Spring Break 2012

We definitely made the most of Spring Break this year!  Usually I kind of dread spring break-no preschool or ladies' class to keep us occupied.  This year I welcomed the break from schoolwork with Reef and from rushing off somewhere everyday.

We kicked the week off with a trip to the park with the Zimmers.  I love to get Reef and Ethan together when E has days off.

These 2 are already betrothed.  Poppy likes a younger man!

On Tuesday, we headed to the Botanical Gardens with KC and Lyla.  I'd been wanting to check out the butterfly exhibit.  My guys (especially Lachlan) are always excited to see Lyla.

The highlight of the trip was this fly-like-a-butterfly "zip line".

Poppy enjoyed a break from the stroller

We took a family picture in this exact spot when Tanya and Bernie were here 2 1/2 years ago.  My, how they've grown!

Lachlan enjoyed holding her hand...for a few minutes, anyway!

On Wednesday, my grandma came to spend a few days with us.  It was nice to have extra hands while Troy was gone to Survivor.  We hit the park one afternoon with Liam and Jude.
This girl loves to explore.  She especially loves exploring things by taste.  We've really got to watch her!

Jude was very serious about throwing the ball.

As usual, any visitor to the Gibbins house must do the nightly reading.
As you can see, Poppy is well-trained in smiling when the camera is out.

Gigi and Mr. Don drove in late Friday night, so that I could join Troy at the Survivor Retreat.  Looks like they had a great time while I was gone!

While I enjoyed Spring Break, I was definitely ready to get back into our routine!

Bows and Barrettes!

Now that her hair is a little longer, we can do bows and barrettes instead of headbands!  I think it's super cute and can't wait for ponytails and pigtails!

K5 learning review

We  were so excited to try out K5 learning (http://www.k5learning.com/) for 6 weeks and to give a review.  My main reason for giving this program a try was to try out the math curriculum since I haven't found one that we love.  I was also interested in the assessment, wondering where Reef would place in reading and math.
So, the first thing Reef did was take the assessment.  Honestly, I didn't love it.  It seems like all grade levels get the same test, so as a kindergartener, there weren't many questions he knew the answer to.  On those, he just picked an answer and moved on.  Because there were so few questions he could answer, I'm not really sure how they calculated his grade level.  Anyway, he tested into late kindergarten for both reading and math.
When we started the lessons, reading was WAY too easy, so I emailed the company, and they fixed it right away.  I was pretty happy with all of the reading lessons.  The program introduced a lot of new things like fact/opinion, true/false, synonym/antonyms. 
We had a little more issues with math.  The lessons were too easy in the beginning, but I didn't have him bumped up because I thought the review would be good.  But then they started moving too fast, and I didn't feel they spent enough time on certain things (adding 2 digits, money, fractions).  Reef got frustrated on those lessons.  I also missed the pencil and paper aspect of math, especially since we still need to practice writing numbers.
Reef's opinion of the program was positive.  He LOVES doing stuff on the computer and asked to do the program daily.  He preferred the math lessons over reading and loved it when he earned games.  I think more games would be good rewards in the program.
Since my trial was for 2 kids, I also signed Jonas up for the pre-K level.  He was so excited to have his own computer time.  The lowercase letter recognition lessons and counting lessons were really great.  I could tell that Jonas was really learning.  My big complaint was the introduction of sight words (hard ones like down and up!) in the middle of the letter introductions.  How is he supposed to do sight words when the whole alphabet hasn't been introduced!
Overall, the K5 learning program just didn't fit what we're looking for.  We didn't need a reading curriculum and that was the strong suit of this program in my opinion.  As much as Reef loves computer, I just don't think it's the right place to do math for us.

Poppy 9 months

I was a bad parent in the last month.  I got the camera out to upload the pictures and there were....wait for it...8.  That's it.  I so wish I had the ability to snap pictures all the time; I think about it and the camera's nowhere to be found, or I miss the moment altogether.

This month was rough for Poppy (and her mommy).  She had an ear infection for pretty much the whole month and was on 2 rounds of antibiotics.  This of course led one fussy girl and not much sleep.

Aside from the ear infections, she was pretty happy.  She started waving a very princess-like wave and even says "Bye bye" sometimes.  She is also saying "mama".  This is the only child that has said "mama" before "dada".

She has dropped her 3rd evening nap.  She usually sleeps an hour in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 12-14 hours at night.  On a good night, she wakes for one feeding between 3 and 4:30.  On a rough night, it's twice for feedings.  Dr. Gulde said it might be time for some tough love since we know her ears are clear right now. 

She is nursing every 3-4 hours during the day and eating baby food 3 times a day.  We've also started introducing some soft table foods.  She LOVES peaches and also likes blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and tortillas.

At the pediatrician, Poppy weighed in at 19lbs (50th %) and was 29 inches long (90th %).  Her head is also in the 90th percentile.

Poppy is up to 6 teeth: 4 on top and 2 on bottom.  Hers have come in a very different order than the boys' did.

She LOVES to be outside and to run errands.  If she's fussy, I can almost always fix it with a walk, a few minutes playing outside, or a trip to the store.

The big news from this month is that this girl is on the move!  She is up on all fours and crawling fast these days.  It's definitely keeping me on my toes, as I try to keep up with her and keep small things (rocks, crumbs, leaves, lint, legos) out of her mouth.

Here are the few pictures I did snap this month:

 In the last 2 days, she has been all about pulling up.  She loves to look out this window.

Cowboy Day

The boys had a Texas unit at preschool this year, and it culminated in Cowboy Day.  This was definitely one of their favorite units so far.  I loved listening to them sing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" and talk about the Alamo and blue-bombits or blue-vomits! 
Jonas wasn't interested in dressing like a cowboy but Lachlan was all in.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a cowboy hat.  We searched for Troy's but were unsuccessful.  Of course, at that point, he HAD to have a hat.  With 2.5 minutes until it was time to leave, this is what I came up with:

He loved it and wore it all day!