October 2, 2020 we had our performance night for September, since was it was the end of the week. Clara and Anna performed Work, and Hearts are Like Doors, both by Anonymous.

Isaiah performed A Tragic Story by William Makepeace Thackeray. I was most impressed with his improvement the last few days before the performance. He went from being embarrassed to being very confident and expressive. Isaiah also performed a piano piece – the last piece in his method book.

Becca gave a book report on Our of Hiding by Catherine Farnes. Becca also performed two piano pieces. And a highlight was Becca and Isaiah performing their first duet together. They did great!

We added a new performer – Ezra, who performed Eric Carle’s book From Head to Toe. He loves to bow and pretend to say his sister’s poems all the time – but this night he had a little stage fright.

After Josh and I gave book reports, we ended with a play by the Jensen Children entitled Courtship Tips from the Birds. The kids and I came up with the idea during our science lesson about male birds and their attraction techniques. The kids did a great job! We didn’t tell Josh about the play topic and so we could surprise him. He laughed several times, so we knew it was a success!

And now for the video!

After delaying cutting our little man’s hair, October 3, 2020 was the day for his first haircut! Where’s our baby (he’s almost 26 months)? It’s time to get ready to be a big brother!

Ezra was not the most compliant boy for his first haircut. But we survived – with the help of gum, mango, movies, and sprinkles.

Here’s a shot of Isaiah who had his first haircut at 18 months.

As long as we can remember, Anna has loved praying mantises. She loves when they fly into our house and she can catch them. We have seen at least three different colors of praying mantis: green, dark brown/black, and recently an army camouflaged one. (Also note – Anna can now braid her hair by herself.)

These photos capture some of the joy Anna gets from having a praying mantis friend for a time!

This month Ezra’s speech has really taken off. On September 18th he woke up in the morning calling for Mommy and Daddy, and overnight we went from Mama & Dada to our official names. It’s so cute to hear Ezra say two and three word phrases. He’s always making us laugh. Some of our favorites are: Mama, watch me! More, again. Shiver me timbers! Moto ride. Joke! He loves to try to say the poems his sisters are learning and then he bows at the end. It’s amazing to see how his speech has taken off.

We had our second annual celebration of International Talk Like a Pirate Day this month. It was an exciting day for all. Pirate singing, pirate painting, pirate stories, pirate plays, and hotdogs & beans!

On the eve of our celebration we had a torrential downpour and our gutters (which were way overdue for a cleaning) overflowed into our room…right onto Josh’s sleeping face (our mattress got soaked). We spent 2 hours moving things, cleaning up, and setting up a bed on the floor in our main room to sleep on. We said it was like we had to abandon ship during a storm. The kids slept through it all (even those we were also moving things out of their room too). They woke up to find our “pirate ship” set up on the main room. Exciting start of the day!

In the evening, we had hotdogs and beans – per Ezra’s request. Dessert was lime bars made by Becca. After dinner each of the kids did a show about pirates. Each child used different things for his/her show. Clara used magnatiles and wooden people that Becca painted, Anna used playdough, Isaiah used his family, and Becca used stick people which she painted to look like family members.

We ended the evening watching two episodes from a 1950’s Robin Hood series. Arrrrrr!