Halloween! (a month late)

Just had to share a few belated, but cute, pics from our Halloween festivities!

Katie the ballerina in her school parade.

Megan the pioneer in her school parade

 Katie & Megan had a half day of school on Halloween, and got to wear their costumes to school for the party and parade.  We spent the afternoon carving our pumpkins.

Jessi is just cute!  Her preschool Halloween party was the previous week.

Trick-or-treaters

 Katie went trick-or-treating with her friend Maile and her mom.  It was the first year we didn't all go out together...Katie is growing up!  Megan and Jess went out with Chris for a while, and then went out with me for a while, and then came home to pass out candy with us.  It was windy and cool, but not too bad out.

Megan's Angry Bird pumpkin

Katie designed and carved her pumpkin

Jessica's kitty pumpkin

Katie (ballerina) with her stash

Megan (witch) and her stash

Jessi (Belle) and her candy haul

Megan organized her candy - look at each shelf!

The girls enjoyed sorting and trading their candy for WEEKS!!  We have pretty much forgotten about the candy by now, thank goodness.  It was another great Halloween!!

November

Let me do a quickie overview of November, in pictures!

Girls playing outside on one of the many warm November days we had.  Notice Jessi's bare feet!

Girls playing in the leaf pile in our back yard.  There was much screaming, running, and jumping!

Family pic at Grandpa Christensen's visitation

Siblings all together

Cute pic!

All the Christensen cousins (aka grandchildren)

Grandma Christensen with the grandkids AND great-grandkids

Our little family

Grandpa's funeral was on a very warm day, so after the luncheon, we went back to his house and took a family walk to the woods.  The girls found lots of corn and beans to play with!

Our final carrot harvest, and our first stalk of brussels sprouts (of four plants)

Yummy rainbow carrots from our garden!

Jessi would NOT eat the squash or brussels sprouts one night.  She didn't put up a fight, she simply fell asleep at the table!

Girls singing together in the combined Children's Choir (Katie) and Praise Kids (Megan and Jessica).  It was the very first time Jessica was in the choir!  She did a fabulous job.  It was Megan's first time this year, and she did great, too.

All in all, November was a fabulous month for our family.  We had many days off school and Chris had several days off work.  Soccer was over, so we had lots of free time compared to Sept & Oct.  We had time to go swimming once a week, go on lots of walks, and clean up all of our gardens and the yard.  The girls are working hard in school, and are all doing very well.  We are in a great routine of homework and reading each night.  Megan loves to read to Jessica, and Katie loves to read to both of them!  I feel surprisingly rested, and ready for the chaos of December!  (let's hope this feeling lasts!)

Thanksgiving weekend

Happy Thanksgiving!  We have had a fun weekend so far.  We hosted Thanksgiving, and the highlight was Chris' deep-fried turkey.  Everyone loved it!



Thanksgiving feast with Mom & Dad Christensen, Joe C. and his girlfriend Stephanie:

Joe & Stephanie spent Friday with us, too, before they flew back to Boulder.  We hung out all day, and the girls were extra crazy with an audience around.

Today started off on a very sad note.  Chris took Kenny to the vet, who confirmed what we thought - the FIV disease progressed quickly.  Kenny was down to only 8 lbs, and has been vomiting and poo-ing everywhere in the basement.  We made the difficult decision to put him to sleep.  RIP, our Kenny-cat!

Later today, we took the girls to the zoo to enjoy the warm weather.  We saw all the animals, and had a picnic lunch outside - without coats!  The new lion exhibit is way cool - we got so close to the lions!

 The butterfly house was a huge hit, too:

I put up some Christmas lights today, and ordered our Christmas cards.  The tree may make its appearance tomorrow!  I want to get started on Christmas stuff ASAP since Chris is heading to Italy on Monday, and we have a busy week (month!) ahead.

Hope you enjoy this mini-update.  I am going to try to get caught up this week.  Wish me luck!

Jessica's first day of preschool

First, here's a picture of Megan in uniform, on her second day of school.  Now she goes to school full days, rides the bus, and wears a uniform every day.  Such a big kid!

Now, on to Jessica!  Today was her first day of 4-year-old preschool!  She has been counting down the days all week long, and she woke up this morning exclaiming, "Today all three girls get to go to school!"

Just a little excited.

Beautiful new backpack.

Jessica in front of her school.

Hanging up her backpack - she's "5 apple" this year.

In front of her classroom.

Coloring page.

Jessi and her new teachers.  Mrs. Laskos (on the left) was Megan's 4yo preschool teacher.  Mrs. Sigelko (on the right) is the new assistant teacher.

Today was meet the teacher day, and the parents stayed with the kids for 1 hr to let them meet other kids and play with all of the toys in the new room.  On Monday she'll go for 1 hr on her own, and then from then on she'll be on her own the whole time (2.5 hrs every MWF morning).  She's soooo ready!

Megan's first day of first grade

On Wednesday, Megan had her first day of first grade.  Such excitement!  What's new for her this year: she'll be going full days, she'll be riding the bus in the morning AND in the afternoon, she'll have art and computer classes, and the best part of all - lunch and recess every day!!  She didn't have that as a half-day kindergartener.

Megan on a dreary morning.

Showing off her new backpack.

First we had to drive Katie to school, here she is in her big-kid uniform.

Megan in front of her school.

Megan in front of her classroom.

She found her coat hook!

Megan and her teacher, Mrs. Marn.

Megan at her desk, ready for first grade!!

Katie the 4th grader

I'm very far behind in blogging and posting pictures, but I thought I'd jump up to the present and post pictures of the girls starting school this week!  Katie was the first to start school, she began 4th grade on Tuesday.  There are a lot of changes in 4th grade - she is in a new building (grades 4-8 are at a different campus than K-3), she has to ride a shuttle bus from and to the other campus, she has her own locker, and she can wear a skirt now instead of a jumper.  So many changes!  But she has done great this week.

Sisters

New backpack!

In front of her new school.

Katie with her teacher, Mrs. Blankenburg.  Mrs. B may look mild-mannered, but she has a black belt in karate, loves to snowboard, and does lots of triathalons.  The kids are in awe of her!!

Look at all the books!

Trying her locker combination.

In front of her classroom.

Katie at her desk!