Thanksgiving #1

Today was our first Thanksgiving (of 3 total) for the year and it was great!  We had a fabulous meal with Lance's brother and my sister-in-law and family and we are all totally stuffed.  I forgot to get pictures earlier when they weren't quite as disheveled, but managed to get this one just to have a record of the kid's 5th Thanksgiving!  The weather was a lot different than last year when we ate outdoors, but it was a wonderful day despite the cold.

Tomorrow we are off to see my family and we have a very busy week once we get back.  I have a lot going on at work, Lance always seems to have more work than time these days (a good thing, of course, but just makes everything a little more chaotic), and the kids have their second tennis lesson!  They were so excited about their first lesson (I posted but can't seem to find it so I am not sure what happened).  They did great and are really looking forward to the next one.  We picked up a couple of rackets for them (they borrowed them the first time last week) and it seems to be a good call because for right now they are wanting to play all the time (but I have had to refuse them with the temps in the teens).  Liz watched them for us while we went to the UT/Vandy game (huge thank you for that - we had a great time at the game and the kids had fun spending tie with her too) and I think they coerced her to play in the yard for a bit.  It is kind of cold for outdoor tennis so we got them some new gear and they were almost as excited about that as the tennis!

Like mother like daughter - Katie was really digging her new shoes and tennis skirt - those are two things I get super excited about too! She claims that the shoes are "super fast" and wore them to school every day last week.  

Our silly little man isn't all about the clothes, his favorite part of the lesson was hot potato where they work on "happy feet."  The thing I am worst at in tennis is moving my feet, so it would be great if they learned to keep them moving!  Tyler doesn't usually have trouble getting moving though - we caught him dancing without a care in the world recently - he really does love to move and groove!  I hope he stays carefree for a lot longer - it is so fun to watch children enjoy the world with no inhibitions. 

Thanksgiving Fun!

The kids had a performance at school this morning, and it was so cute.  They both did better than I expected and actually song the songs, but I had a really hard time seeing those short little things.  I have been hearing the songs for weeks when they have practiced at home, and it was really fun to see their hard work come to fruition.  Tyler got some new shoes for his first tennis lesson (!), but he wouldn't wear them today because he was worried they would come untied and it would mess him up during his performance.  They both took it very seriously, and woke up this morning incredibly excited about the big day.

They were also super excited on Wednesday when they went to their first ever tennis lesson.  A friend of theirs (we are good friends with her parents) has been taking with this lady for a while and we decided to sign the kids up.  They did great for the first time ever holding a racket - Katie actually hit the ball (albeit with a two-handed forehand) and Tyler was especially excited about "hot potato" which was really just dodge ball with a tennis ball (but it does teach "happy feet" which is a good tennis skill).  We will keep going back as long as weather allows (outside) because I really was pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed it and how excited they were to get to play!

Songwriters

The kids were asking me the words to God Bless America and Tyler asked me if they could write their own, to which I replied of course.  Katie then got her notebook and pencil and began to write the cutest song ever.  She wrote - I love my "bruthr" Tyler he is the best and my mom is "to."  She sounded out all the words and sang it to the tune of God Bless America - so cute.  They are doing "writer's workshop" in their classes and it seems to be great!  They encourage them to write words how they sound and not worry if they are correct or not and it has given them confidence to try to sound out words and enjoy writing.  They have been practicing for their Thanksgiving performance this coming Friday and have been singing, and now trying to write the words to the songs, for weeks.  I am sure they will clam up on performance day, but they are definitely having fun learning new songs with their classes and Tyler especially likes learning about Native Americans and pilgrims! 

This seems like such a slow process for them to really learn to read and write, but they are getting it and I am impressed with the progress they are making.  Katie just came back to me with a new song - wuns (once) ther was an elephant (she told me that one and didn't try to write it) at the wtrprk (waterpark) and he was on the go, he wnt (went) and sa (saw) a tgr (tiger) that was slpy (sleepy) in a tree...  She is writing lots of sight words correctly, but doesn't seem to think other words have vowels apparently - ha.  Tyler isn't writing, but he is helping her think of what the song should be about.  Maybe they will be a famous song-writing duo one day  :)  - we do live in a good city for that to happen!  Uh oh, she is now asking me to read what she wrote and I need to pay better attention while she is sounding it out or I will never get it! 

Finally!

Well, my dad visited this weekend and we finally got the swing set put up!  We really enjoyed spending time with the crew and T & K really like playing with my dad's girls.  Katie is absolutely ecstatic to have a swing set - she woke up Monday morning and begged to swing for "just a minute," immediately came home after school and went straight to swinging, and was excited to see the "snow" this morning but sad that it probably meant it was too cold to go outside (it definitely was - the first cold always feels even colder than it actually is).

They had a fun evening, though, despite not being able to play outside.  Tonight I had a board meeting, so Lance took them to the Vandy basketball game.  They all seemed to have a good time and he said they were well-behaved and enjoyed the game atmosphere.  We are cutting it close on homework this week since we haven't even looked at it yet, but they will get it done and fun evenings with dad are worth it! 

Halloween and now Christmas!

My sister asked me today what the kids would like for Christmas and although my initial reaction was that she is way more on the ball than me, it also made me realize that it really is time to start thinking about Holiday madness!  I have been putting together a wish list on Amazon for the kids and I can't help but get excited about this year.  They are already making Santa lists and letting us know things they like, and it is kind of fun to finally have a year that they are aware and eagerly anticipating all of the Christmas and Santa hullabaloo.  I do have to say, though, that it is a little disconcerting how "old" Katie's big requests seem to me.  She really, really wants something that "plays music, with headphones, and takes pictures."  Sounds like an iPod to me and my baby girl couldn't possibly want something so big-kid-like  :)!  My work is crazy busy at this time of year, so maybe I should actually do what I always say I will and shop online early and get it out of the way! 

Halloween was fantastic.  Although a day late, the kids told the sitter that it was "the best night ever," and it was clear that they had fun on the actual Halloween night (we carved our pumpkin, ate pizza, and watched a movie) and the day after when we went neighborhood trick-or-treating and then ate freshly made smores with neighbors and friends in the cul-de-sac. 

Pumpkins!

K & T were both assigned a project to create book characters out of pumpkins.  Tyler's favorite book right now is Pete the Cat (same one he chose at the book fair) - so that was an easy decision for him.  Katie kept going back and forth and finally decided on Pinkalicious - only to have another little girl in her class show up with a Pinkalicious pumpkin on Tuesday which made Katie not want to do the same.  We already had all of the stuff, though, to create Pink and thankfully she finally was okay with doing another Pinkalicious because she said they would have twins!

They did a fantastic job!  Tyler wanted absolutely no help and did everything himself.  Katie cut the yarn pieces for hair (and asked me if every single one was the right size after she cut it), and did the face but wanted me to do the painting.  She is definitely averse to mess and getting dirty these days - so strange to me since she was the one that loved to play in the mud when she was littler!

We will carve our pumpkin tonight, and as a group the neighborhood has decided to push back our Halloween trick-or-treating to Friday night since the forecast for Thursday calls for 100% chance of rain and high winds and storms.  They will have a big day at school tomorrow with fun class parties and we may find something fun today out of the rain that night, but I am glad that they will still get to trick-or-treat at least in our neighborhood!

Report Cards

The kids got their first report cards and they both did great!  With all of this common core stuff the report cards read a little strange (from what I remember), but the main thing I take from them is that they are both on track and even ahead in some areas.  The report cards give the teacher the option to give a 1, 2, or 3 and say that students are not expected to receive a 3 until they have full mastery and typically that is at the end of the year since common core is measuring year long expectations.  So, with that said, Tyler only received a 3 in two areas but the rest were 2's and there were no 1's.  A 3 is "meets with proficiency," a 2 is "Developing Proficiency, and a 3 means that they require more time and experiences and shows limited achievement.  Both of Tyler's 3 areas were in Math (which he truly loves).  Katie, on the otherhand, received mostly threes.  In Language Arts/Literacy and Math she got a 3 in all areas.  She didn't get any 1's either, but got 2's in Science and Social Studies.  They both got overall scores of E - Excellent Performance, and got E for Exceptional Effort in all of their special classes.  I am very proud of how well they are both adjusting to Kindergarten. 

The disparity in the number of 3's isn't wholly surprising since Katie tries much harder to be a good student, and is a teacher pleaser which Tyler definitely isn't.  He has always been reluctant to demonstrate to teachers what he knows, for some reason, but I am completely comfortable that he is where he needs to be in terms of learning letters, and sounds, and especially vocabulary.  Some of it is the difference in teachers, too.  Tyler's teacher is not going to be overly impressed with much and really expects complete mastery and that there are very few areas where any student would have a 3 at this point in the year,  whereas I think Katie's teacher is looking at where she is compared to the other students and sees no reason to wait to give a three if she truly already has mastery of a skill (i.e. she can write all of her letters with very rare errors, but Tyler will sometimes write a few backwards which does technically mean that he doesn't have full mastery).  All in all, I am pleased with how they are doing and feel validated in the decision to put them in Kindergarten on the young side!