Feeling Thankful

Thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday because there is minimal commercialism and it's all about spending time with family and friends.  I love thinking about gratitude and what I have to be thankful for.  This year in particular I have been trying to practice gratitude, from the big things like my healthy son to the little things like listening to a good audiobook on a beautiful commute to work.

I am particularly thankful that Trey is having a successful kindergarten experience, has a great teacher, and has made some good buddies.  He is learning a ton right now, and it has been a real joy to watch him soak in information in a typical way, especially since I have spent 18 years working with students who do not learn in a typical way.  While I am really lucky to have summers and school breaks to be home with Trey, it is super sad for me that I do not get to spend any time with him in his classroom in his learning environment.  Randy does drop off and pick up and if anything needed to be handled during the day, Randy would be the go-to guy as he is across the street and I am an hour away.  As a doting and "involved" mother, this is tough for me.

When I saw an opportunity to help out at Trey's Thanksgiving Feast, I jumped on it.  I took a half personal day so I could drive back to Beaverton and be in his classroom.  When I walked into his room, there were several other volunteer mothers waiting in a circle with the teacher, and the teacher said (harmlessly, I know), "This is Trey's mom.  She can't help out in the classroom."  That was awesome.

The teacher read the students (27 of them!!) some stories and then led them through some songs.  It was pretty cute.

Trey enjoyed his feast with the Native Americans and the pilgrims, and it was neat for me to meet many of his friends who I have only heard about and even some of their parents.

Trey and Miguel 

Mrs. Moon and her kindergarten class 

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a relaxing morning at home.  Grady and Case came over for a bit to play, and then we went to the Kopplins for dinner.  All in all, it was a fabulous day.

I got a lot of cuddles that morning. 

Batmans! 

Cuddling up and watching some shows 

Trey took probably 200 pictures at the Kopplins for Thanksgiving (I'm not kidding) and almost all of them were garbage.  The boy needs to learn to aim at something and get the camera in focus before hitting the button.  Makes. Me. Crazy.

Ruben and Neil did the finishing touches on the meal, which was delicious, and then we all enjoyed the food.  As always, we probably overdid it on the appetizers, but I guess that's what Thanksgiving is all about.

Zander and Trey, one of the few good pictures Trey took 

Neil appreciating the moment before everyone ate 

Photo credit to Trey

 Family shot on Thanksgiving Day

On Friday, we did Thanksgiving Part Deux at my sister's house.  My dad came up, and our family friends, the Moreaus, came over for the meal.   It was delicious as well, and we wrapped up the weekend fully satiated.

Auntie Kristin with a win for the cheese and cracker appetizer tray 

Case was really excited about the pies.

Dressed up as superheroes, of course. 

 The kids' table

Case finally got his pie. 

Family dessert time 

We wrapped up the holiday weekend with a movie.

We took the kids to see the Good Dinosaur, which I really enjoyed.

How Pixar gets the scenery to look like that is amazing.  

This certainly is a year to be thankful.  I'm thankful that Randy and I both have the opportunities right now to pursue different career paths, that our son is healthy and learning a ton in school, that we live in a comfortable house with food on the table and warm clothes on our backs, and that we are surrounded by friends and family who love and support us.  We are a lucky family! 

November, the month that lasted forever

This year November felt like the longest month of the year.  I think that's because it was cold, dreary, and I was in the middle of grad school hell.  I didn't have much time for anything but work work work, and it sucked sucked sucked.  I was counting down to December 9th, when our term would end, and doing all I could to keep my head above water in the process.  Well, I survived it, have blocked it out, and am only reminded of how yucky the month was by looking back at the pictures and realizing we didn't do much of anything in November.

Trey's kindergarten school picture

I still can't figure out why he didn't take his coat off.

I even dressed him in a collared shirt! 

A normal day or evening around the Clark house.

Me with my textbook and Trey with the iPad

This is what they call quality parenting, right? 

I have a love affair with sushi, and Roth's in McMinnville actually does a pretty good job.  When I go in there to get lunch, the sushi chef gives me a little cup for my wasabi and soy sauce without me even asking.  I love being a regular.

Trey decided he wanted to have a birthday party for  Doggy.  Ana was coming over, so we went all out.  Trey made a homemade pinata, filled it with Halloween candy, and wrapped some of his toys for Doggy to open at his party.  Ana brought some of her stuffed kitties over, and the kids had a great time at the "party."

Hitting the "pinata" (aka cardboard box with pictures on it) 

that was strung up on a rope and whacked by one of Randy's fishing rod holders.   

The loot! 

Birthday cupcakes with Doggy, the kitties, Trey and Ana 

Randy is doing his best to turn Trey into a Bronco fan.  He's made more progress this year than in the past, so there is still hope.

Trey read a book for me for the first time, and I caught it on video.  I'll spare you the "show off Mommy" video, but this is a screen shot of him and how happy he was at the end.  I am so proud of him and his reading.  It amazes me on a daily basis.

Like I said, we didn't do a lot of "fun" stuff in November, but I did try to capture quality time with my boy whenever I could.  Most of this was during storytime at bedtime.  We've been reading some great books, and while there are times I wish bedtime could go a little faster, I am trying to cherish these moments with Trey while they are here.

One night I went to Woodburn to meet some of my friends for happy hour, and Randy and Trey said they had a surprise for me when I got home.  When I arrived, it was DANCE PARTY 2015!!!  Randy had ordered some strobe lights (is that what they'd be called?) and they were having a huge dance fest.  They were playing some of Trey's favorite music and we all got our boogie on.  It was awesome!

Here are some more pictures of me trying to blend spending time with my son with doing coursework.  It's not ideal, but you do what you gotta do.

We got to join Zander for his bowling birthday party at Big Al's.  I can't believe he's 11!  I remember when he was born.  It is fun to see Trey interact with the "big kids" and not be a "baby" anymore.  As for the bowling, let's say we need to work a little on the arm strength so that the ball gets all the way down the lane.  Thank god for bumpers!

On Thanksgiving weekend (more on the holiday later), I was desperately trying to get some projects done before we went out for the night.  I will say that it can be hard to get papers done when you have a monkey on your shoulders grooming your hair.

On Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend (after I turned in my paper thanks to my husband's mad Excel graphing skills), we went to see Storm Large with Mindy and Bill.  It was Storm's holiday show, and it was awesome!  It was Mindy and Bill's first time seeing her perform, and she did not disappoint.  It was also an incredible way to bring in the holiday season.

Trey has been really interested in typing lately.  He loves typing his list of sight words and then reading them back.  He has recently discovered the speech to text feature (both on my phone and the computer) and has composed long monologues that essentially make no sense.  He wants to be an author, so I definitely encourage his story telling and creating.

Bronco watching, Lego building, fire making...my boys are the best!

Fall Fun Part Two

One fall day we took Julie and her family out to the gorge for our semi-annual (or more) trip to Cor Cellars.  It was time for our fall wine pick-up, and we like to make a day of it.  Luckily, the rain held out, and we were able to take everyone on our mini-hike and to one of our favorite restaurants.

How did my boy get so grown up?  

I think I'll be saying this same thing until he's 20.

Our first stop is Catherine Creek. If you're a reader of this blog, you've seen a post (or three) similar to this before.  But this time we have the McGuires with us!  We love this "hike" because it's beautiful, paved, and, most of all, short.  This is important for our five year old who doesn't have much endurance and his mama's back which doesn't have much strength to carry him back to the car.

Conveniently, Catherine Creek is just up the road from Cor Cellars.  We stopped by to taste their delicious wines, pick up our shipment (plus some), and play some games.

After Cor, we drove to Hood River, played at the riverfront park while we waited for our table at Solstice, and then ate lunch.  The boys had a great time, and it was awesome to get out of town for a bit.

Once we got home, it was time to decorate our Halloween cookies.  The boys had fun frosting, and we had fun drinking some of our new delicious wine.

Case had a theory that if he put the cookies on top of the frosting, 

they would decorate themselves. 

Trey gets a little out of control with the sprinkles... 

Trey's school had a grandparents' day at their Scholastic Book Fair.  My dad came up to go with him and got to see his classroom and meet his teacher.  I think I was more excited about this than anyone else.  Trey was really funny (unintentionally) because when he introduced my dad to his teacher and then to the principal he said, "This is my mom's dad.  Her mom is dead."  Geez, thanks, kid for making the moment a wee bit awkward...

After the book fair, Grady and Case came over (with their parents, of course) to carve pumpkins.  The boys started out working on the project, but it didn't last long...

Family fun! 

They were much happier watching tv and eating cookies. 

Grady finally convinced Randy to take his snake out of the cage.

I can't believe Case was brave enough to touch it! 

And that Grady was brave enough to hold it! 

This was right before he dropped it on the floor... 

Trey and I have been loving Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books.  They are some of our favorites, and Trey can read most of them.

I saw that there was an Elephant and Piggie play at NW Children's Theater, so I bought us tickets.  The play was cute, and it was fun to do something different.

Trey's kindergarten teacher sent home a giant turkey and asked us to decorate it for their classroom.  She said, "Most people like to use things like beans, feathers, beads..." and  who knows what else.  I don't know if you know this about me, but I don't have ANY of those things in our house.  I may be the least crafty person that there is.  Trey is lucky to have markers and paper in our house with a stray container of washable paint.  We took a little trip to Jo-Ann's Crafts and got some supplies, and one day we got to work.  It wasn't a pretty turkey, but I think we were both proud.  When in doubt, go all out.

Halloween was upon us, and Trey couldn't decide what he wanted to be.  He ended up being a Minion Batman - a little bit of both (you can't see the yellow Minion hat under his Batman mask, but it is there).

My school did a dress up day by wings (we have three of them in our building plus the main office/specialists).  I was totally lame and did not dress up, but my assistants did a great job dressing up in the Where the Wild Things Are team.

The second and third grade team also did a Where the Wild Things Are performance for their classes which was super cute.  It is fun to work in a school that does cool things for kids.

Randy went to Colorado for Halloween weekend to see the Broncos play.  He also got to visit our friends Adam and Jenny and his friend Heather.  It was a long weekend with Daddy away, so Grandpa came to stay with us (although, I have to say that "taking care" of Grandpa was probably more work than being by myself...but whatever, it was fun).  He also got to spend Halloween with us and Julie and the boys.  It was great having him around for an extended weekend.

Heather and Randy at the Broncos game

Halloween night was REALLY wet.  We took umbrellas, but it didn't really matter.  We.  Got.  Soaked.  It also didn't seem as if there were that many trick-or-treaters out - maybe because of the weather?  Regardless, the boys got their stash and still seemed to have a good time.  As Oregonians, they will need to get used to trick-or-treating in the rain.

Here is Trey, working on his "stories" and writing.  Thanks, Grandpa, for being around while Randy was gone!  We appreciated it!