November

I love the in between weather of early November.  The wardrobe choices are all so cute, and there’s no bulky outerwear to cover it up.  This girl is made for fall attire.

The sun is just coming up these days when I wake Sof up.  She loves to run to my bathroom and see what the sky looks like.  If it’s pretty she yells, “Mama, give me your phone!”. Then she’ll snap a picture.

 

The pictures aren’t great, but I love that she notices and appreciates a good sunrise.

I gave her a new coloring book for her birthday, and she really took to it.  I was so proud of her for finishing this picture.  It’s hard for an adult to stick with something that long, let alone a kid!

Sof had a pajama day at school, and you would think it was the literal best day of her life.  She had her pajamas sitting out for days before so as not to risk her favorite ones being dirty when the day came!

Lexi left her high school cheer team to go back to the gym this month.  As I mentioned before, she quickly got asked to fill in on Sof’s team, which put them both on the same schedule.  Heavenly.  However, Lexi is obviously at a higher skill level than Sof.  Therefore, she goes to a training team once a week that Sof doesn’t go to.  When Sof is in cheer without Lexi, Lexi and I always go to Starbucks.  So when Sof realized there was a practice Lexi was going to without her, she begged me to take her on a Starbucks date!  I wasn’t sure she would last the whole 2 hours, but she did pretty good.  She was totally happy as long as her cookie lasted, and after that she only asked a few times “how much longer”:)  

Sof had her first competition(before Lexi joined).  This is a great team.  Despite the age differences, the girls all get along really nicely.  Plus, I love the parents!

Lastly for this month, I have to admit, this is the second year in a row that I decorated for Christmas the week before Thanksgiving.  I love the look of the house when the decorations are up, and when a free day presents itself I can’t resist taking advantage.  Even if it is a little early! 

Sof wanted to put the manger up.  When she called me over to see it, this is what I found!  Did you know there were Littlest Pet Shop animals at the stable?  LOL, who knew?

Second Grade

Sof is having a fantastic year in second grade.  She loves the non-fiction focus in reading and writing, and of course loves all her teachers.  I love that her teacher takes so many pictures and posts them for us see.  I love catching a glimpse of my girl at work.

I always donate a book to the classroom on the girls’ birthdays.  I wrap it all up, and they don’t know what title it is until they get to school and open it.  This year it was “Ada Twist, Scientist”!  I couldn’t resist this book!  It’s message is that girls can be scientists too, and asking questions is all you need to do to start being a scientist!  To top it off, Ada is a second grader!

One of the non-fiction studies they did was on owls.  Sof was totally into this.  She worked several days at home printing out pictures of owls and looking up facts.  Then she made it into a book.  Mrs. Giles let her share it with the whole class!

The whole class looks forward to Thursdays when we Skype with the Grace Care girls in Sri Lanka.  We’ve run into lots of issues.  We’ve had sessions that wouldn’t connect, miscommunication about time, technology issues on both sides, and one session where we had no sound and had to use a white board to communicate.  Still, the children are so patient and willing to try.  I just love it!

    

I would never have these pictures if it weren’t for Sof’s teacher.  I’m so thankful she takes these!