It seems like Fall went fast this year but it was a most beautiful Fall as the weather was gorgeous and the leaves took their time to change colors and so the trees had the most beautiful mixture of orange, red and yellow leaves for weeks and weeks. The only thing I did not like about the warm weather was the many flies that we had in our house from the middle of August till November. The Kids went back to school at the beginning of September and they have enjoyed it. Caeleb is in grade 5 and there is a new learning curve at that age but I know he will get the hang of things and is doing well for the most part. Elva is in grade 2 and has been growing in leaps and bounds with her reading. She is the oldest in the class and is a leader and a friend to everyone. Mary is in Kindergarten and seems to be learning fast. She has some anxieties I believe with the coming and going of school but she is loving school when she is there.
Chris and Caeleb's birthday on September 14th went well. Caeleb is into Avengers right now and so he had an avenger themed family party with a cake shaped like the aircraft from the movie. He is very particular about what he wants for birthday themes. I love that he always has a certain theme in his life - he goes from Harry Potter, to Avengers to Gravity Falls, etc. I love my 10 year old. Holy Cow - 10 years old! He got a Nintendo switch Video game called animal crossing. Chris got a $2500 bike so that was an extra special birthday for him. Not sure we should have afforded that (especially as my accident which happened after buying the bike cost us about $8000 on top of insurance to get a vehicle that met our needs - and really the 2012 Dodge Caravan we bought is a modest vehicle but it did have low kms so that is why we got it). I feel bad about my accident -that $8000 could have gone towards any other number of things - including our savings as we do not know what Chris' job status will be come summer. Oh well, I beat myself up about it but I have to move on. Anyways, I also got Chris a date day going biking in Vulcan while a babysitter watched the kids including Elizabeth (her first time with a babysitter that was not her Nana or Grandma). We had fun going for a bike ride and I hope to do more of that. Mary's birthday on September 19th consisted of a Forky cake from toy story 4 (I repurposed the leftover cake from Caeleb's birthday) and she got a Barbie store set. She is a funny little thing. She is very strong willed, to the point where I sometimes just look at her and am left speechless when she says and does things. But I think she will go far in life. I love her very much.
Halloween was on a Saturday which was great as the kids did not have school the next day. We asked ahead to each neighbor to see if we could stop by and for the first time in my life I took the kids to Champion before trick or treating to join a little costume parade down main street. The kids enjoyed that and they also enjoyed our typical 2 - 3 hour drive around to the farms in our area to trick or treat. This year, Caeleb and Mary were skeletons, Elva was a cheerleader (I am NOT a sewer but my mom made her an adorable costume), Selman was a fireman (his first time trick or treating) and Lizzy and Chris were pumpkins and I was an M &M (I have had that costume since I was about 12). They stayed home to hand out candy to the about 15 kids that came. Oh, and we made our attic spooky looking by putting a doll in the window and people could see it while driving in the yard. Chris does not like spooky movies and things but I like kiddish spooky movies and haunted houses and such. It was a nice night out and we had a great time.
Normally on November 11, we try to go to a remembrance day service as it is such an important day to me with my Grandpa Selman being a POW. Champion only had a small outside service and so we watched in online but later that day we did go to Vulcan to hand out bags for collecting food for the food bank. It was a good service activity for the kids to do and I am grateful that my mom really encouraged us to do that. Mom and I also made our Christmas turtles and nutclusters in November to hand out to friends and family at Christmas time. I love that tradition!
Elva's birthday was on December 3 and I can't believe that she is already 8 years old! We put off her baptism until the end of January as we are hoping that we can have some family and friends come. But with the way COVID is going, that may not be an option. Elva is such a wonderful little girl. She is so ready to be baptized. She is kind to her classmates and is a leader in her class at school. She does well at math and even though reading is a struggle, she works hard everyday. And she is the best printer I know! She is a little Mom to her younger siblings and she is a hard worker. For her birthday I let her skip a day of school and she came to Lethbridge with me to go Christmas shopping. We went out for lunch at Cora's and she was able to pick out her own birthday gift - she chose a mylife doll. I love my Elva so much! I am excited to see what life has in store for her.
Well, I will leave it there as Mary is climbing all over me. I will try to update on Christmas later.
