Another Johnson Cousins Weekend

We got to have the best day on Saturday. My cousins Brenda, Anna, and Liv came down to the cities. Anna and Liv brought Otto and Huxon so my gang got their cousins. And we added Auntie. Because everything is better with Auntie!

We met the cousins at their hotel on Saturday morning to use them for their swimming pool! Our furnace was acting up so Mike stayed home to work on that and I banked on our existing 1:1 adult to short person ratio to help ensure no one drowned. Anna is currently cooking the fourth little boy for the cousin gang that Dec will lead ... so we'll be outnumbered next year. Unless we bring in Auntie Tracey for reinforcement!!

A happy surprise, the pool was not crazy cold like hotel pools often are. We swim around for over an hour and had a great time. Sweet Hux enjoyed his first pool experience and Otto and Dec loved kicking around together. Quinn was happy to hang out on the stairs, but was willing to venture out with me a few times. And Fiona - well, she's still a water baby. Happy to swim everywhere! We even did a bit of practice with no life jacket!

After nap, everyone came down to our house to play. We played for a while and then took advantage of the lovely weather and headed to the park at Q's preschool. It's fenced, has little equipment, and was not crowded. Perfect for the kids to play and tall people to visit! Then we had a deliciously unhealthy dinner delivered, bathed the babes, and put our tired humans to bed. 

Cousin weekend is such a special tradition. I love that the kids are building relationships with their cousins and I love that the incredible bond that Em and I have with our cousins continues to grow through the years. As does the number of us. And that boy to girl ratio is not what it used to be ... 

School Conferences x2

Sometimes conferences mean
Group Hug

We had school conferences for the girls last week. Neither of us was too concerned as we hadn't heard much from preschool and I've talked to Fiona's teacher several times (usually about spina bifida related topics). We felt that we'd know if there were any big issues.

So we were a little surprised when, the day before her conference, I told Bugs that we would see her teacher tomorrow and she burst into tears. Later that night, I was able to talk to her more in depth about why she was upset. She told me that they did Writer's Workshop in class and that she "did it wrong and I'm not a good writer." I told her that we would ask her teacher what was expected and then we would practice at home. We assured her that everyone has stuff that they have to work hard on and that we weren't upset with her.

Official PreK picture

We really like Fiona's teacher - and so does Fiona - and it's clear that Ms. B likes her too. I did ask about F's writing and Ms. B was completely shocked. She said that Fiona was one of her best writers and even showed me an example. F had wanted to write "I played with my neighbor" and wrote (without any help!) "I plad with mi nabr." Not too shabby for a six-year-old! Root cause of the distress is that they went over their report cards as a class the day before conferences and she had a score of a "1" for writing skills (3 is the best). Even though she is doing just fine, they grade on where they expect kids to be at the end of the year. Being our perfectionist oldest child, she was devastated at her low score. But felt much better after we told her that she's doing great!

It's been pretty much radio silence from Quinn's school, so we were really excited to hear how it was going. Q's teacher was surprised to learn that she was a "young four" because she is doing really well both academically and socially. She plays while with the other kids and is very engaged in class. She still needs the occasional reminders on expectations - but what four-year-old doesn't.

We mentioned that one of the reasons that we put her in preschool this year to was gauge readiness for Kindergarten next year. At this point in the year, Quinn is doing fantastic. She loves school and we can see her confidence growing there. She is making some good friends and loves to tell us about her day. She is a total sponge and enjoys learning new things.

I'm With Us

I've decided the best way to deal with the election results coming in tonight is alcohol and Doritos. This year's presidential election has been incredibly divisive to our country. My hope is that we can all wake up tomorrow morning, accept the results, choose kindness and respect, and celebrate the fact that we get a vote and a voice in our country's government.

Mike and I are fiercely private about our voting tendencies. In general, we lean the same way. One of us leans farther than the other. But neither one of us is opposed to crossing party lines for the right candidate. We have talked about the election in front of our kids in general terms. Like what the president does. Why voting is important. Yada yada. I'm positive that none of the children could have told you who was running.

Bugs got to vote at school today and was so so proud. She voted for Hillary. Because "I got to vote for a girl to be president, mom. A GIRL!" Her class elected Trump 10 votes to 9 votes. We got to have an amazing conversation tonight with her (and Q listening intently) about how every vote counts and if one person had voted for Hillary in her class instead of Trump, Hillary would have won. And how even if you vote for the person who does not win, it doesn't make your vote less important. She asked who we voted for. We told her. And told her why. As we tucked her into bed tonight, she told Mike to be sure to tell her who won when he gets her up tomorrow morning.

Hanging chad-like debacles aside, by morning the election should be over. I have a preferred result. But more than anything, I hope we can heal the divide of the election as a country and move forward with love, tolerance, and respect for each other. Even if they disagree with us. We have that right.

When Elsa, a Bee, and Mickey Took on the Neighborhood

Ever since I can remember, I've been torn at Halloween. Do I want to go get candy? Or do I want to pass it out? Because they are both SO FUN!! Then, I outgrew trick-or-treating and could just focus on handing out the candy. I love Halloween night, seeing all the kids dressed up, and handing them sugar by the handful. Except I'm pretty sure I lost my job. The small Vs discovered the joy of handing out candy this year.

They stood on our tiny landing for probably 45 minutes, holding fistfuls of candy, basically willing people to our door. No one could ring our doorbell because they had the door open as soon as someone even looked toward it. After they each put candy in every bag (the neighborhood kids scored at our house), they stood in the doorway waving and shouting "Happy Halloween!" It was the very best - everything I dreamed about in having kids that love holidays as much as I do! At one point, they were so sad that there was a lull in traffic that Mike snuck out the backdoor, put on some hockey gear and grabbed a bucket, and came around the front. We got a couple legit KitKats out of the deal, so it worked for us (as opposed to the other KitKats that I swiped from their buckets ...)

The girls didn't have school on Halloween so I took the day off and we had a girls day. We made hot chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow icing and delivered them to some neighbors. We picked up Dec early so we had time to make "Bats and Cobwebs" for supper (bowtie pasta as "bats," spaghetti sauce, and melted mozzarella pearls that string up as "webs") and get ready for our trick-or-treating date!

We met up with our neighbors Evelyn and Jonah and their parents. [Fiona goes over to their house every day and catches the bus in the morning with Evelyn.] Last year, we had so much fun trick or treating with cousins that we wanted to go in a group again. I conceded to the will of Fiona this year and she was Elsa. But I refused to buy anything new and told her she had to put together an outfit based on the many Elsa pieces in the dress up bin. Quinn decided to revive the bee costume for another year. And Dec found F's old Mickey Mouse costume in the closet and decided that was perfect. So somehow I got off with all existing costumes!

We started with the cul-de-sac and the big kids were pros. Dec was working hard to keep up and was loving being a part of the group. Q was done after the cul-de-sac, so she and Mike headed home to hand out candy. Bugs, D, and I continued down the block with the gang. By the end of the block, they were done too. So we headed back home, popped a Halloween music station on Spotify, and the aforementioned happy candy handing happened.

It was simply a splendid holiday!

Feelin' Fall

The days are getting shorter and chillier, so we are packing in as much outside fun as possible before the snow flies. We'll pack in outside fun then too - but we have to wear more gear. Right now, we are solidly in our puffy vest wheelhouse. Well, four out of the five of us, anyway. I think we'll have to get Mike one - so he's one of the gang!

Mike has been working his tail off getting the yard ready for winter. He's taken several trailer loads of leaves to the farm and the yard looks great. Inevitably, we have one windy day in November that will dump a bunch more leaves and we'll make a final farm trip ... but we're pretty close. He has had no shortage of helpers in his leaf piles. They are more than happy to run through them and jump in them - quality control at its finest. 

On Saturday, we went to the seventh grade football championship game to cheer on our buddy Jack. J is pretty much Dec's hero, especially after Jack played football with him all last summer. Dec sat enthralled for the entire game while his sisters wandered around and socialized with their friends. He cheered and clapped and watched all the football moms for his celebratory cues. J's team won the game and we got to go down on the field after to celebrate. As soon as J saw Dec, he ran over and grabbed him for a hug. For the rest of the day, Dec talked about how he got to watch Jack and how Jack hugged him. Our guy really loves his big boy buddies! Also - D's got quite the leg on him and is ready to try out for team kicker.