The Week in Pictures

Trick or treat at the Oaks Retirement Home

The Boozar on the Square. Good friends Allison and Grace were Cupcakes and won the costume contest for their age!

Always a fun sibling arguement!

It was a great First Halloween for Abate and Fantu!

1. Abate and Mitchell (his good friend) after Abate's 2nd place finish in the district cross Country Meet and Mitchell finished 12th.

2. At the Cross Country Meet at Lake Whitney State Park

3. Caleb dressed as Spiderman at Storytime on Wednesday

Abate at his Soccer Match - School League

Fantu with her friends while Abate was playing soccer.

Fantu again with her friends - Jackie and Allysia.

Abate at his City League match - won 7-0, Abate scored 3 goals.

Another busy week! Things should quiet down for a few weeks anyway. Abate had his final Cross country meet on Wednesday. He placed 2nd! The 7th grade boys also won their division! Saturday was of course Halloween, but before all the fun we had soccer. 2 games and it was the final day of the school league. 3 more weeks of City League play. That team is undefeated!

Halloween had the kids excited yet nervous as this was their very first one. I don't think they quite knew what to expect, but it was way above their expectations.

Gatesville has a Boozar - Downtown businesses sponsor a trick or treat, games, and just a really fun time downtown on the square. The whole town turns out for it. It's quite the social event. They had so much fun. All their friends were there and they had a great time showing off in their costumes. as you can see by the pictures they are quite dramatic in them! We then went to the Oaks Retirement Home as quite a few of the residents sit out in the hallway with candy to give the kids that call around. They really appreciate seeing the kids in their costumes and the kids of course love getting candy. This is also much safer than going out into a dark neighbourhood calling door to door. Caleb was of course part of the evening. Him and Abate got loads of candy! It's late now and time to close this week.

2nd Place!

Wednesday was Cross Country race day. The meet was back in Aquilla - same location as in September but a different course. Abate placed 2nd in the Jr. High Boys Division. Gatesville teams won 1st place in both the Boys and Girls events. Abate was so excited last night - and still this morning. He's now 4 races and 4 top 10 finishes with Medals! Fantu even said she was proud of him , but just for the day. I think she is his toughest critic. He has one more meet the District event on the 28th at Lake Whitney. His confidence is high!
Looking forward to the weekend now. Abate has 3 soccer games - 11am, 1 pm and 2 pm. The weather is forecast to be beautiful - sunny and low 70's!

Talented and Smart Too!

Friday was report card day. The grading period is 6 weeks long. Abate had 5 - A's and 3-B's. Phenomenal! He is in regular mainstream 7th grade classes except for 1st period which is ESL (English as a Second Language). One of his A's was in Math, which he had some difficulty the first 3 weeks. He really turned it around!

Fantu had 2-A's, 2 B's and a C in Math. We had some real concerns placing her in 6th grade but it looks as though she was well able and ready for it! We are going to work hard at Math this 6 weeks and see if we can get that grade up. We did know that she was having some math vocabulary problems and is receiving some extra tutoring for that. I think she will really improve as her English improves - which already is quite noticeable.

Saturday was a busy Sports day. Abate had a Cross Country meet early Saturday morning in Waco. He won a medal again with a 7th place finish. We had to depart almost as soon as he crossed the finish line to get back to G'ville for his first soccer game of the day. He scored 2 goals for a 4-2 win. His second game was a short time later which his team lost, he did score a goal in it, but they weren't able to maintain the lead in the second half. He then decided to play in a 3rd match in which the JR. Hi. Boys played the High School girls. They won easily and he scored 4 goals in that game. After a 6 am start to the day we were finally home at 3:30. it was quite a exhausting day.

Abate has another Cross Country Meet this Wednesday and then a break for 2 weeks when they have their final meet which is the district meet. Fingers are crossed that he can place with a medal in the final 2!

Hat-trick!

Okay so the video doesn't show all 3 goals - but it shows 2 of them! They went on to win the match 5-1. It would've been 7-1 but several were disallowed due to off side calls. Stupid refs! It was a beautiful morning but by lunchtime it had turned rainy. Not sure if the 5:00 game he's scheduled for will happen since it is so wet out. Guess we will wait and see.

Another Medal!

Abate had another Cross Country Race this week. This time at Lake Whitney. This will also be the location of the District Meet at the end of the month. There were over 100 boys competing in his race and he placed 10th. Pretty good since he hasn't been able to train much the past two weeks due to his foot injury. He got another medal to add to his collection - he was the only runner from Gatesville that received one.

Soccer season has finally started. Abate played in 2 games last Saturday and scored a total of 12 goals. 4 in the first game - where he was goalkeeper for half of the match. He scored 8 in the second game which they won 15-0. The opposing team really tried to keep the ball away from him, but he was just too good and way too fast for them. The high school coach was talking to him after the match and already has his eye on him. I tried to get some video of him playing and scoring - but as I said he's just too fast and really hard to catch him with the camera. I'll try again this weekend.

Both kids continue to do really well. They both really like school and are making friends. Fantu has really come out of her shell and just shines now! She has gained so much confidence and her self esteem is really good. She used to hate her hair and now she loves it - which she should it is so beautiful. They both have really healthy appetites and Abate has recently started eating everything in sight - I think I see a big growth spurt coming! But they have both been growing like weeds since arriving here 4 months ago. Pants that were once too long are now nearly too short, and Abate has nearly outgrown all his t-shirts we bought when he arrived. Their English skills are really improving. It's most noticeable with Fantu as she struggled a bit the first few months. Her reading and writing has come a long way. Abate's English was always good, but his confidence has improved with it since school started. He is doing really well keeping up in most of his classes without much extra help. Report cards come out the end of next week so I will be curious to see just how well they are doing. No matter what I couldn't be prouder!