Willow's Class Christmas Party

I got to be a part of Willow's class Christmas party!

After her party was over, I went and picked up some lunch for Jayden and Willow and I, then came back to the school to grab Willow from class and eat lunch in the hallway with Jayden.  He showed us his red tail hawk statue he made!

Muffins with Mommy

This last week I got to go to Willows kindergarten class for Muffins with Mommy!  Willow made me a special book that said I was 10 years old (I'm doing so much better than being 80 years old during pre-k!) and it said I weighed 70lbs! (I totally do!).  We read books together and ate muffins.

Then we moved onto the luxury station where Willow made me some bath salts and gave me a hand and arm massage from 3 very different, all very smelly, lotions.  The massage was lovely, the flowery smell that emanated off of me afterwards, well that was a little headache inducing.  :)

Willow also gave herself a "face massage" with all 3 lotions as well.  :)

Then we moved onto the math station where we sorted, and counted, and added M&M's.  Somehow our numbers were off...a little person kept eating our M&Ms before we were done counting them....

First Day of School :: Willow

Willow started kindergarten today! (Class of 2027!)  She was So. Excited.  She kept telling me she was riding the bus to school, and I kept telling her than on her first day we were going to take her and she could ride the bus home.  I finally got a "fiiiiiiiinnnnnnne" out of her and we headed out the door.  :)
This girl.  She is excited to grow up and do new things.  It's gonna be hard to stop her and I'm just hoping I can keep up.  :)

Once at school, I could hardly get a picture of her looking at me, she was looking all around the room, so I have a bunch of pictures like this.  :)  hahaha

She had a great first day and said she made some new friends and she listened to her teacher and she drank chocolate milk and she got to do art and that I had to do some homework and that she was indeed riding the bus in the morning to school.   :)

And she held my hand all the way down the road, back to our house, which was extra awesome for me.

First Day of School :: Jayden

Jayden started school this Wednesday!  3rd grade!  I can hardly believe it.

He didn't even want me to take him to school on the first day.  He's all, "Nah, I'll just ride the bus."  What the??? 
This helped me feel better about our decision to homeschool him the past 2 years, as he was not ready to "leave" the house.  When we sent him to kindergarten, I had Royal come home from work at lunch because I knew I couldn't carry Willow and pick Jayden up out of the car and "force" him to go into the school.  My child who has been afraid of the world from the very beginning is starting to not be so afraid.  I just love him so.

Willow, left behind again (just for a few days), came home and read a book in the sunlight.  :)  Her 1st day is right around the corner!

Jayden was happy as a clam to get off the bus!  He has a very busy school day.  They only get 1 recess.  1?  Is that even legal?  I swear I had like 3.  Oh well, I suppose he will survive, even if it means we need to run up and down the street for like an hour to burn off some energy.

1 day down!  179 to go!

School's Out for Summer!

Yay!  We made it!!!  School is out!  And Jayden is moving onto 3rd grade and Willow into Kindergarten.  Kindergarten....crazy!  But before that happens we have so much fun stuff to pack into summer first!

We got our annual "pool" for the backyard and both kids had their besties from 2 doors down over to break it in.  Their besties that are sadly moving to TX next month.  We. Are. So. Sad.  Willow keeps telling people we are moving and when they ask where, she says, "Oh, to Texas.  Right next door to Emery"  The only good thing about the timing for their move is once they leave, we leave for WA within the next week to spend a month there, so hopefully the excitement of Washington will help curb the sadness of our friends moving away.

The girls splashed around and behaved normally.

The boys took all their energy from being released from school just 90 minutes earlier and put it into dare-devil stunts of flinging themselves off the swings and into the pool.

Jayden at 100

This, by far, is one of my most favorite things Jayden has brought home from school.  By the looks of it, Jayden is going to be a really cute old man.  :) 

"First, I will be a kind old man.  My grandchildren will learn {what} my life was like. 
Next, I will move where my grandchildren live in Washington. 
Last, I will tell people how we should live and I will {do} that until I die."

Jayden's 1st Day of School

Jayden started back at Wheatland yesterday, and while he was a little ball of nerves in the morning when I dropped him off, it sounded like he had a great day.  I have really been praying for him to get placed in a class with a teacher that he would love, and for a class where one of his friends from his Kindergarten class would recognize him.  Out of 3 different 2nd grade classes, he ended up getting placed in the same class where the one 2nd grader that lives on our street is in.  Not only did this mean he had a friend in his class, it also meant he had someone to show him what bus to get on to get home after school.  God is faithful!
Before school.  "Hey, will you let me take your picture?"  "No."  "Come on!  It's not for me, it's for everybody else who wants to know about your first day"  "Fine."

I met him at the bus stop and he jumps off the bus and yells, "I'm free!!!!" with a big smile on his face.  I fixed him a bowl of popcorn and proceeded to grill him about his day.  :)

Last Day of School

Today was Jayden and I's last day of school together.  For lots of different reasons, we have decided to put Jayden back in traditional school after Christmas.  It is totally bitter-sweet for me, as I would love to keep homeschooling him, and I love the eCademy program, but right now Jayden needs me to just be his mom. 

Jayden finally was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel today and we did a lot of reading and a lot of math and he took his Language Arts Unit Test and his Math Unit Test (we finished up Science and Social Studies right before Thanksgiving) and Jayden is officially on Christmas Break until Jan 2!

Jayden is pretty pumped to be done!

Gymnastics and Ice Skating

We got to do a couple fun things with both kids' schools this week.  On Tuesday, we got to watch Willow at gymnatics.  Part of the curriculum of her Pre-K program is that every Tuesday, they get to go to Wichita Gymnastics and take a gymnastics class.  She's been learning how to do cart wheels, walk on the balance beam, do handstands, swing and flip themselves around on the uneven bars, and lots more.  It was so fun to watch.  With CCAP's photo policy, it was hard to get pictures of Willow without other kids in them too, so I just have a few that I can post.

On Wednesday, Jayden's school had an ice skating party!  Jayden was super excited that his feet were big enough that he had to get hockey skates instead of figure skating skates.  He got right out there and started speeding around the rink.  He actually fell at one point and smacked his face right on the ice and has a super black eye, but he won't let me take a picture of it.  :)  Willow was a little more timid and stuck next to the wall for most of the time.  Willow and timid, I can't believe I'm writing those in the same sentence, but she finally got a little confidence and could let go of the wall and could skate around the rink, even if it took her 30 mins.  I'm not kidding, in the 2 hours we were there, Willow and I made it around the rink a total of 5 times.  :) ha ha ha