school is cool!

there have been enough fun activities at the school lately that i thought they deserved their own amazing, giant post on the ol' blog. 

in no particular order:

johnny appleseed day!

charlie loved this day because the three 1st grade classes joined together to make applesauce and the teachers chose one student out of the three classes to help them with each step and they chose CHARLIE!

 piano!

although this isn't technically part of "school", it is definitely learning. and jack and ellie are doing awesome!!! they both like it a lot and haven't complained once about practicing... fingers crossed it stays that way.

ellie has had the sweetest little friend at school for the past two years named anna. she had a b-day party a couple weekends ago and her mom sent me the cutest pictures. ellie is definitely a "friend" girl, meaning she always wants to have a friend with her for everything she does. so glad she has such a great friend in anna!

mystery reader 

for jack and ellie's classes!

some of the teachers do what's called Mystery Reader on fridays. they have parents/grandparents/loved ones sign up to come in and read a book to the class, but before they come into the classroom, the teacher will read a few facts about who is coming that day to see if the kids can guess who it is. well, since Bart and Janie got into town a day earlier than expected, we thought it'd be fun if they went instead of chris to be the mystery readers! they were such great sports about it and hopefully had an enjoyable time. both kids were very surprised, although they were able to figure out who it was instantly by the clues :)

the facts they gave to the teachers were so fun and the kids in their classes thought they were awesome!

1- they have 8 kids and 29 grandkids

2- have been married for 50 years

3- lived in Japan as a spy

4- has delivered over 200 babies

5- have traveled across the country 4 times this year

6- killed an angry, charging black bear

7- lives in the state that grows the best potatoes

they read Thank You, Mr Falker by Patricia Polacco. mrs mayer told them that was her absolute favorite book!

dress up week!

they dressed up each day, but i only managed to get pics on crazy hat and sock day and twinsie day

ellie dressed as twins with anna, so i didn't get a picture, but i know they looked super cute!

Wake Up Woods!

we've been able to attend the kids weekly school celebration the past few fridays. ellie's class was presenting one of the weeks while gma and gpa were in town and she had the longest speaking part. then the kids were all recognized for earning straight a's and perfect attendance for the first quarter the following friday. yesterday, charlie and ellie were both awarded the patriot of the month award from their teachers!

i know all parents think their kids are pretty amazing, but seriously, these guys are crushing grade school!

"charlie brower has been selected as patriot of the month by mrs. floyd because he has shown great leadership skills. he is always a hard worker and willing to help others. the positive example he sets has a great impact on our classroom environment. Charlie is an amazing young man!"

"ellie brower has been selected as patriot of the month by mrs. mayer because of her positive attitude, her willingness to help others, and for giving 100% every day at school."

trunk or treat!

 every once in a while i just hate the idea of spending money on costumes that may or not be used more than a handful of times. this was one of those years i said, "piece something together with what you can find". so for the school trunk or treat last night the brower kids were the zombie apocalypse... oh, and one little (very suave) pirate.

old clothes cut up and painted plus some face paint from last year equals some pretty cute zombies!

owen loved his beard so much that when i wiped it off when we got home he sobbed and kept yelling "my face! my face! pwease!"

the kids had such a great time at the trunk or treat. i was a "cool" mom this year and let the big kids go with their friends instead of making them stay with me and owen. that could be because i am actually pretty cool, but more likely it was because chris was working and i knew i wouldn't be able to control them all so i just surrendered from the start. even though the parking lot is quite small and makes a circle so i could keep a close eye on everyone, we set a meeting point and time just in case. charlie stayed with us the whole time and jack ended up with us part way through, but little miss ellie hung out with her friends till the very last second. she's started getting embarrassed already and boy am i not looking forward to what possibly lays ahead. anyways, chris met up with us after work which was right when the trunk or treat ended, so we decided "hey! its friday night! let's live a little!" so we lived it up... at popeyes haha. 

the kids were a little hesitant at first to go out in public, but they warmed up to it and actually had a great time walking around the restaurant to show off their costumes and watch peoples reactions. we hadn't been to popeyes before and the kids were all surprised that they actually kind of enjoyed it :)

after showers and bedtime stuff, the big kids stayed up for an hour doing the first of many, many candy trades, which is the best part of halloween!