Five Chickens

Once upon a time I started this blog to chronicle the things we were doing, the crazy things my kids did and as way to keep up to date with our out of town friends and family.  I started out really, really well.  the kids provided plenty of material and we were always doing something I could write about or post a picture of.  Then I got lazy and we got really busy and I didn't post anything for over a year.  I knew I was going to be really mad at myself for not recording all the silly things Blake was saying and doing.  He is such a little ham and he cracks me up on a daily basis. 

A couple of days ago Will and Blake were playing dinosaurs and the dinos were having a picnic.  Blake's dinosaur brought brownies and corn.  Will's brought fried chicken, cole slaw and mashed potatoes.  Yesterday when they had a picnic, Blake's dinosaur brought brownies, cold slaw and "five chickens".   Five chickens will now be the way we refer to fried chicken in our house. 
Thanks to the Olympics the dinosaurs usually have a diving contest after the picnic.  T Rex usually wins, even though I am not sure how he swims with those tiny arms.  Tonight they hugged afterwards and went home because their mommies missed them.

The Twins Turn Five

One of my best friends has twins that are six months younger than Campbell.  We look forward to celebrating their birthday every year.  It's a guaranteed time that I will get to see most of my girls and most of our kids will be together. 
This year was a petting zoo and a face painter. At first the kids were a little disappointed that it wasn't a swim party (this is the first year it hasn't been). As soon as they saw the animals, the disappointment was over!

Campbell's Recital

Campbell finished her third year of dance and had her recital.  This is the first year she has really known the dance without watching the other kids or the teacher.  She was really excited about showing everyone how much she had learned this year. 

We are only allowed to video the dance at rehearsal and of course Mommy forgot her camera for rehearsal, so I won't have video until the DVD is ready later this summer.  I did get lots of pictures of her and her BFF, Brooklyn.

End of School

Brandt finally finished second grade last week. It was a week of playing and parties and a great way to end the year. Each day they had a different "camp" in class. One day they took blankets and books and read on the floor. One day they took boardgames and played games all day. One day they rotated to the other classrooms and got to be in the other teachers classes for a while. Thursday we had their end of the year party - Luau Style. They had snow cones, played games and had fun with their friends.

Friday they had a Celebration of Learning.  The class voted on which of their classmates should receive which award.  Brandt got the Milky Way Award for having the far out and creative ideas.  He also got his final report card.  He made All A Honor Roll for the year!!  He didn't really see the excitement in it, but we were pretty excited.

I can't believe when we go back to school he will be in third grade and Campbell will be in Kindergarten!

Summer - Day 1

Today was Campbell's first day of summer.  She finished preK yesterday and I woke up with that feeling of dread this morning.  That question every mother is asking right now.  What are we going to do this summer?  If you ask her, she is going to swim, do crafts and have sleepovers with her BFF, Brooklyn.  She doesn't want to go to any camps, she doesn't want to sign up for anything, she is only going to swim, craft and have sleepovers. 
Today was Coloring Camp.  She literally colored for 6 hours.  I was doing a few things around the house and she was busy with a Dora coloring book, so did not bother her.  Later Blake was still not back to feeling 100% and needed a little snuggle time while we watched Max and Ruby.  She kept coloring.  She took a little break for lunch and went right back to coloring.  We got dressed for our last dance class and she colored until it was time to leave.  We are home from dance and that book is full.  She is now upstairs searching for another book to start coloring.
One day down.  How many more until August 22?

She's A Graduate!

Okay she's a PreK graduate, but there was a ceremony and a certificate and a reception after.  She even wore a little cap!

All lined up and ready to go

With Ms. Erin, her teacher

Fast Track

A couple of weeks ago I had my last parent-teacher conference with Campbell's teacher, Ms. Erin.  We went over all the things she has learned this year and compared her checklist with our previous conference to see progress.  We also discussed Kindergarten readiness.  There is no question that she is ready to go to Kindergarten.  She has mastered everything on the readiness checklist except knowing our phone number.  When Brandt went to Kindergarten, your phone number was something they learned the first month of school.  They also had nap time after lunch and that is gone now too.  How things change in three years!!
I decided this morning we would start to work on learning our phone number.  We could work on 214 for a week or so and then add 705, etc...  So we talked about it and I asked her if she knew our phone number.  I asked her to repeat 214.  She did a couple of times and then said I know what comes next - 605.  Almost - it is 705.  So we moved on.  She is now dancing around the house, clapping out 214-705.  So glad I thought we needed the summer to learn this.