Makena's Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Makena had her first school field trip to the pumpkin patch. Her field trip was on the same day as Karis' field trip, so Derek spent the morning with Makena and her friends. 

Makena rode with her teacher that morning to the pumpkin patch. 

At the pumpkin patch, they had a story time and learned about pumpkins.

They went on a scavenger hunt for treasures. 

Makena has become quite silly these days!

Sweet friends!

First Kindergarten Field Trip to the Farm

The first Kindergarten field trip was to Green Meadows Farm and Pumpkin Patch in Grand Prairie, TX. The students are starting a unit on farms, learning about what a farm is and how it helps people. Green Meadows was the perfect place to look at and interact with lots of different farm animals. 

Karis milked her first cow.

 

All the animals were sweet and friendly.

A little too friendly for Karis' liking

We watched a pig race and saw lots of baby pigs. 

Fun with a scarecrow. 

I just had Karis and another girl in my group. We walked around with her other friends, but also spent some time with just our group. It was a fun day spending time together. 

We had lunch by the lake and afterwards the kids played on the playground and collected seashells. 

We then checked out some baby animals. There were chicks, ducklings, guinea pigs and bunnies. After a few tries, Karis got the hang of picking up the little chicks and was so excited she could do it herself!

To finish up our time there, we went on a hayride and then picked out our own pumpkins. It was then time to head back to school to finish off the day!

More Kindergarten Fun -- Teddy Bears and Frogs!

Karis just finished her unit on fairy tales. As part of the unit, the kids had a teddy bear parade. Karis made her "float" by wrapping paper around a photo box and putting some flowers and ribbon on it. She also drew some pictures and glued it to the sides of the box. 

Parents lined the hallways and the kids made a loop around the building with their teddy bears in tow. Everyone ended up in the cafeteria for some quick pictures. After the parents left, the students had snacks while watching a movie with their teddy bears. She had a fun morning!

Karis had her turn taking home the Speckles bag. The bag had three stuffed frogs, a few books and Speckles' journal. Karis was so excited about the frogs. She drew each frog and made a book out of it. Her homework assignment was to write in the journal, describing their time together. The frogs slept with her that night and then went back to school in the morning. 

Family Retreat

Our church had its first family retreat. We had a great time away from home, learning more about how to strengthen our family spiritually and getting to know other church families. The retreat was from Thursday evening to Saturday evening. The kids loved staying in a cabin and they slept well each night. Momma loved not having to cook for three days! And we all loved being outdoors and spending time together. 

A human maze -- can you see little feet in there?

A large pillow trampoline

The kids learned how to play miniature golf. Karis and I played 18 holes on Friday while the rest of the family napped. She said it was her favorite part of the retreat.

We saw lots of different critters and reptiles. Karis was the only one not afraid to pet them, including a tarantula, lizards and snakes!

  

And a favorite anywhere we go -- playing in the room!

  

Partying in the cabin at 9:30 pm!

The last thing on the schedule was a family scavenger hunt that involved a vertical playground. 

Karis got harnessed and got hoisted up high. She had to let go of the rope and went swinging through the trees. She loved it and wasn't afraid. Our little dare devil looks so tiny in the picture!

Daddy and I climbed a pole, had to stand up on a teeny tiny plank and jump off. Crazy! I managed to stand up but couldn't get myself to leap off into thin air. I acted like I was going to jump off, but really just stepped off. Derek's rope got caught on something and he spent a lot of time trying to get it free so he could get off the plank safely. He decided to stay seated and slid off the plank. 

We left the retreat shortly afterwards. It was cold and the kids were pretty tired. Kyle did great despite missing a nap. They slept well on our two hour car ride back home. 

Kindergarten Fun

Kindergarten is in full swing and Karis is loving it! She still runs to school every morning. She likes her teacher and has been making new friends. Her favorite buddies are Makena and Talia -- they are sweet girls! They hit it off from day one. Makena's personality is very similar to Karis'. The girls write each other notes and give each other homemade gifts. We've already had a couple play dates after school. 

Karis' first homework assignment was to make a poster about herself. It was used to tell her classmates about herself. They put all the pages together to make a class book. I helped Karis collect pictures, stickers, etc. of things she likes. She laid them out and glued it all together. She then drew some pretty pictures for the finishing touches. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. =( 

The school had a family picnic last week. Each family brought their own dinner onto the school lawn. The kids played while the parents chatted. Makena had just as good of a time as Karis.

Makena, Kyle, and I had lunch with Karis earlier this week. It's fun to let the little ones experience part of Karis' day. I also like talking to Karis' friends and seeing what everyone brings for lunch (looking for some new ideas!). Karis loves when we come for lunch but I always feel bad that she gets sad when we leave.

Derek and I have both volunteered for lunch/recess duty. Derek will be a book reader on Fridays (the kids go out in the hall with him one by one and practice reading). We've been enjoying another round of "firsts" as we experience being a parent of a school-age child. 

We just had our first parent-teacher conference. It was nice to get some feedback and insight as to how Karis is doing. Karis is doing well academically (based on a computerized test and assessments by the teacher) and the teacher is pleased with her performance and behavior at school. Karis has received a good behavior sticker every day since school started. 

We're hoping Karis gains more confidence with speaking and that her shyness doesn't hold her back in any way. The teacher says she talks in class, responds and asks questions but she doesn't do that when she goes to art, music or PE classes. Her teacher told us that the other day Karis had skinned her knee. She sent Karis to the nurse's office to get a band-aid. Karis was too shy to speak and didn't tell the nurse what she needed. She sent her back to class and Karis never got her band-aid. Silly girl! She however doesn't have a problem talking and interacting with her classmates. 

There are lots more fun kindergarten events coming up. More pictures to come!

Playing With Little Brother

I mentioned in a previous post how excited Makena was for Karis to go to school. She had free reign of Karis' toys all day. That only lasted for about two weeks and then she started to miss Karis. One day she told me, "I miss sissy. Playing with her is more fun than her toys." 

Makena usually gets frustrated playing with Kyle. In Makena's words, he "messes everything up" or "makes everything harder for me." She usually gives in to him and lets him have his way (something I'm trying to discourage because he won't learn how to share or take turns with her). If Kyle starts crying and whining about something she has, she'll say in a frustrated voice, "Fine!" and give it to him. Or, she'll say, "Fetch it boy!" and toss the toy onto the floor or across the room. I don't know where she learned that phrase from, but it makes me chuckle every time.  

Makena is slowly learning that she can't expect Kyle to play with her the same way Karis does. She has to think of new ways to play with him. Since she's been doing that, they've been playing a lot together. She is now the one to take the lead. Kyle follows her around and does whatever she tells him to. He repeats whatever she says too. They usually pack a bag/purse/container with toys and travel around the house. I think they play some form of Mommy-Baby. It's been fun watching their relationship develop!

Kyle has been communicating quite a bit...

Kyle learned sign language early on to communicate "more," "please," and "all done."  Here he is with a new word:

Kyle is nearing 2-1/2 years old.  He has been repeating everything we say immediately after we say it.  I am enjoying it.  He is working on his letters/spelling.  See this video:

First Day of PreK and Preschool

 Makena is in PreK this year! She will be going to school three days a week. She is excited to have two teachers who she is already familiar with. One is Karis' teacher from last year and the other is Karis' friend's mommy who she has interacted with at play dates and parties. 

Last week, we went to Meet the Teacher where she got to see her classroom and meet some new friends. When people asked her who her teachers are, she answered, "Ms. Kim and Ryan's mommy."  Oops! We'll have to change that. In the past, I would refer to her as Ryan's mommy, so she learned that from me!

 Makena seemed excited to start school. She wasn't nervous at all. During breakfast, she asked me a couple times where we were going (which I thought was strange), so I told her to church or to preschool. After breakfast, we went outside to take a few pictures. Afterwards, Makena asked if we could start walking to school. It dawned on me that she thought she was starting Kindergarten at Mockingbird. Silly girl! I don't know how she got that idea. Perhaps because Karis started two weeks ago, she was going to follow right after her. I hope her excitement and lack of nerves is a sign of how she'll be next year when she'll really start Kindergarten. 

I'm really hoping to see her grow and develop this year. I want her to start becoming her own person as she spends three days "on her own." I know Karis influences her a lot, so I'm hoping she feels the freedom to like and do what she wants. She hasn't shown a lot of interest in academics, so my desire is also for her to develop a love for learning and a desire to read. 

This little munchkin is in the two year old class. He's in the three day a week class but will only spend two and a half days there. He'll do full days Tuesdays and Thursdays but only a half day on Wednesdays. After my Bible study on Wednesday, I'll take him home with me for a nap. My friend will bring Makena home so that Kyle can sleep until 3 pm instead of 2 pm. I can't believe how big he is already!

Quick Family Getaway

We spent part of our Labor Day weekend in Glen Rose, TX. A church family owns a hotel there, so we made that our destination. We left Sunday afternoon and stayed one night. We didn't have much planned besides relax and swim. It was a quick 2-hour drive. 

The girls love staying at a hotel. What kid doesn't? Kyle was only 6 months old the last time he stayed in a hotel. We had a view of the swimming pool from our room. The kids loved looking down at the pool (the pool had streams of water shooting over it). 

The picture below of the girls reminds me of a photo I have of my sister and I on the window sill. We were only toddlers and my mom would put us on the sill to get us up off the floor while she was vacuuming. She said we were so scared we wouldn't move a muscle. Parenting in the 70's! 

We swam a little bit after dinner the first night. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and the poor/lack of service left us little time to go swimming afterwards. The next day after breakfast, we had to painfully wait an hour for the pool to open. The girls could not wait! We swam for about three hours and had the pool to ourselves most of the time. We grabbed lunch on the way out and headed back home.