SCHOOL'S OUT!!!

The last day of school has arrived and the girls left this morning excited about the fun day they will have today.  I'm always amazed at the end of the year how much they have learned through the past school year.

Kylie learned this year to write all of her letters and numbers up to 20 and started to read a little with little beginner readers. Most of the pages had 3 or 4 words on them, but hey, you have to start somewhere don't you! She learned more about shapes, colors and even picked up a little bit on some of the math Mackenzie learned this year. She can write her name and a few small words that she knows and has become very fixed on making sure she writes "pretty". Her teachers on the first day of school weighed and measured each student and then did again yesterday and recorded it so we would have it. On the first day of school she was 40.5" tall. Yesterday she was 43" tall. She grows slow. Her weight the first day was 35 pounds and yesterday it was 38 pounds. Can't wait to see what all she can soak up next year in kindergarten!

Mackenzie this year really got into learning how to do new things. Her math skills have gotten a lot better and now does well when they do their 100 problems in 5 minute tests. (Yes they have to finish all 100 problems in 5 minutes at the end of first grade going into second grade.) She has learned how to take a word and put the phonics symbols on the correct letters to show what is a long vowel, short vowel, and all that fun stuff. She now is a great little reader and loves to read whenever she can. She read around 70 books this year during the school year and tested on almost all of them, which resulted in her receiving the AR reading award and of course the State Education Reading Award, which you have to read over 25 books to receive. She also made the principals honor roll which is a great thing! She's very proud of it and so are we of course!! She is hoping next year they get to start learning science in second grade, as she has gotten to be very interested in the subject.

They'll have a good summer I'm sure this year. They'll enjoy having some time off and be ready soon to start back next August. Enjoy the pictures below of the first and last day of school I took.

Till Next Time!!!

First day of school 2011-2012 school
year (August 11, 2011)

First day of school 2011/2012
school year. (August 11, 2011)

Last day of school 2011-2012
school year (May 17, 2012)

Last day of School 2011-2012 school year (May 17, 2012)

Counting down the days!

Yep, it's summer almost!  The girls are in their last 2 weeks of school and they are ready for a break!! Kenzie starts her end of year tests today, or at least that is what she has told me. Kylie will get to visit the kindergarten classrooms in the next week or so and every day it seems as if something is going on that is related to school.

The last week of school will be the busiest. That Monday we have Kylie's awards assembly/pre-k graduation. Tuesday Kenzie's class gets to go on a field trip to play laser tag for the day, then on Wednesday her class has their awards assembly/1st grade graduation.  Then Thursday is the magical day that Kenzie is counting down towards. The last day of school!!!!

I think Gabryle will enjoy having the girls home for a few months to play with him all day every day. He enjoys getting to play with them after school. I think it's his favorite part of the day besides meal times and when we go outside to play. He has become fascinated with chalk while we are outside. He loves the fact that he can draw on the sidewalks and the porch and not get in trouble for coloring on it. I also think he enjoys it because he knows once it gets to where there is no more room to draw I wash it off with the water and we let it dry. Of course in this process he always finds a way to manage to get wet while I Wash the chalk off the ground.

I'll make sure to get pictures while we are at the awards assemblies for the kids and the other things we attend and get them posted as soon as I can. And if you don't hear from me for a while, just remember I shall e back with a post as soon as I can with all the craziness of the end of the year!!

Till Next Time!!!!

Almost there!

Today was enrollment day for the girls at school! It was convenient this year with them putting all of one family together in one file to fill out this year, and I think made the process go fairly smoothly. Took us all but an hour and a half. could have been worse I guess.

We got there at noon so Kylie and I could do her check with the speech pathologist. Kylie walked in and the pathologist was telling Kylie what we would and she would check her hearing and if needed send us to the doctor to have her ears looked at. First thing out of Kylie's mouth "I already got my stitches out, i don't need to go back to the doctor." I laughed at her for saying that. (for those who don't know she fell and hit her head back in April and had to have 7 stitches put in her forehead just above her left eyebrow.)

She went through the process handing things that she was supposed to hand over, repeat things she needed to repeat and doing the hearing test (which we eventually convinced her that the headphones although they looked weird, are like Mommy's in her i-pod.) She passed of course, and I never doubted she would  not pass. Kylie can explain some things and talk  better than some adults I've met. She can also talk your ear off if she wants to!

After we were done we drove on around to the activity building for the school system and went in and started the enrollment process with getting our "family packet" and getting the forms filled out. We then started in the line to make it down for verification we live in the school district and to find out what bus we would be on if we use the bus. (that is still a deciding factor due to not knowing if Kylie can ride yet or not) We turned in our paper work, went ahead and got the girls their school field trip shirts, turned in current shot records and then went through the cashier line to pay for the school supply fees, t-shirts and lunch money.

all in all I can say that it was much better than getting Kenzie enrolled last year in the school. The process was a lot simpler it seemed today and that was with a gym full of parents and students, ranging from pre-k through 12 grade. Mackenzie got to see a lot of her friends from last year, and some of her favorite teachers. Now all we will do is wait and see what teachers the girls get, go to parent orientation next week on Tuesday then start school Thursday of next week!! This has been a quick summer it seems, but I'm ready for the girls to be in school.

Till next time!!

Summer Cabin Fever

Cabin fever has set in with Mackenzie. With the highs being in the 100's I don't take the kids outside to play. I let Jerrod keep the car and the kids and I stay home. 

Mackenzie is the worst at having to stay in the house. She would rather be outside in the grass playing, or in the sprinkler playing. She has a large workbook with simple addition, some spelling, writing and word problems for first graders, but that she can do only for so long before she gets tired of it. She even has a packet of papers her kindergarten teacher gave out to students but she is already almost finished with those also. She will read for so long but gets tired of doing that also. If only she wasn't so busy all the time!!!

Kylie hasn't been that bad this summer. She prefers staying inside playing with her barbies anyway. Heck, you give her a sippy cup with some type of drink, her monkey and some barbies or a book she is set for the rest of the day. As long as she has her cup of milk in the morning she is all good. What would make her day even better is if I let her have chicken nuggets for lunch every day, but that isn't going to happen. She even goes and just lays down in bed for a little bit in the afternoon. She mostly does that when she is frustrated with Gabryle trying to play with her barbies.

Gabryle is between the two girls. He loves playing outside, but not for a long long time, but loves playing inside. As long as he has some tea or milk in his sippy and noise in the house he is set. He will go and play with his basket of trucks and cars, or go climb into the toy box and play with the toys in it. When you let him go outside though he loves it. He especially loves the sprinkler and water. However he does not love to stay outside for a long long period of time like Mackenzie.

Hopefully this real bad heat wave will end soon and we will go back down into the 90's. I don't really see it happening soon though as we are just about to get into our hottest part of the year in the next few weeks. This time of the year is when I wished we lived in someplace like Colorado, where it stays nice during the summer!!!!

Till next time!!!

the dreaded summer heat

I enjoy the summer months. The splash pads open, there is so much more sun during the day, the pool opens up and the kids get a break from school and we get to do t-ball and things like that. I like it until the dreaded heat comes around.

So far this summer has been the hottest summer I can remember. At the moment there is a heat advisory for the area until SATURDAY!! I wish we could get a break. I hate that we have to keep the kids in the house finding new things to do or watch. I think this summer heat has them getting cabin fever worse than last winter when we had the snow storm, especially Mackenzie. She hates being couped up in the house.

The plus side of it is I have been able to teach Kylie how to write a few letters, and get a head start for when she starts pre-k in a month. A month to the day actually. The heat and being stuck in doors doesn't seem to bother Kylie as much. Don't get me wrong, she loves playing outside, but she seems to prefer staying inside looking at a good book, playing with her barbies and drawing on any plain piece of paper she can find.

Gabryle is missing the outdoors to. If he could live outside in the yard I bet he would to a point. He loves finding dirt piles to play in, sitting on the little trike we have, finding sticks and chasing sisters with them, and just being out doors. The past few days with them staying inside he will go up to the window and just sit there looking outside with a look of boredom on his face. I do admit though, that Gabryle is the best at keeping himself busy in the house. He'll just go off into his and Kylie's room and start playing with some toys, or climbing into the toy box to hide, or grab a little book and look at it.

Hopefully we will have some relief soon so we can do more outside during the day. If it could stay in the 60's and 70's all year round that would be awesome! I could live with that. Stay safe with the heat. Just a few more months then it will cool down is all I keep saying!!!
Enjoy!