She's Seven

FREEBEE: Happy birthday to Annabelle! We took advantage of Burger King's free meal for a birthday kid program today. I think we (well, they) eat at Burger King twice a year - once on CJ's birthday and once on Annabelle's birthday.

THE FALLING LEAVES: It's that time of the year - leaves are starting to pile up on our stairs and in our yard. At my request, CJ took a broom to our front steps today. His technique was sorely lacking, but I appreciate his willingness to pitch in to help and the fact that he stuck with it until the job was done.

WHEELIES: We stopped by Value Village this afternoon to round up some Halloween costume-related items. While there, I spied an old GT skateboard just like the one the kids' Aunt Renee (and tens of thousands of others) had circa 1975. Of course we had to buy it. Annabelle was eager to try it and we discussed different ways to stand, how to steer and so on. She found it a lot harder to navigate than her beloved scooter.

CJ didn't give it a go at all. Too sketchy for him, apparently.

U-DISTRICT:  CJ had his third session of acting class today. He reports it "awesome," once again. He was a little scant with the details about what they actually did in class, but he enjoyed it, so I'm happy. :) While he was doing his thing, Annabelle and I checked out a park a few blocks to the north.

Cowen Park is 8.4 acres in size and there's plenty to like, including grassy expanses, trails through a ravine, and a really nice playground. 

The first thing we checked out was an enormous sundial next to the playground. It's very cool (if not the most accurate timepiece).   

There was also a zipline that lived up to its name, and the best part of the park trip was the fact that Annabelle's BFF from yoga met us there today. We hadn't seen her in weeks.

WORK IT: Our school work today included math. We're working on a chapter with analog time telling, which sounds simple at first but it's not just reading a clock, it's doing math like, "7:45 is how much later than 5:15?" The kids each did some free reading and we completed a pumpkin-themed EdHelper.com packet I'd put together for them. For that assignment, the last question was, 'If you were to create a new variety of pumpkin, what would you call it? Explain what your new variety of pumpkin looks like, including size, shape, color, as well as texture of the shell."

CJ wrote, "My pumpkin is called Wumbo the Jumbo. You can tell from its name that it is big. This pumpkin can come in absolutely any random shape. It's most likeliey that you will find it with a white color. Somehow it feels itchy."

Annabelle wrote, "I would call it Small Squash. It would be smaller then a Casper pumpkin, and would be yellow, as well as hard."

TONIGHT: The birthday girl opened several really nice presents from family and friends. She was very happy.