For the very first month of school, Savannah was selected by her teacher to be the ABBY student of the month. Way to go, Savannah!
Unfortunately we were in the back so this was the only shot I got of her being awarded her certificate and pin.
Savannah and her good friend Natalie who was a fellow ABBY winner.
Savannah and her wonderful teacher, Ms. Hill.
Brushing Noah's teeth is a major battle in our house. He absolutely hates it, even after all my threats that his teeth will turn black and fall out if he doesn't brush. I even showed him a picture of Mao who had black teeth from never brushing and Noah actually thought it was cool. So obviously I was a little concerned about Noah's first trip to the dentist - how was he going to react to some strange person messing around in his mouth and touching his teeth? I had nothing to worry about! Noah was great and actually enjoyed his very first trip to the dentist.
He especially loved the sunglasses he got to wear.
And yes, he is wearing a cape!
Actually, everyone got soup...I just love saying that Seinfeld line whenever talking about soup. Anyway, Savannah's Keepers meeting last night was all about - you guessed it - soup! 
After reviewing all the different kinds of soups that are out there, we headed into the kitchen to invent one of our own. Bente's table was spread with all kinds of ingredients and the girls got to choose which ones they wanted to include in their soup. Savannah, Cate, and Kaia worked together to create a nice vegetable soup in a beef broth. Rebekah and Lydia were a little more adventurous with their invention, adding MANY different vegetables, herbs, and noodles.
Although both soups turned out fine, Savannah's group definitely created a winner! Bente wrote their recipe down so that we could all make their yummy soup again this fall and winter.
To complete her soup making award, Savannah has to make several more soups so if any of you have some mouth-watering soup recipes, please send them our way!
This past Saturday, instead of having a game, Xander participated in the Soccer Olympics put on by his league for the younger players. Despite a few moments of "Xander funk time", Xander did seem to enjoy all the different skills events which included free throws,
shooting,
timed dribbling, 
cat and mouse, and passing. I have seen such an improvement in Xander's skills over last year and I attribute most of it to the soccer camp he attended this summer. Not only is he better at playing but his confidence has skyrocketed!
Can't resist including a picture of two really cute fans!
Noah hated the fact that the wet grass was getting all over the bottom of his pants so, being the oh-so-clever kid that he is, here's how he solved the problem...and he did this for the entire 2 hours!
There were medals handed out to all the kids because heaven forbid we only give awards to the kids who won the events and some kid feel bad about himself. Oh no, let's give kids absolutely NO incentive to work harder and try to excel at something. When you get an award no matter what, why push yourself to overcome mediocrity?
It's always such a delight to run into little Emma!
When Xander said that he wanted to have a Star Wars theme for his birthday party this year I was all over it! I just recycled what we did last year, added a few more things and voila - another great Star Wars party!
As the boys arrived they each received a red, green, or blue neon bracelet signifying whether they were a Sith or a Jedi. Unlike last year when Noah and Xander were the only Siths, this year we had a few more evil guys running around. The boys tested their light saber skills as we waited for all the guests to arrive.
First game of the night was Pass the Death Star. If a boy was caught holding the Death Star when the music stopped, he exploded! Noah found the exploding part to be to his liking and always held onto the Death Star UNTIL the music stopped.
Next up was popping the meteors that were showering down on the boys. When popped the boys found the meteors contained candy!
Other games included pin the emblem on the spaceship...
and sort the good guys and bad guys before the other teams can.
The Darth Vader pinata was supposed to last long enough for all the boys to take a swing at it but Xander, who was third up, gave it a tomahawk chop and that was that!
After the games were played and the boys had picked up all the candy from the pinata, we headed into the kitchen for the cake. Usually I just do cupcakes but this year I had one of my friends make a Star Wars cake and boy, did she do a fabulous job! Check out this amazing Light Saber cake! It actually pained me to cut it.
The highlight of the party had to be the arrival of Darth Maul. The boys had all settled down in the family room, ready to watch Clone Wars the movie, when Darth Maul came running into the room, light saber at the ready. Some of the boys were terrified at first but quickly got excited and grabbed their light sabers to attack.
Each boy got a few minutes of individual fight time with Darth Maul and then they all ganged up on him and took him down. David was definitely a good sport about it!
Not only did the boys use their light sabers on Darth Maul, but every once in awhile one of them would "use the force". Too cute!
Noah was not thrilled about Darth Maul. In fact Noah had nightmares all throughout that night, telling me that he was afraid of Daddy's costume. Poor little guy.
Another great party. Hopefully Noah will want that as his theme next year...and maybe Xander will go for it once again.
Six things that I love about my Xanderman:
