Pumpkin Patch

Last week the boys were out of school for 2 1/2 days so I took an afternoon off and we went to a local pumpkin patch! It was such a beautiful day!

 The boys each picked out 1 big pumpkin and then insisted on bringing home some baby pumpkins.

They had a really good time running through the fields, seeing all the different kinds of pumpkins and picking their favorites.

When it was time to head out of the patch, they soon realized that their baby pumpkins would roll/bounce out of the wagon so someone had to ride inside to keep them safe. LOL

They took turns...

After we paid for and loaded up the pumpkins in the car - the boys went through a corn maze - all by themselves! They had a blast...but were super hot, sweaty and tired when all was said and done.

I walked around the pumpkin patch and took some pictures while I waited for them.

After the maze they shot some hoops before we took off.

Next we hit up a Cider Mill for some fresh donuts, cold cider and a cream soda for Jaxen.

It was the best afternoon hanging out with these guys!

Flag Football: Zane

Zane’s third year playing flag football wrapped up this past weekend with a loss in their first game of the playoffs. We were all a little bit sad. But his team did so good this year. He had a new coach and half of the kids had never played flag football before - so everyone was learning. 

Zane adored his coach and had so much fun with all his new friends! Going into the season he only knew one person, but by the end - he was besties with everyone!

I have some really great videos of Zane playing this year - but it’s a little time consuming to upload…so you only get the one pic 😊 

Up next…basketball (in a few weeks, we need a sports break)! 

Jaxen - 6th Grade Updates

You know how I started my last post (about Zane) with the words "This kid. He is amazing and frustrating all at once!"?

Same.

In different ways.

Jaxen's parent-teacher conference included 5 of his teachers and me, sitting in desks in a circle in his homeroom classroom. Not intimidating at all, right? Ha! His teachers were so kind and had many good things to say about Jaxen. The two consistently good things I heard from each of them were 1) Jaxen is respectful and 2) he is smarter than his grades reflect.

The takeaways are 1) Jaxen rushes through his work to get done and move on to the next thing, which is usually free time, 2) he is easily distracted, and 3) he is disorganized which leads to losing items and not turning in assignments. 

Jaxen loves middle school. I mean, loves it. He can talk forever about it. He should seriously be their ambassador 😀. If I were to ask him how things are going at school he would tell me so much...but none of which include missing assignments, losing his things or the fact that he never (ever) has a pencil with him. I'm pretty sure Jaxen has single-handedly used up the "extra stash" of pencils from every 6th grade teacher. Now that I'm aware - I'm sending Jaxen to school with no less than 72 pencils! Haha!

I am so glad he loves school...but there are some areas where he needs to focus more on. And we will try to help him with that. The problem is that he thinks everything is "fine" and he does not need/care/want to do more...? I'm still trying to figure this out. There are many times when I have said something and his reply is along the lines of "I don't need to / It's fine / I don't have to do it...the teacher did not say to" and so on. 

I know he is capable. He is so smart. He is creative. He is funny. He loves to help and be in charge of things. He will get there. Middle school is a big adjustment... we are only one-quarter of the way through this first year!

And there are no random pictures of Jaxen to go along with the post because, well, he is in middle school now and has no desire to have his picture taken!

Zane - 2nd Grade Updates

This kid. He is amazing and frustrating all at once!

He will tell you he loves school and has the best teacher and the best friends and the best time and you would never know that he threw a fit and told me in no uncertain terms that he was not going to school that day!

OR

He will tell you how much he is learning and likes to learn and will read to you and answer math questions with no problem and you would never know that the last thing he wants to do on earth is homework! 

That is where we are in life. Sigh. 

Today I met over the phone with his teacher, his speech teacher and the principal for a parent-teacher conference. (These are normally with just the teacher - but since they were recommending that Zane "graduate" speech, there has to be others involved in that meeting). 

Here is an update on Zane, as a second-grader (for the 1st quarter):

He gets to graduate speech therapy! He has been in speech therapy since kindergarten (mainly for his "R's") but there are no longer concerns with any articulation and so they are recommending that he no longer be in speech. Zane is so excited that he has worked hard and gets to graduate! His speech teacher even asked if it was okay that she get him donuts (which he requested) for graduating. Haha!

His "glows" (highlights) are: he is very good at making and helping his friends, he is confident in himself, and his smile will light up the room (and his face will tell you exactly what mood he is in)!

His "grows" (struggles) are: hand-writing, being distracted by friends, and spelling. His reading was a struggle, but has improved so much!

And guess what? When I asked his teacher if Zane was wearing his glasses - she said "No. I thought he lost them and I stopped asking because he hasn't worn them in weeks". WHAT? Are you kidding me? I assured her that Zane had a new pair and they were on his face every morning when I drop him off at school! Hahaha - he is something else, right?!

So where do we go from here...?

His teacher is going to work with Zane make a to-do list for home each night. She hopes that by having Zane tell her what he needs to work on each day, homework will not be such a struggle. And, she is including "did you wear your glasses" on that little list that he will have to check-off each night with me :) I am going to try to incorporate some kind of reward system with him as well... We all really think a good push in that direction (to work on some of these things at home) will greatly improve his "grow" areas at school. We have focused more on reading at home here lately and she commented on how much progress she has seen with reading.

We will see how it all goes. Overall - Zane is kind, caring, smart and helpful. He is amazing, and I just love him so much! We will figure out spelling, and hand writing, and math, and all the things... one day 😀

Choir

Monday night Jaxen had his first middle school choir concert. He was excited! And look how cute he is (although he is trying to look tough and not smile)!

I was not able to be there (Zane had practice and I had a work meeting) but Nik took videos and they did so good. The highlight for me (and Jaxen) was that they sang "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi!

And apparently they sand a Pirate song of some sort (the reason for the hat). 

I am so glad he is enjoying choir!

Glasses

They say the 4th time is a charm, right? 

Zane has a new pair of glasses - after losing 2 pairs since school started. Let’s see if he can keep up with these. Who knew this would be such a big issue?! We even tried contacts. I was so sure that was the answer. It wasn’t. He was not ready for them. So here we go again. And this is how Zane really feels about them...

He is still adorable - crazy expression, missing teeth and all.