Hand Writing

As Elizabeth has struggled with some separation anxiety this year we have looked for creative ways to remind her that we are thinking about her during the day and that we will see her soon.  We have taken to a series of "hand writing" where mom will draw the item of choice on her own hand and on E's hand.  Then they have matching hands during the day to enjoy.

For a while it was a heart in a variety of colors.  And then Elizabeth thought that a Christmas tree would be great.  Of course, a Christmas tree would make her happy.  And then it went to Christmas trees with stars on top or hearts inside or even both!  We don't do daily drawings at this point, but sometimes she will still want one.  It made for an entertaining stretch of conversations at Mom's work during that time!

As Elizabeth had a 6 on her hand to remember her snack number on the first day, there have been other occasions where she will get something on her hand at school.  During a stretch of Hokey Pokey playing, the kids all got L's on their left hand so they could do the movements correctly if they couldn't remember left from right.  Little Miss Sneaky combined her two hand writings and asked Mom if she could draw on her hand before dance so she wouldn't be sad.  You can bet that Mom was surprised when this is what she found!  Not quite how the teachers do it, but she got her point across!

Back to School!

Right before school started we squeezed in another Branson trip with some friends.  We had a great time and it was fun for the kids to be able to do rides together.  On our way there, we also stopped at Fantastic Caverns for a tour.  Both kids enjoyed exploring the caverns in a big red jeep.

It was the last hurrah of summer!  It was time to meet teachers and start a new year!

Elizabeth got Mrs. Davis

Ben got Mrs. Campbell

They took the obligatory photos for Mom on the first day in the front yard and again at school.  They even both took one in their classrooms.  

Elizabeth is number 6 for where her backpack, snack and papers go.  She got a big 6 on her hand when she arrived so she could start learning her special number for the year.

The school year is going well for Ben so far.  He is enjoying his class and has really taken to reading.  They get prizes for logging reading minutes and he has really taken to that.  There are some days when he will log hours at a time!  He has gone through chapter books so fast that we are trying to keep up with him and find new series to start.  He is also a huge fan of the timed math tests.  When he gets through another series of the tests, he will get to start multiplication.  He has been waiting for this day since kindergarten!

Elizabeth is having an adjustment period at school.  It rocked her world to go to before and after care with the big kids for the first time as well as the big kid cafeteria and library.  We are working through it and she is improving daily.  Big brother has been extra sweet to help her out and still walks her from before care to class each day.  By the time the day gets going, she does really well and is working so hard on her sound spelling, counting by tens and many other skills.  By the end of the day she has several stories to tell about her day and is not eager to leave after care.  She has had time to warm up and is far too busy playing to think about going home!

Ben's 8th Birthday!

When did this happen?  8?  It can't really be true, but it is.....

Ben celebrated at school with donuts, at our house with family and at Incredible Pizza with friends.  Mom even tricked Ben and "wasn't sure if she could make it to the school birthday".  Mom knew all along that she had signed up to be Mystery Reader on that same day and surprised Ben after lunch with some of his favorite books to read to the class and got to help pass out the donuts.  Ben seemed to enjoy all of his celebrations and is pleased as punch that he is 8!

The Summer Highlights

We started the summer (even though school wasn't out yet) off with a trip to Branson. Not sure why one of the prisoners was so cheery and the other wasn't.

The next weekend school was officially out and Mom and Ben headed to Sunset Bible Camp for the one day 2nd grade camp.  There was crafting, sports, swimming (pool and lake), paddle boating, devotion time, missions and lots of fun games.  And of course the all important camp lunch and canteen snacks.  It was one of Ben's favorite events of the summer and by the time we got in the van to head home, he was planning how many nights he could stay next year with 3rd grade camp.  Gulp!

Summer also included some old favorites like Tulsa Tough.  Go Jeremy!

Camps of all kinds filled part of our summer schedule.  Ben did a basketball camp at TU and both kids enjoyed swim lessons.  Camp Invention, VBS and Music Camp were also repeat favorites from last summer.

Elizabeth got to go to a preschool graduation party at her favorite Bible Class teacher's house.  Ben starred in a puppet show at Kidz Klub.  We enjoyed a Drillers game with friends and also enjoyed various occasions with family.

The biggest holiday of the summer was the 4th of July.  This was the first year that the kids actually enjoyed fireworks so we celebrated for several days straight!!

We were also very blessed to be able to take a beach vacation this summer.  There are many more pics and stories, so we'll save that for another post.  It was a great summer and we are already anticipating more fun next year.  Our biggest difference between this summer and the year before was having our own pool.  There aren't any pics, but we sure had lots of fun times including hosting our small group, having friends to swim and enjoying lots of quick weeknight swims as well.  Ben is swimming like a fish and E is very confident in her floaties.  She will probably be on her own next summer.  So fun!!

The Beach!

Ben went on a beach trip just before his first birthday.  It has been 7 years since our family has been to the beach.  We decided to drive and experience a road trip as well.  It was an adventure!  The kids did mostly really well on the car rides.  We took two days to drive there and two days home as well.  We went to Seagrove, Florida in the Destin area.  It was about 14 hours one way.  Both kids took to the sand and ocean really quickly.  Ben was determined to surf and go as deep as we would let him in the ocean.  Elizabeth also liked the water, but mostly stayed a little more shallow and especially loved hunting for shells.

We drove to Destin a couple of times.  We went to a boardwalk area for a parade and shopping and another day we went on a dolphin boat cruise.

 

One of the things that the kids were determined to do was to catch a fish.  They tried with buckets for a while and then we bought nets.  They were still very difficult to catch.  Those little dudes were fast!  Mom was the only one to catch one.  We kept it in a bucket and the kids added sand and seaweed to make it feel at home.  We let it go after a while so it could get back to its family.

After all of the beach and ocean play we worked up big appetites each day!  We enjoyed eating at our condo some and dining out at new places.  We even found a homemade popsicle place that we went to two days in a row it was so good!  We would have gone more, but we didn't try it until the last couple of days of our trip.

It was a great trip and the kids are now official beach bums.  They look forward to going back some day to enjoy the surf again.