Jules Writes Her Name!

Jules wrote her own name for the first time on February 27th.  She was a very, very happy girl and super proud of herself, as she should be!  She just kept writing it over and over again and saying "I did it!" Such a cutie!

Our Panther

Alex received the first Panther Proud awards in his class this year, back in September.  The awards are given out by teachers or other school staff who see a student displaying model behavior.  Mrs. Wieden, Alex's teacher gave him this award.  The awards are then given to the Principal, Ms. Black and she congratulates the student in the lunchroom and then places the certificate in the display case in the lunchroom for the month.  At the end of the month, the students get the certificate and a Super Panther pin.  Alex was quite proud of himself and we were super proud of him too!

Tying His Own Shoes!

Alex has been interested in wearing tie shoes for the past few months, but has only shown interest in learning how to tie them as we are trying to get ready for school, which for obvious reasons, doesn't work.  I had told him that if he wanted to learn, it would be good to practice when we didn't need to actually be somewhere.  On Thursday afternoon, he decided he wanted to practice, so we sat down and I showed him how to tie a couple of times and then he took off and just started tying after a few tries.  He tied his shoes multiple times, making sure that he knew how to double knot as well.  After that, he requested that I make a video of him tying his shoes, so that he could teach his buddy who does not know how to tie his shoes.  I thought it was sweet of him to think of how he could teach someone else.  He then proceeded to run up and down the back yard exclaiming that he could tie his own shoes!  Quite a proud moment.  Above is a video which Google put together.  It is a compilation of stills and video from that night.

Dental Surgery

 In the waiting room, prior to going back.  Last time with the two front baby teeth.

 After drinking some Versed.  Getting kind of noodly.  The assistant was calling him Mr. Noodle.

 After surgery.  Two baby teeth and the extra permanent tooth taken out.  All packed up nicely in green disco ball necklace.

 Showing his pulse oximeter.  Still noodly, as you can see from the posture.

At home about an hour and a half later with his Star Wars pillows, blanket from Great Grandma Grace and his teeth around his neck.  Watched How To Train Your Dragon for the first time.

Alex had a dental surgery on Friday to remove the extra permanent tooth which was above his baby teeth. We have known for a few years that there was an extra tooth up there, thanks to x-rays, but they wanted to wait until it would be closer to the time that the front baby teeth would normally fall out.  His teeth weren't loose, but it was time to take out the extra tooth, so during the surgery they took out the two top front baby teeth and then the extra permanent tooth which was above.  It took less time than they had indicated it would and Alex was a great patient.  He had some Versed, but wasn't really knocked out for the procedure.  He took surprisingly little pain medication afterward.  They had prescribed Tylenol with codeine, but he ended up taking just 1/2 a dose of that and then two of Motrin over the next two days.  After reading the How To Train Your Dragon book series for the past few months, he was able to watch the movie, which he enjoyed.  Quite the trooper we have!

Scrabble

Alex and I played a game of modified Scrabble the other day.  It was fun to teach him a game that I have always loved.  Brought back many memories of playing it at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  As you can see, we are working on spelling, but we accepted phonetic spellings and he got extra points for using letters already on the board.  Working up to playing "real" Scrabble.  Yay!

A Night at the Drive In!

On Saturday night we planned a surprise for the kiddos.  We packed up the car with sleeping blankets, pillows, pajamas, popcorn and some drinks and then stopped off at Zachary's to pick up a pizza.  Where were we going?  To the drive-in movie theatre to see "Frozen".  The kids thought it was pretty cool to be in the back of the car, eating pizza and then snuggling up in sleeping bags to watch the movie on the big screen.  When we were driving outside of the lot where the movies are shown, Alex was commenting that it was really weird that there were such big signs, but no words on them.  Little did he known that those were actually giant screens.  The movie was good and everyone had a fun time.  Definitely worth checking out again.  $15 for the whole family to see a movie and you can bring all of your own food!

Julia's Rat

After we got home last night, Julia was doing some drawing, while I was unpacking.  She proudly came over to me to show me her drawing.  A rat!  

Persistent

This girl is nothing if not persistent.  "Me do."  She very politely will say "no, thank you," the first time you ask her if she would like help and then gets very annoyed with you if you ask again.  She gets frustrated trying to do things herself, but will not have it any other way.  Frankly, she is really good at doing things and quite independent for her age.  This is a photo of her in the car on the way home.  She was still working on putting her socks on when we were ready to leave and since we  had a long ride ahead, we just let her work on it in the car.

Crazy Jump Roper

Alex has been on a jump roping kick as of late.  He has really improved his skills and while we were in Tahoe he set two new records.  His previous record was 12 consecutive jumps.  One night he beat it with 18 and then shortly thereafter, he made 23 consecutive jumps.  As you can see, he sometimes gets hot while jumping, hence the jumping in his underwear.  Who knew the $1 Easter Bunny jump rope would be so popular?

First Day of Kindergarten!

 All ready to go to school!

 Walking up the hill with Daddy and Mei Mei

 Showing some Panther spirit

 Sporting the new big boy backpack

 A photo with Daddy and Mei Mei on the playground

 Doesn't look nervous at all!

 A photo with Mommy before the bell rings.

 Pickup on the first day.

He gives two thumbs up for the first day!

Alex started Kindergarten on Wednesday August 28th!  He goes to Los Perales Elementary School, which is less than a mile from our house.  All Kindergarteners go for 3 1/2 hours each morning.  We will find out this week whether he will be on the 8:30-12:00 schedule or the 9:30 to 1:00 schedule.  His teacher is Mrs. Rodriguez, who is very nice, young and energetic.  The classroom looks great and Alex shares a table with three other friends.  Alex seems to enjoy his time at school alot and is able to see some of his neighborhood friends on the playground at recess time, since all 60 Kindergarteners play at the same time.  Looks like it should be a fun year ahead!

Kindergarten Open House

On the day before school started, Alex's teacher had an Open House, so that everyone could come and explore the classroom and check out the new digs.  She had a "treasure hunt" set up so that everyone would learn about the location of a variety of things in the classroom, i.e. where the bathrooms are, where the job chart is located, where to put the backpacks, where to wash your hands etc.  Alex found his table where he sits with three other friends and met many of his classmates.  It is a nice classroom, all brightly and neatly put together and decorated for the new year.

Julia's 2nd Birthday!

We celebrated Jules' 2nd birthday last week.  Hard to believe that she is already two years old!  She requested a purple cake, so I made her cupcakes with purple frosting and made them into a "bouquet" of flowers.  She really liked the idea of her birthday this year and practiced singing the "birday" song in the weeks leading up to it.  She also had a handle on blowing out candles and that this was a major part of the celebration.  We picked up some helium balloons for her on that day and she was exclaiming "birday" everywhere we went on our shopping outing.  We will have a party with some friends and family this weekend, and I am sure that Julia will enjoy going through the process again!

Nurtury Preschool Graduation

 The graduate patiently waiting with his puppet.

 The whole class at the beginning of the program.

 Momma and Julia waiting for the program to start.

 Miss Natalie, Alex and Miss Debbie

 A family picture afterward

 Charlotte, Alex and Avery

 Alex and his best bud, Henry.  Boy will he miss Henry next year.

 Alex and Miss Natalie

Alex and Miss Debbie

It is hard to believe, but Alex had his preschool graduation on Friday!  The Nurtury has been such a wonderful preschool for Alex and the graduation ceremony was the perfect end to his time there.  They had a nice program with a bunch of songs and bible verses which the kiddos had learned over the year.  They displayed artwork, had balloons and gave each of them their own Bible storybook, along with a nice individualized photo album of the year, which Miss Debbie put together for each child in the class.  All of that was topped off by cupcakes and lemonade and then some time at the park.  A fun morning for a special group of kids.

Sushi Time!

Today was Alex's last day to bring snacks to share with his class and he requested "sushi".  We made some tuna and avocado sushi this morning and he bought them in to share.  He and Julia love to eat them as a snack or we often bring them with us on picnics, but I was a bit skeptical as to how his classmates would like them.  From his report, it sounds like one other friend liked them quite a bit too.  Alex ate four pieces, his friend ate three and then others deconstructed and ate portions of the roll which they liked, while others just wouldn't try it.  Sounds about right!  He told me that his friend told him it was "the best sushi he has ever had," to which Alex said he replied, "Well, it is because my Mom made it and she is a really good cook."  Awwww...heart melts.

 I told him that he needed to not eat too many, since he was "sharing" and it sounds like he listened, because typically, he would probably eat about eight or more.  He came home and polished off some more during lunch with Julia.  The funny thing was that it coincidentally was ocean week too and these fit right in, with the tuna and seaweed from the ocean.  He was quite excited about that little coincidence.

Kindergarten Interview

Today was Alex's Kindergarten interview day.  He met with Ms Miller for 30 minutes and said that they played some games, wrote some words, drew some shapes and talked.  Did not get alot of detail as to what exactly they did, but Ms Miller did indicate that he was very willing to participate and did a good job.  So now, it looks like we are all set for Kindergarten next year.  Hard to believe, but it is true!

Oh My.....

Are you kidding me? When Alex and Julia said they found a spider, (and were very excited) I was NOT expecting this! I like nature, but this.....not so much.  Alex said it is HUMUNGOUS.....I would agree.

Progress on the Bike

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Jules and Her Balance Bike from David Chng on Vimeo.

Cross Country Ski Adventure

The horse with two monkeys in the pulk

Momma and Julia taking a break after Mommy bit it!

Alex relaxing in the comfort of his sled.  Quite the easy morning for him!

Water break at the Moondance Hut

Finished the loop!

On one of our days in Tahoe Donner we decided to check out the cross country ski area, which seems quite nice.  There are lots of trails for all levels and the scenery is beautiful.  We geared up, with David pulling a pulk sled to pull the kiddos in.  Julia was not exactly thrilled about being in the sled with her brother, I think primarily because she was trying to sit in his lap and kept slipping down and could not see.  It was also right around naptime, so she really just wanted to go to sleep.  I ended up taking her out of the pulk and just putting her in the Ergo on my back so that she could cuddle and sleep.  We took a couple of spills, but all in all, it was alot of fun.  Alex enjoyed having Daddy be the horse for the day, but I think next time we will get him on some cross country skis as he has plenty of energy to burn off!