For almost a month now Scarlett and Leon have been going to public school. I love homeschooling and eventually plan to homschool them again. But right now I just don't feel like I have enough time to teach them all. This whole thing kind of started because Scarlett got behind in reading. I wanted her to get extra help from school for just reading, but the school was not willing to let her (even though it is in the DODEA policy that they will). I decided to go ahead and enroll her so she can get caught up in reading. I also enrolled Leon for a couple of reasons, I didn't want to send Scarlett alone, Leon is the only one who has never been to public school, and because it is more time consuming for me to teach the children who cannot read well.
Leon is in first grade and is loving it. I had a parent teacher conference with his teacher and wasn't surprised one bit. He is right on track and doing great and he has even made friends. Leon was great at homeschool and in general he is pretty easy to parent. I knew school would be a breeze for him.
Scarlett is having a little bit of a harder time. But she is also doing just as I expected. She struggled with school at home and she struggles with it at school. She just really doesn't like reading...yet (I'm determined to change that). She is also very tired all the time. We have to leave for the bus at 6:45. That is super early for us. Scarlett used to not wake up until 7:15. It is honestly hard to send her to school everyday and then she comes home really tired and grumpy and I'm supposed to get her to do homework.
Scarlett does like her teacher though and I know that she does have fun at school. Sometimes she says that it is terrible, but I think that she enjoys her school day for about 75% of the time. It is just easy to fixate on the hard times. Here she is after school showing me the spoon and ketchup she scored from the cafeteria.
We took a couple selfies waiting for the bus on Halloween.
The bus is the worst part about it. School doesn't start until 8am but they get on the bus at 6:45. It is normally a 20 minute drive to their school, but morning traffic adds to that. Then after the kids arrive at school they sit on the bus for over 30 minutes! It is horrible. Basically they use one bus for all the kids in our area. So they ride with high school and middle school kids who's school starts 30 minutes earlier. Then after dropping the older kids off the elementary kids just sit on the bus. I think it is crazy that that is allowed. Another major issue I have with the school is that there is only one recess! The elementary school is gigantic. It has about 1,200 students. I think there are 10 first grade classes this year.
Both kids got to go on a field trip Mikan picking. They really enjoyed it.
All last week the four older kids went to Missoula Children's Theatre and put on a play. They auditioned on Monday and went to practices all week then had two performances on Saturday. The audition on Monday was pretty scary for the kids. They didn't need to have anything prepared ahead of time, but the directors would ask them so say specific lines and do a couple different things. I was really proud of my kids for just doing that. It was hard for some of them to say lines in front of people. I heard from others that in the past lots of kids get cut, but thankfully this year they had room for everyone who tried out. I hate the idea of kids getting cut from activities they want to do.
Scarlett was a Winter Wind Worker. Penelope was a Blizzard Bringer. Tucker was a Grinder, and Leon was the cutest dust bunny ever.
Practices were at different times for different kids so it was a lot of back and forth to and from base for me. Leon also had the least practices so we got some time together without the older kids. I had most mornings all week with just Beatrix and Calista. Having only two kids at home was soooo easy. I got a ton done!
Another cool thing about they play was that everyone had speaking parts. My kids each had three lines and they were nervous. But they didn't forget them and I could even hear them! Great job guys.
Scarlett got baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last week. It was a really special day for her, something she has been looking forward to for years.
We do not have a font in our church building so the baptism took place in the non denominational church on base called the Chapel of Hope. Bob and I are very proud of her.
Scarlett has been learning about the church and what we believe since she was born, but I took extra care this month to make sure she knew what she was doing when she got baptized and that it was something she wanted to do. We believe that eight is the age of accountability and I can really see that she has matured a lot over the last year. She is definitly old enough to know right from wrong and also to make this decision for herself. Half of our children are now baptized.
She wanted her hair to be in a braid crown. It is sort of tradition in our family. I had my hair like that when I was baptized and Penelope did as well. It is super easy for dunking underwater and then for getting dressed after while all wet.
Both my parents and Tianna came out for the occasion. I think it felt extra special for Scarlett to have more family to come see her get baptized. We also had a lot of support from the ward. Our ward is really great that way.
I made huge CTR sugar cookies. It is hard to tell in the picture but they are pretty big, each cookie was probably about six inches tall. And some of them are in Japanese. I had to quadruple the recipe. The hardest part was keeping Calista away from them until the baptism.
Eight is really such a turning point from being a little kid to just a kid. She was so excited to be eight and it has been really fun to watch her grow.
If you are familiar with Carol Tuttle's energy types, Scarlett is such a type two. She is a little more slow moving then the other kids. She has a lot of energy and loves to play but she doesn't want to play tag or anything that really involves running. Often the other kids will be playing a game like that and she will be sitting on the couch watching or just hanging out with me instead. She also claims to be tired all the time and she sleeps in, which is new for me.
Another type two trait that she has is that she is a great peacemaker. Whenever someone is sad she is the first one to give something away to make them happy. She is very in tune with others feelings and wants everyone to be happy.
When Scarlett grows up she wants to be a mom. But along with that she wants to be a teacher, therapist, OBGYN, or baker. I think any of those professions would suit her well. Especially the mom thing. Scarlett is so amazing with both Beatrix and Calista. Anytime either one of them is sad she is the first one to run over to them and start making silly faces to cheer them up.
Scarlett has been waiting almost two years to wear this dress! Penelope wore it for her baptism and Scarlett will do the same. She loves dresses and anything girly and pretty.
Scarlett's birthday lunch was a lot of fun. She chose to go to Kushiya Monogatari on the 8th floor of the mall. We went once before and I wasn't that impressed, but it was better this time!
The it is an all you can eat cook it at your own table tempura restaurant. I think the reason it was more fun this time is because an employee came over and taught us what to do. The first time we were a little lost.
Scarlett choose it because it has a self serve ice cream maker and a chocolate fountain. Plus of course all you can eat is really fun for a kid. She had an hour and ten minutes to cook and eat whatever she wanted.
Last time we came the chocolate fountain was pouring white chocolate. This time it was matcha (green tea) flavor. We don't eat anything with green tea and so I thought Scarlett would be devastated. But she was such a good sport. She didn't complain about it at all. The marshmallows and donuts were still good even though they weren't doused in chocolate.
Calista did really well at staying in her seat and not touching the hot metal on the table.
They had the cutest little octopus hot dogs.
We had a good time, and I ate way too much. Beatrix slept through the whole thing.
Once Bob got home from work it was time for presents.
Calista was devastated that she didn't get to keep the M&Ms.
Scarlett requested a mermaid cake. I think it is my best one so far.
It wasn't until watching Scarlett at this Kate Spade shoot that I realized how much she really seems like a professional model. She has came such a long way from her first shoot, it is really amazing. I was talking to a friend about it and she thought it was funny how they call the kids and babies models. At first I might have thought the same thing, but not anymore. Some of these kids do everything just like an adult model and at the shoots they really treat them like the model. It really is a job for them and I feel like I'm supporting them and kind of an afterthought.
The catalog came out a couple days ago and we were thrilled that Scarlett was on the cover. There is a link to the catalog here. But we went to the actual store to hunt down a couple hard copies to keep. Sometimes the agencies give out a copy for the models and sometimes they don't, it just depends on what they are given. We never get to keep any of the clothing, which is a bummer.
It is so funny to see which pictures they liked and put online or in print. Like this next one of Scarlett, why did they choose her grumpiest face? I know it happens, but she has not been to a shoot yet where they ask her to smile.
Now I want to share the background and set up of the photo shoot. Above you can see the two pictures they took from this set up.
The clients are usually very particular and want everything exactly the way they have in mind.
Lots of people are there to watch and make you feel weird. One person is dedicated to helping the kids get dressed and have snacks. Then there is the hair person, the photographer, and others that I really don't know what they do.
There is usually some sort of plan up on the wall with the clothing and kids pictures.
And there is usually lots and lots of waiting and downtime. Like we could be there an hour or two and do nothing. There are usually more then one child taking pictures and they rotate individuals and groups to get the shots they want. They are in no rush at all. I did go to two shoots where we were busy pretty much the whole time, but generally we are all very bored the whole time.
I took a video of the last shoot Scarlett did.
And here is Scarlett at the Kate Spade store, holding the catalog, standing in front of the mannequin that is wearing the dress she is wearing on the cover. The employee's were very excited that she was there. They took pictures and seemed more excited about it than Scarlett. I was probably more excited than she was as well. Calista really wanted out of the stroller and to be done for the day. She is not a fan of hour long train rides.
