Brrr

It's kind of cold here today. Owen is having his second to last baseball game in about 5 minutes - the last one is Saturday afternoon and then there is a party afterward at a pizza place downtown.

The kids and I went to the school book fair this afternoon. They were thrilled to find a Pokemon book and a Star Wars popup book.

Owen and I have been working on a list of all the characters and all the spells in the Harry Potter books he's read so far (with descriptions). I think we are in the neighborhood of 50 characters already. Phew.

We have carved one pumpkin, not sure if we will get to the couple of others we have. Dan accompanied Douglas's class to the pumpkin patch this morning. It sounds like it was fun (but cold). That patch has a petting zoo with lots of baby animals, and apparently many of the other parents were afraid to pick up the chicks and baby ducks for the kids to pet, so Dan had to do a lot of the heavy lifting, as it were.

And some more pictures

Blogger is having some problems. Left is the view from the pumpkin patch toward the hills.

Pictures

Some pictures from the pumpkin patch.

School board hijinks

Dan and I have been doing some work to help out one of the four school board candidates here. There are two seats open. The election will be a week from Tuesday, on Nov 6.

Another one of the candidates, Joe Spector, who is a school psychologist in the district, has (rather, had) a campaign manager who is a history/American government teacher at Davis High School. A couple of weeks ago the teacher was accused of having his students stuff envelopes for his candidate during class time. It was supposedly an exercise in group vs. individual work; could you stuff more as part of a group? Give me a break. Anyway, there was much back and forth after the accusation, which came from a former School Board member who has a child in this teacher's class and who is also supporting the same candidate we are. Finally now the teacher has admitted it, has been fired as a campaign manager and now I guess Spector maybe has to find someone else to run the last week or two of his campaign.

There is almost nothing else on the ballot - just two parcel tax measures, one for the schools and one for the library, both of which are likely to pass - so there is a lot of attention focused on this particular election.

Douglas was excited because today was "pizza and pajama" day at preschool. He got to wear his pajamas to school and they will order pizza at lunch. Fun.

Next week are parent-teacher conferences. Owen's is on Halloween. I'm not expecting anything too negative. He is in the highest reading and spelling groups and keeps coming home and telling us he got "102 percent" on his spelling tests (she gives a few extra credit words, I guess).

Birthday question

Douglas this morning: "But what happens if I turn 4 before my birthday?"

Hmm, good question.

Owen had his last dose of penicillin this morning and I had mine yesterday, just in time to come down with a cold. The germs seem to be nonstop this month.

Otherwise things are fine. Yesterday we read an Arthur book about marbles and then the kids wanted to try it so we went to the toy store and got a few sacks of marbles and played on the sidewalk out front. They really enjoyed it.

Pen pals

The 13 second graders in Owen's class are going to begin exchanging letters with a class of 13 second graders in Berrien, Georgia. Here is their school's website. After getting the idea through a book I was reading to the kids, I suggested it to the teacher and she was interested so I looked around online and found this class which was the same size so emailed with the teacher and as of today it is all ready to go. Should be fun for them. Owen is partnered with a boy named Jeffrey. That's all we know so far.

Dan got back from Long Beach last night after the end of Owen's baseball game. It did not rain so the game went on and they won 6-0. He got two runs and two RBIs. Did not get a chance to pitch yesterday but maybe at the game on Saturday he will.

The kids and I put up some Halloween decorations earlier in the week. While I was putting them up I could hear Douglas on the floor drawing, pretending to write, saying "Dear Tobin, I hope you feel better soon." He was attempting to make a get well card for his friend who was out with a cough. So I helped Douglas make a real get well card.

Strep

It turned out that I had strep, and probably Owen did too so we are both on oral penicillin. I was diagnosed Friday afternoon. They offered me a shot in the rear end but I wimped out. We have been lying low for most of the weekend and not doing too much this week.

Dan has been in Long Beach since Monday morning and is returning around dinnertime tonight. It has been rainy for a few days but I think it looks like it is sunny enough now for Owen's baseball game to occur (if the fields aren't too terribly wet).

Ouch again

Now I have Owen's sore throat and am a little more sympathetic. It's not strep though. He was better this morning.

After breakfast and getting dressed and tooth brushing, the kids this morning were snuggling up in Owen's bed with three stuffed animals and pretending they were their older brothers and sister, Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione.

It rained last night. Looks like it is getting to be fall.

Owen was scheduled for a baseball game tonight, but it's been cancelled, as has next Wed.'s and on this Saturday they have a bye so there is no game for a week and a half. The season is almost over already. It has gone fast.

I was elected to the school site council and our first meeting is tonight. Should be interesting.

Sick season

Owen is home from school with a sore throat today. Dan's with him. It started on Saturday. I don't think it's strep since he doesn't have the other strep symptoms like a fever. He probably could have survived school today (he went yesterday) but acted extremely pitiful this morning so he wouldn't have to go. Dan said he was bored by 8:50 and wanting to go to the store.

We went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday and picked up some pumpkins. I have some pictures I need to upload. That patch has what is supposedly (according to Guinness) the largest corn maze in the world. We saw some friends leaving as we arrived and they said they had been lost in it for an hour.

Getting big

Dan took Owen for his 7 year checkup this morning (yes, our pediatrician runs a little behind schedule).

He measured in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. I measured his head this morning and found it was almost as big as mine, and we've noticed lately that his hands and feet are getting enormous. He's like a puppy with outsized limbs. Perhaps he's about to have another growth spurt.