1st Day of School 2014/2015

Kate is in Pre-K again this year, and she has done SO well.  This was her first day, but now a few months in and we see her flourishing and learning and LOVING school.  The first day she said, "it was amazing" when I picked her up and has become quite the leader in her class leading other students at her table in work and helping them out.

Jack is a big first grader this year and they hit the ground running with learning.  They ease you in with Kindergarten, but we were doing a lot the first week.  It was challenging to adjust and homeschool two at once, but we are in a great routine.  Jack is already learning tons of grammar, reading like a champ and asking to be given math problems to see how fast he can go - always loving a competition.  

As usual, we have the amazing morning assembly with reciting the school creed, praying and praise and worship time.  It is such a great way to start the day!  Can't wait for a great rest of the year!!!

May 2014

May came and went like a spring breeze.  We spent the first three weeks of it preparing for the end of school.  May 7 was Jack's Grandparents Day celebration at school celebrating our wonderful grandparents.  Papa and Gigi were able to attend and see 4 of their 7 grandkids sing songs and perform for the special (aka "old") people in our lives.

Mother's Day found myself, Kimberly and my mom at lunch by ourselves!  We love doing that.  We then went to see Mom's Night Out.  It was cute and very nice to relax.

Jack's last day was May 20 and he is no longer a kindergartner!  We now have a FIRST GRADER!  I am slowly seeing him turn into a kid with more maturity.  He will be 7 in less than three months!

Kate graduated from VPK.  Our bright-eyed 4 year old will repeat K4 at her new school next year since she would be so young in her grade.  But, we did celebrate how much she has grown and changed this year.  Gramma and Gigi were able to make the graduation this year.  I think we have a family picture on someone else's camera.  Kate's last week of school was also filled with fun days of water play, pony rides, bounce houses, birthdays and ice cream!  Anytime they want me to graduate from VPK, let me know and I will be there.  

Our Graduate with her teacher, Ms. Cindy.  When asked what she wanted to be when she grows up, she said a teacher.  Makes my heart melt!

The end of May brought some beginning of summer swimming and two special ladies birthdays, Reese and my mom.  We celebrated with both respectively.  Reese wanted cake and mom wanted Momos pizza - the best!

We are now in June with summer and VBS in full swing.  See you this summer....

Let's Begin!

2014 is here.  It is going to be a great year.  No particular reason why, but God seems to bless us more and more each year.  I also like even numbered years, but that has nothing to do with anything. We've been up to a lot of nothing since the new year began.  The kids are back in school and routine has resumed.  That makes me very happy.

I celebrated my 29th birthday on January 4th.  My mom treated myself and Kimberly to lunch.  Then we did some shopping.  I came home to cupcakes and some excited kids.

I also got to sub in Jack's class last week.  They are a great group of kindergardners.  We had a lot of fun and some learning too.

Walkin' in High Cotton

Jack got to go on another field trip!  This time we went to a classmates family's farm.  They grow cotton, corn, peanuts, soybeans and milo.  We also went with the K4 class which includes our cousins and Gigi went along this time as well.  The trip was very educational and we learned a lot about how these crops get from the ground to our plates, clothing, animals, etc.  I am so grateful we had this experience.  Reminded me of older times and I think it was good for the kids to see that these items just don't appear, they have to be grown, cultivated, harvested - much like them.

This kid LOVES popcorn.  It is even better made fresh from a kettle.  Yummy!!!

Soybean fields

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Jack's first official field trip was to the pumpkin patch.  K4 and K5 went, so the triplets also came.  It was a little chilly, but we had fun and the kids loved playing around with the pumpkins.  Jack's favorite part was building a pumpkin fort.  I am so thankful that I get to go on field trips with my kids.  They love it when I am there and it is really special to share in these fun times.

Fall 2013 Has Arrived

Well, it still may be 85 degrees and we may have a hurricane this weekend, but fall is here.  We've had some less frizzy hair days with lower humidity and some comfortable temperatures.  With this fall came soccer for Jack.  He really seems to enjoy it.  He has practice for 1 hour a week and then a game on Saturday morning at 8:30.  The season only lasts 8 weeks, so it isn't too intensive or inconvenient.  He looks forward to practice and the games.

We are making our way through homeschool too.  I like to take Jack to do something once a week for our homeschool days, so since he is studying pumpkins/seeds/fall at school, we went on a pumpkin scavenger hunt at the local pumpkin patch.

While we were there, Jack wanted to get a pumpkin for Kate.  They both have upcoming pumpkin patch field trips, but we got some small ones and I let them paint them.  Kate, being my little artist, sure liked painting her pumpkin.

Late September Adventures

Kate takes after me.  The girl loves to sleep.  Not naps, per say, but I have to wake her up almost every morning for school.  The last few nights, I've walked in and saw her in some weird positions.  Most notably was last night.  I checked in on her and I did not see her in the bed.  Needless to say, she was found somewhere else...

I guess the giant unicorn won.

Kate had Apple and Red Day at school and she dressed herself.

In other news, Jack and I are loving homeschool days (Thursday and Friday).  His science homework today was to plant seeds of a vegetable and help it grow.  We headed to Lowes and bought some carrot and radish seeds, pots and soil.  I "encouraged" him to get the ones that had the quickest growth, so hopefully, we will see something in a month or so.

Since he is a "red-shirted" kindergartner, I supplement with some extra work/projects for school and we do a little more than his regular homework.  Today in History, we were discussing national symbols and since this kid loves, err, is obsessed, with animals, we made an eagle shirt with handprints and puffy paint.  I filled in the white on the head, but he did the rest.  He's really excited to wear it soon.

Fearless 4 Year Old

Kate started VPK (aka 4 year old preschool) a few weeks back!  She was ready to go, but also seemed like she was enjoying her summer vacation too.  Now that we are back into routine, I think she is adjusting well to school and seems to enjoy her new friends and loves her teacher, Ms. Cindy.  She doesn't seem to want to wake up to go to school, but when I pick her up, she says, "I had a great day".

The next day, Kate officially turned 4.  We have a very spirited, or should I say, strong-willed, independent girl on our hands, but she is such a blessing.  We went for her 4 year check up and she is a healthy girl.

Jack Turns 6

Jack's second day of school came with his 6th birthday!  I can believe he is 6.  Most parents are saying, "how did we get here" and "aren't they growing up so fast"?  It is fast, but I'm loving watching them grow into little people.  I took cupcakes up to school at lunchtime and we celebrated with our new friends.  Jack then got to go with Gigi to Toys R Us and pick out his birthday toy.  He chose an awesome Hot Wheels race track that he has not stopped playing with.  We then went to his favorite restaurant Black Bean for dinner.

Wednesday, we already had our first "illness", pink eye, so he had to stay home from school.  We relaxed and then today started home school days.  He told me a few times today, "I love my new school", "thank you so much for my new school" and "I love home school".  So far so good!

Hard at work, doing his home school work.