Last Days of School

Kyle had a great year in Ms. Marsha's class. He loved every minute of it!

Kyle had a  PreK Splash Day the last week of school. Lots of fun in the sun! 

I was a little nervous for Kyle to start at a new preschool. I prayed the entire summer before he started at the Butterfly School that he would find a good friend. Elliott was an answer to that prayer. He is such a sweet boy and Kyle and Elliott became best buds. I am so thankful for their friendship!

I will miss Kyle helping me on Wednesdays pass out snacks to each class. He was my little helper!

I can't believe how much he grew up during the school year. He looks like such a big boy!

The girls also ended a great year at Mockingbird. Here are a few pics from Field Day. 

Kyle saw all the inflatables and water fun and suddenly he was excited for Kindergarten!

 Karis participated in Hoop It Up again this year and cheered for the student team. 

Our school had an end of the year pool party at the rec center. It was windy, drizzly and cold but that didn't stop the kids from swimming and having a great time. 

School Lunches

We love having lunch with the girls. It's fun to see them at school, brighten their day and talk with their friends. 

We usually buy them a treat from the cafeteria when we visit. Chocolate milk is Makena's favorite!

Kyle loves to visit too!

First Grade Assignment

Karis' first homework assignment was to bring a few "artifacts" about herself. One of the things she had to bring was something special or unique about her family. She just read the word "special" in the assignment and thought she had to bring something that was special to her. Not knowing that, I didn't understand why she kept asking me to take pictures of Fluffy for her. I thought she wanted a picture of Fluffy because Makena had a picture of her and Bunny that she was using for her assignment. 

We soon cleared up what she was supposed to bring, but I still took pictures of her and Fluffy. I then found a picture of her and Fluffy when she just turned two years old. What a difference four years has made! She has grown up into a beautiful little girl and Fluffy remains her favorite (and surpassingly in tact!). 

First Kindergarten Assignment

Makena got her first kindergarten assignment. She was so excited to work on it. She wanted to make one last year when Karis made hers. 

Her assignment was to make a small poster about herself to put in the class book. She will share her page with her class so that they can get to know her. 

We talked about what she wanted on her page. We used photos and images from the Internet. I helped her with the layout and then she glued everything on. 

She had so much fun!

And she loved her page! 

Of course, Kyle wanted to take a photo with his picture too...

First Day of School

The girls were enjoying summer and it wasn't until Teacher Assignment day that they started to get excited for school. We were excited to find out that Makena got the same teacher that Karis had. When Makena found out, she hugged my leg and kept saying, "Yay, Ms. Carlton." Karis didn't know any of the first grade teachers so she didn't have a preference, but she wanted to be in the same class with her best friend. She was assigned to Ms. Taylor's class with her best friend! We couldn't be happier. 

We bought new dresses with matching nail polish. Nana bought them cute rings and Mommy and Daddy gave them a necklace to hold on to if they got sad or nervous at school. 

Makena was super excited -- "Mommy, can I go to school now? Please, mommy!" "Is the first day of school tomorrow?" "How many more days?"

Karis, on the other hand, was nervous and she kept saying she didn't want to go to school. She said she wished Makena was older so she could be like Makena and get a teacher she already knew. She wasn't sure about her teacher, especially since she loved her Kindergarten teacher so much. After we painted her nails and gave her the necklace, she started to get excited, but her stomach was still filled with butterflies.   

The girls woke up on Monday morning excited and ready to go. I didn't even get any complaints while taking pictures!

Daddy has a "I only carry Kindergarten backpacks to school"-rule so Karis carried her own backpack. She looked like such a big girl!

Makena was so excited to walk to school with sissy. 

A quick picture before heading inside.

We dropped off Makena first so Karis could give a quick hug to Ms. Carlton. The girls are right across the hall from each other. 

Saying good-bye to Makena was much easier than saying good-bye to Karis. Makena was excited and we knew she would be in great hands with her teacher. 

Then we took Karis to her classroom. 

After she put her stuff in the cubby, we said our good-byes.

They both had a great first day. Makena met a new friend, Kylie and ate lunch with her. I see God's humor in that Karis met a friend named Makena and Makena met a friend named Kylie! 

Even though Karis liked her teacher and had a great day, she still felt nervous that night. It looks as if it's going to take a few more days to completely get rid of the nerves and adjust to all the changes and new things about first grade. 

On the second day, Makena said she cried a little in the library while watching Veggie Tales because she missed mommy and daddy.  =(

Our Hard Worker

Earlier this week, the elementary school had an event called the Great Rakesgiving. It was a school-wide event where all the students raked leaves at all the neighboring homes. It was their way of saying thank you to the families for putting up with the traffic, noise, kids etc. during the school year. 

Karis was with Mrs. Taylor who is one of the kindergarten teachers. When I picked up Karis later that day, Mrs. Taylor was excited to tell me how great of a job Karis did the entire time. In spite of the cold weather and wet leaves, Karis worked hard and kept a great attitude. We are so proud of her!

First Day of Kindergarten

The day finally came! This past week, Karis kept asking me how many more days until school. After I told her, her response was always, "I wish it was today." 

Hello Kitty is one of her favorites right now, so she chose a Hello Kitty backpack and lunch box. She also picked out a Hello Kitty t-shirt to wear. I thought for sure she would want to wear a dress, but she said she wants to wear a Hello Kitty shirt every day to school. 

I love this look on her face. It shows that right before I took it, she said, "Mom, you said one more picture. Can we go now?!"

We had a friend come over that morning to stay with Makena and Kyle so that it would be less hectic and we would make it to school on time. We walked Karis to the school which is just under a half mile. 

  

As we stepped onto the school grounds, Karis' pace slowed down a little bit. I could tell she was getting a little nervous. But she was fine once we got into the classroom. We helped her hang up her backpack and put her lunch box away. We said good-bye and then tried to hold back tears!

Ms. Carlton is her teacher this year. We have a few friends whose older kids had her and they all love her. This is Ms. Carlton's 24th year of teaching and she won the Teacher of the Year award last year. 

Karis' friend Makena who she met at the Future is Bright is also in her class. She is just as shy as Karis! We also met another sweet girl who lives down the street from us. We have been praying with and for Karis that she would make 2 or 3 good friends in her class, so we're excited to see how these friendships develop. 

And how do Makena and Kyle feel about Karis going to school? They're excited that they get to play with Karis' toys! 

The house felt so different when she was gone. I was filled with all kinds of emotions that day, but kept trying to snap out of it and spend time with the littles. Makena definitely missed playing with Karis. I felt much better after dinner when our home was back to "normal" and all three were together playing. It's going to take me awhile to get used to our new normal. 

Karis had a great first day of school. She said the only time she wanted to come home was during story time. I'm not sure why she didn't like that part of her day. She was most excited about the toys in her classroom (legos and My Little Pony). 

Getting ready for her second day of school was definitely different. She was much more talkative and silly during breakfast. Derek took her to school and said she ran most of the way. I guess the nerves are gone! 

Kindergarten Jitters

Karis had been so excited for kindergarten until recently when she realized her friends won't be there. She's nervous about having to make new friends. The thought frightens her because of her shyness. It's killing me because she's outgoing and loves to do new things but her shyness holds her back. I thought I was just going to have to deal with my own emotions about my little girl going off to kindergarten but now I'm shouldering hers as well.

Yesterday the school held an event called The Future Is Bright where everyone moves up a grade for an hour and a half as a preview of what's to come next year. Incoming kindergarteners got to experience their new school. Karis wasn't very excited about going but we talked about how this was a chance to see her new school and what it would be like. She didn't have to talk to anyone or make new friends -- just go and have fun. 

I parked the car a little up the street so that we could have a little time together and she could finish her breakfast. I noticed she started walking a little slower as we entered the school doors. She clammed up when a teacher asked for her name at the registration table. She didn't want to join the kids right away in the gymnasium (we were late arriving), so I stayed with her for a few minutes.  I left her when they started breaking up into smaller groups. 

The project Karis worked on at school.

When I picked her up, she said she had fun and that she met a new friend named Makena who spells her name the same way sissy does. 

She must have felt overwhelmed because she didn't want to talk about anything else about her time at school. We went to the park afterwards and I got to ask her some more questions. I found out that when she said she met a new friend, she actually went up to the girl and asked her, "Can you be my friend?" That's huge for her and I'm so proud of her for doing that! I can't help but think that by the girl having the same name as sissy, it gave her some confidence and comfort (perhaps a gift from God for my little girl!). I have to think that she's going to be alright... but I'm still a little nervous...

I'm looking forward to meeting her teacher in August and finding out who will be in her class. That'll bring some comfort to Karis and will hopefully get her excited once again for kindergarten. 

Good-Bye Gymnastics, Hello Preschool

For more than a year, Karis has been wanting to go to school.  It had a large part to do with living across the street from an elementary school.  She sees kids every day playing at recess.  I once let her peek inside one of the classrooms and from then on it was all over.  She would tell us almost every day she wanted to go to school. 

I told Karis that in order to go to school she had to be four or five years old (I didn't know at that time what age we would send her to school).  So to her, the magic age for anything is four or five and she always says she wants to be four or five years old.  

I also told her that school isn't just playing, but having to learn lots of things.  Knowing that she wouldn't go to school for a long time, I told her she had to learn how to write in order to go to school.  I thought that would pacify her for a little while.  Well, she immediately started trying to write letters.  She would copy a book or ask us how to write them.  She practiced almost every day.  

Fast forward to many months later and she can now write all the letters.  She's now practicing her numbers as well.  She can spell some words by herself like Karis, Mommy, Daddy, Makena and God.  She has just started to read too.  She can read the names of colors by identifying the first letter and knowing what letter each color starts with (is that considered reading??).  She's always been good at being able to tell us what words start with a certain letter.  

 Well, we finally decided it's time to send Karis to preschool.  We signed her up at a local church preschool here in Irvine.  She'll be attending two days a week in the mornings.  We are so thankful that we were given a scholarship so the cost to us has been reduced significantly.   I'm excited for her because I know she's going to love it.  It'll also be nice for me to only have two of the kiddos a couple mornings during the week.

We're going to pull Karis out of gymnastics when she starts preschool.  I think it'll be too much for her to do both (I think it'll be too much for me too!)  She seems okay with stopping gymnastics for now.  We may put her back in later on.

Here are some pictures of Karis in her gymnastics class.

stretching at the start of class

walking on the balance beam

walking backwards on the balance beam

ready to jump off into a foam pit