Overachievers

Warning: this post is mostly just me bragging.

In November, Addy and Marcus both got Citizenship awards for being good examples at school.  I was a little worried about Marcus going up front of everyone to accept his but he did it no problem.  School has worked wonders with his shyness.

Meanwhile, Mark had a birthday but he was in China so the kids made him a sign so we could send him a message on facebook.

Notice Addy's writing, I love it!  She started writing backwards about a year and half ago.  We think it is because she is a lefty.  She has been working on correcting it this year in Kindergarten, but every once in a while she slips back into backwards writing.

When he got back we had a cake and party waiting for him.  Nothing better then celebrating with kids who think you rock the world (which he does of course).

Ok, so now back to the bragging...All three of the kids received principle awards for good grades this last term.  We are so proud of our little monsters!  They are all doing so well in school and loving it.  I get to volunteer in their classes and am always so proud to see them being good friends and behaving well.  Addy is learning sign language because there is a little boy in her class that signs.  Marcus is on 'perfect purple' almost every day.  The funniest part about that is when I volunteer he is a little stinker if he is in the group I am working with-I think he gets jealous that I am paying equal attention to his friends.

Katie walking up with her friend who was to shy to go on her own.

Lily and Jasmine showing off their awards with the Sanofsky kids

Kaite, Lexi and Jasmine



The school had a read-a-thon to raise money for a fellow student with cancer.  Katie won for most minutes read in 2nd grade, and as a prize she got a huge basket of popcorn, candy and movie tickets.  She treated the family to the movie Frozen.

Thanksgiving 2013

My family was gathering at the beach for Thanksgiving this year.  Since Johnny had just come home from him mission we had to join them.   We took off when Mark came home from work Monday night.   We made it past DC before we stopped for the night.  Tuesday morning after sleep and a hotel breakfast we jumped back in the car.  We arrived midday and it quickly got crazy! 

Addy and Johnny

Johnny meeting Jaxon for the first time.

Our view

It wasn't swim weather but given the it was storming in CT we happy to be where the sun was shinning and no more than a sweatshirt was needed.

Wed we had a girls lunch and left the men home with all the kids.  I came home to find all my kids plus 20 more in the hot tub.  The hot tub was full of kids the whole time.  My kids treated it like a swimming pool, complete with 'trying' to dive. 

We spent the days playing on the beach and hanging out.  Jenn brought a kit to Tye-dye t-shirts and Flossie organized making Christmas ornaments.   Nights were spent playing games and eating WAY too much food.   Mostly, it was just loud with all the kids running around playing as hard as they could. 

Heated game of ultimate frisbee. 

Friday morning we opened presents from our Christmas name exchange.

Ryan being a little scarey

Miley Jo

Johnny teaching Marcus to use his slingshot that Grandma and Grandpa brought back from Guatemala.

Johnny and Alisa

Friday afternoon we had Gabby's baptism!  (This time it was at the local church rather in the ocean like Ella the year before.)  It was really special.  All the grandkids sang songs.  Ella and Katie gave talks.  Katie gave a fantastic talk about why we are baptized and mentioned that she can't wait until next July when it is her turn.

Johnny baptized Gabby.

That night Tripp pulled out all his DJ equipment and hosted a pajama dance party, complete with a disco ball.   The kids danced hard!

 

There were no drugs involved even though some of these pictures might led you to believe otherwise.

Saturday was a sad day as we had to get up and get packing.   We delayed the inevitable as long as possible.  I went for a walk on the beach with my sisters.  Addy stole Marks I-phone and hid with Chloe so they could listen to music in peace. 

 

And we did a quick family photo shoot.  

Jaxon attaching Marcus instead of being good and posing for the picture-yep, just about sums up our life.

 

Halloween 2013

The beginning of Oct I came home from Costco with a Army Ranger costume and a Fireman costume.  I told Marcus to pick one.  He said that he was going to be Spiderman (for the third year in a row!).  I try to let my kids make some decisions so I said that was fine but I wasn't buying another Spiderman costume and that he would have to find his from last year.  After a week of looking Marcus couldn't find the mask.  I told him no mask, no candy.  He finally tried on the Army Ranger costume and was hooked.  After that, he put it on every chance he got.  

Me spying on them as they have a dress-up picnic.

They got vampire teeth from school and wore them for days.

  Addy didn't want to be a princess this year (might have had something to do with me telling her I wouldn't buy a new dress) but she still wanted to wear jewelry and be sparkly, so we decided on a gypsy.  Katie was going to be a cowgirl but change her mind 2 weeks before Halloween and wanted to be a pioneer.  She asked is I could make her a bonnet.  I agreed, but tortured her with stories of my mom sewing the final stitches on my prom dress while my date waited in the kitchen with my dad.  Everyday she came home from school and nothing had been done.  At one point I made it to Goodwill and found her a dress to wear, that made her feel a little better but I still had to alter the dress.  

The Friday before Halloween was the day of the school Halloween hop, and Katie was really hoping I would have the dress and bonnet done for that.  She came off the bus that afternoon and looked at me with hopeful eyes.  I couldn't resist shaking my head.  Katie held back tears and put on a brave face before she realized I was teasing her.  I had worked all day and she was ecstatic with the results.

The day after the school party we had the church trunk or treat.  Some time before Halloween we found time to carve the pumpkin.

yes, that is him eating pumpkin guts.

We live in a neighborhood where there are no sidewalks and everyone had acre lots, so we headed to  our friends neighborhood, where the houses were closer together, to trick or treat. 

(Top) Daniel, Marcus, Jay (Bottom) Addy, Eva, Zoe, Katie and Jax

Marcus and Eli

Katie decided I was going to be a witch this year and that she was going to paint my face green with this fabulous face painting kit she bought at a yardsale for $2.  She bugged me about painting my face before the school party and before the church party, but with so much going on, I didn't have time to dress up, BUT, I finally let her paint my facing before we left to trick or treat.  She was pretty happy about that.

As always there was lots of candy to be had and my kids were very proactive in getting it.  Stinken CT doesn't believe in sidewalks so it was a little nerve racking for me at times as they were trying to dart ahead of the group.  But we all made back safe.   Jaxon even managed to score his first lollipop by crying to get out of the stroller.  Mark is such a sucker (no pun intended).