October Wrap-up

For the last eight or so years, I've been tutoring part time.  I took several months off when Daniel and Anabella were born, but I picked it back up a few months before they were a year old.   I miss teaching, though I wouldn't give up my day job as a stay at home mom for anything.  I love that tutoring keeps me doing what I love most about teaching- simply teaching!

I've taken a new spin on my "tutoring" this school year, bringing in a brother/sister pair (we only do things in 2s in this household!) before and school. Here are some pictures of our two friends who come over on Mondays and Thursdays.  They are a wonderful addition to our family, and I can tell you there's never a dull minute during these "tutoring" sessions! Anabella and Daniel love, love, love them as much as I do! Here we are celebrating Svetlana's birthday in October:

 Here's Sergey acting silly....

And, what do you know, here's Daniel acting silly....

 I think Sveta and Anabella look like they could be sisters in this picture. Anabella likes to sit right beside Sveta (notice the chairs) and do everything she does.

Happy Birthday, Sveta! 

I don't know if it's because of our new friends (or because her Mommy is a teacher), or maybe it's just her age, but Anabella has taken a real interest in coloring (a.k.a. doing homework) lately. She will sit with Sveta for the entire time she does her homework and color.  Her coloring used to be a scribble, now it's more deliberate.  I love these next pictures- notice how each flower is a different color! And, look at the concentration in her face. 

Daniel has many interests these days; among them- football! He loves wearing football shirts- both jerseys and simply shirts that have a ball on them.  If he had his way, he'd wear one every day. Yesterday we were walking into school and a man walked out in a Redskins jersey (following their big win from Sunday- Chip will not believe that I knew that!), and Daniel said, "Look, football shirt." He also points out footballs on flags while we're driving through the neighborhood. And, of course, he always points out those at Chick-fil-a advertising the Chick-fil-a Bowl event.  I love the picture below- taken one day when he was carrying around his baby Steelers helmet- it wasn't even a posed picture! He just happened to be wearing his favorite jersey (it was probably still dirty from the day before).  heehee

These next pictures are just cute:

 If this is not my 2012 favorite pic for the year, then I don't know what is!!