A Team Week 162: B&W

Among many other things, this week was the week that I was given the Black & White photo challenge on Facebook.  While I usually try to avoid these things at all costs I did take on this challenge both to try and capture bits of our life in black and white and also to see the photos of some of my other friends that have a love and passion for photography.  A few of the pictures I shared were taken the weekend prior and thus posted in the prior blog, but I do have a few more that did and did not make the final cut...

Whether Eric realized it or not, he too must have been inspired by the black and white challenge as I found these pictures on our camera later in the week...

So, that is a quick preview of our life in black and white...now for a splash of color...

Because Asher had a tough time acclimating to the new school routine, we created a "Brave" chart for him.  Every time the he was brave and did a good job at morning/breakfast drop-off and evening pick-up, he got a sticker and once the sticker sheet was completely empty he was rewarded.  Since he has been asking for his own umbrella for quite some time, we decided that that was a good "Big Boy" reward for him.  Thus, the week prior he finally finished off the stickers and after Eric's parents left on the Sunday before this week began the two of them went to Meijer to pick his umbrella.  Then he was THRILLED that much of this week was rainy so that the umbrella was able to be used several times!

Darth Asher (rainy day entertainment)

Due to the rain, Asher's class also got to have a fun recess inside playing.  Here he is playing playdoh with his classmates.

This week was also a short week for Asher due to Parent/Teacher Conferences...our very first of many.  We got 8:05am on Friday for our scheduled conference appointment so Eric brought both of the boys to daycare and then we headed to the school to talk to his teacher.  I was nervous to hear how Asher was doing after a rough start to the school year and being unable to fit preschool into our work schedules.  His teacher talked to us about how he behaves, works and relates to others.  And while she really didn't have anything to say that surprised us it was a little difficult to have our fears somewhat confirmed.  Asher is a perfectionist through and through.  Ever since he was a toddler he has not wanted to do anything unless he believes that he can do it right on the first try.  While a strive for perfection can push others along, for Asher it is a hurdle.  It keeps him from trying new things and makes him get frustrated easily, which is completely in line with his teacher's criticism.  Thus, we are continuing to work on encouraging him to attempt things and persevere when things get difficult.  His teacher seems to think that this will improve as the school year progresses and while I agree, I also cannot help but feel some parent guilt for not finding a way to prepare him with preschool.

The other area that Asher was evaluated in was his letter/sound recognition.  While he did fairly well at recognizing his upper case letters, he knew very few of the lower case letters and was not able to recognize the sounds that most of the letters make.  Again, this came as no surprise, but we are now trying to work with him more at home to help him catch up to those that did get to go to preschool.

To end the conference meeting, Asher's teacher showed us this drawing that he did of himself and his brother.  At this point, I was feeling pretty bummed with how things had gone but this picture cheered me up, as I was thrilled to see how Asher loves his little brother.

FB Post: This made my day! Brothers & best buddies....and he is VERY right...Avery "LOVES" purple! 💜💜

After the teacher conferences, I enjoyed a morning by myself to run errands and then picked up the boys later in the day.  At the end of the day, Eric came home from work and our weekend began.  The boys worked together to clean out our pumpkins and collect seeds to bake.

Asher's teacher suggested that we work on letters and sounds at home, but to make it fun.  She gave us the idea to build letters from blocks so we gave it a shot.  He did great!  I thought he would have to at least write the letters down to know how to make them, but most of the letters he was able to build with barely a thought of how to build them.  Together we built almost the entire alphabet and had a good time doing it!

The next day (Saturday) I prepared for us to take family pictures together that afternoon.  I'd hoped that the amazingly warm and sunny weather of the weekend before would hold through, but unfortunately that was not the case.  Instead, it was completely overcast and in the upper 30's.  Determined to get our family pictures taken though, I layered the boys up to keep them as warm as possible and we pressed on.

At 3:30 in the afternoon we met Connie of Wunder Photography in downtown Racine for the shoot.  It was chilly and we had to keep snuggling up the boys and blowing on their red fingers and noses to warm them, but it went surprisingly well and we had fun (although it would have been more so had it not been freezing).  After an hour of taking photos outside, the boys were ready to go inside and warm up so we headed to a nearby cafe where we planned to get everyone hot cocoa and take a few indoor pictures.  As soon as we entered the cafe though the boys realized that they also sold gelato and so even though we were all freezing we decided to "warm" up with a chilly treat! ;)

A teaser photo from our shoot...the rest will come at a later date...

When our photo shoot was completely finished, we said goodbye to Connie (who was so great with the kids that she practically became part of the family and even got a hug from Avery) and then headed to Chili's to get some dinner.  When we finally got back home we picked out some carving pictures for our pumpkins and then got to work carving them for the upcoming Halloween holiday.  Eric carved a Minion for himself and a Bat Symbol for Avery (per his request).  Asher wanted to carve Optimus Prime, but he also wanted to carve his own pumpkin this year.  Thus, we worked together to get his pumpkin carved.  I taped the picture onto his pumpkin and then showed him how to poke holes around the design to created the outline.  Then he carved the larger areas all by himself (and did a great job) and I helped him out with the more intricate areas, while I also worked on my own Owl pumpkin.

Our finished pumpkins

When the pumpkins were finished, we all headed to bed for some much-needed rest!

The next day, after some lazy time at home, church, lunch and then more lazy time we continued our Halloween festivities by attending a Trunk or Treat at our new church.

Avery coloring a picture for neighbor Marge

Momma's Boy

Asher (& Eric) decorating the house for Halloween

Festive lunch

Our friend's daughter enjoying her cotton candy

Avery was not so sure about our pirate friend Matt.

The boys got to have cotton candy for the first time!

I got to enjoy some cotton candy too!  Yum!

When our Trunk or Treating was over we headed back home to finished out our week.  After carving pumpkins the floor was sticky with pumpkin guts and desperately needed to be mopped, so the boys stayed outside and raked up played in the leaves while I headed back inside to clean up the house.  

Me searching for the boys in the leaf fort they built.

When the boys were chilly and ready to warm up they too headed back in the house.  Asher was in the mood to help clean and after cleaning up his room decided to do some vacuuming.  When he came into the kitchen and asked me to help him buckle up his vest I asked if he was "going fishing".  He looked at me in all seriousness and said, "No!  This is my vacuuming vest with different pockets to place the parts of the vacuum."  I stand corrected.

FB Post: I thought this was a fishing vest but I was mistaken and corrected. Apparently it is a “vacuuming vest” 😂 #doesntgetthatfromme#ihatevacuuming #futuredannytanner

Together we worked to clean the house and when Asher had finished vacuuming he headed off to play with his little bro.  A little while later, entered the dining room to find the boys "crafting" together and was horrified to find that my freshly cleaned dining room floor and table were covered in glue stick and glitter!  Avery was very excited by all of the "sprinkles", but mommy...not so much.