School Life in the First Grade

Not much to report, just wanted to share some recent pictures of Addy. Her class recently had a mustache "All Grown Up" day as a reward for filling up their class reward marble jar. Wes had planned that she would wear one of his ties for the day, but worked late the night before as well as early the next morning so we forgot all about it. Thankfully her teacher came to the rescue and had brought a handful of her husband's ties for the kids to share wearing for the day. She didn't like that her fluffy mustache kept getting up her nose causing it to itch all day. Today they are enjoying several Johnny Appleseed themed activities. Wes went in to work a little late so that he could hang out in her classroom for a bit and help cut up enough apples for crock pot applesauce and for various apple themed activities such as graphing that they will be doing throughout the day. She was so proud to have her Dad be there in her class for a bit. Here she is sketching a picture in her writing journal about the Johnny Appleseed story that they finished reading. I'm thinking that life in the first grade looks like a lot of fun!

Grandparent's Day

Grandparent's Day or Grand "friends" day is a huge deal at the girls school and they look forward to seeing their grandparent's show up for a short performance and a visit to their classroom. They both had lots of art work displayed and writing assignments to show off.

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On Sunday we spent a couple of hours enjoying the festivities of Cider Days! At first they were excited to see their Grandparents, but when they had one of their cousins with them they all of sudden took a backseat to her. :) While none of the adults had any of the popular cider, we did indulge in some Red Apple Lager by Coors (sorry Jared) and it was AWESOME! And the kettle corn popcorn was also a huge hit with the kids. Levi couldn't get enough of it! The kids were easily entertained by the art activity booths and made several pieces to display on the fridge at home.












Addy's self chalk portrait...I'm pretty sure she has a lot less teeth than what she drew in that smile!


Papa quickly became Levi's buddy once he got in the line for kettle corn popcorn. Levi wanted to help pay, but wanted Papa's money to do it. :)





I love this time of year!!

Mid Month Update

OMG! Is it really mid September? I swear these week days since school has started seem to go by so fast and before I know it I am at the weekend. Well Addy, has had a huge week losing 3 teeth and her "tooth fairy" Dad has had to be at the top of his game. He's so far three for three in delivering the much anticipated moolah that is placed under the pillow. Two of them were close calls, but he pulled it off. Even this morning he was able to slide a handful of dimes totaling $1 under her pillow before waking her for school. The latest tooth to come out needed some persuasion from Nana promising a big fat $5 if she pulled it that night. Thankfully, that did the trick as it has been hanging sideways in her mouth all week. But that was only after she counted out her entire piggy bank only to realize that without the $5 she wouldn't have enough money to buy the Lalaloopsy doll she has been saving for. Her teacher had a good sense of humor about it as well telling me that it was a good week to lose them all since they were working on the "Th" sound. :)

Holding up her school picture with all her baby teeth.

Addy is wearing this witch costume for Halloween and her smile fits the part perfectly!

Three teeth lost within a week!
Addy also had a fabulous week at gymnastics getting to ring the bell 2x. She got her back kickover and back walkover in the same night. So she now gets to skip an entire level and join Jaidyn's class. Yea Addy! And Jaidyn got her round-off back handspring on the floor. She is just loving gymnastics since she is really starting to be a good tumbler.

Jaidyn's class earned a costume day as a reward and she chose to dress as a groovy hippie.


Telling me "peace out" as I dropped her off at school.

Class costume picture.

Last Friday I was the "mystery reader" in Jaidyn's class as the kids don't know who is coming until they walk in the door. I read Memoir's of a Goldfish. It's a really cute book, and I left Goldfish crackers for the class to enjoy for an afternoon snack!



Reid had a rough day as he face planted the parking lot on one of our errands. Luckily, Wes's office was close by so we were able to get him cleaned up as he had blood everywhere. Poor guy!

Reid is also becoming very independent and has decided he no longer needs his high chair and feels that he should be sitting on the high stool chairs at the table.


Yep, these two are ALWAYS in to something and have discovered a new hiding place.



I got a wild hair and with Levi's help baked two batches of muffins and a pan of brownies. When the girls got home from school and realized that there was brownies and then muffins for breakfast the next day, I pretty much earned the "Mom of the Year" award. Yes, sadly it is a real treat when I bake as it almost NEVER happens. Reid got his own muffin pan and included himself in the festivity.


Last weekend we got a glimpse of fall temperatures and enjoyed an entire day at the Wickman's Fall Festival and Mother's Brewery Oktoberfest.















Another busy week ahead! Just off the top of my head...Levi's first soccer game of the season, Parish Picnic, Cider Days (if we can fit it in) Jaidyn's volleyball, Jaidyn and Addy's gymnastics, Addy has "All Grown Up" Mustache day at school and Grandparent's Day at school. Lots of pictures to come again next week!

We've got some Soaring Kids at our house!

Each month at school, the teacher picks a student out of their class to be the Soaring Student for the month and they are recognized in an assembly. And for the very first month of August, not one, but both Jaidyn and Addy were chosen as the Soaring Student in their class. We are so proud of both of them. Jaidyn knew over the weekend as her teacher announced it in the Friday newsletter she sends home, but Addy's teacher kept it a surprise and we only knew because she sent us an email inviting us to the assembly.






Here are some pics of our last trip to the lake for the summer.




We've been taking Ray along with us to the lake all summer as he seems to enjoy being there and the steps around the lake house give him much needed exercise. His atrocious gas however, was not so enjoyable on the drive there...

Addy wrote this as part of her school journal writing..."One day I went on the boat and I saw the boat races!"

Outside playing in the rain! The two days of rain that we received as the reminisce of Hurricane Issac pushed through the Ozarks was a huge blessing. Our yard was so ugly, dusty and we had crunchy brown grass beneath our bare feet from the lack of rain for so many weeks. The kids took advantage of the light rain showers and played for hours outside in it. Wes and I watched the kids play while sitting in the garage and watching our vehicles receive a red neck car wash.







Reid has found and taken a liking to the pink cowgirl boots in the girls dress-up clothes! They are several sizes too big, but it hasn't stopped him from stomping around in them.

Afternoon painting! They both spent a good hour painting, but I'm not sure any "Mona Lisa" masterpieces were created...




On Saturday, Wes must have felt extremely motivated or something...he fixed both lunch and dinner for the day! I'm not complaining as I enjoyed the break!

We took advantage of the extended holiday weekend and spent Labor Day, laboring! We gave some much needed attention to our deck. Wes was out staining each of the spindles as soon as it was light enough to see outside and I joined him for several hours as soon as I got the kids dressed and bellies full from breakfast. After a good six hours of work, it seems that only a dent was made in the task, but hopefully now that the spindles are done, the rest will be much less time consuming. Our deck was in dire need of some attention, so hopefully when we are finished we will be able to actually use it on some of these upcoming nice fall nights.