Riley and Avery

Yes, I know I start thinking about the holidays before the average person, but that's how we roll.  With our budget, and two birthdays around Christmas, we just have to start early.  Especially when I am planning on making quilts!  I am making this quilt for the girls, with Woodland Wonderland for Riley (which I'm fully aware that most people will find ugly, but I find it delicious, so there!) and Garden Friends for Avery (again, perhaps ugly by some standards).  The fabric was on sale for $2.50/yd, so that's what I'm going with.  It'll be a fairy gaudy and busy quilt, but I think the girls will like them and that's what matters, right?  Neither of them have had a quilt made for them in years.  About 4 years to be exact.  And they need covers for their beds.

Caution: another episode of nerdiness ahead!

So, as I was changing the water in the hermit crabs' cage (which I am ashamed to admit, it had been several days), I notice that the littlest hermit crab had buried itself under the bowl and was now fully exposed.  I see what appears to be a dead hermit crab. 

We went to the Maine Wildlife Park tonight for a Halloween event.  I'll post the few pictures I took there later, I just wanted to get this off my chest...

We had Riley's parent-teacher conference on Wednesday.  Nothing really surprising or anything.  As her Montessori teacher said, get used to 12 years of boring conferences, because she's a great, smart kid!  She is advanced in reading, which we already knew.  Even the things she has to work on, we already knew.

We also went back to Crescent Beach the day after we last went.  The girls literally played for hours together without even looking in our direction.  Amazing! This time, Rudi and I had the presence of mind to bring chairs, towels, water, and snacks.  We sat and actually had several adult, uninterrupted conversations.  Wow!

Riley literally taught Avery to read.  Seriously.  They were upstairs and Riley was going over letter sounds with Avery.  She then got out the BOB books and Avery actually read them!  Riley is so well-versed on the Montessori method, she taught Avery in the exact Montessori way :)

We went to the South Portland Rec Center last night to swim.  The admission was $3/adult and $2/child.  Not too shabby.  The pool is warmest on Sunday night, the lifeguard said (and it was very warm! Yay!), because they ramp up the heat on the weekends for the swimming lessons.  I think we'll make it our regular Sunday night activity.  The pool is not cosmetically nice, the pool bottom was worn through to the concrete in many places, but it was clean and not too busy.  No fancy-shmancy stuff, no slides, spray things, just a rectangular pool.  But it was nice and quiet.  Riley took a while to get back into the swing of things, but she eventually was up to her old antics.  Avery hung onto the wall, as usual, for about the first 45 minutes, then let go and started swimming around in her life jacket, which is something she's NEVER done.  She was so funny, she moves her arms and legs in slow motion, with exaggerated grace.  I couldn't control my laughing a couple times.

We took an afternoon trip to Crescent Beach State Park and spend a few hours there.  It was beautiful!  The weather was about 60 and Riley brought a bathing suit and lobbied her hardest to get us to let her put it on.  Rudi said absolutely not.  I am seriously considering getting her a full wet suit.  If the girl wants to go into Maine water in October, then let her have a wet suit so she can do it safely and comfortably!  I really don't like to put limits on their explorations, so a wet suit would be nice.  I think LL Bean has some...

Riley's school pictures turned out FABULOUSLY this year!  Oh, my goodness, just awesome!  Her hair even looks brushed!  That was the longest 2.5 weeks ever.  Without further ado:

Lately, on MDC, I've been embroiled in debates over schools.  Even those with children in public schools are strangely critical of teachers.  One woman, with a second grader, announced at meet-the-teacher night (ie, before school even started) that her family "doesn't do" homework.  Before ever seeing the homework, or knowing how much will be assigned.  She then told the teacher that under no circumstances is her child to be punished, either by taking away recess time or by lowered grades, for not doing homework.  Excuse me?  So the teacher has to come up with a whole new system for your special little prince?