First Day of Kindergarten

We actually planned on starting Kindergarten on September 1. After the summer of traveling and house guests, we decided that it might be better to go ahead & start setting up a routine. So... we started Kindergarten today!
I like to have pictures of the first day. You can see our first day of Pre-K here. This is our school area:

Of course, we have to have a picture of David with his teacher. : )

And I like to get a picture with the other kids in it, too. These turned out pretty good, I think.

After just one day, I am even more excited about this year! I know we're going to have fun and I'm excited to see what all we're going to learn! Today we started reading The Boxcar Children and David didn't want to stop after chapter 1.

Part of today's work was assembling David's notebook. He was quite proud of it when it was all together.

His Language Arts Readers are on paper that he cut apart & assembled the book.

Then, much to my amazement, he just started reading through the book! My job may be easier than I thought this year...

We also did a gross motor assessment, which David & Elizabeth both enjoyed! Rebekah even got a kick out of it! Here's David hopping on one foot.

After day 1, I can see that his weakest skill is handwriting. He never has liked writing or even coloring. Looking back on the day, I had a revelation... look back up at the photos. He's pointing with his left hand. He's jumping on his left foot. Perhaps he is left handed?

They Just Keep On Growing...

This post is not about my garden, but I just had to include this photo to go with the title:

The effects of gravity on a butternut squash.

Now, this post is about the kids. My niece got married last Thursday.

Rebekah turned 4 months old and started eating cereal.

Elizabeth has moved up to a "big girl bed," out of her baby bed and Rebekah will soon try out the baby bed.

David celebrated Box Day as his final Kindergarten supplies arrived. He can't wait to dig in!

His Lego masterpieces continue to grow.

Elizabeth used her potty chair this week for the first time and Rebekah prefers to spend more time upright now-a-days.

Times are changing. It's flying by. I'm trying to grab on & enjoy the ride.

Box Day!!!

David was resting when the box arrived on Wednesday. I was either in the laundry room or the bathroom, I'm not sure. You can bet, if I'd seen the big white truck pulling in the driveway, I'd have taken a picture of it!

I went to David's door and announced that his box had arrived!

He was eager to open the box, but I made him wait while I took a picture & then we had to wait for my camera to recharge!

Yeah! Digging through the goodies!

Yes, it does look like a small box for a year of curriculum. But I've been collecting the books for almost a year now. I am thankful that Sonlight allows me to do this! I was able to save a lot of money by getting as many of the books as I could find at used book stores, Goodwill, library sales and eBay. Our box from Sonlight included the Instructor's Guides, workbooks, and the items I hadn't been able to find used.

David's favorite box book was Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion. It's written in comic book format and instantly captured his attention.

Now we're both eager to get started! We also got a globe this week & have already had a few geography lessons looking up where all our family lives. We're going to the library next week to get a few more books, then will start school the next week. Thursday School with our local co-op group will start the first week of September.

Rebekah is 4-months Old!

Boy, how time flies! She's actually a few days older than 4-months now, but today was her 4-month well baby check-up. She weighed 13 pounds, 11.4 oz, which puts her squarely in the 50th percentile. She measured a whooping 26 inches long, which ranked her in the 90th percentile and two inches longer than her last check-up.

She's been rolling back to front for a few weeks and yesterday was the first time I've seen her go tummy to back. She also tried rice cereal for the first time today. She took it surprisingly well.

But I'm not too sure she liked the taste! : )

What a week this has been!

Our wild week began last Friday. I document it here so I will not forget. Dad ran the "airport shuttle" as guests started arriving. First Mark, whom we had never met in person, then Aunt Sissy, Lauren & Jordann, and Maid of Honor Sarah. I made pizza for supper and the good times began!

On Saturday, Grandma & Grandpa & Will were trying to get home from their mission trip to New Mexico. Meanwhile, we went to Glen Rose to the Dinosaur Valley State Park. We saw some dino tracks, a few people went for a swim & we had a picnic.

By Saturday night, more were coming back together and we had Mexican food at our house for supper - Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Sissy, Uncle Bubba & Aunt Wee, Me & Dad, Mark & Lauren, Andy & Ashton, Will, Jordann, Jesse, David, Elizabeth & Rebekah and Sarah.

Sunday some ladies from Grandma's church hosted a gift card shower for Lauren. It was lovely.

We had grilled hot dogs at Uncle Bubba & Aunt Wee's house. Good times.

On Monday, Mark & Lauren got their marriage license & we had a massive trip to Wal-Mart. I was getting food for the week and Sissy was getting the food for the bridesmaids' brunch, lunches at the church while decorating, and wedding reception. Some of the bunch went to Chick-fil-a for a missions fundraiser. The rest ate a meal cooked by Aunt Sissy at our house.

Tuesday we started cooking reception food - meatballs, German chocolate icing, cupcakes were delayed because we didn't have the cupcake liners yet. Uncle Glenn (father of the bride) arrived by car about mid-afternoon with all the wedding decorations, dresses, cupcake liners! and some furniture for us! Another bridesmaid flew in from Canada. (that was Tuesday, right?) Aunt Wee cooked lasagna & we ate at our house. I finished the flowers that night while Sissy & Glenn went to meet Mark's parents who flew in from Canada.

Wednesday morning, Lauren & Sarah prepared a lovely brunch for the bridesmaids, mothers & grandmas (and me & Elizabeth). The rest of the bridesmaids arrived from California. David ate his PB sandwich in the office & played lego.com games while the ladies ate, visited, and Lauren passed out gifts. Here's the girl cousins:

Wednesday afternoon, the ladies beautifully decorated the sanctuary with green tulle and black & white photos of Lauren & Mark.

Elizabeth practiced walking down the aisle with the two bigger flower girls. She loved all the attention!

The rehearsal dinner for now 35 people from Texas, California and Canada was at our house. I was a little busy & didn't get any pictures. We had amazing BBQ, cooked by a firefighting co-worker of Dad's. Wow. Finished off with Blue Bell Groom's Cake. It was a wonderful night. The guys headed to Uncle Bubba's house for a Halo Killin' Party and the girls stayed here for a Toenail Painting Party.

Thursday morning, was spent getting the fellowship hall ready for the reception. Again, it was beautiful. Lauren had so many unique ideas and it played together beautifully - bamboo & floating candles on each table, a cupcake tier, a candy bar, a well-wishes tree instead of a guest book.

Thursday afternoon Mark was ready to get the show on the road.

Others waited in the sanctuary.

(photo by Uncle Bubba)

Bridesmaids chowed down in the choir room.

Elizabeth made it down the aisle... crying with Aunt Wee helping her. She settled into the pew with her plug, blanket & coloring book and was fine for the rest of the ceremony.

David made his walk down the aisle as ring bearer... but didn't stop. He walked across the front of the church and back up the other aisle! Aunt Wee caught him at the back & then he fell asleep on the back pew!

The wedding was beautiful, moving and humorous. It was perfect.

(photo by Uncle Bubba)

(photo by Grandpa)

(photo by Uncle Bubba)

We are so blessed to have been a part of this week. So thankful that they chose to have the wedding here where we could be this involved. So loved everyone and were equally loved in return. We made new friends and watched as two families (and two countries) merged to form another. It was amazing.