Happy Halloween!

These are the best shots we could get. Kids had a BLAST trick or treating! Next year, there will be THREE Starkey kids out and about!

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Kate! I can't believe it's been two years.


Two years, and your hair hasn't grown much, and we can't do a thing with it.


Two years of seeing this grin, which is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.


Two years of telling you to act like a lady and "Keep your dress DOWN!!!"


Two years of watching you become such an individual.


But you might take after me, after all.

Happy Birthday, Kate!

In which I complain about the month of October

Do you know about October? I dread this month. At school it brings me NECAP Testing and Parent Teacher Conferences. I despise NECAP testing. It's SO boring for me. I end up spending hours on end surfing the internet and answering a question here and there. This time around it's going to last for SIX school days. My best friend lives in the future, people! This only gives me a couple hours a day for emailing before she retires for tea and dinner. NOT FAIR. Then there is the awkward Parent Teacher conference. "Hi, I've only known your son/daughter for 5 weeks. Let me tell you what I think about your child that you've know for 11 years. And now that Dougie's in school, that means that I not only have to have 19 conferences of my own, I also have to GO to a conference for him. He's in PREK. What can they tell me? He plays well? He can almost write his name?

And on top of it all, I went and decided to have a BABY in October! Which means I have to throw a birthday party! Oh, and two of my friends had babies the same week!! Do you know how many parties I have to go to in October? Please understand that I WANT TO GO TO THE PARTIES, but at the same time, I want to have a weekend where I can sit in my PJs and do nothing all day. There's also my mother's birthday and my nieces birthday. Thank goodness Nik and I didn't get married in October!

Plus I'm tired. I have prenatal appointments all the time and I like to complain!!!

Whoops!

I've neglected this blog for a long time. It was a long summer and I spent a lot of time with the kids. It was a great summer, besides all the migraines and morning sickness. Oh yeah, I'm pregnant! 17 weeks pregnant, to be exact.

We're over the moon excited for baby number three!

Now that school has started and I'm a couple classes into my graduate program, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Dougie has started PreK and is LOVING it.

I hope to update more, but I can't promise anything!

Quilt Along

I'm participating in an online Quilt Along (I know, right? When did I turn 80?) and I'm so excited! I bought my fabric and cut it this week, combining Weeks 1 and 2. (Quilt Along can be found here)

Here are some pics. It's going to be a twin size quilt, so I'm hoping it will be Kate's quilt for her big girl bed! I'm thinking she'll be ready for a big girl bed by Christmas, so it gives me a little bit of time to finish!

Pretty piecing...

Middle of the quilt...

My fabric choices for the quilt along....

All my strips ready to be cut into squares...

Wordless Wednesay

It sounds fun, but after two weeks, it's not so much...

Ahh, the solar car unit. The kids ACHE to start this unit all year long. The excitement builds as the snow begins to melt and we start talking about Pinkham Notch...then, after we return, it's go time. This year my students made 7 cars. Almost all of them ran in the races the other day. For some reason some of them didn't leave the starting line. Here's a few shots I managed to take on Thursday, the day of the race!

Getting ready to start a race, covering the solar panels with cardboard!

and away they go!

a shot of a couple cars from my class...

They are all so CREATIVE!

This car was not from my class, but won the "kids choice" award for most creative! (Each car had to hold a 'payload' which was a soda can) Love this one!