Stow Aways: November 2013

November Kid Update

Wait, wasn't there just a kid update in October? Yes, things can change quite a bit in a month and these two never cease to do more and be more.

Sorry, these pics were both just too cute, couldn't choose between them. They were taken just after the girls' first guitar recital. (If you want to see video, you'll just have to go to my Facebook page. Videos on blogs just don't cooperate for me anymore.) They did so well. Grace played MK Ultra by MUSE and Harriet played Ode to Joy by Beethoven.
They continue to LOVE guitar lessons and we still adore DJ, their teacher. He is amazing!!!

Grace ran for student council president against about 6 other kids. Check out her campaign speech. I thought it was pretty great:

Got Grace? Hi, my name is grace chapman. i am running for your student council president. I love our school. This is my last year at tierra Antigua and I want to make it the best I can. I value all of your opinions and hope to make it a great year for everyone.

If I could, I would:

1- make the school lunches way tastier

2- persuade the principal to give us longer recess

3- arrange for nicer toilet paper for the restrooms

4- give all the teachers raises

5- replace all the chairs that have broken or missing feet

6- get cushions for every seat

7- make the school day shorter

8- make the summer longer

9- sound proof the classrooms so that we can talk as loud as we want in the hallway

10- make any drink you want come out of the drinking fountain.

But, unfortunately, I can’t do those things. So, I promise to:

1- be honest

2- work hard

3- be a good friend

4- encourage compromise and agreement in student council meetings

5- plan fun activities for the school

6- admit when I make a mistake

7- help others when they make mistakes

8- plan good service projects that help our community

9- represent our school in a positive way

10- help everyone have the best year ever

So, vote for me, grace chapman, your awesome 5^th grader. If you’ve got grace for President, you’ve got a great year!

Unfortunately, she lost to a girl who actually promised to get a snack bar installed in the school. LAME! Oh well, she still gets to be on student council as a delegate. Harriet was so mad though, she had been campaigning for Grace in the lower grades and had lots of kids ready to vote for her. Then, they didn't let the lower grades vote! Only 3-5 got to vote. LAME! It's all good though. Grace isn't too upset about it and I think, frankly, relieved that she doesn't have to go to ALL the student council meetings.

Harriet was pretty excited to get a real piano. My grandmother passed it along to our family since Harriet is the only great-grandchild taking piano lessons who didn't currently have her own piano. She has played it every single day since it was delivered. (Jessica's awesome hubby, Nick, drove it to ABQ for us!) Harriet also "graduated" from going to therapy sessions. She is doing so much better about going to school, feeling safe and happy there, being able to talk to adults and tell them what she needs... she has also made tons of progress at home. I am super proud of her.

She was also awarded Student of the Month for October and gave her first talk in Primary a couple weeks ago. I couldn't believe that she had never given a talk before since she's almost 8!, but it was the first time she didn't turn it down and opt for a scripture or prayer. Go Hattie!

Shadow... let's do a little report on the doggie. (yes, she is taking a nap in the middle of a "Dogopoly" game.)

She is doing really well. I thought for sure she wouldn't survive losing Velvet. She did have a few rough weeks at first. Poor thing. But, lately, she has realized that she is now "alpha dog" and has all these rights and responsibilities that she has never had before. She is figuring it out nicely and has taken on so many things that Velvet used to do. She reminds me when it's dinner time. She asks for walks. She asks to go outside. She begs for food. She watches me cook. These were all things Velvet used to be responsible for. It's been super interesting to watch her personality change. She seems pretty happy though, and has had tons of attention. The kids have been really good about playing with her and making sure she's ok.

And, here's just some random fun:

Raking our 27 fall leaves and jumping in them with the neighbor friend, Ethan:

Sneaking in a zoo trip during the school year on Veteran's day when they had the day off. We were so lucky! We got to see the new baby elephant! She wasn't scheduled to be out when we were there.

HALLOWEEN 2013

We did squeeze in Halloween sometime in October. That was one crazy month, to say the least. We made it to the pumpkin patch to volunteer, play, and pick pumpkins. We found a night to carve them. We went to the church trunk-or-treat. We did the 2nd grade school party. We went to Grandma's house, and we had some friends over to trick-or-treat with us. Halloween. Check.

Burying yourself in corn is less fun when you stand up and realize your undies are full of corn and hay!

Grace has a tradition for herself to never choose an orange pumpkin. She always wants one of the white luna pumpkins or a green pumpkin or a yellow pumpkin/squash thing. This year, she chose yellow. Funny kid, that one.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!

This year, the costumes were super adorable and so easy. I loved Grace as Anakin "Annie" Skywalker and Harriet as Rapunzel. She decided to be Rapunzel the day she chopped her hair. Good thing the costume came with a great wig!

Heading out for trunk-or-treat at church.

She even got gold sparkly shoes to match... oh Harriet, my beauty.

Harriet and her BFF, Gilli.

Grace and Dallin with their super-natural weapons and fantasy powers. I begged Grace to go as Hermione when I found out Dallin was going to be Harry Potter. She would be the PERFECT Hermione. No Dice. Annie Skywalker, it is.

We carved pumpkins the night that the Boston Red Sox were playing the final game of the world series. Grace carved her Boston B logo into her pumpkin for good luck. It worked. They won!

Harriet and her Hello Kitty creation.

I thought it was fitting that we have a bike on the family pumpkin this year. This thing is the biggest pumpkin I've ever bought. (I usually try to buy the biggest one I can lift into a wagon at the GGYR pumpkin patch.) I must have been strong that day. I couldn't lift it by myself afterwards. I wish I had weighed it, but I'm confident it weighed more than Grace.

Harriet's 2nd grade class. They don't let the kids wear costumes on Halloween, so they have pajama day.

I ended up being in charge of the class party craft project. We made these adorable spider webs and spiders.

Hmm... Annie Skywalker is too skinny for her utility belt and it fell off as they rang Grandma's doorbell after school.

(Side note- I'm SO glad I took that picture of Grace's long hair a few weeks back. She went to get a haircut the day before Halloween and we ended up cutting a huge length off because it was so damaged. This is super short hair for her. She seems to be ok with it though. I think it looks so much nicer than the tangled mess it used to be. I'm sure she'll grow it out over winter again though.)

These kids belong to people we know from David's work and Galloping Grace (same family.) They live in the boonies and had nowhere to trick-or-treat so we invited them to join us in our neighborhood full of houses and kids. It was a super chilly night. Coldest Halloween we've had in ABQ yet.

but don't the jack's look awesome?!

David and I were bah humbug this year. We did not dress up. We did not host any parties. We thought we were pretty awesome to just be alive and well and be able to hand out candy. Some years are different than others.

"I want to ride my bicycle...

I want to ride my bike." Well, maybe that is an overstatement for myself, but I do love the White Sands bike ride with the family. We decided we had to go back to get the full moon experience since it was rainy and cloudy the first time we tried it. Our bike friends, the Meredith family, came with us too. It ended up being a very last minute trip after planning it all year. The government had been shut down for weeks and we didn't think they would open the park in time for the ride. The ride was scheduled for October 18th. The government opened October 16th. The park opened the 17th. Not only that, David had been hit just the week before and hadn't ridden since. With no concrete plans to do it, we hadn't been taking the girls out on training rides either. But, I felt like it was a great chance to get back on bikes as a family and do something happy after having such a big scare and so much sad and crazy in the immediate past. So, we threw together some quick plans, packed a fast bag, attached the bikes to the car, and hustled down to White Sands before school got out on Friday.

We got there with just enough time to eat dinner and put some glow sticks and lights on the bikes.

Grace was overjoyed to get to ride with her BFF, Dallin.

I thought it was pretty cool to get to ride with this crew. These guys are the serious riders. I would never be allowed on a ride with them if we weren't accompanied by 5 kids under the age of 12. Muffin keeps up with the boys on the mountain too. They are way out of my league, and I'm ok with that.

Getting ready to go... some guy was playing the Queen song "I want to ride my bicycle..." full blast. Super fun.

Harriet had fun with little Maddie. She is a couple years younger, but they finally clicked on this trip and had a blast.

Our little geeks.

Sister picture. They have this pose down solid.

End of ride. These kids were amazing! The loop through White Sands is 16 miles. Last year, we did about 11 of those miles - had to turn around just after getting into the big part of the dunes. Harriet rode on a trailer bike and Grace had to take rests. This year, every single one of these little kids rode the whole 16 miles. We couldn't see any other kids their ages who did it. I was especially impressed with the Meredith's little kids who are only in kindergarten! That is a lot of pedaling.

It was an amazing ride. The sand was so beautiful in the full moonlight. Having friends along made it tons of fun. We did get cold. Grace refused full-fingered gloves and seriously regretted it. But, other than a few cold fingers and some saddle-sore butts, it was perfect!

The next day, we swam at the hotel and then went back to the dunes for some sledding. Again, so fun to have friends along. I highly recommend traveling with friends. We've done it several times and haven't regretted it yet.