Halloween and other things

Matt was nice enough to post pictures the last two weeks in lieu of a write-up.  School and work and the kids are keeping us quite busy, so I've gotten a bit behind.

I was able to take the kids trick-or-treating last night.  I pushed Hank and Pete in the stroller and Jane and Jack rode their scooters.  In our neighborhood there are a lot of dark houses and no answers so it can be a pretty slow process.  But we managed to get enough to make the kids happy so we headed home before getting too cold.  All the kids went as Star Wars characters.  Well, I guess Hank was really from Clone Wars but I don't really understand it.  Jane was Padme, Jack was Luke, Hank was Rex, and Pete was a stormtrooper.  I festively donned a millennium falcon T-shirt.  Pete quickly saw the excitement.  He kept setting his plastic pumpkin down and trying to take the whole basket of candy held out by the person.  Hank was the opposite.  He only wanted candy that he really liked so when chocolate varieties were offered he just stood there and smiled and then walked away.  Eventually he started saying, "Happy Halloween!  No thank you."  But when he did see something he liked he would hold it up excitedly and gasp, "I got this!!!"  It was adorable.  He only ended up going home with about five pieces of candy but he was as happy as could be.  Jane and Jack had fun, too, I think.

Jane has been really into reading The American Girl books about fictional historical girls.  She sure loves to read.  Her teacher has commented a couple times how much she enjoys having Jane in her class--that she is happy and fun and a good student.  This past week she had the word barbecue on her spelling test.  She was taught to spell it barbeque.  Matt showed Jane that according to the dictionary barbecue was the most accepted way to spell it but that barbeque is alternative way.  So, on spelling test day she spelled it barbecue.  When her teacher marked it wrong, Jane says she politely took her test back up and explained that it is actually spelled with a c more often than q.  The teacher looked it up and then gave her the point. 

One day Jack was telling me how he didn't need his jacket at the playground because he got so hot from having to run away from the girls that were chasing him and his friends.  Jane said, "That means they like you.  And I've gotta admit, you're pretty cute."

Hank always tries to get out of eating the produce parts of his meals.  One day he was telling me, "My tummy say my tummy is full.  Actually my brain say it."  

When Hank gets mad at us he furrows his brow so deep and barely peeks up from under them.  Or, if he's really upset he will declare, "I not going to look at you" and will punish us with not looking at us until he isn't so mad any more.

Pete has really been blossoming lately.   All of a sudden he is trying to say tons of stuff.  He even says, "Pete" in the cutest way possible.  When he sees our neighbor Scottie he yells, "cottie!"  He is absolutely wild about dogs and says "doggy, doggy!"  He loves applesauce pouches and asks for it by saying "Saw-saw".  He's even starting to be more agreeable on some days.

Here's another pic of Jane and Jack on their way to costume day at school.