Maddie thinking hard a few moves before she put her big sister in checkmate.  This was Maddies first time playing, at first I thought Megan let her win until I noticed her knock over all the pieces, so looks like a well earned win.

Megan is a great reader, but since Kindergarten, it has been a fight to get her to read her reading for school.  Shawn decided to by her A Diary of a Whimpy Kid book and told her if she finished the series, he would take her to the movie.  Megan not only finished the first book in a day and a half, but she finished all four in a less than two weeks.  This is in addition to the reading that is required for homework.  I had dreamt of the day that she would love reading as much as I do, I guess we found the types of books that motivate her.  Shawn took the girls on a daddy date and they all had fun, Maddie even stayed for the whole movie..

Our good friends from Colorado recently moved to Vancouver, Washington.  They were kind enough to stop by and see us on the way home from Canada a week or so ago.  Their oldest daughter, Aubrey, is Megan's age and we always tell megan that Aubrey is her first friend.  Megan was so excited to see her that she woke up at 6:00 the day they came to visit.  Aubrey and Megan were so cute together, they really hit it off.  It was great to catch up and hopefully it won't take us as long to get together again. 

At the beginning of the school year, I had heard about this really great local program called Athelets For Kids.  It is a great program that pairs up a local athlete mentor and kiddos with special needs.  I filled out our application for Maddie and was immediately paired with a junior named Ashley.  Everything on both of our applications matched up so well and we have been seeing her about once a week for the last 4 months.  Maddie loves her time with her big buddy Ashley and is always so happy when she comes. 

This year, our school's play was Peter Pan.  Megan really wanted to try out for the part of a Lost Boy.  Initially she told me that she is now a tomboy and that's why she wanted to be a lost boy.  After 3 months of play practice, the performances were this last week.  Megan did great, and had a little fight scene with another little boy.  Friday night, we all went to the play with close family friends and cheered her on.  She was so happy and loves to act. 

I will update pictures sometime soon.

Maddie was asked to be a part of a research study earlier this year from the UW Autism Center.  It was targeting early intervention with reading a social skills, so everyday, she would go back in the afternoon from either half an hour to a full hour with reading comprehension for part and social skills for the second part.  The special ed teacher had emailed me about some concerns she had and after some discussion, we agreed to pull her from the project.  (the teacher's concern was Maddie's reading skills were much higher than where they were targeting and Maddie was sometimes bored).  When we told Maddie, she was so upset and cried for an hour.  Once we finally got her to calm down, she told us she would really miss the teacher.  Later that day, when I was reading with her, Maddie was deliberatly missing words and telling me she can't read so she has to go back to the group..  sometimes she is much to smart for us.

We took this girls to Disneyland last month for the first time.  They were both at the perfect age and to make it even more magical, we didn't tell them.  The day that we left, I gave them a gift bag with a Disney sweatshirt, an autograph book and a gift card to use at the park and then we told them.  Maddie was so excited and happy and Megan was the complete opposite.  She started to cry and said she wanted to stay home, not the reaction I was expecting at all!  After some coaxing, we get them both very excited and off we went.

At the park, we were able to get a disability pass for Maddie.  The first two days, we really didn't need to use it but by Saturday, the park was packed and we happily used it.  The first night we were there, the girls got to dance in the parade.

We met one of Shawn's bosses at Story Teller's Cafe one night and we took them to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast one morning.  The were able to get many of the characters autographs so this was very helpful. 

Maddie and Megan both agree that It's a Small World and the hotel pool were the best part!

Every week for the last year or so, Maddie after getting her allowance tells me she is saving up for a hamster.  We finally broke down and took them yesterday to the pet store.  They picked out a light brown and white hamster that is now named "Fluffy Sammy Samster Verrall."  The girls were so sweet with him, setting up his new place.  Last night, after hearing him run for about 5 hours in his wheel, Shawn finally moved him to the laundry room.  When Megan woke up this morning and couldn't find him, she thought that she must have just dreamt that we had bought one.  (so Megan)

-The girls waking up at 6:00 to help make their "suprise" fruit salad.  They added a "secret" ingredient of string cheese and yogurt.  Imagine 5 adults biting into their fruit salad and figuring out what the secret ingredient was.

-Shawn baking chocolate sugar cookies in the shape of Maddie's hands at Maddie's insistence.  Shawn had Maddie draw a prototype and then they decorated them as turkeys and put everyone's name on them as place cards.



-Megan and Maddie making a thankful chain with Brooken, their OT.  I love how they were thankful for their teachers, therapists, friends, toys and way down at the end of the list, were thankful for mom and dad....

We had our friends over last weekend for dinner.  Maddie was on her best behaviour, lots of please and thank yous.  Our friend was commenting on how polite she was, and right after, Maddie let out  a big belch.  So glad that she finished with "excuse me!"