Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Now that I don't keep the blog for the babies I have less time to talk about them - one of my favorite pastimes. Auntie Beth is coming home in a few days but I am still trying to keep up with pictures so she doesn't miss anything and my Harding - Wheeler fan club has now begun issuing requests for more twin updates! So here we go! Brendan is a ham - he loves the camera and putting on a show. I stopped over for a while the other day and Brendan grabbed his giant candy cane and started dancing, playing and hamming it up for Auntie! I LOVED every single minute of it! I was one lucky auntie this day - hugs, kisses, and snuggles galore from the moment I walked in the door!

Those big blue eyes are going to get this little guy anything he wants!

Miss Lila is not so fond of Auntie's camera obsession - she humors me but only when she is good and ready and if I push too hard I end up with lots of pictures of the back of her head! Here she is with a Dunkin Donuts munchkin - yep, I bribe them for my affection if I have to! As against picture taking as Lady Li is she is as affectionate and loving as a baby can get. She plays then lays her head in my lap for a minute then plays and then comes back for a hug - warms this aunties heart!

"I need more donuts, Auntie!"

Little Angel! Love her tiny little teeth!

My favorite Brendan look!

Once she was dressed Lila wanted only to run!

Pretty Lila smiles!

Laughing at Auntie making ridiculous faces! How cute are these two!

Now to the title of the post! My beautiful daughter has really taken an interest in recycling and tends to be our conscience when it comes to all things green! This year we decided to suspend use of wasteful products like aluminum foil, plastic baggies, sandwich bags and non-bio-degradeable trash bags. We also traded in some of our non-green products that use chemicals that are not safe for the environment because of Molly's research. The kids have now completed an estimated 76 days of school and thanks to our new lunchboxes and our no plastic rules we have saved over 1000 plastic baggies - Molly's goal! We have also decided that our cleaning supplies which we make ourselves are better that the old ones and with a little effort we are able to even do the bathrooms now! The one thing I was reluctant to give up - paper plates - is on Molly's list to go on January 1st! Ugggg! The moral of the story is that one inspired kid can change even this stubborn moms ways with the right information and enough passion! What a kid!

I also had teacher conferences this week and, although, it's a lot of business and less fun stuff in the older grades I am so proud of my kids. Both of the big kids got medals last month for high achievement on the CMT's - it was amazing since both of them felt as though they didn't do as well as they could have. Obviously, they both did an excellent job and Noah Webster (not that I'm bragging but...) was the top elementary school in the entire district for CMT scores! Peter and Molly both had excellent teacher conference reports - Pete needs some work in math and Molly could use some as well and that was the only caveat to their incredibly positive reports. They both do exceptionally well in reading and language arts. Molly and Peter both do terrific with their instruments (Maybe some musicians in our future despite Bob and my complete lack of talent) and excellent in science.  Yes, you heard right - excellent in my beloved science class! Since I was the bozo who got an almost perfect score on my English section of the SAT's but barely got into college because my Math score was so low I figure there may be some tutoring in our future! Either way both teachers stressed to me how kind, respectful and polite my children are and as any parent knows that is such a compliment and so important! It is nice to know that they do it outside of our house when there is no one watching! I also (big gasp) had my first conference for Annie since she started school. Mrs. Careiro and I can gab for hours so we tried very hard to stay focused and I think its safe to say that Ann is thriving in school. She is a little quiet (especially considering the H-W who came before her) but social, polite, kind and a little sponge! She is right on target for kindergarten despite being on the younger side and Mrs. Careiro just adores her! Annie's best friends are Kasey, Molly, Gavin and Shiney. She loves going to school but still really misses going to Grammy and Papa's house on Mondays! Luckily Papa and Grammy spend lots of time with Annie other times so we generally get her to school on Mondays with just a few tears!

Next week is Christmas and Auntie LuAnn is coming back from Las Vegas for a few days and the Russells from San Diego are coming home for a few days - we can't wait for Santa and all of our family to get to CT!

GNM - ILY!