Yep...Time for an update

Look at the lawn! We finally have success in having a nice yard (such as it is--we have a nice view.) Daddy worked so hard on it and I know all of our East Coast people who have not been out yet will choke on the size of it. Believe it or not, it's average around here and we are happy to have it.

Soccer ends in a few weeks and Taijutsu is in full swing. Daddy, Boy and Mama just received their newest belts at graduation on October 27. (When Auntie J sends us the photos, we'll post them!)

We joined a local homeschool group and discovered this fantastic family that lives a few houses down our street! We have a lot of similarities and look forward to spending lots of great days together. There is a LOT of Star Wars play and they have this really cool gopher snake!!!! Also, as part of the group, Boy will have a great opportunity to act in one of Shakespeare's plays (the mother of our neighbors coordinates it, so her kids will do it and then so will mine! This is fantastic peer pressure!)

We are busy, busy, busy playing with Legos and discussing Harry Potter, the planets (WHY did they demote Pluto???) and sharks and the Civil War (we can hear the cannon fire from the yearly re-enactment of key battles in the Civil War at a local farm just over the ridge) and listening to music such as Bach and Grieg ("Hall of the Mountain King" and "Air"--Thanks to Disney's "Little Einstein's" TV show).

Boy is READING!!! Everything and anything--The back of the snack truck, the countless numbers of catalog that are piling up in anticipation of Christmas shopping, all of the labels in the grocery store and even the weekly local newspaper! Mama is reading Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London and Daddy is reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Mama is also reading a book about Winston Churchill. We are reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling to Boy and occasionally, when she isn't tortuing Boy for some reason, Girl will sit and listen, too. She will also be training in taijutsu when she turns 4, she never sits so quietly during the hour long classes, two or three times a week. She loves to dance and we are going to find a town class or two for her to try out.

We have been missing our favorite babysitter who moved to SF a few months ago to start her college career. She was back to visit at the end of September, but we missed her as we were out of town. :( We know she checks the blog and hope she had a great visit. We can't wait to see her next time.

That's about it for now. We'll post more soon.

~Mama