October stuff... since it's almost December...

The Beach.  In October.  I put this on Facebook already, but it needs to be here, too.  The water is gorgeous.  The fish are colorful. The hermit crabs are plentiful. The snorkeling is amazing.  N&B love to snorkel, and I'm sure Maeve will, too.  She already wants to be doing it, so I'm sure we'll try it in the not-too-distant future with her.  Bran is itching to scuba dive.

This picture is great because not only are Nuala, her shell, and the water spectacular, but the little Bran and Maeve incident captured there in the background just makes me laugh.  This is the immediate aftermath of a sand-fling moment.  Maeve was unrepentant.  Sometimes you just wanna see what's gonna happen.  A ticked-off brother... THAT'S what happens...

The kiddos with Nuala and Bran's school mascot at the Harvest Festival.  Look at Nuala's "hat."  It's less of a hat, and more of a paper crown with a big purple pumpkin on the front.  She made it just before we left, to be more festive.  She did ask,"Do you think people will laugh at me?"  I told her that I didn't think so, and even if they did it didn't matter, because she was being creative and being herself and SHE liked it. I did, too!  No one even mentioned the big purple circle she was wearing.  Well, one boy did.  But he was impressed.  He asked how she made it, and expressed sorrow that he didn't think he could make one like that.  See? Cool.  She's very artistic, and loves to make stuff like that!  Oh, Bran is, too! We wake up in the morning, and he'll have made a Halloween bracelet, or a hat like Curious George's... I'll hafta see if I can find that pic.  He's a good little creator.

Heheeheee... :)  Is it inappropriate that I put this pic in here? You can't really SEE anything... But I definitely SEE why it's a rule in their class that you have to wear shorts or leggings under your dress or skirt.  Perhaps mishaps such as this are a tad too common...

The twins are great little readers.  Top of their class.  Nuala's the very top, and Bran is in the top three, but I don't know if it's 2nd or 3rd, though it doesn't really matter, even though I know it sounds like it matters, since I just spent so long writing about it...  They love kindergarten, and are really thriving and doing great.  This is a pic of the note Nuala wrote me when I was taking a nap one Sunday in October, and left it on her library book.  It says, "I Red THes OL BI MISF Mom," which OBviously means, "I read this all by myself, Mom."  But man, you should see her handwriting.  This is not a good example of her good handwriting. She's gooood.  I'm super proud of these rascals.  And they're nice and well-behaved and their teacher loves them.

Maeve has always thought she is as big as the twins.  She finagles turns on their scooters from them all the time.  I know what Santa's bringing her...

Crazy hair day at school!  I couldn't find any hair dye, and forgot to get kool-aid to color their hair with, so Z went out last minute the night before and could only find sugared kool-aid.  It didn't work SO well, but a little.

Maeve really badly wanted in the picture, but then would only give me THIS face.  Poor tortured babe.

A cool tree!  About two minutes before I took this picture, as I was sitting on the bench where you can tell I am sitting, and Maeve was right there, she yelled really loudly to me about a lady walking past:  "Mom! Look! She has a baby in her tummy!!"  And... she didn't.  It was really awesome.  The only way the lady could have not internalized it is if she was totally not even there... mind elsewhere... and also she would need to have been deaf.  See, a couple of times before this, Maeve had said it about some other ladies, and they were quite obviously pregnant.  They smiled and thought she was so cute... I totally should've nipped it in the bud, but the thought that she might ever get it WRONG never crossed my mind even though of COURSE that's gonna happen! That's just what happens eventually in this situation!! Sigh. I felt really badly. We're working on the whole filter thing.

Nuala and Bran have been on two field trips already.  So have I.  The first field trip (above) was a scavenger hunt at a huge park. It was really fun.  The second field trip was walking to the little craft center on base.  It's kinda difficult for me to do crafts with little tykes... crafts that are actually supposed to look like something in particular anyway.  I was at the boys' table, and it was all I could do to not say, "let me just MAKE your ninja FOR you..." to some of the little fellas.  They were making their own little kokeshi dolls.  Little Japanese dolls. Usually made out of wood, but when you're in kindergarten your use a toilet paper roll, styrofoam ball for the head, and pretty paper.  I'll post a pic of them. They turned out pretty cute!  But the field trips are fun. It's so neat to see Bran and Nuala with their friends and stuff.  Oh, man... their friends!  Nuala has a special little friend. I'll hafta do a school post later.  Time to move on right now!

Kyle (Zac's cousin's son) is a Marine out here on Okinawa. He and his buddy, Jake, came to dinner finally!  It's been hard gettin' them out here!  We also just recently went to a castle with Kyle.  The kids love him.  So do Zac and I... ;)

Oh... Halllloooooweeeeeeeen!  Wow, I can't believe Halloween's over... Anyway, we had a fun Halloween. We made a lot of cookies, and a huge mess. It was fun and maddening, but mostly fun.

We saved some for Daddy, even, who was out of the country on Halloween. Sad. 

Nuala and Maeve made a new friend while strolling about town.

And we celebrated Daddy's birthday the day before he left us to go to DC for a week.  Haha. Ha... So, he had to miss his bday (Oct. 28th) and H'ween, BUT... he did get to be in DC for Hurricane Sandy.  His conference was for Monday through Friday, but b/c of the darn hurricane, the gov't was closed on Mon and Tues. We were all so glad he got to twiddle his thumbs halfway around the world for those couple of days. But even more glad that he was safe, of course. 

Jack o'lantern! Gooey!

Nuala was a superhero for Halloween.  We pieced stuff together for her and she was thrilled. And looked pretty cool.

Bran was an army man.  He did NOT get a new army man gun, though I'm fairly certain that was the main reason he wanted to be an army man.  He was still pleased, and DID score a new camo vest, so that's almost as good... ;)

    

And the three rascals! Maeve was a princess, despite my best efforts to get her to choose something else.  Seriously! The princess bug has bitten her... HARD!  I take comfort in the fact that Nuala is pretty non-princessy now, so there's hope for Maeve.  Though as long as they're happy with their pink and frills, that's what matters. Sigh.  This is tough for me. I was so the opposite.  I will admit it's fun, though! ;)  Oh! Oh! See? On Nuala's head? Another headband she made for herself.  This was an integral part of her costume. It's a star, with a lightning bolt coming out of it.  

And, these little guys! They're so dang cute.  I saw my friend do this on facebook for her little girl, and I was almost embarrassingly excited to send little tiny tangerine-o'lanterns to school.  Alright. There's some October stuff, squeaking in before December is fully upon us!  DECEMBER. That means we will soon have SIX-year olds...