Who says cats and dogs don't get along?

Caroline is going to be a Лгырф (Cat) for halloween and she couldn't wait to try on her costume yesterday. Here's my pretty kitty and her favorite pal:

I have a five year old little boy!

I'm a little late coming to this party, but Chase turned 5 years old two weeks ago! This year has been so much fun, both kids totally get birthdays now. Last year, they just didn't have a clue. For weeks leading up to his birthday, he was so excited, walking around the house singing "Happy Birthday to me"! It started with bringing spiderman cookies to his class on the Friday before his birthday, his whole class sang to him and he just grinned ear to ear. On Saturday we celebrated his birthday with his Aunt Mary and Uncle Skip having his favorite dinner: Spaghetti! We had an Elmo cake, his favorite guy and opened gifts. He got all kinds of great things, including his greatest wish: a train set. Sunday, his actual birthday, we just hung out playing with all his new toys. A few pics from the fun:

Before and After

Both kids are settling into school really well. Caroline is back in Kindergarten and doing extremely well. The school she attends has some "multi-age" classrooms and they are thinking of going ahead and putting her into the multi-age 1st grade since she has made so much progress over the summer. They will test her probably next month and then decide what to do. Caroline has developed a little "tude" lately where school is concerned, she seems to think that since she's "been there, done that" with Kindergarten, she can goof off on things she finds too easy, my perfectly behaved child has fallen off the wagon! She is getting little "behavior" notes sent home almost weekly, this will be the third week in a row that she will not receive a "Bravo" for behavior! She is also having some challenges with some of the other girls in her class, two to be exact. One of the little girls I can forgive as her teacher told me she comes from a disrupted domestic adoption and has RAD (reactive attachment disorder) which is where her bad behavior stems, the other little girl is just a bully! She has said some really awful things to Caroline and about her to others, she has even told me some of these things! Well today when I picked up Caroline from the after school program, I took this little girl to task when I found Caroline crying after this girl and her brother were bothering Caroline by shoving blocks in her face! Nothing like me telling off a Kindergartner! Now I've probably turned into one of "those" mothers!

Chase is now on his third medication for ADHD, he is on Vyvanse and it is working great! I cannot believe the difference in him, especially when it comes to his impulsive bad behaviors! His teachers at PPCD are sending home daily behavior charts and Chase has had some good days, some really bad days and most have fallen somewhere in the middle. Well since he has started on this new med, he is coming home with not only good, but "Great" and "Awesome" days! I don't know if this is a fluke or what, but I'll take it. Here are pictures of his daily charts, the green and blue stickers are for good, yellow for ok and red, well you get the picture!

Here are some of the charts before Vyvanse:


Here is a picture after Vyvanse:


Chase has come such a long way, his language and speech are getting better everyday. I am just so proud of him, his sister too!

Me. Well I've been doing a ton of projects around the house, it seems like there has been lots of deferred maintenance around here for the past year since we've been home (been a little busy!), and now it has all crept up on me. I still have two big projects to do, one is cleaning out the pond, which looks more like a swamp and a little painting inside. We're looking forward to Chase's 5th Birthday in a couple weeks and a trip to the Texas State Fair (mmmmmm, corny dogs and funnel cakes!). Well that's all I have for now.

Jane