November has passed in a blur and I'm not even sure what we did all month, as I didn't take many pictures.
We enjoyed a little time with Matt's family to celebrate Nanny's birthday. A nice lunch, always some good conversation, good-natured teasing about Nanny's "favorite" child, and some laughing together. We are also planning a trip together for Matt's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. I think Julia was a toddler our last family trip!!
This month is always one of my favorites at preschool, as we learn about sea life and do a lot of fun activities together. I also went back to way too early VIPKID teaching and added in subbing on Thursdays and Fridays. Mostly subbing has gone well and I've enjoyed a change of pace in my week. I've learned so much about our school system already and I've definitely learned where I enjoy being and where is not a good fit. So far I've been in 4 schools and more to come! I've had kids from 3 years old to big 5th graders. I've held non-verbal kids and sung to them, helped kids write DARE essays, worked on math and reading with small groups of kids, given quizzes, and survived a fight in my classroom. It's been so interesting and I'm only a few weeks in! I'm pondering where to go from here, once Allie starts preschool, and gathering all the info and experience I can in the meantime.
We've gone through the school routine, but tried to capitalize on any good weather in the afternoons. Julia loves hanging out outside with her friends and she LIVES for playdates. Meanwhile we have a new routine with the boys since Joshua made basketball and Gray made frisbee. They have practice every day and starting next month we will have games Monday through Thursday between the two of them!! Can't wait to cheer them on.
We had a fun rainy Saturday this past weekend. We got a free trip to the movies to see Frozen II, which we thought was great! I'd never taken Allie to a movie and she was so excited and did really well. I sat behind her and she snuggled in with the girls. Every once and while her little arms would reach over the back of her chair for me to hold her for a bit, then she'd go back to her seat. The kids ate toooonnnns of popcorn, as we got the large and a bunch of free little bags to distribute all the free refills. :) I overheard Gray say if he could eat one food for the rest of his life it would be popcorn. I love that he was up for going to Frozen and had a great time...no worries about whether it was cool or not. We've been talking a lot about the complicated world of middle school where so many are always worried about what's cool and what others think. I told Gray I loved that he doesn't care about that stuff and just does what he likes, whether it's the popular thing or not. He said, "Well I don't really have any friends that are considered popular." Ha. Sorry, friends. But I do think it's a lot less complicated in his social world! He's gotten to have two sleepovers in a row the last week and he is loving it. Almost all his friends made the frisbee team along with him so it's going to be a really fun season for him!
Post-Frozen II, we headed with Julia and some friends for free skate. They loved it and Julia is improving so much!
And then we had a short, but intense internet crisis that briefly took over my life as I tried to fix it and find the quickest solution for getting someone else to fix it. I'm only allowed to cancel a few VIPKID classes before they will end my contract so it was high stress figuring out how to get through my busiest two days with no internet. Thankfully, Matt's parents were gracious enough to allow me to sneak over to their house at 4 am and get those classes taught and as of today, we've got the green light again. Whew. I don't like being so tied to this and dealing with customer service/tech people for hours. Yuck. But still thankful for this job and getting to teach some really brilliant and sweet kids across the world.
And now we get ready for Thanksgiving. I'm so ready for some down time with family. So ready. I'll leave you with my yearly recipe for pumpkin pie, written by my class! The first week of December is on its way and will be full of celebrations...Gray's running a mile at the Hillsborough Christmas parade, the boys have their first games, Julia has her holiday concert, and I get to go see a show with my mom and sister. Yay for Christmastime!!
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