word "bean". She said the other kids in the class are really supportive of Ben and always try to help him keep his beans too. They get excited for him when he gets to get a sticker. She said that she knows when she asks a question in class, that if she asks Ben, he always knows the right answer. She said that sometimes she'll ask a question and ask a few kids who will get it wrong, so she'll ask Ben so that they'll be able to hear the right answer. She also said she worries sometimes that she's not giving him enough to do and he'll get bored, since he seems to know it all pretty well. So she did send us home with a few books for him to read. We told her how he knows that an e at the end of a word makes the vowel sound like its name and she said she had just been teaching her second grade class that morning about that rule. She also showed us the iri testing scores they did at the beginning of the year (she had sent us home the score before) and told us what they'll be testing them on again. She said that Ben got the highest score for the Kindergarten kids in the whole school on that testing. So Ben's pretty smart and has been doing pretty well. He just needs to work a little more on some motor skills (pretty normal though), and maybe work more on jumping in and working with a group; he tends to be a bit stand-offish when they do their group games.

Boys in suits

Is there some reason that many boys and men don't like to dress up and wear suits? I can understand why they wouldn't like to wear ties or even the top button on their shirt buttoned, but they really do look nice in them.

Yesterday Ben threw a fit getting ready for church because he didn't want to wear the new pants I had gotten him to go with the suit jacket and vest that Cindy had given us. He wanted to wear his old church pants with the blue sweater he had been wearing lately. We made him try it on anyway and kept telling him how good he looked in it, but he still didn't want to wear it. We did manage to get him to keep it on though.

Although in a kind of opposite way, Chris will usually ask me as I'm getting him dressed in the mornings if it's Sunday yet so he can wear his church clothes. I'm waiting for him to decide he doesn't like them, too.

Ben in his suit


And here's Alex in his church clothes

And Chris in his

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Ben and Alex both had parties in school for Halloween and both said they were fun and they were really excited for tonight when they got to go get candy. Our ward was having a trunk or treat with 2 other wards and serving hot dogs and hot chocolate. We invited Brett, Alma, Kyle and Sabrina and we all went over and ate hot dogs (they ran out of those, by the way) and went trunk or treating. They all had a really good time, even though it got a bit cold. And there weren't nearly as many people there as I thought there'd be, but we still ended up getting a lot of candy.

Following are pictures:

These two were of Chris in his tiger costume. He didn't want to show his face.



These are of Daniel in his tiger costume. Cute tiger, huh?



All 4 boys


Pirate Alex


Pirate Ben


Posing Pirate Alex


All 4 boys again

4 month check-up

Daniel had his 4 month check-up today. He is now 24 inches long and weighs 14 pounds, 2 ounces. That puts him at about 45% for both. That's an inch taller and 1.2 pounds heavier than at his last appointment. If you paid attention to his last check-up, they said he was 80% for weight then. However, they did the marking for 2 months, when he was almost 3 months, so he was really pretty close to the percentage he is now. He's growing well and looks good. The doctor thinks we could probably start him on some solids now (he stopped sleeping through the night regularly like he was and he's almost doubled his birth weight). He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine again. He didn't seem too thrilled to be at the doctor though and cried every time we laid him down. Maybe he remembered the last visit with the shots. Poor kid already has a good memory.

Pumpkin Patch

Today for Alex's preschool, we went to a pumpkin patch. It's a nice, warm day today, but it was still a bit chilly this morning. I told the boys that it would be, but they still wanted to wear shorts. Yes, they complained about being cold at first, but when we got on the hay ride, they didn't notice anymore. We went on the hayride around the farm, then we went up and let them pick out their pumpkins. They had to be able to carry the pumpkins they chose, so they weren't able to pick out the really big ones, but they liked the ones they chose. Alex of course, picked a green one. He's silly sometimes. We all had fun there and they got to have an apple juice box and a bag of popcorn at the end. Unfortunately, Chris decided to choke a little on some popcorn in the van on the way home, so he threw up, but he's been happy since then. Well, except for when Alex takes things away from him.

The pumpkin patch was kind of out by Bryce's work, so we picked him up on the way home so he could have the van, since he wanted to go pick up some plans from a few places. So it was nice actually having someone else help with cleaning up after Chris' mess.

Following are some pictures from the trip as well as some pictures from the zoo when we went there for preschool a few weeks ago.

The boys on the hay ride

Walking through the pumpkin patch

Ben and Alex looking for pumpkins

Ben holding his pumpkin

Chris holding his pumpkin

Alex: I don't know which one to get!

Alex riding an elephant at the zoo

The boys and the zebra

And just for fun...

Alex and Daniel

Daniel actually smiling in a picture!

Daniel in his swing