Dear Lucas (5 years 3 months),

This year seems to be flying by faster than before. Here we are smack dab in fall just a few days before Halloween.

We went to Helen at the beginning of October and you had a blast. You met cousins you never met before and had a blast. You literally played until you passed out. Your poor Dad ended up getting sick the very last night we were there and we had to leave early on Sunday. For the first time since you've been born we didn't get to take a family picture but I did get some great ones of you with your Dad.

For me one of the highlights this month was getting to have lunch with you at your school. I loved being called "Lucas' Mom" and meeting all your friends. You were so proud and happy that I was there and told Everyone, "this is my Mom, her name is Kari." It was neat to watch you at school. You guys all seem to get the same thing for lunch, like the first person in line picks what they want and then the kids behind just follow suit. You hate salad but you picked it anyway since that is what the kids in front of you were eating. Then you picked out the cheese, ham, eggs, cucumber, and tomatoes.

Your school has had so many fun things going on and we try to make sure we participate in all of them. The othere night was Pumpkin Math Night and you went to all four kindergarten classes to do different fun mathmatical things. You guessed how much candy was in a jar, weighed pumpkins on a scale, found out if pumpkins float (they do) and graphed how many pumpkins there were of each color.

Last weekend was your turn to bring Traveling Teddy home to hang out. Every weekend he goes home with a different student and they share a few pictures of drawings of their adventures and share them with the class on Monday. On Friday Traveling Teddy dressed up and played Super Heroes with you in the backyard. On Saturday we went to Lowe's with you to the free kids clinic and held the instructions for you. He got to bring home his very own pair of safety goggles. Then on Sunday you two went to the pumpkin patch up the road to pick out pumpkins and that night you filled out his journal with all your adventures.

If I had to guess the highlight for you this month I would think it would be bringing home the newest member of our family, Siren Firetruck. You have been begging for a kitten forever and we finally gave in a few weeks ago. Our neighbors have been trying to find her a home for a few weeks and kept offering her to us when you would mention wanting a kitten. One Friday I told you we could just go look at the kitten. I wasn't intending on bringing one home but we did. On the way home she made sounds like a siren so you decided to call her Siren Firetruck. We just call her Siren for short. Now that I think about it, you really named her Siren Hose Firetruck. I forgot how much I enjoy having a cat around. She is a real sweetheart and you couldn't be happier.

Sweet Pea, I love you to the moon and back,

Mommy