Happy Monday! We are facing a five day school week with Halloween right in the middle. It just doesn’t seem fair after we had a five day school week with a GIANT full moon last week, but I am embracing it and getting my Halloween on this week!
I am joining Heather, Lindsay, and Johannah to say hello Monday and share our weekend.
We were supposed to get a bunch of rain on Friday evening and the sky was beautifully predicting it on Friday morning. We love the old saying “Red in the morning, sailors’ warning. Red at night, sailors’ delight.”
On Friday evening, after swim team practice, we headed back to school. Author Jason Reynolds was talking about his books and a few people recommended going. His book Ghost is a Black-Eyed Susan nominee for grades 6-9 this year so I wasn’t super sure about bringing Luke, but I am so glad I did. He was wonderful!! Jason Reynolds opened my boys’ eyes to life outside of our little town. Ghost has some tough parts to read that take place in Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw’s life. Jack and I are reading the book together so that we can talk about all these parts that challenge what he knows about how kids and families treat each other and act. Luke is not reading these books yet. I think they are too mature for him. There are 4 books in the Track series and Jack and I are going to read all 4. Now, I was thrilled to have Luke and Jack with me on Friday night. Jason Reynolds shared a consistent message of hope – hope that any kid will do great things, hope that grownups will give kids a chance, hope that all kids have the opportunity to follow their dreams, hope that all kids will have adults that believe in and support them.
Look at that passion!! It was a fabulous evening!
When I asked my kids what they learned or liked and they said the conversation about integrity. Our conversations about integrity continued all weekend. As I said on Facebook, “if you ever get the chance to meet him grab all the kids you love and go. Bring the grownups too! It’s worth it! You should probably read his books, too!”
Over night, I was up for about 30 minutes stressing about my National Board for Professional Teaching Standards scores. They sent an email on Thursday saying scores would be available on Saturday. I first got my certification 10 years ago. It has to be renewed every 10 years, so this was my first attempt at renewing. The process is similar to the initial certification but just different enough to make me unsure. As soon as I woke up for the day, I headed down to the computer. And guess what, I PASSED!!! I am officially nationally board certified again!
Soccer got rained out so after swim team, we set to cleaning out the basement. We took 4 bags of trash (broken toys, extra pieces, etc.) out and packed up a bunch puzzles and games to take to kindergarten on Monday. It felt so good to get that all cleaned out and reorganized.
Rainy days are for books and tablets sometimes.
On Saturday night, we had our neighbor’s Halloween party. They love Halloween and go all out! Jeff and I decided to go as lifeguards. I had a blast with the whistle throughout the night and I am pretty sure everyone else enjoyed it too.
Our neighbors in their amazing costumes!
Jeff had to work on Sunday so the boys and I headed down to Main Street for the inaugural Cider Stroll. It was so fun. Most stores had some sort of apple cider that they were serving and it was free after you bought the official mug. We strolled through the shops picking up some birthday and Christmas gifts for about an hour.
Jack had to go to baseball practice so we dropped him off and Luke and I headed back to the stroll. There was a great turn out and a bunch of yummy ciders!
After practice, we came home and watched some football and got ready for the week. The weather was perfect to head out for a run, so I did. Keeping the streak alive – day 666.
Today is an exciting day for the Parsons – Jack gets his braces off this morning! I can’t wait to see his pearly whites!
We have a great week planned over here and two very excited trick-or-treaters!! I hope you have a great week full of sunshine and books!
☀️ 📚 😎
What a great weekend! Congratulations on renewing your certification! & I’m SO jealous you got to meet Jason Reynolds. I think he’s an absolute genius. I think your oldest is the perfect age for reading his work! His newest, Long Way Down, is absolutely incredible. That one is considered (I believe, don’t quote me) Young Adult and would be for an older reader in my opinion, but I highly recommend it, especially in our current climate. It’s written in verse and a super fast read, but it’s haunting.