School's Out For Summer... well sorta

I was debating on whether or not I wanted to post this on my family blog or on my homeschool blog and I decided that this was the place for it to go since it's not homeschooling and I'll have a TON of homeschooling pictures coming soon since Alyssa's already ready to tackle 3rd grade. I'm not going to be teaching them hard core during the summer but bits and pieces to see where they are and get them to where they need to be if they aren't there yet, which they probably are ready to go.

Here are some of the pictures we took at their "celebrations" at their school on the last day. Enjoy!

Samara and her best friend Isaiah.
Samara and her teacher. We are so proud of Samara!! And her teacher did a wonderful job this year!

Nattie thinks she should be able to join her sister in whatever she's doing since she is "big" enough. She says, "I know what to do and I will be a big girl!" Haha. Usually she's right but this time there was no way she was going to be allowed to go stand by Samara while Samara was doing her songs, etc at her celebration. Sorry Nattie Grace, maybe next year!

Samara holding her certificate! So excited!!

Alyssa's teacher did a slide-show presentation for the families and then let each of us take a DVD of it home. She is so thoughtful. I'm so proud of Alyssa, she did an excellent job this year. There were so many obstacles that she had to face, some of which she didn't know how to handle, but when it was said and done I think she showed 2nd grade who was boss! Hehe.

Nattie and Alyssa waiting for the presentation to start. So cool.

Alyssa giving her teacher one last hug before hitting the door.

Alyssa and one of her good friends since last year, A.J.

Alyssa, Samara, and Natalie, we are so proud of all three of you girls. You are such sweet girls and love to learn. I am so glad that Daddy and I get the opportunity to help you through life. I hope and pray that you will learn and grow all that you need to know and I have no doubt that you will do great things with your lives! Thanks for being AWESOME!!!

Oh and I put School's Out For Summer... well sorta as the title because technically school's out but it's only been 2 days and I've already gotten asked about a million times if I could teach each of the girls. Yes, they really do LOVE to learn.

Jungle Beat

Micah's going to be helping me get some videos of this up on here but for now pictures will have to do. Alyssa was in a Musical at her school for all of second grade. She did fantastic!!! I'm so proud of her. They did a dress rehearsal for the school and she told me, "Mommy, I messed up." I said, "That's okay, what happened?" She said, "I was supposed to be mad and sad and scared when I was swallowed by the boa constricter but I smiled the whole time!" haha... my daughter is precious!

All of the second graders!

Alyssa standing by the poster announcing her Musical.

There she is in her Jungle Beat get up.
She was one of the smallest in her grade so she was 1 out of 5 that got a part being swallowed by a boa constricter.

After being swallowed. I have the whole video of this and like I said before if my husband will help me I will post it. It's ADORABLE!

Singing away!

There are 7 classes at the school and 23 kids in each class. THAT'S A LOT OF KIDS!!! They really did a great job!

Alyssa is 8

Alyssa had a birthday yesterday and is now 8 years old. She is so beautiful. I can't believe she is getting so big so fast. I have enjoyed every second of her life. Even the bad times because they have made her and me stronger. We had a party at the park. She only invited girls to her party because she didn't want any boys there. There were a few boys that came and one that was okayed. She was so worried that nobody was going to come but she really had a perfect turn out, at least for her mama! Not a LOT of kids but enough to satisfy her. Here are some pictures of the fun that we had throughout the day.

My three beautiful girls before the party started. Alyssa was so cute. She kept asking, "When are my guests going to arrive?" What 8 year old talks like that? I guess my daughter does! We got there an hour before the party was supposed to start so I would be ready before everybody got there. Well, that was a little much because it took me about a half hour to set up and the girls said they were done playing by then, so we had to sit around for 30 minutes. It was okay though, they got all hyped back up when the party started.
My beautiful birthday girl!

Her butterfly cake that Mommy made.

Following the leader... the oldest in this case is the leader. Normally Samara takes over the leader position but it was Syssa's birthday. We've been talking about how EVERYONE gets a turn to be the leader but Mara likes to be the boss. Gotta watch out for that one.

Alyssa normally likes her hair down but I told her since we were going to the park and since it was going to be really hot outside that she would have to have her hair up. She told me that she wanted pig tails in buns. This is how it turned out.

Building a sand hill.

One of the activities that we did, along with playing at the park, was to make necklaces and bracelets. This is Mara modeling her necklace.

Syssa modeling her necklace and bracelet.

I didn't get a picture of Nattie since she wanted to go play so bad.

I got a parachute a while ago when I taught at the Mother's Day Out at our church. I love it. I decided it would be a perfect activity for our birthday at the park. Here are all the kids playing with it.

Alyssa had so much fun, actually the one that had the most fun was probably Nattie. She was hilarious and did such a good job.

Lift it up and go under.

Blowing out the birthday candles. I didn't know whether or not they would light since the wind was blowing, not too bad, but enough to where it kept blowing out the candles. Thank you Meems for holding up the lid to the cake so that Alyssa had candles to blow out.

I didn't post any pictures of this but before blowing out the candles on the cake I had all the kids decorate their own ice cream cone cupcakes. No ice cream involved. You take an ice cream cone and put candies in it. They don't have to go up to the top. We put 10 skittles in each. Then you frost the top of a regular sized cupcake. Then, you flip it upside down and put it on the ice cream cone. Next you frost the other side of the regular sized cupcake and put a mini cupcake upside down on top of the regular sized one. Then you frost all around all of the cupcakes on the outside and the top. Then you can put sprinkles on it. We put melon rings on top, like the cherry on top. I told them not to eat them until after we sang happy birthday and the kids listened very well. We sang happy birthday and they dug right in. I got the idea off howdini.com if anyone is interested. That's where I got the idea for the butterfly cake too.

Nattie eating her ice cream cone minus the ice cream.

Syssa chowing down with one of her friends.

Mara and a few more people at the party eating their cake.

Meemo embroidered a shirt for Syssa and she LOVES it. It has a fairy on it and it says "Raindrops are like Fairy Whispers". It's so cute. Thank you Meems!!!

She got really good birthday gifts and lot of love! Thank you everyone who made this party a success. Especially Meems and Micah. Love you Alyssa so glad you have been entrusted to our family! I love having you with us and can't wait to see how you learn and grow this next year.

Another Lost Tooth

Alyssa lost her third tooth tonight. Well, lost or had Daddy pull it out? It was really loose so Daddy asked Syssa if he could pull on it and see if it would come out and she said yes because it was hurting anyways. A couple small yanks and her top tooth was out!

She was so excited! She was walking around the room raving and talking so fast I couldn't understand her. She kept saying the same s words over and over so that we would know that she couldn't say them very well. It was so cute!
What kid doesn't like to put their tongue in the hole where there tooth once was?

The gap. Her other top front tooth is loose too but she said that Daddy couldn't touch that one tonight... maybe another night.

Alyssa's Kindergarten "Celebration"

Alyssa has graduated Kindergarten. She'll be in 1st grade next year! How crazy is that! They called it a Celebration not a graduation. I'm not sure why but oh well. We celebrated!! When we came up to the door they had a reading cafe set up with menus and Alyssa had a little apron on and she would ask us what we would like and she'd go get the book that we picked and read it to us. It was a really cute idea.


All of us were intently listening as she read. Micah's mom and sister were with us but I guess they were taking the pictures.


The menu.


Hi Nattie.


Mommy and Mara watching while Syssa gets ready to do some songs she learned.

All Smiles.

Getting ready to sing.

All grown up.

What a cute group of kids.

Her kindergarten class.

Nattie running around after the celebration.

Ears

I meant to post this picture with the other post. This is Alyssa's beautiful ears... pierced.

Alyssa got her ears pierced

I have been wanting to get Alyssa's ears pierced for a really long time and Micah was really nervous to get them done because she is so young. Mama Jay, Grandpa Ozzie, Auntie Erin, Alyssa and I all asked Micah if it would be ok to get them done for Christmas this year. Yesterday for Christmas Eve day Micah finally said that she could. But not after Micah telling her that it was going to hurt really bad and that she was going to bleed all over the place. He has never gotten his ears pierced so the girls in the family who have gotten their ears pierced comforted her and told her that it would probably hurt but it usually doesn't bleed at all. She was so brave yesterday as she sat really still so that the ladies at Claire's could pierce her ears both at the same time. She cried a little but I was so proud of her for being so brave. She got to pick out her earrings and they are small yellow gold balls. They look so good on her. She's growing up too fast!! She loves them and says that it was worth it.

Alyssa's brilliance amazes me!!

I'm going to be bragging about Alyssa a little bit just to warn you. When Alyssa goes to school she loves it. She loves meeting new people and coloring with her new found friends but this year I've been troubled by the work that she's been coming home with. No, their not teaching evolution to Kindergarteners... yet. But with how smart Alyssa is and with the knowledge that she gained last year, she really is at a first grade level. The work she brings home from school right now is tracing one line of the A the other two are drawn in for them. Now, if you look above at the work that Alyssa does at home this is why I am concerned. Alyssa writes full sentences! She reads short chapter chapter books, she can add as long as it doesn't go over ten and she's learning how to add one digit numbers that add up to more than ten... at home. I've been debating for a long time about whether I should bump her up to first grade but that's just not possible given her size and maturaty level. She wouldn't last in first grade. Not because she wouldn't know how to do the work but she wouldn't be able to sit for a long period of time and she would want to talk to her friends all the time. So my other option was to homeschool. Micah thinks I push the kids too hard sometimes and I think I do too. I know my girls have great potential and I don't want to see that pass away. I also know that she loves school and if I pulled her out she'd be heartbroken. I don't know what to do. Another mom that had a daughter in Alyssa's class last year that has her daughter in Alyssa's same class had the same issues as I do. So we went to talk to the teacher yesterday. She said they were going to start the "real" work tomorrow where they will be tracing the A instead of just tracing one line of it. Again if you look above Alyssa already knows how to write an A with no help at all. I wrote the date on top to show her where the commas go and the order to write the date in. I will probably do this for a week then stop and she usually will do it almost perfectly after that. Anyways I know that God's protection is over her at school and that she probably won't forget stuff I just don't want to see the talents that she has (intellectually) to not grow for a whole year while we are here. Please be praying for this situation and what we should do as it's a big deal to us that she continues to learn and not stay stagnant for a whole year. Thanks for listening to me brag on my daughter! She truly is remarkable... she must get that from her Daddy!! ;-)

Alyssa's Pictures

We got a new camera for Christmas and our old one was just sitting in a drawer collecting dust. It wasn't a cheap camera but we decided better to be broken by a five year old than to be collecting dust in a drawer. Here are some of the magnificent pictures that she has taken so far. Micah thinks we should start a blog for her so that might be coming but as for now it will be put on this blog. We also have been doing a little homeschool as well as her going to a public kindergarten class. In our first two weeks we are learning about the letter A. Here is our kindergartener's perfect (almost) coloring in the lines. She never ceases to amaze me.


Here is A is for Apple and A in sign language.


She was writing Bs when she got home from school because that's what she wanted to do. She wrote one be with a line that went out the bottom for some reason. Daddy laughed and said it was a kick stand so she went back through and gave a couple of them "kick stands". She thought she was so funny.


Her hand. Yes, she took these pictures.


Her foot. Well, I will be posting more of her crazy photography sometime later. In the meantime, enjoy.

Alyssa through the years

Alyssa is five now so you know what that means. Yep she's in Kindergarten. I'm not sure how she got so big so fast though. Somebody needs to explain that to me. Here are pictures of her every year of her life in August or September.


Not even one yet. I know that most people think their kids are superkids or superbabies but I think, even though I'm partial to my own children, that Alyssa has always been a superbaby and a superkid. She was rolling over at 4 days old, she learned to walk around 10 months old, she learned to read when she just turned 4, she understands the Bible when she reads it, she learned to add small numbers before she was five, she is learning how to add bigger numbers super fast, she's really intelligent, and she's the most beautiful five year old I know. How did I have a child this incredible? I'm in awe of my "baby". I'm very proud of my Alyssa.


This is 2004 when we went to Mexico with Meemo and Old Grandpa. For being only 1 year and 3 months old she didn't complain much.


2005. This is when Meemo and Aunt Carla came to see us. She's still so small. She has always been a small kid though.


2006. We were at Mama Jay and Papa Oz's house in this picture. It was on Labor Day. Her hair was still really short, Samara's almost grown out of the shirt that Alyssa's wearing in this picture. Wow, how crazy is that.


2007. This is Alyssa's first day of Pre-K last year. I remember she was so nervous. She did an excellent job though. Her teacher really taught them a lot.


Here is the big girl getting ready to walk to her school for her first day which was on Wednesday. She did a stagger day on Wednesday and then she starts for good on Tuesday. Look at how big she is!! I just can't believe it. She picks out her own clothes now and gets upset if she gets something that doesn't match and I tell her she shouldn't wear it. She said that she liked her teacher and that she had fun on her first day. I am still nervous because she is doing so well I don't want her to regress or to not progress at all. I pray for her every day and I ask that you do the same for me.


This is her new teacher. She said that they don't do Pre-K news anymore and they don't do Kindergarten news either they do K news. It was so cute how she laughed and laughed because they do K news now. By the way she is reading chapter books now. They have about 4-5 chapters in them so not too big but they are full of words. Again I'm so proud of her.