Camden turned 11 on December 9th. Below are some pictures from her early birthday party at Hodges Farm in November. She won the birthday party at our Neighborhood Watch National Night Out Event in August. The kids had a great time riding the horse and jumping in a bouncy castle. We strongly recommend Hodges Farm to anyone in the area who is looking for pumpkins at Thanksgiving, a tree for Christmas, or fun riding horses, going on hay rides, jumping in the bouncy castle, walking through a maze, seeing farm animals, and having brunch with Santa. Frank Hodges was really great with the kids and made sure they had lots of fun.
Camden got her first round of braces today. She has a bunch of adult teeth inside her gums waiting to emerge, but with no place to go. This round should help to make room for those adult teeth to erupt.
Here are some pictures from Halloween this year. This kids had a great time trick-or-treating and performing in their costumes.
Tristan's fall preschool pictures are online. He is on the bottom half of page eleven. Check them out at Norm Hill Photography. The password is: sharon.
Okay, so it has been my responsibility to update the blog since Andrea's return to teaching at the end of August. And I have intended to do so week after week. However, we have all been so busy in the Reimers household since the start of school that there has hardly been a minute to rest. Also, we lost the charger to our camera and had to replace it, so we haven't taken as many pictures as we normally do. Anyway, here's what we have been up to:
Andrea started teaching at her new school after her old school was closed and staff and students were reassigned to an underutilized school. The move meant an extra week of move-in work for Andrea before the official teacher work days began, however, it also meant that she was assigned a larger room that she does not have to share with another teacher. Another good thing about the move is that the school is a lot closer to home, so her commute is not as long. As is the life of any teacher, she is forever busy with lesson planning and grading.
In early September, Andrea took Tristan to the Yiasou Greek Festival with her sister, Michelle, and her boys; and our friends, Kim and John, and their daughter, Abigale. Tristan was mesmerized by the Greek dancing and all the kids enjoyed the rides. I wish I could have been there--I had to work--because the food is always awesome and I always have a good time.
Camden started fifth grade this year and is doing great. She has two teachers: one that teaches Math and Science, and one that teaches Language Arts and Social Studies. The two teacher schedule is meant to prepare her for middle school next year. Her school is also in session for an extra hour each day, so it is a challenge for her to get all of her homework--which is more than last year--done each night.
Camden is back in Girl Scouts this year and her mom is leading the troop. I have been promised that the troop will use their blog more this year, so I have left the link to it at the top of our blog. Check it out to see what they are up to. Cookie sales begin in February.
Ever since Camden saw the movie How to Train Your Dragon, she has been into dragons. She recently finished reading the book about dragon riders, Eragon, and writes about dragons all the time in her school writing journal.
Tristan is in the three-year old preschool class this year and loves going there and playing with his friends. He still loves playing with his train sets and has become quite good at independent play. He also still likes to ride his Like-a-Bike, although he took a nasty spill on it last week. He ended up with a fat lip, bruised gums, and abrasions on his chin and upper lip. It hurt to eat, so he drank smoothies through a straw for a few days. I was amazed at how fast he healed though.
Tristan also got to ride his first pony last weekend at the the Methodist church's fall festival. Camden's Girl Scout troop was there pasing out candy for "Trunk or Treat."
I am in my last year of teacher education classes. This semester I am taking a social studies methods class on Monday evenings and next semester I will complete a teaching intership at an area school. I am also a substitute teacher at one school on Mondays and observe teachers in another school on Tuesdays for my class. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, I do homework, go grocery shopping, clean the house, do yardwork or whatever else needs to be done. On Fridays, I go to work at TelWare for a few hours while Tristan is in school. I have also been picking up hours from Telware in the evenings and weekends and configure phone systems at home when they need me to.
In August, I ran the Warrior Dash with my friends, Kim and John, and Kim's nephew, Matthew. The Warrior Dash is a 5K run with twelve obstacles including wall climbs, mud pits and cargo nets. We had a great time and I hope to do it again when it comes back in May.
I have also joined a co-ed recreational soccer league. So far, I have only suffered one twisted ankle and one cracked rib. I missed one game for each of those injuries. However, last week I was rewarded for my efforts when I scored a goal. Our team has not won any games but we are getting better. Most of us have never played competitive soccer before, so we are figuring out how to work together and maximize each of our skills. Most of all, we are just having fun and trying not to get hurt.
Andrea started teaching at her new school after her old school was closed and staff and students were reassigned to an underutilized school. The move meant an extra week of move-in work for Andrea before the official teacher work days began, however, it also meant that she was assigned a larger room that she does not have to share with another teacher. Another good thing about the move is that the school is a lot closer to home, so her commute is not as long. As is the life of any teacher, she is forever busy with lesson planning and grading.
In early September, Andrea took Tristan to the Yiasou Greek Festival with her sister, Michelle, and her boys; and our friends, Kim and John, and their daughter, Abigale. Tristan was mesmerized by the Greek dancing and all the kids enjoyed the rides. I wish I could have been there--I had to work--because the food is always awesome and I always have a good time.
Camden started fifth grade this year and is doing great. She has two teachers: one that teaches Math and Science, and one that teaches Language Arts and Social Studies. The two teacher schedule is meant to prepare her for middle school next year. Her school is also in session for an extra hour each day, so it is a challenge for her to get all of her homework--which is more than last year--done each night.
Camden is back in Girl Scouts this year and her mom is leading the troop. I have been promised that the troop will use their blog more this year, so I have left the link to it at the top of our blog. Check it out to see what they are up to. Cookie sales begin in February.
Ever since Camden saw the movie How to Train Your Dragon, she has been into dragons. She recently finished reading the book about dragon riders, Eragon, and writes about dragons all the time in her school writing journal.
Tristan is in the three-year old preschool class this year and loves going there and playing with his friends. He still loves playing with his train sets and has become quite good at independent play. He also still likes to ride his Like-a-Bike, although he took a nasty spill on it last week. He ended up with a fat lip, bruised gums, and abrasions on his chin and upper lip. It hurt to eat, so he drank smoothies through a straw for a few days. I was amazed at how fast he healed though.
Tristan also got to ride his first pony last weekend at the the Methodist church's fall festival. Camden's Girl Scout troop was there pasing out candy for "Trunk or Treat."
I am in my last year of teacher education classes. This semester I am taking a social studies methods class on Monday evenings and next semester I will complete a teaching intership at an area school. I am also a substitute teacher at one school on Mondays and observe teachers in another school on Tuesdays for my class. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, I do homework, go grocery shopping, clean the house, do yardwork or whatever else needs to be done. On Fridays, I go to work at TelWare for a few hours while Tristan is in school. I have also been picking up hours from Telware in the evenings and weekends and configure phone systems at home when they need me to.
In August, I ran the Warrior Dash with my friends, Kim and John, and Kim's nephew, Matthew. The Warrior Dash is a 5K run with twelve obstacles including wall climbs, mud pits and cargo nets. We had a great time and I hope to do it again when it comes back in May.
I have also joined a co-ed recreational soccer league. So far, I have only suffered one twisted ankle and one cracked rib. I missed one game for each of those injuries. However, last week I was rewarded for my efforts when I scored a goal. Our team has not won any games but we are getting better. Most of us have never played competitive soccer before, so we are figuring out how to work together and maximize each of our skills. Most of all, we are just having fun and trying not to get hurt.
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| Tristan on his first day of preschool. |
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| Camden with her fellow Girl Scouts at "Trunk or Treat." |
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| Tristan gets his first ride on a pony. |
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| Tristan rides the train at the Greek Festival. |
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| Cousins, Will and Sam, try out the helicopter ride. |
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| Justin jumps over the fire at the Warrior Dash. |
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| Justin with part of the soccer team, Black Magic. |
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| Tristan cheeses it up in our kitchen. |
Camden worked very hard this summer on her math with Sandy Allen (a wonderful math teacher from Andrea's school) and Normie (who showed Camden how to do Brain Gym), so we celebrated her hard work with some chocolate cake! Camden told us that math used to be her worst enemy, but now it felt like her best friend! Go, Camden!
Beckie (Andrea's old breakdancing buddy from Wisconsin) and her husband, Will, drove a whoppin' 16 hours down from Madison to join Andrea, Justin, Camden, and Tristan at Kim's mountain cabin in Lake Lure, NC. We spent one night enjoying luxury at the cabin (Sadie's Retreat) before going camping in the heat at Davidson River Campground in Pisgah Forest.
After setting up camp, we drove to Asheville, where Andrea had taken Beckie years ago before they were both married. They had fond memories there, and Beckie wanted to show Will the mountain city she had fallen in love with long ago! Since we had Camden and Tristan -- and it was oppressively hot outside -- we beat the heat by going to a children's museum in Pack Place (a cultural education center packed with different museums and exhibits). The kids --and us "big kids"-- had way too much fun there!
For dinner, Beckie and Will wanted to check out a North Carolina microbrewery, so we headed to family-friendly Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co. on Merrimon Ave. The kids immediately were fans of this place because it was covered in eclectic murals -- from Star Wars scenes to their favorite super heros-- and the back room contained a huge kids' movie theater with arcade games. Another section of the place had three-dollar movies where you could watch old classics or more current flicks. Again, we're not sure who had more fun playing the games -- the little kids or the "big kids"!
When we got back to our campsite, we made s'mores over the campfire and then passed out in our tents!
The next morning, we packed up our campsite and headed to Davidson River for some swimming and building forts with river rocks!
Unfortunately, on our way home, we ran into major traffic because the Interstate had shut down due to accidents and flash flooding in Charlotte. While we were camping, Charlotte was drowned in up to 6 inches of rain at once! It was a very long drive home to Charlotte -- with Beckie and Will in tow.
On Saturday, we celebrated Abigail's first birthday party at Kim and John's house-- which is now next door to us! :) That night, the boys had a game night with some Settlers of Cataan, and Beckie and Andrea headed up to Michelle and Normie's to learn some aerial silks!
On Sunday, Beckie and Will took Andrea to the local Unitarian Church, since they go in Madison and wanted to see what the church was like elsewhere. The church was just their style; we walked in and saw a nifty drum circle - and the sermon was one that people of any religion could enjoy. The sermon was on the impact of teaching others -- since it turned out that most of the congregation was made up of current and former teachers! Of course, Andrea could relate to the sermon, and it was nice pep talk before the start of the school year!
After the Unitarian Church, Beckie and Andrea went to Michelle's yoga class (where Michelle worked in a cool new hip-rotator move into her lesson!). Following yoga, we then celebrated Andrea's 36th birthday party with games, Justin's smoked pork, Michelle's awesome apple pie (Andrea's favorite birthday treat!), and Justin's chocolate-chip Rice Krispie treats for the kids! Andrea couldn't have asked for a better birthday!