A few firsts

Last Wednesday we had Anna's first conference for first grade.  Matt and I were both able to go; our hearts were full as we left.  The teacher's first comments were along the lines of "Anna is a kind, hard-working student.  She listens to directions very well, is liked by her peers, and is a sweet kid."  :)  Whether or not she's a smart kid, (which she is) this is the kind of thing we like to hear from her teachers.  She still genuinely likes school and I think she's starting to realize herself just how much she is learning.

Thursday morning we had a friend come over to play with Kate for awhile - her first "playdate" in what must have been a long time.  She and Joy disappeared into the girls' room for over an hour; I think they both had fun :)  Ethan also had a fun time playing around with Noah.

Friday Kate and I had our first learning playdate together.  She told me a few weeks back that she wanted to learn about "cranes, the animals, not the machine" when I asked her what she was interested in.  So we checked out a few books from the library and on Friday morning played cranes outside while Ethan napped.  We made a crane nest in the field, pretended to lay two eggs, found food for the babies, and then "migrated" to and from one of the field islands.  She had a great time and was able to show Anna all that we did when Anna got home from school.

Saturday we had the first day in awhile where no one in the family had to be anywhere.  (This picture was taken at the end of a very active day at home, thus the disheveled appearances.)

In fact, I don't think we left the house/yard at all that day (except to play in the field for awhile).

Ethan got his first experience with the leaf vacuum.  This boy certainly loves his loud machines!

It was a great day, filled with time outdoors, playing around, working hard collecting leaves, leaves, and more leaves, and crashing hard that night.

To say that our leaf pile is big this year would be an understatement. These pictures were actually taken before we hauled about 10 tarp loads over from a neighbor's house and before another neighbor used his lawn sweeper to clean up his yard and dump the leaves on our pile.

Saturday was also the first day that Anna got to drive around the go-cart that Matt built for the kids.  Kate still doesn't want to drive it, but Anna did a very good job driving all around the yard :)

Monday Ethan had his first haircut ... or trim, if you could even call it that.  He was developing a bit of a mullet in the back and the top was starting to get shaggy.  So we got out the clippers and trimmed him up a bit.  He didn't like it very much.  In fact, it was a two parent job; Matt held him down while I buzzed him as fast as I could.  The pictures didn't turn out very well, but I don't think anyone besides us would really be able to tell if he had a haircut.

Before:

After:

Monday we also had our first snow!  Kate didn't want to play in it at all, but Anna was all geared up for playing in the snow after school.

The snow is still around today, at least in the front yard.  Maybe the girls will want to play out there this afternoon.  If not, I'm sure we'll have plenty of snow in the months to come ...