Report Cards!

On Monday the girls got their first quarter report cards. I am pleased to say that they are both doing extremely well in school! Bailey's very first report card has all S (satisfactory) grades. She scored a 2A on her writing test (the scores are 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, or 3). The goal for the first quarter is a 1a or 1b, so she is doing well in writing. She also took a math progress monitoring assessment, which is a test covering all of the math that will be taught this school year. The idea is that they give the test each quarter to see the students' progress. The teacher said expect to see a 30% or 40% on this first test because the students have only been exposed to about a quarter of the material so far. B scored 68. Emily also took this math PMA for her grade level, and she scored 83! Emily's report card was super as well--she got straight As and made the Principal's Honor Roll. Her writing score was a 5 (the highest score they give) and she exceeded the goal for the Gates Reading Test as well.

We are so proud of our girls and their hard work in school!

Getting Ready for Halloween!

The kids are all looking forward to Halloween this year. Emily is dressing up as a "rainbow princess fairy." Bailey is going as Sofia the First. And Liam chose a Mickey Mouse costume.

Last night, I asked Liam if he was going to be Mickey Mouse for Halloween, and he said, “No! I be LIAM!” LOL. Then this morning I asked him what he was going to dress up in, and he said, ‘Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger!” But then he put on Emily's sneakers and a purple crocheted hat and ran around the house yelling, "Ye-Haw!" I said, "What are you doing?" He replied, "I dress up!" So I guess it remains to be seen what he may be this year!

Family Portraits

This morning, we had our family portraits done. I was so excited because the last family picture we got was this one:

 

Obviously, that was a LONG time ago. I think Liam was about 7 months old at the time. We have had some pictures of the kids done here and there but I really wanted to get a nice portrait of each of them, of them together, and of all of us. Well, I'd say we were successful. I just LOVE the pictures we got--even the not-so-good ones :)

Welcome Fall!

On Wednesdays the girls get out of school an hour earlier, so we try to do something fun like go to the park or swim. Now that it is fall, it hasn't been quite SO hot (it's still very warm, but not scorching) so we haven't been swimming too much lately. I saw this cute idea to make knuckle-print pumpkins and I decided that would be a fun fall craft to do with the kids. We had a blast painting our hands and using them as stamps to make the pumpkin shapes. Then the girls added details to their paintings. Here they are--I think they came out so great!!

 Bailey's painting: "Pumpkins at Night"

Emily's painting: "Pumpkin Stacks"

 Lydia's painting: "Pumpkins by a Fence"

Isabella's painting: "Pumpkins with Scarecrow"

McDowell Kids' Quotable Quotes

Just a few random things I've been meaning to write:

Lately the kids have all taken turns saying cute and funny things. A few days ago, I was brushing Emily's hair, which had a HUGE knot in it. I sprayed her hair with detangler but it was still a really bad knot so we were having a hard time getting her hair untangled. She picks up the detangler and tearfully says, "Mommy, how come this says 'tear-free' on it but I am crying so much?"

At dinner Bailey said that she was learning about salami at school. So I was like,"Salami? Really?" And she goes, "Yeah. You know what salami is? It's the spit in your mouth!"

I was doing laundry yesterday and Liam came over to the laundry room. He sees me, waves, and says, "Hi. How YOU doin'?" LOL