I accept the challenge of Sparkle Fairy!

I better blog or I'm going to get a call from my dad asking me what my problem is. It's weird how a a couple of weeks will go by where I think I have nothing at all to talk about and then the next week is full of excitement. This week was one of those weeks.

On Wednesday it snowed for the first time. This was my morning view from my classroom. Fortunately, it didn't last long but we've yet to get nice weather back. I made a joke to Ryan about it signaling the time to up my Prozac but seriously, I don't like winter. I tell Ryan I want to take up skiing so that the I will associate the snow with something good. He says skiing is a hobby for the rich. I say, that's why I went back to work, so we could buy pre-shredded cheese and take up skiing.

That night Ryan carved one of his fantastic pumpkins. It took him three hours but I like to think of it as him keeping up his la-dee-da arty skills. We didn't pay thousands of dollars for nothing. If we win the contest he's entering, we'll get a $25 gift card!

On Thursday, Grace won a bike at school. We have a reading incentive program that a local car dealership sponsors and Grace's name was drawn to win a bike. The other student who won was in my class so there was a lot of cheering coming from my classroom. I told my class that the Van Fleets never win anything so this is a really big deal. Because Grace won, she got to lead our school Halloween parade. Very exciting.
Grace got a BMX bike to round out her bike collection. I see some Napoleon Dynamite ramp building in our future.

Grand marshal of the Halloween parade. Our principal is the wizard. He's great.

Friday was Halloween at school and I have to admit it's not my favourite holiday. Last year I had a total anxiety attack during the school parade. Let me set this up for you. Our school has approximately 1200 students. For the Halloween parade, most of their parents and quite a few grandparents show up. We walk our classes through all 36 classrooms and then we go into the double gym that is full of chairs. Not so fun for someone who has social anxiety. This year I felt a lot better about things. Maybe it's the brain medicine working or just being more comfortable with my job but I would say this Halloween was much better than the last. I asked one of the little fairies in my class if she'd like to walk holding my hand and we had a good time together. See, people can change when they are as old as I am. Tonight Ryan is out with Grace and it's pouring rain. I haven't had one kid at the door. Hanna is with her school friends. The first year Hanna and Grace haven't gone together. I guess I need to get used to that.

Grace and I made our skirts. Well, Hanna mostly made mine. I love that they can do things for me now. Grace is a monarch butterfly and I'm a "sparkle" fairy. I had to come up with a name when my class asked me what kind of fairy I was.

Hanna, being Hanna during the parade. She's the life of the party, or so she thinks.

Me and my sweet fairy helper.

"For lucky best wash, use Sparkle Fairy!"

The first grade team all dressed up as fairies. Shari (purple wig) says I owe her lunch because of it. First grade is #1!

What? You didn't make your cat a matching costume? Well that just makes you weird. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!