Rosie is 9!

Rosie is nine years old! She is 55 inches tall (almost 82% of the way to my adult height) and weighs about 63 pounds. Rosie loves reading graphic novels (the Wings of Fire series is her favorite at the moment), playing basketball and soccer, and playing outside in the neighborhood with friends. She has an extremely fierce (and sometimes violent) personality and is the toughest kid I know. She can experience high levels of pain and never let anyone know, so we have to be careful to check in on injuries! She does have a tough exterior, but she is very sweet on the inside. She excels at school - recently at a parent-teacher conference they told me she got to the highest reading level they measure in third grade, so they've stopped measuring, and has completed 4th grade level multiplication and division assessments and they don't even begin to teach the kids multiplication for another 2 months. Her vocabulary surprises me at times! She randomly picked up skateboarding this year, and continues to play lacrosse, flag football, and swim during the summer. She's constantly cartwheeling and attempting the splits, and also strives for independence. She is such a fun kid and knows what she wants! Currently she says she wants to be a WNBA player when she grows up.

Eleanor, Jane, and Ben at nine years old:

Rosie at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fifteen, and eighteen months old. Rosie at two, three, four, five,  six, seven, and eight years old.

Ben is 9!

Ben is nine years old! He is 58 inches tall (and 74% of the way to Chris' adult height) and weighs 69 pounds. Ben is a wonderful kid. He is well liked by everyone he meets and is a friend to everyone. He loves his friends, loves having playdates, loves school, and is just generally very social. His teacher says he is very silly and knows how to command a room, but also knows when the appropriate times to be silly are and reigns it in with just a look, showing a pretty high social intelligence. He also is quite book smart - scoring especially high on math things, but also reads several grades above level and is a very creative thinker. He loves to draw and use color in everything he does. While he is school smart, we still have to repeat ourselves giving him common sense tasks because his head is often in the clouds. He is a huge Commanders fan, and loves to watch football and play flag football. He also loves playing basketball. While those are by far his two favorite sports, he also likes playing soccer and swimming in the summer, plus said he wanted to give lacrosse another try this spring. He is such a sweetheart though and loves to snuggle and get any and all attention. He also can be quite sensitive, especially when he thinks something is unfair. He is definitely a lover though and has a billion stuffed animals that each have a special place so none of them are ever left out. He loves his sisters, but especially Rosie - every year I ask them whether they want to be in the same or different classes and Ben is adamant about having Rosie with him. This year the week before school letters came, he asked me multiple times about what would happen if the school didn't listen to me and put them in different classes. He clearly doesn't need her as a crutch, but just wants her to be nearby! Ben wants to be an athlete when he grows up - either in the NBA or NFL.

Eleanor, Jane, and Rosie at nine years old:

Ben at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fifteen, and eighteen months old. Ben at two, three, and four, five, six, seven, and eight years old.

Halloween 2026

This year Halloween fell on a Saturday - which was lovely! Ben decorated a pumpkin for the school book characters contest - he made Pigeon again from Mo Willem's books. 

Ben and Rosie had a Halloween parade Friday at school - here they are with their teacher. The third grade teachers all dressed up as characters from Mario.

Ben and Rosie together!

Rosie's Halloween hair!

Saturday was actually Halloween and it was a beautiful day.

Rosie dressed up as Padme from Star Wars:

Ben dressed up as Jayden Daniels - complete with injured elbow:

Jane went as Charlotte North - a famous lacrosse player in the WLL:

And Eleanor went as Adam Sandler:

The kids' friends came over for trick or treating.

Eleanor carved our pumpkin for us that afternoon (after I helped dig out all the guts):

Dudes pic:

All the kids together before they headed out:

Chris and Alex stayed in the driveway with a firepit to pass out candy.

The kids agreed to start on our street to humor us so we could go and visit our neighbors.

And as soon as possible the big girls broke away. We did randomly pass them while strolling in another part of the neighborhood later in the night!

Enjoying some time by the fire while the kids enjoyed Halloween:

The kids came home and started trading:

I finally weighed their candy four days later (after much eating and trading) and the combined total was 35 pounds. 

It was a great Halloween!

October wrap-up

October! The weather this month was amazing. It started out warm but got consistently cool part way through the month. We've had some rain, but also some beautiful fall days. I love Virginia in the fall. 

We celebrated cousin Matty's birthday with family:

We celebrated more of our church's 50th anniversary!

We got to spend time with some sweet friends from Florida that we hadn't seen in awhile. Jane and Georgia even got a sleepover in!

Eleanor went to a birthday party with friends:

Rosie has been practicing lots of volleyball!

One day Rosie came home with a gigantic goldfish - 9 pieces stuck together:

She also has been making fun marble towers:

Chris and his friends visiting their Ryder Cup victory trophy:

We got to celebrate my mom's birthday together!

Oktoberfest with friends:

Eleanor with some of her student ministries group:

Jane and a friend dressing up in fun costumes:

Jane with houses she made for a school project: Inuit, Lakota, and Pueblo:

Our friend Pia came fom Seattle to stay one week and brought Sal's one night. Yum!

Evening stroll to the marina with Eleanor:

Operations picnic with church:

Rosie and Ben, being twins:

The rest of the month was filled with kids' activities (soccer, flag football, field hockey, and volleyball) and school. Halloween coming soon! Meanwhile, onward to November...