politically correct costume assignment

for some reason, our elementary school does not allow halloween parties or wearing halloween costumes to school.

they do, however, have "harvest" parties, and allow the kids to wear a costume to school for the last day of "drug awareness" week. (what do costumes have in common with drug awareness? probably about as much as wearing hats or slippers to school. i still haven't figured out the logic chain on any of these.) predictably, the costumes had to be in line with the school's guidelines. this year, the guidelines were "come as a book character." i was not thrilled. great - i get to come up with two costumes instead of just one! then, i figured the kids could wear their regular costumes because they were surely in a book somewhere, right? but, the school administrators threw in the wrench that the kids had to actually bring the book to school with their costume.

diabolical!

don't worry your pretty head, though, we did prevail. kalei wore her pocahontas jacket, with braids, and took a book about great women in history. koa went as this guy:

i LOVE this book! the illustrations are beautiful and the message is sweet, with some funny thrown in.

perfect for this boy.

koa quotes

bess: come on, dude. let's go! (said to another driver while waiting for said driver to go past.)

the car passes. the driver is female.

koa: ooooooooh, it's a dude-ette.

trip to the farm!

it was kawelo's turn to take a trip to the farm with his preschool class and he was

E-X-C-I-T-E-D.

he loved the pumpkin patch. he loved the play area. he especially loved the giant slide. he loved his apple cider slush (a first for the kids in our family) and cookie. kalei and koa both attended this preschool, had this wonderful teacher, and enjoyed this field trip. it's a tradition that is ending! i'm a little sad at each "last" milestone we pass, but excited

(E-X-C-I-T-E-D)

for our family to be moving on in our journey.

love this boy!

the running man

in early september, bowling green hosted a mini-marathon. james was excited because now he could realize his goal of running two marathons a year without having to travel far to do it. (what a weirdo, right? my goals are things like: "don't eat the whole bag of m&m's - half a bag is plenty.") anyhoo, the day came and he did great! although, he was saying they should call it "the road kill mini-marathon" or the "take your life into your own hands to run this mini-marathon." apparently, the organizers did not arrange to block off roads, so the runners had to run on the shoulders of the roads making up the course. (have i ever told you about bowling green drivers? no? well, let's just say that half are visually impaired retirees, and the other half are youngish people who are chomping at the bit to illegally pass them.) with this shoulder-of-the-road running, james was able to get an up-close look at various specimens of roadkill. the short list: mice, possum, snake, dog/coyote, birds, etc. no skunks, though. (thank heaven for small favors.) despite these interesting conditions (along with the "flat" course including numerous hills and the organizers running out of water before any runners finished the course), james ran a great race! he felt good, looked good, and finished strong. we love you, james! we're so proud of you! (by the way, james says he is most likely not going to run this race again. we don't blame him!)

kawelo quotes

kawelo just ran over to the computer because he heard some beeping:

kawelo: "somebody's calling you!" (on skype)

me: "nobody's calling."

kawelo: "yesbody's calling."

me: "look for yourself - nobody's calling."

kawelo: "yes, yesbody's calling!"

ah, the logic of the 4-year-old!