Reading

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that we seem to have raised an enthusiastic reader!!! I was an avid reader as a child and it makes me so happy to watch Kennedy get the same enjoyment from her books!  She has been bringing home her reading group books to read to us at home.  Honestly, the first book she brought home surprised me!  I thought it might be too difficult for her!  Was I wrong!  This girl can read!  For the grandparents I thought I would share some of the books he has been bringing home from reading group!!  As always, you can click on a photo to enlarge it!

She recently read her first chapter book ENTIRELY by herself..no help from us!  And she read it in 2 days!  I believe she could have done it much sooner, but the length seemed to intimidate her.   Now she can't get enough of them!  How blessed she is to have a natural aptitude for reading - this will make the school experience so much easier and more pleasant for her!!!!

School Year Time Capsule

School is officially in session. (insert sad Mommy face here) for the past few weeks I have been trying to think of a creative way to celebrate the start of school. I am sure many wonderful parents have done something like this before, but when it popped into my head I thought the idea was pretty great anyway! Somehow I decided a Time Capsule would be great fun!!! So I created two questionnaire type sheets for Kennedy to fill out! I will also include things like her height, weight and a hand and foot print! We will then pack it away until the end of the school year. Before we open it, I will have Kennedy complete similar questions and we will take measurements again. Kennedy is so creative and loves writing about herself, so I truly think she will enjoy this project!

I decided to give her a week of school to kind of get with the flow of first grade. So I plan on this being our Friday night activity! I am tickled with how they turned out!
(remember you can click on the image to enlarge it!)



It has been 3 years since I played around with digital scrapbooking! I was rusty but had fun playing around! The kit I used to create them is a FREEBIE! Can you believe it! You need to run to this website and check out all the amazing goodies! I can't remember how I stumbled upon it but it is now bookmarked!

http://dynamisimmortal.wordpress.com/

Or you can download the files now!!!




Anyway, I hope to begin posting photos again soon. I lost the card reader for our memory card. Just haven't gotten a new one yet! There are soooo many summer photos left to share! Plus Kennedy's first day of school photos! UGH!

Let me know what you think of the Time Capsule idea!!!

Have a blessed day!

Playing Catch Up

Trying to catch up at my Photo a Day......rounding out May.

May 31st
We met some friends from church at the KC Zoo today! It was a warm one! We ended up spending the majority of the day just the 3 of us and I totally enjoyed it! Kennedy loves animals and the zoo is always a hit. She enjoyed feeding deer, riding the train, riding the carousel with Quinn, and her favorite animal was the Squirrel Monkey. Feeding the Lorikeets is one of Kennedy favorite things to do. You get a small cup with a liquid in it, hold it in your hand and extend your arm. The birds just flock! At one point she had 2 birds on her arm! I love this shot because she wasn't expecting the bird to take flight and Quinn was looking too! We only got to enjoy half the zoo on this trip. Unfortunately on the Africa side a gorilla got loose! They stopped letting people head that way, so we headed home. But not until after we enjoyed some free Dip n Dots!!!



May 30th - Memorial Day
The pools opened this weekend so Kennedy was beside herself! The water was QUITE cold - I didn't even get in! But it was Quinn's FIRST trip to the swimming pool! Considering how cold it was she really enjoyed it and had lots of smiles for us!

May 29th
Celebration at the Station! One of my favorite traditions!! This year we talked the Elliott's into joining us! Kennedy and bff Taylor had a great time goofing off!!! (Hopefully I will have a post soon about Kennedy's outfit...Quinn was matching!)

May 28th
Doggie mini spa day! Kennedy and I brushed the dogs today...forever! They have so much hair it is ridiculous! We have always joked that Izzy has so much hair we could brush and never stop and still not get all the hair! Later Jeff played doggie dentist! He has a great tool that helps knock the plaque off the dogs' teeth. Kennedy helped out by shining a flashlight on the dog's mouth. And Quinn was extremely interested...can you see her trying to work her way into the mix?!


May 27th
Birds!! We have started our bird watching - hooray! Miss Kennedy and I have our trusty bird book out along with the rockin' binoculars . This year we will be keeping a bird journal. We will track the date, the bird type, where we spotted it, what it was doing and the time of day. Currently there are 4 bird feeders in the yard and one bird bath.

May 26th
T-Ball Season has officially begun! Be on the lookout for lots of photos of the Pink Panthers soon!


May 25th
A bad weather day! The horrible tornado had just struck Joplin days earlier. Storms had been cropping up all over the Midwest over the previous weeks and were all over the news. On this morning, the gals and I had gone to a friend's for coffee and playtime. We moms were discussing how our hostess's home didn't have a basement and what they would have to do should a tornado head their way. I kid you not, just then the tornado sirens sounded! We all just looked at each other and no one spoke! Someone turned on the television and we tried to make sure the kids were unaware. It appeared the storm was East of us so we started to breath easier. That is until the Sheriff's office called into the news station and said they were taking cover!!!! We all decided to throw the kids in the car and just head to our homes - and our hostess had a safe place to go as well! I snapped this shot as we were driving home. The gals and I spent much of the afternoon in the basement watching the news!




May 24th
Oops! Forgot to take a photo today!

May 23rd
Last day of Kindergarten!!!! There was a family picnic on the playground - even Mema attended! This is a shot of 2 of Kennedy's friends, Ava and Brady. Seriously...kindergarten is over???

More May Photo a Day!

May 22nd
Are these 2 not the cutest?!?! We attended a baby shower for our friend Stephanie and Jeremy. It was a very fun time! Quinn and Alijah are finally getting old enough to show some interest in each other. Quinn kept trying to grab his hand...it was pretty cute!!! BTW, Alijah was born the day before Quinn!




May 21st
Soccer!!!!!!!!!!! I love this action shot of Kennedy's kick! This week's match up was fairly even - other than the fact that the pink was super aggressive and physical! After getting shoved and pushed numerous times I told Kennedy to go ahead and shove the girl back! But luckily she didn't need to! Only one game left!


May 20th
Jeff's office had a "Carnival" to raise money this Friday! They really went all out and had a great set up! There were MANY carnival games like spin the wheel, balloon darts, rubber duckies, ring toss, face painting, tattoos, fortune telling, a cake walk and more!!! Kennedy even played a game and won 3 goldfish (which is an entirely different story!). In the photo below, Kennedy had just won the cake walk!!!!! She chose a chocolate Kahlua cake! She actually tried the cake walk again later and won a 2nd time! But I think the best part came later in the weekend. We didn't tell her at the time, but she had won 2nd place overall for number of points from the games. She ended up with $100 in winnings! We had been watching about the devastation in Joplin from the F5 tornado. When Jeff told Kennedy she had won all that money, he asked if she would like to give some of it to the people in Joplin that had lost everything. She enthusiastically said "Yes!!! All of it!!" What a girl!

May 19th
Today was Field Day for the Kindergarteners. It basically entailed lots of silly relay races. It was super fun for me to watch all the kiddos try their best to skip, balance things on their hands and heads, scooter on their tummies and scooter backwards! It was a hoot!!! And the kids had a blast!

May 18th
Birthday Party!!!! Sweet Catie had her 6th birthday party at Zonkers!!!! Most of my photos didn't turn out so well, but you get the idea. That is Kennedy in the last car with Adam's little brother, Aaron.


May 17th
Do you remember the nest outside our front door? Well, there are babies! Can you see it's fuzzy head peeking out?!?!


May 16th
Kennedy's class has a bear that travels home with the kids and then they write about it. Today was Kennedy's 2nd turn to have Mr. T-Bear. She wanted me to photograph their fun together! We have many photos of T-Bear now...going down the slide, playing in the playhouse, hiding in the bushes.....at least it kept her occupied for awhile!


May 15th
Birthday Party! This time it was Lily's 6th birthday party! It was in the gym of her mom's school and they had an inflatable! Kennedy is the one jumping while some of the kids curled up on the floor!


May 14th
Babies!!!! This is mama bird and you can just barely see the baby's beak in front of her!!!

Photo a Day thru 2/16

Let's get started!!!

February 16th
Today is just a shot of the gals wearing their matching Matryoshka doll shirts!!! Kennedy LOVES to match with her sis! And this shot was her idea!


February 15th
Kindergarten stuff! Kennedy plowed through her Kindergarten sight words and is working on the 1st grade words. She would much rather read a book than read a list of words (who can blame her) so we make slower progress through these! But I am sure she will have them down by her 6th birthday!! We just got the results from her Kindergarten reading assessment and I must say we are MORE than pleased! What a blessing it is that she has such a sharp mind and passion for learning - it will serve her well her entire life!


February 14th
Valentine's Day! Kennedy and I made these cute little number from scratch! I found a recipe online and changed it up a tiny bit. We took them to her school party but I think the kids had been eating so much gunk already that half of them were thrown out! Oh well! The process of baking was fun!

February 13th
My sweet, sweet girl showing off her NEW big girl smile! I seriously get teary eyed when I see those two holes in her mouth!!

February 12th
Landen had his 6th birthday party - a pajama movie party! Kennedy fully enjoyed lounging with her friend Nathan! Aren't they cute?!


February 11th
Kennedy actually lost her second tooth on February 10th. She was spending the night with her friend Taylor! So we decided the tooth fairy probably didn't know where Taylor lived and we put it under our pillow the next day at home! We have a Tooth Fairy book that tells all about tooth fairies and why they collect teeth - it is a sweet story! It even came with its own special velvet bag to put her tooth in under her pillow - it makes it easier for the tooth fairy to find it! *wink* The back of the book lets her chronicle the loss of her teeth and has a page to color in each tooth as it falls out!

February 10th
I just have to share this one....I could just eat her up!

February 9th
Tummy time! It is not her favorite for sure! She makes quite a few crazy faces to show her dislike for it!

February 8th
Family movie night! It was our second time seeing it - but it is still cute! Kennedy really loves movies about dogs!!!!

First Day of Kindergarten

Yup! Hard to believe but our little baby girl started Kindergarten today!!!!! And did you notice anything different about her?!? She got her hair chopped off! It was her idea and we all love it! She picked out her own first day of school outfit and I think she did a fine job!

Daddy went to work late so we could all go to school together! Kennedy wore shoes she hasn't worn before and by the time we reached the end of the block, she had started to get a blister! Thank goodness Dad gave her a piggy back ride most of the way!!! Here they are walking up the sidewalk to school!


We walked into the school the minute the bell rang for class to start! Can you believe it?! Late on her first day due to Mom and Dad!! But her teacher was super sweet and let me snap this photo quickly! There is no doubt she was excited to be there!!


After school we parents have to wait outside and the teacher brings the kids out. They must hug or high five Mrs. Stroup when they see their parent and then they can go. Here is Kennedy giving Mrs. Stroup a high five!
And a quick photo of the two of them! I am thrilled that Mrs. Stroup will be Kennedy's teacher! I have heard magnificent things about her and Kennedy already adores her! I see a good year ahead of us!!!

El alfabeto en español

As you know, I am back to the grind....teaching junior high Spanish again for a few months! I am loving it - at times it seems I almost never took 18 months off!!! I am enjoying my students and trying some new techniques and strategies this year! :) I love the creativity that teaching affords me!

Anyway, Kennedy has become more interested in Spanish lately. She has known her numbers and some colors for quite awhile, but now wants to know more! (I know I should have started with her as an infant....I do regret it sometimes). Last week she asked what my students had learned that day. So I sang her a song about the Spanish alphabet! I love to use music in my classroom and the students seem to enjoy it too - both cheesy, educational songs AND contemporary rock and pop songs!

Anyway...one of my students told me today that she found "our" Spanish alphabet song on You Tube and practiced it all weekend! Being that YouTube is blocked at school, I had to look it up when I got home today! I played it for Kennedy and she was having fun trying to repeat it and figure out the letters!!! Next time I will need the video camera out! But she learned a few letters!!

I just thought I would share this Spanish Alphabet song with you all!!! LOL! It really is terribly cheesy and annoying, but you might get a kick out of it! Oh, and remember that I listen to this song 15 times a day while we learn the alphabet!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!



OH!!! I almost forgot! Today Kennedy told Debbie (our daycare provider) that when she grows up she wants to be a Mommy and maybe a Spanish teacher! That made me giggle!!!

1st Day of School

School is back in full swing here in Kansas!!!! I went back as a long term substitute on the 10th. Kennedy started back at preschool on the 14th. Mema and Daddy took Kennedy to school since I was working.

Kennedy is in a total dress mode...she has a melt down if she can't wear a dress daily! So she was allowed to pick out her first day of school dress!! She is pretty cute isn't she?!?

She was overjoyed to see her teacher, Ms Jenny, again! Big hugs! We made Ms Jenny a gift (which you can see on my other blog next week!).

We are so blessed that Kennedy has a fabulous school, amazing teacher and a love of learning! I see some great things in store for her this school year!!!!