Halloween 2010 at School

Well, last year, Solace and Ender were at school at Cather elementary. Solace in Mr Ruth's second grade class, and Ender in Miss Jenkins First Grade. I was the PTO co president so I was at the school a lot helping out. Armour was at preschool at Cody elementary where his teacher was Mrs Amy Beeder. Armour's class did not invite parents in to help, so I just went over to Cather for their parties and their parade.
The kids chose the following Halloween costumes: Solace was Hannah Montana, Ender was a Transformer (Optimus Prime), Armour was a doctor (as always), and Kindle was (and I quote) "a pinkalicious skeleton."

Here are a few pictures of the School day Halloween celebration:

On the way to Cather-see, she is "pinkalicious"

 Kindle and a friend, Emma. Emma's sister Megan is one of Solace's best friends.

 Solace and her class!

 Pinkalicious skeleton and Hannah Montana.

 A peek at the man behind the mask of Optimus Prime.

 Solace in the parade

 Ender watching the parade and waiting to join in!

 Thirsty Pinkalicious-who knew skeletons got thirsty?!

 Armour after his party!!

I love Halloween at the schools and look forward to it each year-I hope they do Halloween parties that I can help with in Arizona!!

First Day of School 2010-2011 year

First Day of School 2010. Solace began 2nd Grade in Mr Ruth's class, Ender began 1st Grade in Miss Jenkins class and both attend Cather Elementary. Mom is PTO President there. Armour started school as a Peer Model at Cody Elementary School in Miss Amy Long's (now Beeder-she got married) class. Here are some pics from their first day of school:

So big...

Talent Show auditions and day of...

Our poor little Ender had to miss a full week of school in mid May due to medical issues (he had a staph infection in his kidney). During that week was the audition for the talent show, and since Ender was technically not supposed to be at school, Solace had to audition without him. She did well and when he got back to school the music teacher asked Ender to come do his own audition during class, and they ended up getting in. If you want to see the video of the performance, it is here.
Below are a few pictures of audition day, and one of them waiting to go sing on the actual talent show day:

Solace a bit nervous to audition alone...

A

During the audition...

Show day...waiting to go up...

They were nervous but fantastic!! I love having my kids perform, it reminds me of the good old days! :)  But they are much cuter than I ever was!!!

Solace and Ender in the Talent show at school

Solace and Ender rockin the Talent show (they could not hear the music very well, but they did well in spite of that!!)

Nicely done Solace and Ender!!

School Party

I am the "Room mom" for Solace's class. They split the class a couple weeks into the school year, so we combined the party with the other class. We wrapped the teachers as mummies (with TP), made a bat craft (super easy), and played a spider ring toss game. All of this was after the school wide parade, and before we ate a ton of treats! The 2 boys went over to a friends house while Kindle and I went over to run the party. Here are a few pictures:

Kindle the monkey Cowgirl Solace
Another monkey shot

Making her bat

Solace (and a little Snow White) wrapping up their teacher (The 2 teachers dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2)

Solace's class with their wrapped up teacher.

Star of the Week!

Last week Solace was the Star of the Week in her class. She had to make a poster about herself, bring a different favorite thing to class each day, and carry around their class giraffe all week (then bring back a poster and pics of her adventures with him on Friday). It was basically the same project as she did with the monkey last year with Mrs Lafferty. Here are a few of the things she said about herself, and a few of the pics she used (with why she used them). I wish the camera was working because then I would post a pic of the poster because she wrote the whole thing by herself!!! She also colored the whole thing alone. She is getting to read and write REALLY well (she is actually going to be doing her reading group with the first grade class 2 times a week). Anyway-here are some things from our Star of the Week:





"This is a picture of me" (She used the following pic as well as a baby pic and a pic of her at 3-yr-old)

Fascinating Fact about me: "When I grow up I would like to be a Singer"


"I show others I care by Helping them with what they need" (She used the following picture to show that-see how she is "helping" her brother withwhat he needs?!)

"I am a star because I play with my brothers and sister." (She used the following pic, and the pic after that was her backup one that wouldn't fit ont he poster.)

Three super cool facts about me are:

"I am the oldest of 4 kids with cool names" (Used the next pic)

"I have lived in 3 states" (She used the next pic but colored in the 3 states)
"I keep my own journal." (Used this pic of her journal)

Here is another super-cool fact she wanted to use, but it did not fit. "I have an uncle that is only 11-yr-old, and he is closer to my age than to any of his sisters' ages." (see next pic of Spence)

Here are a few of my Favorite things!

Color: pink

Animal: lion

Food: eggs

Book: Falling for Repunzel by Leah Wilcox

Sport: soccer and basketball

Thing to do in school: go to centers

Thing to do at home: play with my brothers

My first week of Kindergarten

Hi everybody!! This is Solace. I wanted to tell you about the first week of Kindergarten. I used this picture because it was my favorite one from the first day. I love my teacher named Mrs AD (that's what we are going to call her on the blog). In school we do lots of things, I think I cannot name all of them. I have fun, but I help others so I don't get bored. I get bored of all the things I know but I have fun anyway. I love eating at school!!! I mostly eat salad but sometimes I eat the other stuff. I tried waffles on Friday and pizza today. I have some friends but I have a hard time remembering their names. I love them and they are really nice. In Gym class I got to play with a ball. Recess is good. I love to play with a girl in my class. I learned to swing my legs and swing without getting pushed. What did you love about kindergarten? Tell me what you loved!

Love,
Solace

KINDERGARTEN!!!!!

Oh yeah-today was the big day! We now officially have a child in the public school system. Ahhhh...actually, it was not as bad as I feared, and I think she is going to have a great day and LOVE school! I cannot wait for her to come home and tell me all about it! Here are a few (hundred) pictures of our day so far, but first a quick explanation. She will be riding the bus to and from school, but today I wanted to drive her and get her settled in and everything. However, last night Wes mentioned, in front of Solace, that he had talked to our neighbor and her plan was to get her kids on the bus, let them ride it over, meet them there and then help them get settled. So, Solace loved that idea and begged me to do that. I thought it was a pretty good plan (then I can see what she does when she gets off the bus and make sure she knows where to go). That is what we did today (though I am picking her up today-we will do the WHOLE bus thing tomorrow!) Without further ado, here is my kindergartner on her first day, this morning:

She came in my bed at 6:30 (her biggest fear about school was that her mom would not wake up early enough to get her to school-not a bad thing to worry about when her mom is up all night with her baby sister-she solved the problem by coming in early!!) This is her holding Kindle while I get her breakfast ready-she ate cereal breakfast in bed this morning. Note the curlers in her hair-she insisted she start the year with curly hair-it never holds, and was almost gone by the time I left the school, but what can you do?! Brushing her teeth (please ignore messy bathroom...)
Outside the house before going to the bus stop
Yes, she posed herself-the hand under chin thing was a must for her.
Wahoo-finally time for school!!!
YESSSS, let's go!!!
A is yelling wahoo in this one!!
At the bus stop with her friends (our neighbors down the street)

Getting on the bus

Looking back at mom

At the school finally!


Showing E the way to her class.

At her backpack place
In her seat at her table-only one other girl was at her table-there are many more boys that girls it appeared...
E took this pic of mom and S. Aren't we cute?!
Mom misses Solace already, but I did ok dropping her off-no tears! Amazing, I know! She was a bit hesitant to get on the bus initially and turned back for reassurance. As the bus drove off, she waved out the window, looking a bit nervous still, but by the time I met the bus at school, all that had disappeared. She was excited, comfortable and ready to get this party started! I had her lead us to her classroom to make sure she remembered where to go. She confidently took Ender by the hand and led the way (I followed with the other kids in the double stroller). She easily remembered everything from Back to School night on Monday, and walked straight to her hook, put her bag on it, and walked into her classroom and straight to her seat. When she got there she did not have her crayons to color her paper so she went to look in her cubby. When it was not there, she asked her teacher, and the teacher showed her where she had put them. She was happily coloring at her table when I left. I am totally psyched to hear ALL about it when we pick her up today-thank goodness it is a short day so I only have to wait a couple more hours!