Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Report Card and Other Things

Today was our first parent/teacher conference for Kennedy this year. She's doing great, and her teacher had nothing but wonderful things to say about her. We are very proud of how well she is doing, and how much she is adjusting socially. We were so worried about her shyness, but she seems to be breaking out of her shell more and more each week! She also got her first report card and got all M's and +'s. I know what you're thinking--what the heck does that mean? Basically it's the best "grades" she could get. Her P.E./Art/Music teachers use M's and her main teacher uses +'s. She got to eat dinner on the "special plate" tonight in honor of her awesome report card.

We are excited for Halloween this weekend. There's no school this Friday, or the following Monday, so we have a nice long weekend with not much to do. We trunk or treated this past Sunday as the Scooby Doo crew, and had a lot of fun, and are ready for even more fun this Sunday! Here's a picture of us from that night: Velma, Shaggy, Daphne, and Fred!
And finally, one last picture for you. Jeremy took this of Ansley the other night. The girls were taking a bath and he asked Ansley if she was ready to get out. This was her response. I'll let you be the judge as to what it meant!


Thursday, October 14, 2010

Field Trip!





I had the pleasure of joining Kennedy and her class to a pumpkin patch this week for a field trip. We had a lot of fun and I was so glad to get to go with her and finally meet some of the kids in her class. I love the fact that kindergartners are still so young and eager to meet each other's parents. I think Kennedy got a little jealous at times when I was holding hands with two other students and not her! I also love that kids that age do not see a person's skin color, size, gender, etc. They all just love to play together regardless of what they look like. I know that will probably change for some of them sooner than later, if nothing more than girls not wanting to play with boys (which of course that will again change again a few years later!)

Tonight Kennedy starts Girl Scouts. She will be a Daisy Scout--keep that in mind when you are craving Girl Scout Cookies in a few months! :) Although I am not one of the leaders, I am helping out and going to the meeting with her tonight. After that, one of her friends from school is coming home with us until her parents get off work. They live right up the street from us, and the really crazy part is that her mom also grew up in East Peoria! In fact this little girl's uncle was in the same graduating class as my sister Stacy! It is such a small world!

These next few weeks are crazy busy with Halloween festivities, parent-teacher conferences, a bridal shower for Jeremy's sister, Jeremy's mom coming to town, a book fair at school that I am working, and more! I'm afraid though that the word "busy" may just become a normal part of our lives until Christmas is over! We have a few down weeks in November, but the closer we get to December, the closer we are getting to becoming a family of five! Yesterday Ansley asked me "Mommy, when is that baby Ian coming out of your belly anyways?" Not that she understands weeks, but probably in the next 8-9 weeks!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Future Artists?

Jeremy and I are not the most artistic people in the world. However, somehow we have two little girls that love to draw and color. Kennedy has been impressing us lately with her coloring and drawing. She does really well, stays in the lines, and is getting more creative with her drawings. Ansley, on the other hand, usually just scribbles. However, yesterday during church she was coloring a picture and it was the first time she has been deliberately trying to color certain things certain colors. I was way impressed with her skills, especially with her only being 2 (okay--and a half). She finally got bored and started scribbling with yellow, but for a good 15-20 minutes she was focused on coloring each little thing. Here's her picture:
Yesterday afternoon, Kennedy came up with this picture. It's an alien, in case you were wondering, and she tried her best to glue on the red pipecleaner/antennas, but it just wasn't working, so she decided to go with masking tape. After she finished, she was putting it over her face saying it was a mask, and she mentioned she could hardly control herself with it--whatever that means!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Dora the Explorer

Ansley has never been super interested in the TV. However, there is one show that she loves that I let her watch each morning...Dora the Explorer. This picture shows where you can find my sweet child each morning while eating her breakfast. Notice she is totally focused on the TV. I have never seen a child so focused and engaged in a television show before. If you've never watched Dora before (consider yourself lucky), Dora asks a series of questions throughout the show, and Ansley answers every single one and does every single thing Dora asks her to do, as if Dora can see her doing it. It's quite funny. However, I give complete credit to Dora for teaching Ansley the shapes and some Spanish words. I have certainly never worked on those things with Ansley, yet she can show you a triangle, circle, square, and rectangle with no problem! In fact, as I'm typing this, she is yelling "Para!" which means "Stop!" in order to help Dora out. It's quite humorous!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Fashion Statement


Thanks to a trendy, accessorizing, shoe-loving Nana (Jeremy's mom) our girls will always stay somewhat in fashion. Check out this super cute outfit Kennedy sported today (Thanks Cheryl!)
Our only problem was her beloved "ruby red slippers" no longer fit (she asked me to add those to her Christmas list), and she had to settle for black sparkly shoes instead. Unfortunately, she has no black socks, so she is sporting a Michael Jackson look today with black leggings, black shoes, and crisp white socks. Oh well, it doesn't bother her!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Conversation of the Night

Here's a glimpse of how silly our little Ansley is. This conversation took place tonight before bedtime: (Keep in mind Jeremy is standing within arms reach of Ansley during this entire conversation)

Jeremy: "Ansley get in bed."
Ansley: "What did you say Daddy?"
Jeremy: "I said, Ansley get in bed!"
Ansley: "What did you say Daddy?"
Jeremy: "Ansley get in bed!"
Ansley: "What did you say???"
Jeremy: "Ansley! I said get in bed!"
Ansley: "Oh!!!! You did say that, didn't you?" (and finally she climbs into bed with a big grin on her face)

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Grant's Farm

Kennedy had her first day off of school this past Friday, so we told her she could pick out what we should do together as a family on that day. She chose Grant's Farm, which was a perfect choice, given the awesome weather we had that day. We invited our friends the Teigen's to come along and we had a great time. It's another one of the great places in St. Louis that is free, and lots of fun!

Our family with a Clydesdale
Our favorite picture taking spot at Grant's Farm!
The girls doing their best scary faces!
Watching an animal show!
Feeding the very feisty goats a bottle.