School Programs

This is GaryTodd's Kindergarten (Class of 2022) doing the Chicken Dance for their Spring Program. (June 2010)

 

This is the full version of the kids singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

I wanted to take a video of Seanelle’s program too, but my brand new batteries apparently were not very good.  (Before I had taken the first picture, I saw the low battery icon.  So much for trying to buy the ones on sale to save a few dollars.)

Seanelle's 1st Grade Spring Program

The kids received their class pictures a couple of weeks ago, and I have tucked them away to a safe place.  I know that in the years to come they will be asking about those pictures.  But for right now, I get to look at all the kids that I have watched grow over this last year. 

I’m certain that all the older kids are very thankful that I wasn’t able to know all their classmates as well as I know Seanelle’s and GaryTodd’s.  But I am having a more difficult time knowing that I won’t be seeing these children every day.  There’s just nothing like a Kindergartner saying, “He’s really old.  He’s in FIRST GRADE!”

And I will miss the 20 hugs I used to get every morning from all the kids.  (Some from kids I didn’t even know, but they saw the other kids give me a hug and thought they should too!)

I hope you enjoy the videos that I have shared with you.  My kids are awesome.  (And of course, my favorite in their classes!)  I wish I could share more pictures of the older ones to share with you, but I really don’t get much of a chance to see them anymore. 

Gabriel just came back into town to spend the summer with us, but we haven’t had much of a chance to get any pictures of him either.  Now that he is almost 16, he has a pretty busy schedule with catching up with all his friends.  Hopefully we will be able to get pictures of him soon.

Talk to all of you soon!

Yep… Nine Years and Counting!!!

Todd and I got married in 2001.  I am not sharing that so much for your knowledge, but for my own reminder.  You see, every May 12th Todd and I celebrate our anniversary.  This year we celebrated our 9 year anniversary.  But by midnight on the 13th (if Todd happens to be awake still) he will claim to be deep into the next year of marriage. 

This year he didn’t make it until midnight, but neither did I.  (That was a first for me.)  It really sucks having an anniversary on a Wednesday.  Getting someone to watch the kids isn’t the problem.  Everyone likes having them.  But who wants to interrupt the regular work week with a party?

Oh… that made me laugh.  We don’t really party.  I thought it would make us sound younger, but instead it just made me chuckle.  Who are we kidding?  We are old enough to completely enjoy our children and appreciate them for who they are.  Clear indication:  We are old parents.

Not too old to still play with them and teach them what is important in life.  What do I mean?  Well… these pictures I was able to get today tell the story pretty well.

Maybe you can’t see this so well… not to worry… Luckily for us, Corissa likes to pose for the camera.

To tell you the truth, we took this picture for a specific reason.  First of all, because it was fun to watch Corissa enjoy her food, but another is to show Corissa’s little sister that her biggest sister enjoys food as much as she does:  All over her face.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of Seanelle after enjoying her baby-back pork wings tonight.  They looked very similar.

Corissa shared with us that this is exactly the reason that she doesn’t eat hot wings in public.  (And it made me giggle when she was okay with me showing this on the internet and NOT tagging her picture on Facebook!  And if you want to know what “tagging” means, join Facebook and I’ll show you…  )

After Corissa enjoyed her dinner… we enjoyed our dinner… and then Seanelle, Morgan, GaryTodd, and Todd worked off their dinner with a little basketball…

Nice blocking out Seanelle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And really nice rip through!!!

 

 

You might not have any idea… but this made dad’s heart soar!!!!

I did notice tonight that not only does Seanelle dribble really well for a 1st grader, but she listens to instruction really well… and executes even better.

The other day she asked her dad if he wanted her to play a 3 or a 1.  Of course, with my knowledge of basketball, I had no real idea of what she was talking about.  But the two of them knew exactly what they were talking about.

They decided she should play a one.  The One decides every-thing on the floor… and that was what she needed to be.

Todd had to explain to me what the difference was between the 3 and the 1.  I have been married to him for 9 years and you would think I would have a better understanding of all the basketball lingo.  But all I heard was that Seanelle was asking her dad if he wanted her to be the best.

Of course Seanelle, mom and dad always want you to be the best.  We both think you are the best, we just want you to believe that you are the best.  Along with the rest of our children.  But could you imagine if we had a child that actually believed in themselves like we believe in them?  Wow!  How incredible would that be?

We love the fact that Corissa wears the food she loves, that Morgan is so eager to play with her siblings – all of them – and that Seanelle is active and knows every neighbor, and that even though there is so much going on, GaryTodd is exploring worlds we didn’t even know existed… as you might see from all the pictures.

Every one of our children has different expectations, desires, hopes and dreams, and somehow manages to make it possible to fall in love with them even more than we did yesterday!  How is that possible?

I really don’t have an answer to how that might be possible, but I do know that I wouldn’t change the world I get to live in every day.  I have the most awesome kids!  They love people better than I do and teach me things that I wish I would have understood when I was “young.” 

Going out to dinner and celebrating our anniversary was fun, but tonight being with our children was priceless.  I wouldn’t have changed a thing.  I was able to laugh until I cried with my fantastic husband tonight.  We might not have what other people use as a measuring stick, but it was perfect for us.  It was what made us happy.  It was what made us feel as if everything in life was worthwhile.

I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.

Love to all of you!  We miss you and think of you often and look forward to when you visit us and join in our fun!!!

Strange Day…

Luckily today was Thursday, which means that school starts 30 minutes later than every other day.  It gives me a little extra time in the morning without feeling quite so rushed, so I have come to appreciate Thursdays.  (You would think I would just wake up 30 minutes earlier every other day to make things easier… but that just hasn’t happened yet.)

Seanelle and GaryTodd are very well aware that on Thursday mornings they will have extra time to play.  This is probably why they choose Thursdays to wake up early.  This morning was the same, except they decided to eat the leftover spaghetti for breakfast.  This was out of the ordinary.  Not only did they seem to be uninterested in the spaghetti last night for dinner, but they aren’t normally the type of kids that get excited about any leftovers… unless it is ice cream or cake or something.

Then later today I was waiting for GaryTodd to get out of school and was admiring the bulletin board.  Then I saw something that made me take a picture and send to Todd on the cell phone.

I didn’t notice it at first, but upon a little closer inspection I noticed this…

I was going to bring this to someone’s attention, but certainly this will changed by the next time the children attend school. 

The children are celebrating a “May Break” this year.  Friday was a built-in snow make-up day.  Since we didn’t get any snow this year, the kids have been able to have a few more extended weekends.  This will be a nice 4 day weekend. 

Tonight they are both spending the night other places.  This is nice, because I have a lot of things I would like to do in the morning without them making messes faster than I can find them.  But I have some other plans this weekend, and would like the house to be moderately clean before I go have my own fun.

Tomorrow night I am getting together with about 50+ of my friends from high school.  We are having an informal reunion.  I am looking forward to this one because we didn’t have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to just gather together.

Several of our classmates have complained about the cost of attending the reunions, so a few of my classmates are trying to organize the next reunion without having to pay an outside company.  I think I might have volunteered to assist.

And finally… I have to tell you the latest bit of excitement in Seanelle’s life.  April 28th, 2009, I wrote a blog post letting everyone know that Seanelle is anxiously awaiting the day her first tooth would come out.  On May 6th, 2009, she was still waiting, and getting impatient.  On May 16th, 2009, her first tooth finally came out. 

Since that time, she has decided that waiting for the teeth to come out on their own is not fun.  So when she notices a tooth getting wiggly, she will work on it until she is able to twist it and yank it out on her own.

Today was one of those days.

She lost the tooth during music class.  (Apparently the music teacher doesn’t notice when a child has her hand in her mouth instead of singing?)  But then when she got into the car and tried to show me her little tooth, she lost it.

My car isn’t messy, but trying to find to that tiny little tooth would be like finding a needle in a haystack.  Much to my amazement (and a slight thankfulness that I am farsighted) I found that rascally little tooth!  So almost a year after she lost her first tooth, this is what Seanelle looks like today…

Of course… GaryTodd hasn’t had any desire to lose any of his teeth yet.  He would rather go to the dentist.

GaryTodd is 7 for Two Days!

I don’t remember whether or not I have shared this with you or not, but GaryTodd has been 8 years old since his birthday party in August.

Now, let me explain.  On his real birthday last year, GaryTodd’s leg was in a cast and he really couldn’t play.  We had a little celebration for him, but promised him a real party when he could actually walk again.  Part of his family couldn’t bear waiting until he could walk again before celebrating his birthday, so we had a little bigger celebration so that family could celebrate with him. 

In very late July, he was able to walk, so on August 1st we celebrated his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.  He decided, that he was 8 years old.  He figured that since he had 3 parties, he had to be 8 yrs old.  Of course, Todd and I encouraged such behavior, because after all, how much could it hurt?

Well, much to our surprise, this wasn’t something that he just played at home.  He has insisted all year at school that he is 8.  Please understand, he KNOWS his ‘real’ age is 5.  He just doesn’t feel like being 5.  And after having such a bad year last year, I didn’t feel as if he had to be 5.  But his Kindergarten class had a problem with it.

As the year wore on, many of his classmates decided he really couldn’t be 8.  This hurt GaryTodd’s feelings.  He wasn’t lying to them, his mom and dad wanted him to be 8.  He couldn’t figure out why they had a problem with him being 8. 

This required a little bit of work on his parent’s part.  First of all, we had to make a plan for GaryTodd.  On his next birthday, we agreed he would be 7 on his actual birthday.  Then when we had his birthday celebration on Saturday, he would actually turn 6.  But we didn’t stop there.

In the mornings as we would wait for the teacher to come to collect her children, occasionally a little one would say to me, “Is GaryTodd really 8?” 

“Well, of course he is!  Don’t you turn another year older when you have a birthday party?”

This has confused every one of these little children.  Ha-ha!  They have no idea who they are up against!

As they are trying to figure out why this shouldn’t make sense, I move in for the kill… “My question to you is this, What age would YOU like to be?”  They never say their real age.  So for the next 10 minutes we all pretend to be the age we WANT to be. 

So far, this has proven to work very well.  No longer does anyone complain about GaryTodd being 8.

Nonetheless, tomorrow he is ready to be 6.  I didn’t get a lot of pictures during his celebration, but I did get a picture of the cake that his oldest sister made for him…

Notice the 7 candles…

GaryTodd has a fantastic imagination that we are all interested in keeping in tact. 

 

 

GaryTodd has given us all instructions on what he wanted to have for his birthday.  Everyone has a different present to give to him (very smart) and of course, everyone wants to get him exactly what he wants.  But this year we also decided it was time he had a new bike. 

He has been riding it ever since he got it.  He absolutely loves it!  (Even though it wasn’t on his list…)

Here is a picture of him getting comfortable on his new bike as he is talking with the neighbor. 

By the way, it is also worth mentioning that he doesn’t have any ordinary bike… His dad bought him THE COOLEST BIKE EVER! 

It happens to be a motorcycle, racecar bike that is super fast!  And he assures us that soon he will be doing special tricks with his feet on the handlebars!

Luckily we have had beautiful weather for bike riding. 

 

I do apologize for not having any updates lately.  We have had many things that I could brag about my wonderful children, but I haven’t been really sure how to address them.

We have the most compassionate children… and recently have been struck by a loss in the family.  Although there are many beautiful things I could share about the caring and love I have witnessed, I didn’t really feel able to share what we have experienced.

I don’t mean to leave you on such a somber note, but I do appreciate that you have read this blog post to the end!  Wow!  I am very appreciative of you!  Thank you, and Love to All!

Quick Update…

This year I have been volunteering in GaryTodd’s class.  I was concerned about being bored while everyone was in school or at work.  I didn’t want to spend every day cleaning the house.  I hate housework. 

I had the opportunity to volunteer for a short time when Morgan was in Kindergarten.  I forgot how much I loved it.  Getting to know the kids, watching their progress, seeing them gain more confidence…  I’ve been having a great time helping out.

I also decided to volunteer to be a tutor at the ESL school at my church.  (For those of you that might not be aware, “ESL” stands for English as a Second Language.)  I could write a lot about my experiences with that.  That was much more incredible than I would have ever expected.

Then I heard from GaryTodd’s teacher that Seanelle’s classroom was really suffering with a lack of volunteers.  So I picked up another day.  I have been amazed with how much the children learn to do from Kindergarten to First Grade! 

I wasn’t looking for anything more to do, but then I heard my pastor invite anyone who wanted to attend to a class to learn how to deal with (and counsel those going through) grief in their lives.  That sounded very intriguing to me.  I started going last week, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Although I am not in a situation where I felt I had to deal with any grief, I felt I wanted to learn how to help others through periods of grief.  The class has been a big eye-opener, and I wish I would have taken this class years ago.

Tonight as I was appreciating my family, and it was time to wind down for the night, GaryTodd and Seanelle were playing cards.  I am always so amazed with how well they play together.  They were playing “Go Fish” and having a blast.  They were both cheating so that Seanelle would win, and having a fantastic time.

 

And when I said it was time for bed, they decided they weren’t quite ready to call it quits.  So while Seanelle was sitting on a chair telling us a story, GaryTodd jumped in her lap just so he could make her laugh.

And it worked.

This morning as I was taking them (and the neighbor kids) to school, Seanelle and GaryTodd were telling their friends how Seanelle had saved GaryTodd’s life in our accident.

Maybe the grief class is good not just to help other people, but to make sure that Seanelle and GaryTodd (as well as the rest of my family) are able to heal from it too.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I know that Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about lovers… But really… pictures of the kids are so much more fun!  Plus, when they show their age, they are still young and cute!  So, I will spare you anything mushy between me and Todd.

This Sunday happens to be our turn (mine & Todd’s) to teach at Children’s Church.  When I was asked to help with Children’s Church, I thought it sounded like a great way to help the church.  How can it be bad when you get to play with the kids?  But every time it is my turn, I notice that I get a little sad that I miss out on the sermon for the day.  I’m so selfish.

I thought it would be good to keep the kids occupied with making cute little certificates and Valentine’s Day cards.  Of course, I had to make a couple of examples to show the kids…

I didn’t know for certain how many kids we would have in church, so I made sure we had enough supplies to make certificates as well as cards…  Of course, wouldn’t you know it, we only had 5 kids (and that was because I went and recruited 3 from the nursery).

The suggestions for Sunday School was to make certificates that said, “Dear _________, This certificate entitles you for one hour of the comfort of your choice the next time you feel sad or afraid.”

The bible verse of the week is:

“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”  2 Corinthians 1:4

I really thought the kids would be excited about this.  But they were really more interested in just using the paste, and being able to glue things together.  I should have known.

But Todd and I had fun, and it is always fun to get to know the kids a little bit more every time we work together at something.

And although I try not to have to many expectations of my children, and just enjoy every minute we have together, I was surprised that GaryTodd’s certificate he made for his dad.  I really thought he would make it for me.  Hmmm…

But then I saw Seanelle working so hard at her certificate, and I was so proud she was working so hard at it.  And she seemed to understand the concept behind why it was nice to make for someone.  She was also so sweet to help the little girl beside her… then I saw her finished product.

How pleasantly surprised I was to find that she made her certificate out to ME!!!

I have the best kids…

I could brag about them forever, which you probably are well aware of… but I really could.  I am so proud of all our kids and so happy that these youngest two get to grow up knowing how important they are every single day.  I wish all the older kids knew that they were just as loved.

But as I sit here bragging about my children, I have a child I have to drag away from the neighbors house… which apparently is more fun than home.

Todd and I really don’t understand this concept.  We have a blast at home!

Hope your Valentine’s Day was fantastic everyone!

Love you!

Kids for Wigs

Many kids helped to donate to the Kids for Wigs fundraiser.

I was looking at all these happy kids wearing their hats to school.  What a great idea to get kids to be involved in helping others, and having fun at the same time.

I’m sure that some of these kids were just happy to be able to wear a hat all day at school, but most of these kids knew that they were contributing to make more wigs for kids.

Then I spotted my favorite picture.

 

We looked all over for a picture of GaryTodd, but then when we were looking, we didn’t see any of the Kindergarteners on the bulletin board.

I don’t know who takes all the pictures, but it seems as if this bulletin board is a way for the school to show the kids how proud they are of them. 

I don’t know, maybe they always have pictures of the kids on here for all us parents that like to find pictures of our children.