first day 2011

Delaney - 4th grade

Jillian - 3rd grade

Sisters -- and friends!!!

From the last day of school to the first day!!! I was not very good about keeping up with the blog this summer . . . let's face it, I just didn't blog at all! We were way too busy having fun to worry about posting on the blog. Maybe I'll put together a little slide show of our summer highlights to share with my many (ha) readers! For now, here are a few photos of the first day of school for Delaney and Jillian. Elliott has one more day of summer before heading off to his 2nd year of preschool tomorrow.

elliott

Preschool . . . stories, play, crafts, snacks, turn-taking, friend-making, sharing, field-trips and first bus rides. Elliott had been looking forward to going to school -- afterall, he'd had to watch his sisters head off on the bus while he was stuck at home with me! His favorites this year were crafts and snacks. The second surprises me because he often told me what snack was followed quickly by why he didn't eat it! Elliott was always excited to go to preschool and share what he'd done over the weekend or at home with his teachers. He is a talker, just like his sisters. And with their influence has a love for books and is learning to do math and tell time already!

Elliott is in the 2nd row - 2nd from end. Aren't they COOL!

best friends!

Last day of preschool - June 2011

First day of preschool - Sept. 2010

jillian

The adorable Miss Jillian . . . what can I say about 2nd grade??? She also had a rockstar teacher that challenged and encouraged her! It was a wonderful year - she managed to get a perfect score on each spelling test this year! They wrote in a book titled "The Month to Month Me." Here are some highlights:


October - If I could have an hour a day at school to study anything I wanted, I would choose: to work on my Harper and Bailey series. (There are atleast 8 stories so far!)

November - 5 things I really LIKE are: my family, dance, piano, blueberries, friends.
5 things I really DISLIKE are: tomatoes, tornadoes, waking up early, bullies, robbers.


January was all about family - Things I enjoy doing with:
Mom - cuddling with her.
Dad - playing cat and mouse and superheroes with him!
Brother & Sister - playing hide-and-seek, doing puzzles, and playing outside with them.


February - all about friends
I think it is important for a friend to be: nice and stand up for people.
My friends think I am - very creative and nice.


April - I have thought about the following occupation: being a vet because I am good at taking care of animals.


Jillian is my sweet, snuggly, always-puts-others-first girl! So proud to be her mama!

Last day of 2nd grade

delaney

A little behind with the first & last photos of the school year. I'll start with Delaney, since I'm just getting through her bag of papers and 'stuff' she brought home at the end of the year. It's so much fun to look back through their writings and drawings to see how much they've progressed and grown during the school year. Delaney has spread her wings this year - becoming much more independent and self-assured. She's got a great group of friends and enjoys school so much. She was blessed with a fantastic teacher this year, who really saw Delaney's strengths and encouraged her to set goals and pushed her to reach them. One of their projects was to write a poetry book - Delaney's was titled "Alphabet Soup" and contained several styles of poems. As in any book, the last page is "All About the Amazing Author" and I want to share that with you. It gives a glimpse into who Delaney is becoming and thoughts about herself . . .


I wish - I could have a hamster.
I love - my puppy Harper.
I dream - of writing chapter books.
I am - kinda small.
I use to - be weak.
Now I - am sorta tough.
I always - love to read.
I never - break a promise.
In 3rd grade I - became an author.
When I am 30, I - will get my own puppy.


I love that she wants to be a writer and considers herself an author at age 9. She has so many stories written already and we are working on publishing one in a hardcover format. And she is sorta tough now in so many ways! So proud of my spunky, thoughtful, dreamer!!!

Last day of 3rd grade!

1st day of 3rd grade

Soccer Boy

Elliott has been waiting for his turn to play soccer -- watching both of his sisters for the last few years has been torture! Finally, his time has arrived and he takes that soccer field with a confidence and enthusiasm that has been building after watching from the sidelines. It's ON!!!

Showing off his soccer muscles before his first game!

Earning his trip to Dairy Queen with all the saves he made -- not a single ball got passed him!!!

Even with moves like below. ;)

Elliott likes to be wherever the ball is -- he's even scored at every game so far!

Couldn't resist sharing this one as well, one of my new favorite photos. Elliott calls those 'Wishmaker Flowers'.

Easter & 1st Communion

The Son was shining yesterday as our family celebrated Easter morning! The girls were so quiet when they woke up -- they found their baskets and eggs before I even knew they were up! Elliott slept in and had his own Easter hunt. After enjoying a family breakfast with Grandpa Fred and Grandma Charlene, we rejoiced with our church family at Spirit of Joy. Jillian took part in her First Communion! Prior to this event, we discussed whether she'd be taking the wine or grape juice. Little did we know, there would be no need for this debate as the individual cups were gone and all that was left was the Common Cup. She's a quick learner and her first communion was done by intinction. So proud of our little girl - growing way too quickly!!!

Ready for spring!

I know I'm not alone when I say that I am READY FOR SPRING! Our household has had quite enough these last 4-5 weeks. Without going into all the details, our kids have been through so much. Jillian has been sick 3 different times since the last week of January, missing 2 days of school one week, one day the next week, and most recently missed the entire week. Last week, she had a fever for an entire week (Sat - Sat) and YES, I brought her to the clinic -- TWICE! Finally, she's back in school this week and we're hoping it's the last of it for her. Delaney and Elliott have each been sick on two separate occasions, ending when Delaney had influenza B and Elliott was treated for an ear infection. Ugh. It's certainly a good thing I'm a stay at home mom because I would surely have been fired from any job, as I was home with a sick kid for three weeks straight. And just when we thought we'd made it through this terrible month, I found lice (shudder, shiver, cringe) on Saturday morning in one girl's hair. Maybe she just wanted equal time with me! After all the treatment, laundry, vacuuming, bagging of stuffed animal, etc. I felt good about getting through that issue as well. Until I woke up the next morning with a terrible headache that progressed to a migraine putting me out of commission for the entire day. It's really, really, really enough already. Bring on Spring!!!

Go back a few weeks to when the weather was gorgeous and the snow was melting. Jillian (on a rare day she wasn't sick) and I took the dogs for a walk. Actually, that was a day Elliott and Delaney were both sick. Anyway . . . the pups had a ball splashing in puddles and racing around in the fresh air. Until we got home and they both needed a bath because they were full of dirt and grime! It was decided then that Harper would need a spring haircut because I would not be giving her 3 baths a day!!! As cute as she was with all her shiny hair, she's quite adorable now! Even if she is embarrassed by it and currently hiding in shame in her kennel.

This is 'everyday' Harper. She had her cuter moments when I would spend the time brushing her and putting a pony tail or bows in to keep the hair out of her eyes. But that is just too much to do on a daily basis with three kids! So she was a ragamuffin most of the time. And she's a terrible wiggler, so trimming up that hair between her eyes is completely out of the question. That's why there are dog groomers!!!

Still cute, even though her coloring underneath is totally different than when she was a pup. She's now white and apricot with only the dark on the tips of her ears and one side of her 'mustache.' And I no longer have to spend 1/2 an hour every night brushing out her coat!

rambling thoughts

Just found this draft of a post I wrote way back last February! I'm posting it as is . . . thanks for the memories Grandma Marie! For some reason, I can't copy and paste this into a new post . . . and it's posting with the date I first wrote it, which, like I said, was last February. So click on this link if you want to read it!

"4"

It's hard to believe, but our 'little man' is now 4 years old! For the 2nd year in a row, Elliott chose to celebrate his birthday with bowling! And once again, we shared the party with his good friend Emmerson who's birthday is just one day before Elliott's. They are in the same preschool class and her mom and I are very close friends, so this works great for us! I managed to wrangle the group of preschoolers after we got them into their super-cool bowling shoes and before we started knocking down pins! Aren't they adorable???

(back row) Emmerson, Ava & Liam (front row) Ashlyn, Cambelle, Elliott & Aphia

FOUR YEAR OLDS!

Aphia - her giggle made me smile through all the chaos!

Ashlyn - it was her 1st time bowling!

Liam - this kid was a pro. He has me lining up the ramp for the perfect shot!

Cambelle - check out that grin. We were guaranteed fun with her around!

One night after dinner, I found Delaney in her room doing this . . .

I asked what she was doing, and she explained that they were working on essays in school and she was just "writing down her thoughts." She had borrowed books from a neighbor girl and was preparing for her assignment. This struck me for some reason. She's growing up! All of her homework to this point has been reading time or math worksheets - never taking notes from sources to write a paper! I believe Delaney was just so excited to have another opportunity for writing that she couldn't wait until school to get started! I couldn't resist grabbing my camera to document this step in her education.

Recital

Jillian and Delaney took part in their very first piano recital. We were so proud of each of them as the worked to perfect their Christmas songs for this event. Delaney played "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and Jillian performed "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".