Preschool is Fun!

Ellery is having so much fun at preschool! She has attended 4 days of class now. She is learning a lot, and has already completed a homework assignment! Ms. Melinda is one of Ellery's teachers from last year, so that helped make what seems to be an smooth transition into a new classroom even easier! Ellery walked right in the first day and never looked back, and she has been ready to go to school every day!

She is thrilled to grab her pink butterfly backpack and her butterfly garden lunchbox on the way out the door!

Ellery can identify many letters. She can say her numbers to 25 and can count objects to 12. She knows all of her colors (getting brown and black confused occasionally). She knows circle, triangle and square shapes.

She is so curious about nature right now. She loves to find squirrels and birds. She is great at spotting other things, too. She can see an airplane from so far away that it takes a minute to come into my view. She has always been the first to see a balloon, and on our trip to TX this summer, I don't think she missed any United States flags!

Ellery is awesome in her play! She can play very well with others and also by herself. I often hear her talking away upstairs either while reading books or while engaged in pretend play.

Ellery is very independent but also very grateful when she receives help if it is needed. She has excellent manners and almost always says "please" and "thank you." She can get dressed all by herself, and she and Kiran take turns feeding Rocky (then running around the house chasing him). :)

Ellery loves to sing songs and is great at picking up a tune and lyrics quickly to sing along. This is perfect for her music class! She always comes home from school telling about music and sign language and shows me the stamp she received in class.

This is Ellery's recent homework assignment. Pretty funny story actually . . .

This year, her teachers are assigning family homework to provide a chance for everyone to work with Ellery on her projects. The first assignment was to design and dress a "little person" (contact paper in the shape of a child) just like Ellery. We did great until it was time for the face. I tried drawing eyes, and Jeff attempted the nose. Let's just say it was so bad that I found another piece of paper that was as close as possible to the original and cut out a round face to paste over our first tries. We may have some talents in this house, but Mom and Dad are no artists! I then looked online for help with drawing children's faces, and it turned out much better. Thanks for being sweet about it Ellery! I think she was relieved to see the second attempt as the first one looked a little like a scary creature from a freaky movie!

Anyway, back to Ellery. Our sweet girl is so calm and confident about school each day! What a blessing!

With Daddy and Livvy on the first day of preschool

With Mommy (who obviously was making lunches and a mess!)

I have missed both of my kids while they are at school, but I absolutely LOVE picking them up and hearing about their adventures! Then, Daddy can't wait to hear when he gets home! Life with kids is simply amazing!

Okay, now THIS is the way to celebrate the end of a wonderful first day of school for all these kiddos! (Malon, Kiran, Fern, Baylan, Ellery, and Livvy)

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Kiran (with vanilla - his favorite right now!), Baylan, Foust

Fern and Ellery (with cookie dough)

I Love Kindergarten!

My name is Kiran. I just finished my first two days of Kindergarten! I really like my teacher, Ms. R. She is very kind, and I know she is cool because she told me that one of her favorite movies of all time is "Star Wars!!!"

This is me on my first day of school. My R2-D2 shirt and my new Millennium Falcon shoes were perfect for the first day!

These are some of my school supplies.

This is my dad and me.

My mom and me

My whole family outside my new school

This is my dad, my sister and me the night before my first day reading "Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten." This is my favorite book about Kindergarten!

In class, I sit at the yellow table. I have a green chair, and green is my favorite color! My favorite things to do so far in class are play with blocks and Legos.

One of my best friends is in my class, and I have already met lots of other great friends.

I think I am ready for school because I know . . .

all of my uppercase and lowercase letters.

how to write my name.

how to count to 100.

how to do easy addition.

how to sound out letters.

how to read simple words.

how to write simple sentences with help.

how to follow instructions.

how to be polite and respectful.

how to have fun!

I also think I'm ready because . . .

I am adventurous and curious.

I love books!

lately, I have liked drawing and coloring and all things art.

I love to meet new people!

I love to try new things and learn new things!

My first two days, I ate all of my lunch and was starving when Mom picked me up!

One day, we walked with bubbles (to help us be quiet) and ducktails (to help us keep our hands to ourselves) around the school on a tour.

I found out that I will get to go to some extra fun classes on different days of the week: Music, Technology, P.E., Art, and Library and Yoga. I am excited about recess every day, and our playground is really awesome!

My first day, I had a little trouble saying "goodbye." But, that night at bedtime, I asked Mom if I could go to school again the next day because I liked it so much! And, now, I want to go to school every day!

Kindergarten, Here I Come!

Six Months and Growing!

Our sweet Olivia is 6 months old today! She is growing and changing every day. Today, she did five new and very big things: she rolled from back to front, moved around on her tummy, pulled her knees up as she tried to crawl toward a toy, ate her first foods AND . . . she played PEEK-A-BOO all on her own! So fun and check out the videos!

Kiran had the job of choosing the food she would eat tonight and picked organic sweet peas. Ellery's job was to choose the bib and spoon, which of course were pink! Well, when Livvy didn't care for peas, we decided to try sweet potatoes and topped it off with the tiniest bite of banana possible. We definitely broke the rules of trying one food at a time! She did not think too much of any of it and was very happy to eat her normal meal a little later. She has been pretty interested in our food for some time now, and I don't think she was as impressed as she had expected to be! That's okay, though, for now because Livvy doesn't seem to have any trouble getting all of her nutrients! She is growing very well and actually is around 75th percentile for weight and height and is wearing some 12 month clothes that her sister sported at one year!

Look at these sweet faces! Sometimes, I am still surprised at all my little blondies!

Livvy can reach for and grasp very small objects now (as tested with a small hair bow), so we have to watch out for big kid toys and other small things. She is giving sweet, sweet kisses and the most gentle but firm hugs around the neck - this is my favorite thing right now! She likes to feel Daddy's beard when he holds her. Livvy adores Kiran and Ellery, and they are beginning to involve her in their play, pretending she is this or that, then they are super silly with her, and she just squeals! She is amazing at getting her toes in her mouth and seems to enjoy this very much! She is still working on those teeth, but they can be seen beneath the gums now. Livvy usually sucks her two middle fingers on either hand but when teething (which has been a little bit of a challenge for all of our kiddos), she has been known to get almost 2 fistfuls in! Livvy's favorite lovey is her pink giraffe that plays "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Livvy is so happy every minute of the day most days, and almost every minute on the other days! She is such a joy to us all!

Now, I decided to add a few pics of all the kids at 6 months. What do you think? Do they look alike at this age?

Kiran

Ellery

(actually this is at 3 months, but the next photo of Livvy is same background and toy and thought it was a fun comparison)

Olivia

Well, this one is 5 months and the next is almost 5 months, but they were too cute and I couldn't resist including them!