The McMahon Clan: It's Fall and I'm getting focused and going to start blogging again!

OCTOBER 2014

HAPPY FALL. Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love every season but for some reason there is just something more beautiful about fall. It's a time when the busy time of summer and the trying to fit it all in before school starts up again comes to an end and the time to clean closets, organize and get back to reality sets in full force. I love having the kids home and I'm sure come June I will be wanting school to end yesterday but for now It's nice being on a schedule and crossing things off the "to do" list.

CON-MAN!

Connor just started third grade and is realizing that school is getting harder and that he really has to put some time into studying and doing his homework and that the "A" grades are going to be a little harder to reach. He is enjoying his teacher and his classmates. He tells me he is in the highest reading group in his class. He loves to read mystery books and history books. Each week he has to read for 20 minutes every Thursday night and right now he is reading a book about the civil war. I believe he gets the love of history from his Father and his Gramma because I couldn't tell you one thing about history. Ask me about health, fitness and nutrition and I could surely write a book. Connor is also enjoying his first season of Travel Soccer on the South Harrison U- 9 team. The "Storm" is currently undefeated with Connor being one of the top goal scorers. His drive, commitment to the team, and strive to succeed is always showing in his games. He loves to wear the "captain" band and to tell everyone what they need to be doing. He is currently the corner kicker for the team too.

Wow, I just surfed through old pictures and I found this gem from our old townhouse in Swedesboro. Connor was probably about two years old here! Seriously, this little boy has never stopped moving! He unfortunately doesn't like to play with toys that much anymore. Give him a choice of things to do and it most likely contains using a ball. He loves playing football and Hockey at home. Rarely does he play soccer at home but I'm sure if he did he would be that much better. Hockey and football to him are the sports he doesn't get to play as much and are the ones he loathes for at home. He can crush the baseball, catch a fly pop, boot a soccer ball and run with speed but when it comes to having fun at home his first choice is football.

This is Connor playing football at Pop Pops house with Don's old Football Jersey and a helmet that Pop Pop found in his attic! He actually punted the football up over the high wires!

SAMARA

Samara just started 1st grade and is starting out the school year very well. We recently had her reading assessed to make sure she was on track with her skills and she proved to be exactly where she needed to be. She is enjoying her class and her teacher. She loves to play make believe and pretend that she is the little mommy, which she has been doing this for some time now. She enjoys having her sister to always play with and even though she tends to boss Meghan around they still are so glad they have each other. Samara is learning how to add and subtract right now in school along with learning how to read and comprehend short stories. She is playing fall soccer and Don is helping coach her team but she tells us everyday that she really doesn't like it too much. She keeps telling us that she would like to do gymnastics so as soon as fall soccer is over we will be doing a drop in class on Sundays at Super Fitness. It is a basic learn to tumble class and we will see what happens with that before we move forward with an actual gymnastics gym. Samara is really enjoying spending her time with Mommy as we joined "Girls on the Glow" this fall. It is an organization for girls in 1-6th grade to be able to grow, learn, and understand what it is like to be inspired. Whether they are becoming an aspiring athlete or just learning what it is like to have self confidence. I think this is an amazing program for young girls and I'm so glad she is enjoying it. Each Saturday they meet for about 2 hours and we discuss different topics and then they go outside and do various types of running, jump rope, obstacles all while taking turns to be a leader. They get to shout out what they want to be when they grow up, they get to talk about their favorite sports, they get to be "themselves". It is so important for us as parents to teach our kids that we are happy about ourselves, our lives and we are glad for what we have. Not knowing it, our kids do hear, see and understand everything we do. You may not think they are always listening, but in reality they aren't missing a beat. Samara is super bright and will do very well for herself because she never lets anything get by her. She can memorize anything you tell her. She knows the words to every song and can read a book once and remember it from front to back.

Samara being the little panda bear!

My future photographer! Samara loves to take pictures and videos with the big camera and my cell phone! She will definitely be a model or an actress one day!

The beach super model!

Meghan has two really close friends. One is our neighbor Vancessa and the other is her friend from dance, Mika. Mika had a frozen party a few weeks ago and they had a big cardboard cut out of Anna and Elsa!

Meghan's first soccer practice!

Connor running at full speed!

Meghan is super flexible and loves to watch Mommy do her workouts. She always wants to do kids yoga on demand after I am done Piyo! She loves her tap and ballet class and she can walk on her tippy toes across the room! She loves to pretend that she is a shining star!

MEGHAN

I wish I had a tape recorder to carry with Me everywhere Meghan went. She is just a fireball of energy and personality. Meghan talks with this little sweet voice that just makes you want to squeeze her cheeks with every word that comes out! She is still our best sleeper. At almost four years old she is still napping for us 3hours a day and sleeping 12 hours straight at night. Although she wakes up soaked in sweat and with the craziest bed head I've ever seen, I'll keep her napping forever! Meghan is playing tot soccer on Saturday mornings. Eventually she will be pretty good at soccer, she is learning how to dribble the ball and loves to take shots on goal.

We just recently moved furniture around in the hallway foyer area and bought two really cute "TIME-OUT" chairs both antiques!