Back to Preschool 2013

We were so excited for Preschool to start again!  It had been a LONG summer of missing those sweet teachers!
Lachlan is in Ms. Roberta’s class this year. It is no surprise that he loves every minute since he is in class with his 2 besties.

For homework, he had to decorate an L.  He went with a Spiderman theme and did all the work on his own.

Because you can’t have the camera out and not take her picture…

Poppy had to decorate a person for Ms. Coco’s class.  This was my first year making this little person a girl!  She was very proud of her work, but we had to hide if from her since the beads kept disappearing…

First day of preschool:  Dress courtesy of Ms. Linda.  Hair courtesy of Erin. Could this child be any cuter?!?

The best I could get from Lachlan.  He was WAY to excited about the first day to slow down for a picture.

Poppy and Ms. Coco.  Don’t let that semi-smile fool you; there were tears on day 1 as she didn’t have any friends in her class.  It was tough to leave her crying, but she made friends quickly!

Back to School Interviews

For fun, we did interviews on the first day of school:
Reef loves: desserts, Ninjago, Scooby Doo, the Gummy Bears show from the 80’s, reading, his new math, P.E., the color yellow, and Ethan.

Jonas loves: pizza, ninjas, Scooby Doo, movie nights, math, and the Bible.


Lachlan loves: ice cream, ninjas, Scooby Doo, going to the ice cream shop, and his new Transformer book.
Notice he wants to be an eagle when he grows up?!

I tried with Poppy.  She loves:  ice cream, donuts, the Gummy Bears show, Veggie Tales, the Jesus song, Jesus loves Me, board books, fishies, and her friend Jacob.

A new schoolyear

It is hard to believe that I have 2 guys in school this year!
Reef is our big 2nd grader:

And this is Jonas’s first year in our “classroom” as a kindergartener:

Shockingly, they were both happily smiling on these first day pictures!

For those of you who care, this is the curriculum we’ve chosen:
Reef:
McRuffy Language Arts
Teaching Textbooks 3 Math
Assorted writing workbooks (struggling here…)
LOTS of library books.  This kid loves to read!
Risas y Sonrisas for Spanish with Ms. Theresa
Jonas:
Assorted language arts worksheets: Bob books, handouts from KC, Pinterest
LOTS of library books.  He’s following in Reef’s footsteps and reading at a late 1st grade level already!
Horizons K math
Togethers:
Grapevine Studies Beginner New Testament (TTH)
Story of the World Vol 1 for History (MWF)
Right now, we are 8 weeks into the schoolyear.  I wish I could say that it’s been all sunshine and roses.  As happy as they were to start school (especially Jonas), the novelty quickly wore off, and I butt heads with one or both of them.  Reef is struggling with writing, and Jonas dislikes coloring and cutting (you know, the staples of kindergarten!).
We are making some changes and trying to keep things fun.  New this week:  separate desks instead of a shared table since they yelled at each other when the other bumped it!
I love teaching these guys and am looking forward to finding a groove!

Kinderbox Presentation

Our church makes the kindergarteners feel so special!  The day before school started (for most kids), all the kinders got to come onstage and get a special box of school supplies and a new Bible.
Jonas was SO SO SO excited about his new Bible since his Bible class teachers make a big deal about bringing them and he’d been having to take our bilingual Bible.
He’s also in LOVE with his box and won’t let me add or take anything out of it, saying that it is only for the supplies from Ms. Tina.

Fondue Night!

Also on our bucket list:  fondue!  We started the meal with a cheese sauce that we dipped bread, peppers, and steak into.  Yum!
The kids know that when we have fondue for the main dish that chocolate is following!


It was loved by all!

Austin Splashpad

On our bucket list, we had a trip to the Austin splashpads.  The Zimmers and Torres’s wanted to join us.  We squeezed it in the Friday before Ethan headed back to school.
After much research, we headed off, only to find our first choice was closed!  Thankfully, Erin carries a smartphone (unlike me), and we were able to find the next closest pad.
It was blissfully empty when we arrived!



And then it got CRAZY crowded! My kids don’t handle crowds well, so after their 10:30 lunch (Kristin thinks I’m crazy for letting them eat so early), they headed to the park.

Kristin brought a frisbee that Ethan and Reef tossed around.  It reminded me of our time in Nicaragua and all that frisbee-playing.


This guy braved the firepole on his own for the first time ever!
After all that fun in the sun, we headed home with a pitstop at Erin’s fave- Steak and Shake.  I’m sure she has a cute picture of that chaos.

Zoo…again…

We took a last minute visit to the zoo with the Zimmers right before school started.
We climbed on the lions…

And looked at flamingoes.



And held hands with best friends.

We attempted a whole group picture, and this is the best I got.

A new favorite thing at the zoo is running down this big hill at full speed.

We attempted a whole group picture on the lions but, obviously, there were a few uncooperative children!

To make the trip extra-special, we rode the train after the zoo, but apparently I took no pictures of that!

Summer 2013 Bucket List

This year we made a bucket list of all the things we wanted to do during the summer:

The I made calendars to see if we could squeeze it all in.

We didn’t get all of our wishes in, but we had a blast trying!

Lego and Disney Stores

The Lego Store just opened in our mall, and it was on our summer bucket list.  We finally made it the week before school started!
They loved looking at all the models.

And playing with the samples.

Reef really enjoyed these racer thingys.

Lachlan and Jonas spent lots of time building new guys.

I think it totally lived up to their expectations!

The Disney Store is right next to the Lego Store so we headed in there for Poppy.  She was in LOVE with all those princesses!

Gigi and Mr. Don’s visit

Gigi and Mr. Don had to miss Lachlan’s party but came in the following weekend.  They joined us at Pump it Up and treated us to lunch.
The real reason for their visit was to see Lachlan and give him his birthday present.
I wrapped it for her; isn’t it fancy?

It was the Lego circus he’s been eyeing!  He was so excited and couldn’t wait for them to help him put it together!

Thanks for visiting, guys!  Come back soon!

Back to School Party

Our friends, Archer and Elle, invited us to a super-fun Back To School Party at Pump It Up.  It was so fun to celebrate going to Kindergarten with Jonas’s classmates.  We were all super excited to go to a jumping place.
Poppy definitely thinks she’s one of the big girls.

Love these big slides!

She tried the big slide once and then decided to stick to safer toys.


Troy had to get in the action too.


Thanks for inviting us, Richardsons!