Pretty Day/ I am not super mom

Yet another perfect fall day--can it stay like this forever? Got kids to school. Went to grocers--the Kroger in Bcreek has a Starbuck's and I wasn't going to get a coffee, but the salted caramel hot chocolate was worth trying. It is now my new favorite. It may bump the caramel latte from Panera. Debated- homework, clean bathrooms. STOP! It's a gorgeous day. Packed lunch and Charlotte and I had a picnic at school. I spread out the blanket under a tree, the sun was just right. The blanket was a magnet for a couple of kids, Ella came and sat on my lap. After the young ones went in, Charlotte ate and we chatted. I laid on my side and Charlotte crawled over leaned against me like a couch. She was lucky I didn't take a nap, though I nearly suggested we curl up. But, before I could say anything, it was off to the swings. Bathrooms be damned.

We are reading Halloween themed books now. The current favorite being the Bones of Fred McFee--not too scary and it rhymes. I found a copy of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Ichabod in this version is a bit smarmy--need to find a different version.
I bought Ryan the first four Magic treehouse books today--he is very excited about chapter books. We are reading the first one together--the fourth one is pirates and that is the one he reads "by himself". I want to read them in order. The first one is about dinosaurs.

Charlotte made the letter A out of her pencils and called me over to look. I pulled out the wooden shapes in the Handwriting Without Tears stuff so she could make others if she wanted. The tempest reared her head a couple of times today. After being admonished about being sassy to Mommy at bedtime, she cried her heart out. I asked why she was sad--I told her I wasn't upset and she understood that. So I asked why she was sad and she howled she missed her friend Kristin in North Carolina. It about broke my heart. What goes on in that brain of hers.? So I'll ask tomorrow if she would like to talk to Kristin and see where it goes.

Ryan is back to drawing big pictures again, I'm so glad. I was worried he would drop that after not being in Brian's class for awhile--but he's back at it. Today it was pirate ships with people with names and a story. I asked if he wanted to draw one for Kaylynn and he lept at it. The one he was drawing was a pirate ship sinking because Kaylynn and Ryan shot it (they were full of bad guys). I asked him to draw something happy and then realized that I was being dumb. I encouraged him to draw whatever he wanted. Hopefully Kaylynn will understand. He did change it though. I am sorry he did, after thinking about it, censoring him was a dumb thing to do. He also wrote Kaylynn a note, remebered his "finger spaces" and stamped the envelope. It goes in the mail tomorrow.