M. and C. begin fall break today. Well, actually it began at 1:00 yesterday thanks to early dismissal. Now they get today, tomorrow, and Monday off. Catholic schools know how to do it!

So naturally we’re off to Florida again…

Kidding!

Two trips to Florida is enough for one year. We are getting out of town, though. We’re heading downtown, first, and making our annual trip to the Children’s Museum’s haunted house. From there we’ll head to the LVS for two nights, making a day trip down to Bloomington in there as well. I believe this will be the girls first trip to B-town. And then on Saturday we’re meeting some friends down near Louisville for a night of adult and kid fun. We’ll be back in time for soccer on Sunday.

Before we go, a few kid notes while watching this strangeness that is Game One of the World Series.


We had parent-teacher conferences at St. P’s this week. Both girls are doing well and got lots of praise from their teachers. M. showed a lot of self-awareness when she noted on her self-assessment that she needs to work harder on raising her hand before talking and then not talking too much. I loved the note her teacher put on her report card. Sometimes M. shares too many ideas without raising her hand. At least she’s consistent. That’s been what every teacher has said about her since she began school. She has A’s in all but one subject and barely missed an A in that one.

C. is really doing well. She’s beginning to take reading and spelling to another level, doing more on her own. And she’s really taking to math, too. What we thought was coolest, though, was that she got voted by her class to be their representative at a school-wide student board. It’s some offshoot of the seven habits of successful students thing they’re doing this year. But she wrote why she would be a good representative, all on her own, and they voted her in. So she gets to go to a special meeting with representatives of every other class in the school and talk about how they can be good leaders. Or something. I’m really not sure what goes on there.

Not all was perfect for C., though. Last Friday I was looking at her spelling test and noticed she was way off on her attempt at spelling bench. See #9 below.

Bench?

Whoops!

I started laughing out loud, showed it to S., and she did the same. C. wanted to know why we were laughing. “Well, C., you accidentally spelled a bad word on your test.”

“What?” she had a look of confusion and shock on her face. I showed her the page, she covered her mouth, her eyes bugged out a little, and then she started laughing, too.

We told her it was ok, it was an accident, and we were sure her teacher probably laughed, too. Just don’t say it in class!


We had a sad moment Saturday. L.’s fish, Jake, who hadn’t been eating for awhile, was motionless on the bottom of his bowl when we came down for breakfast.

“Dad, why isn’t Jake moving?” asked L..

I tapped the glass, he kind of flopped over without moving any fins. “Well, sweetie, I think he died.”

Astute readers may recall C. bursting into tears and being inconsolable for some time after her first fish, Spike, died two years ago. L. just rolled with it.

“Can I get another fish?”
“Sure.”
“OK! Can I flush Jake down the potty?”
“Of course.”
“Cool!”

They’re very different, those two.