It has been a beautiful month here. Gone are the days of 90 degree weather, and in their place have been weeks of sun, leaves turning colors and gorgeous, temperate weather. We've been keeping busy as usual; the weeks seem to fly by. Cliff had two successful concerts this month on campus, first with the Wind Symphony, and then last week with the Jazz Band. He also conducted a piece on the most recent concert of the Atlanta Wind Symphony. He takes over tomorrow as their music director, which means a trip to Atlanta every Tuesday evening for Cliff. Despite the weekly drive, he is really excited to dig in and work with this outstanding community band.
The kids continue to do well in their school work. Laura made the honor roll for the first quarter. Nathan has been working hard in preschool. He is really progressing, both in his math logic and in his ability to sound out words.
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| Making a bar graph of Fruit Loops. He sorted them and counted each color before coloring in his bar graph. The best part....eating the Fruit Loops at the end! |
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We enjoyed another local event a few weeks ago; the annual Deep Roots Festival here in Milledgeville. The kids especially enjoyed the inflatables! Before heading to the festival that Saturday, the kids and I enjoyed listening to Cliff play at a campus event with the Brass Ensemble. What a gorgeous morning!
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| The kids love playing by this fountain in the middle of campus. |
October also brought an end to our season of Six Flags fun. We made our last trip for the year a couple of weeks ago. We had a great day, enjoying our favorite rides one last time and taking in some of the Fright Fest Halloween activities. We even encountered the kindness of strangers 3 times. First, someone handed Nathan a very nice basketball won from one of the midway games. Then at dinner, the lady working the food stand gave us free chicken strips with our meal. Finally, late in the evening, some lady gave Laura a giant teddy bear (he's at least 3 feet tall) she'd won at a midway game. What a fun day....capped off by our last funnel cake (apple pumpkin spice with loads of whipped cream) of the season. Yum!!!
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| Laura insisted on playing a midway game with her own money. She chose a game where you need an opponent. Cliff was such a good sport to spend a few bucks and play against her. It seems he lost his aim midway through. I'm sure it was an honest mistake and nothing at all to do with his feelings for his little girl. ;) |
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| Laura's prize! This smile made it all worthwhile for Cliff! |
At the end of October, the kids enjoyed a week off of school for Fall Break. It was nice to have Laura around the house again. We'll enjoy another week off for Thanksgiving.
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| Hanging around at the park over fall break. |
Last week, the kids enjoyed getting all Halloweeny! :) We tried to pick some fun Halloween projects for Nathan for preschool. He wrote a book about nightmares, he practiced writing Halloween words like "Boo!" and "Bat", and we made monster masks. I think Nathan's favorite, though, was making his own slime!
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| Liquid starch + Elmer's glue + food coloring = a slimy mess and a happy boy! |
On Halloween, we had a great day! My mom and dad were here for a visit, so we surprised Laura by coming to see her at lunch at school. After school, we took the kids to the Halloween party at the library, then we went to the final drawing of the local Kids Matter scholarship contest. Nathan was the $500 runner-up winner! Every penny for college counts! In the evening, we went to a Halloween party at a friends' house where we enjoyed food, friends and trick-or-treating.
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| An Indian and a fairy having a great Halloween! |
Our visit with Mom and Dad was very nice. They got to see the kids do all of their activities, and they got a chance to enjoy playing some fun games with them. We are looking forward to seeing them again over the holidays.
The end of the semester will be here before Cliff and I know it. Time to buckle up and hold on tight!
Gina
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