Now she is six

When I was One,
I had just begun.

When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

When I was Three,
I was hardly Me.

When I was Four,
I was not much more.

When I was Five,
I was just alive.

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

A.A. Milne



Happy Birthday Alison!!

No more using one hand to state her age

Alison will be six tomorrow. She's going to look great on her birthday.

Tooth Update

I have been slack at updating the tooth loss tales of Rustle's girls. About a week before Halloween, Alison lost another bottom tooth, leaving an enormous gap in her mouth. She developed a temporary lisp due to the absence of so many teeth. I asked her if it was hard to talk without any teeth, and she said, "No, it's just hard to make some sounds."

Sarah is wiggling another tooth too. When this one goes, it will be the twelfth lost tooth, a tally about which we are all expected to be impressed.

Rustle's mom goes back to work

It's been a tough week for Rustle. Not only is the big guy gone all day, the little tail-pullers taking off on the big yellow box with wheels, but now the mom disappears for most of the day. What's a dog to do?

Apparently, he will sleep all day and then exuberantly wag his tail when she gets home.

Happy Halloween

On a cold and snowy Halloween, our pumpkins froze and our decorations were hidden in the white stuff. But did that deter trick or treaters? Well, yes, there were about half of the number we got last year. But NO, it did not deter Rustle's beautiful girls.

Here we have Ms. Mulan, the princess who doesn't need a prince and can take care of herself....




Here we have a rodeo clown, the most original costume winner of the night!

Homework

Kids do not enjoy homework. Sarah's teacher has a "no-homework-except-daily-reading" policy which we enjoy immensely (except now I have absolutely no idea what she is doing in school since Sarah tells us NOTHING). It's nice not to have to fight with at least one kid about getting homework done.

Alison has a nightly reading program as well as a weekly spelling list. She is an awesome little speller and scores perfectly each week, partly because she has to practice her list. After writing out her 5 words, she knows how to spell them and knows how to edit/correct mistakes she may have made. The trouble is that if her sister is watching TV, Alison wants to do that, too.




I won't let her do her homework in front of the TV, which makes her rather grumpy, as you can see.

In a spin

The girls have been very busy lately, what with school all day and other activities 6 days a week. Sarah skates twice a week, and this week she was working on her spins. Getting her legs right has been tricky!

Gummy

Alison has lost two more teeth. The first top tooth came out a couple of weeks ago, but we saw that it's neighbour was dangling. In fact, I was thinking she might want to be a witch for Halloween since her dangly teeth would be the perfect look. She fooled me though, and came home from school today with her other front tooth in her pocket. Now she has a HUGE gap in her smile, and if they keep falling out at this rate, she will be gumming her meals again.

Here's the gap + crooked tooth:



And here is today's spacious look:

A Foggy Day

Where did the bottom of the hill go?

I think I'll stay up here with my people.

Sparky goes Outside

On a beautiful September day, the Sparks went for a day camp. Lots of crafts, snacks, and hikes later, the new Sparks were officially welcomed to the unit. Alison, as the only 2nd year Spark in attendance, was in charge of welcoming the new girls. She was very impressive as the Spark Enroller.