Summer Adventures

       We did lots of fun stuff last month to celebrate the last month of summer. It seems so strange that now I have to worry about when Brynlee has school and all that. The carefree days of having nothing to do were coming for an end so we did lots of fun things while we could. I didn't want my August post to be super long so I am going to write about our trip to Roaring Springs and our trip to the Zoo.

       My friends Rhonda has a season pass to the water park (Roaring Springs) and she can get one person in for free so she offered to take me and the girls. We planned to go earlier in the summer but bad weather prevented us from going. I wanted to find someone to watch Kyla so we wouldn't have to take her but my mom had to start working soon. My sister Alesha came home for a few weeks so I thought, why don't we bring her with us and then we could take Kyla and have one adult per child. Brian and Heather moved back from New York earlier that week so we ended up telling them about it and they decided to come so then I figured we should invited everyone and my sister Heather brought her little guy Jakobee. We had a blast. Rhonda let me use her locker to put my stuff in. We spent most of the time in the kiddy pool. Annalyn kept calling it the "Kitty cat pool." She wasn't tall enough for any of the big rides but Brynlee went on several of them. Brynlee went on a ride with Rhonda and Alesha and she went on one with Brian and his wife Heather. They had some little rides in the kiddy pool area and Brynlee and Annalyn rode on those several times.

       I went on one of those rides with Annalyn and it was pretty fun. Kyla was content to just stay at the edge of the pool where the water was really shallow. I took Rhonda with me to Wal Mart and we bought dinner for everyone. Then we went back for another hour of swimming fun. We really did have a blast. It was pretty crowded since we went when it was half price admission but it didn't seem that bad. The lines for the rides were long but the kiddy pool was not crowded. They have this lazy river that we all spent some time in but Kyla was terrified of the tubes and they wouldn't let me hold her on my lap in the tube. I just ended up walking around while I held her and pushed Brynlee and Annalyn in a tube. It was still fun. Brynlee and Annalyn have been begging to go there again.

       Towards the end of the month we decided to take a trip to the Zoo. We haven't been in a while, not since before Kyla was born so this was her first trip to the Zoo. My mom and my grandma came with Ryder and Brian's wife Heather came too. We had a blast. We got there right when the zoo opened and we almost had the Zoo to ourselves for a while. It started to get crowded right when we were ready to leave. My girls loved seeing all of the animals. Annalyn loves animals so much. She said her favorite animals were the zebra, giraffe, butterflies, and the frogs. Brynlee said her favorite things were the bats, goats, and hyenas. I didn't even see a hyena but she insisted they were there.  Kyla loved pretty much everything. She kept pointing and staring at all of the animals while she babbled excitedly. They all had a blast at the zoo. She was content to sit in her stroller most of the time but there were a few times when she whined to get out so she could get a closer look at the animals. We made sure to see all of the animals and we enjoyed looking at all of them.

     While we were in the butterfly exhibit the girls had a blast looking at all of the butterflies, Then Brynlee and Ryder looked down and found a dead butterfly. Brynlee ran and found someone who worked at the zoo and told him that there was a butterfly with a broken wing. The guy looked at it and removed the butterfly. He then thanked Brynlee and Ryder for letting him know about the butterfly. Brynlee looked at Ryder and said, "We are heroes Ryder. We are really heroes." They found another dead butterfly before we left.

       I sure do love doing all of these fun and exciting things with my family. I wish Joel could have came with us, maybe next year. The girls have been working hard by doing their chores all Summer so they could earn money and do these fun things. I am glad we got to go. I sure do enjoy watching them see and discover new things. 

Kindergarten

       Brynlee survived her first day of school. She has been so excited about school for months and couldn't wait to go. One day I tried to convince her to stay home with me but she just looked at me and said, "It's okay mom, you are going to be fine. Anna and Kyla will be home with you." She was so ready to go. She really didn't have any friends in her class at school, there is only one boy in her class that she knows but she wasn't worried at all. "That's alright, I will just make new friends" she told me. So I was a little surprised when she woke up the morning of her first day or school and she was staring to get a little nervous. She complained of a tummy ache and debated staying home.

      Brynlee insisted on making her own sign to take a picture with on the first day of school. She even taped sticks on the back so that she could hold her sign with ease. She couldn't wait to take that picture. But when it was finally time to take the picture, she did not want any part of it. She stormed off yelling, "I hate dumb school." I went and picked her up and asked her if she was nervous. She started crying and I just picked her up, hugged her tight, and told her how great she would do. Joel gave her a blessing the night before and we talked about that and I told her we would say a prayer in the car. I got a little emotional too. I can't believe my little girl is old enough for school and it seems so daunting to send her off on her own with all those big kids. She felt better once I talked to her and she got in the car and told me she would take a picture after school.

       As soon as we got to school Brynlee seemed fine. We walked to her classroom and her teacher, Mrs. Hubbard, said hi. She even remembered Brynlee's name from "meet the teacher night." Mrs. Hubbard told Brynlee that her friend Josie, who is in first grade, was looking for her the other day. Brynlee got a huge grin on her face, told her teacher she wanted to go play and to tell Josie she would be at the playground if she saw her. Then she waved to me and was off. We still walked her to the playground. She let me take her picture while we were walking to the playground. It was not a cold morning but Brynlee insisted on wearing pants and a jacket. Brynlee found Josie right away on the playground. Josie hugged Anna and Brynlee and then Brynlee and Josie held hands and skipped off to go play. I was really glad to leave her in a happy mood.

       Anna, Kyla, and I spent the day helping my grandma can pears. It was kind of sad to drive off and leave my little girl but I was confident that she would be fine. I am glad I kept busy or I would have missed her a lot more. I know Anna missed her. She missed having someone to play with her. I stopped and pushed her on the swing for a little bit and then it was finally time to go get Brynlee. Brynlee jumped in the van, and grouched at me that she was sooo hungry. I didn't pack her any good food in her lunch box. "There were no cupcakes or brownies and only one cookie" she grouched. I could tell she had a long and tiring day. We drove home and I got her a snack and she said she had a good day but that her school had too many rules. She protested again but I finally convinced her to let me take her picture. Annalyn let me take a picture with her sign that morning. Of course Annalyn needed a sing complete with sticks just like her big sister. Then I let Brynlee relax on the couch and watch a movie. During dinner she finally told me all about her day. It sounds like she really did have a great day and she couldn't wait to go again. She learned this song that says "Kiss your Brain," and she sang it all night. She couldn't remember anyones names but she sat by and talked to several different "friends," and she played with her friends that are in first grade during recess.

       Brynlee got to spend the next day home with us since she goes to school all day, every other day. This morning I sent Brynlee off to school on the school bus. The girls and I all waited for the bus with her. Brynlee was pretty excited about riding the bus. She is one of the first kids picked up, the bus comes at 6:59 am, and she will be one of the last ones dropped off so It will be a long ride. The good news is that her friend Athena is picked up and dropped off right before her so I watched her climb on the bus and sit next to her friend. My cousin Ryder also rides on her bus so she should do just fine. I can't believe how much she is growing up. This is a lot of new things for her and I am pretty proud of how well she has handled everything. She is one pretty great kid. Now Annalyn and Kyla and I will get lots more time to spend together. Before Brynlee went to school I asked Anna what we should do when Brylee was at school and Anna said, "play Candy Land." Brynlee had a better idea for us. "I know, how about if you make cookies and then when I come home from school, I can eat them." Haha. So maybe we will make cookies today. I just can't wait for Brynlee to come home again. The bus should drop her off around 3:45 this afternoon and we will all be outside waiting for her.

Preschool Adventures

     Miss Brynlee is officially done with preschool and ready to start Kindergarten. It starts next week. I sure enjoyed doing preschool with her and I wanted to document some of the things she learned and did. Annalyn loved preschool too. I have been debating for a while if I want to do a preschool with her this year or not. Especially since we will be moving soon.

     I started doing preschool with Brynlee in January 2014 when she was just 3(1/2). Annalyn was not quite two so I had some of Brynlee's friends come over during her nap time. She would usually wake up in time for snack and she sometimes did the craft with us. Once she turned two, she usually skipped her nap so she could hang out with the big kids. Here is a picture of my girls on the first day we did preschool that year and on the last day we did it in May.

     The first year we did preschool there were my girls and two boys and three (four at the end of the year) little girls from church that came over to our house for 2 hours and fifteen minutes every Tuesday. The kids traced and wrote their name, answered a yes or no question, played in centers, and then we had circle time where we did the pledge, sang the ABC's, read a book, sang a song and danced, and then we had a lesson and did an activity that went along with the book we read. Snack time was last and if there was extra time we would go outside or play a game in the house.

     I took a picture of some of the projects that we did during preschool because I decided I couldn't save everything. A lot of the stuff I already threw away. I wish I had saved more things. We talked about names one day and glued colorful rice to our names. We read the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" and made caterpillars where the kids had to have eight body parts and glue the proper number of marshmallows on each circle. For the rainbow art the kids had fun mixing colors to make new colors and they had to learn the proper order of the rainbow. We made bear masks and painted them one day, made butterflies, and a mother's day card.    

     Here are some of the projects Annalyn did. She had to have a lot of help with her projects. Sometimes I would let her do it when the other kids left so I could help her more. Below you can see the snowman picture she made where we talked about shapes and painted with shaving cream and glue to make snow paint, we talked about our bodies and had a relay race around our house where we practiced jumping, skipping, and following a leader and then we cut out clothes and glued them on our person. The kids were supposed to color hair and a face to their body. We talked about making music another day and made kazoos. 

     During that year we had a Valentine's party and an Easter party complete with an egg hunt for the holidays. We practiced sorting and making patterns and made a froot loop necklace and a lego tower or patterns. It was a fun year. There were several kids who really struggled with cutting that year so I tried to give them several simple things to cut. I didn't save very many of the cutting projects. The kids all liked to baby Annalyn when she came and they were constantly trying to hold her. The all played well together. Brynlee was constantly my hardest student. She cried and threw a fit every single time she didn't get her way, when she didn't get to sit by the friends she wanted, and when she didn't get to do a job she wanted to do. Here are some group pictures of all of the kids. In the first picture Brynlee is pouting and refused to be in the picture because she didn't get to sit by the person she wanted to sit by.

     Brynlee did much better during her second year of preschool. She was four this year, Anna was two, and Kyla was just a few months old. Kyla slept through almost all of the preschool lessons. Annalyn was usually the most difficult child. She wanted to sit on my lap when I read the story and would whine when she didn't get her way. We started out with two other kids that came last year and my three kids. Then one of the other moms started doing preschool at her house and we invited two other kids that were both a little bit younger than Brynlee to join us. Lizzie, the little girl ended up moving so she only came for a few month. On most days this is the group that would come. These kids has a lot of fun together. The boys didn't like doing the learning part so it was a challenge to get them to do the things I had planned but I always managed to get them to participate and they usually had fun once they did the activity. I taught the group every Tuesday and Katianna's mom taught on Thursday. The kids did get in a few fights an disagreements and most of them revolved around arguing over who was going to marry whom.

     Just with my girls we made a crayon drip picture and went on a nature treasure hunt. With the preschool group We read "The Napping House" book and did a little worksheet that went with it and did a worksheet where the kids had to cut out their names and glue them in the right order. We learned about bats one day and on Earth day we went on a nature hunt and glued things on the word Earth. We made shamrock hats for St. Patrick's Day. 

     We made shape necklaces and a shape hat, a Halloween witch hat and a soldier for Veteran's day. We painted Easter eggs and learned about bear that hibernate. We also made an alphabet tree. Some of the other projects were done at Katianna's house. My girls made the giant ornament with my mom.          One day I set up the tent and made a giant fishing pond full of paper fish that the kids had to catch. They had to catch 5 fish, one of each number and then we glued them in order and we painted them. They had lots of fun with that. We also made snowmen with everyones names on them and pained with more snow paint. For New Years we made those faces with the party hat and everyone had to write down their goal. Brynlee's goal was to go swimming and Anna's was to ride a horsey and a baby bear. 

     We sure did have a lot of fun doing preschool these last two years. We also made bouncy balls one day and we finished the year with a pajama movie party filled with popcorn and the kids helped me make pancakes for lunch. I don't think I am going to do it once a week with Anna but I would like to do it at least once a month. I am not sure what we will do when Brynlee is at school all day. Here they are showing off the graduation hats we made and the preschool books we made.