Another school year over

This year I volunteered to be a room mom for Ellen's classroom. Two other moms also volunteered, so we worked together. We helped with the Fall Fest fundraiser, Christmas and Valentine's Day parties, field trips, and field day. It was fun to get to know other parents and kids in Ellen's class.

Ellen and Jack both started out the year reading well, but they didn't do much independent voluntary reading. I started checking out chapter books and reading Ellen a chapter each night in bed. After a few chapters she asked if she could just finish it on her own because she couldn't wait another night to hear what would happen.

Ellen's self portrait

It worked so well with Ellen that I started looking for books to read with Jack. I read all the Sarah, Plain and Tall books, several Zach Nebulon books, and a few others. A couple of times I read a chapter and then said, "Jack, don't read ahead without me, okay?" I could tell which stories he really got into, because he read ahead anyway (which was the idea, of course). By the end of the year he was reading Magic Tree House books on his own in bed.

Jack's self portrait

Now that it's summer, there is enough light outside when the kids go to bed that they don't even need more than a light on in the hall. When it gets too dark to read, it's time to go to sleep. Summer reading is in full swing currently. One local library requires 20 hours, and another library has the kids read ten books at a time and lets them pick a prize or coupon. So we're doing both, and it has been really fun to read and see what the kids like to read. Ellen checks out Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew books. Jack likes Magic Tree House. Rose loves princesses and Pinkalicious, and Elijah will read/look at anything about vehicles, boys, animals and machines.

I love reading!

Piano teacher

I have always wanted my children to love music and learn to play an instrument. Piano makes the most sense, since I can teach them myself. In the past couple of years we have begun our journey of piano lessons. My mom taught beginning piano lessons for many years. When I was going through her music to find lesson books for Ellen and Jack, I found a notebook she kept with recital programs and a picture of her students and herself at the recital. What most amazed me was that every single youth in my ward who has some musical knowledge appears at some point in a picture at a piano recital with my mother. They were eight-, nine-, and ten-year-olds in the pictures, and they are now college students or finishing up high school.

Mom taught piano right up until she was too sick to do it anymore. Almost as soon as we moved here, friends were asking me if I was planning to teach piano. When I didn't have a piano of my own, I went to my students' houses. My kids played in the back yard with siblings while I taught. Two of those families have since moved away, and we miss them! Now that I have my own piano, teaching Ellen and Jack (and soon, Rose and Elijah) is my number one priority, but I have several other students as well.

I held a recital at the end of May, a first-time experience for all but one of my students. It was short and sweet, and I am really proud of how much these kids have worked and learned. I took a picture and kept a recital program to slide into the next empty page protector in my mom's notebook.

I love everything about this picture. The extreme concentration, the long, skinny fingers, the fact that Jack is walking music. If you sing it to him, he'll remember it... I just had a little epiphany. I may be singing a lot more as the summer goes on. Jack despises practicing and is a little resentful of the fact that I am requiring him to develop his musical talent. But he has lots of good role models and understands that there are things we excel at because we like to do them, and there are things we excel at because we work hard at them. He is a natural, and I am stubborn, so we will keep at it. Even Jack gets excited about being able to actually play a song after he has put in the hard work practicing.

Life happening: Ellen's baptism

While I've been away from blogging, life has definitely been happening. Even though I'm posting this in March, I'm going to date it in November so on the off chance I get around to printing a blog book, these memories will end up in the right year. 

We are so proud of Ellen's decision and excitement to be baptized. We took pictures of Ellen with her parents, grandparents and great grandparents, but most of her aunts, uncles, and cousins were there as well.

 

Eldest

I love this girl.

She is so happy.

She loves to laugh.

She loves to take crazy selfies with my phone.



She loves school and her teachers.

She loves taking silly selfies with my phone.














She loves to play with friends and sisters and cousins.

She loves to try new things!

Happy birthday, Ellen!!

How do you spell "peace"?

A friend gave me several printed pages and this frame as a housewarming/birthday gift a couple of years ago. I don't change it very often, and I still have a couple of pages I haven't displayed yet. I have it hanging over my stove in the kitchen where I can see it all the time, and last Thursday I retired "Charity Never Faileth" and installed "Peace, be still."

After school Jack Jack casually mentioned, "Oh, good. You finally changed the picture." Ellen looked over and exclaimed, "PEACH, be still?" I started laughing, and Jack responded, "No! PLEASE, be still." I laughed even harder, and Rose corrected them both. "PEACE, BE STILL!" Jack and Ellen looked more carefully, and then Jack said, "'Please, be still' makes more sense than 'Peach, be still.'"

Yes, yes it does. I'm going to like having this page up.

The Artist

Ellen brought a note home in her folder that said her artwork had been chosen for a display at the Hewitt Community Center. She didn't know anything about it.

So one day after school we went over to take a look and find her artwork.

I was super impressed. Ellen is always saying she wants to be an artist when she grows up. After we got home, we were talking about college, and she asked me what you do at college. I was telling her you take classes, and if you want to be a scientist you take science classes, and if you want to be a teacher, you take classes about teaching. She caught on really quickly, and got very excited about taking art classes. Then we started talking about different jobs artists can do. "What? Do you get paid to be an artist?!? I can't wait." Haha. Fortunately, there are lots of professions that an extremely creative person can do and not be a starving artist. I love seeing her creative work, and all she wants for her birthday and Christmas are more art and craft supplies.

Choir practice

So when I tell the girls to stay on the bench and not move during choir practice, this is what I get.







Pretty sweet. And they stayed on the bench. Awesome.

Ellen's teacher

Ellen's wonderful first grade teacher had emergency open heart surgery the week after school was out. We love her so much and have had many conversations with her about Elijah and her own heart problems, so we were sad to hear about her surgery. She wrote to me that her doctors have deemed her a "walking miracle" and that she is very fortunate that she and her doctors realized something was wrong and were able to act so quickly to help her get better. Happily, she is recovering well, and we hope to have her and her husband over for dinner soon. In the meantime, the kids and I made get well cards to send to her.



We would appreciate your prayers for her.

Not quite how I remembered it...

Don't they look so "relaxed" as they are "enjoying" themselves, soaking up the sun?

Kindergarten graduation

I have really got to get a hold of my emotions here. I started tearing up just walking my kids to school on Wednesday, the last day of school. We hadn't even gotten to the Kindergarten graduation, which I find a little ridiculous in theory, but so sweet and cute as a parent in reality. We hadn't gotten to saying goodbye to our favorite two teachers, and to cleaning out back packs and lunch boxes.

Ellen begged me to make bread for her teacher, so I made two little loaves and let Ellen and Jack make thank you notes for their teachers and carry them to school that morning. I stopped by Ellen's class before going on to the cafetorium for the big Kinder program because the room moms had emailed that they were presenting Ellen's teacher with a gift from the class, and since I had contributed, I was interested to know what it was. 

Ellen's teacher was even more emotional as she repeated that she is really going to miss this class, and that they have been one of her best in all her years of teaching. As a mom, my only wish in sending my kids off to spend seven hours a day at school was that they would have teachers who would love them, and I feel very blessed in the teachers they've been spending all their time with for the past nine months.

At the kindergarten graduation, all the kids marched in in a little cap and gown. The kid next to Jack was standing right in front of him on the risers, so it was a little hard to see him, but then they closed the curtains, showed a slideshow of all the kids and their classes, and reopened the curtains to the kinder program "What Makes a Rainbow?" Then we couldn't see Jack at all, and I had to stand up and walk up the side to find him. I was very, very excited to see him sitting on the floor with three other kids, playing a xylophone. This was the accompaniment to the singing, in addition to the music teacher's keyboard. Playing instruments is something I want to encourage long-term in my kids. 

After each child had an individual curtain call and exit to the classroom, the parents were all released to the classrooms to pick up kids. We took Jack home, ran a few errands, ate lunch, and headed back to the school at noon to get Ellen. Her class spent their last day of school having their teacher spray paint their hair. Appropriately, Ellen's hair was rainbow colored.

Seeing Jack Jack on that stage that morning and feeling like if I blinked I'd be sitting at his high school graduation instead was a little unsettling. The good news is, I still have two more kindergarten graduations to sit through. The bad news is, my last K program will also be the year I have a daughter in middle school. I wonder if my mom ever felt like this... my kids are running on ahead of me, not even looking back to wave, and I can't keep up. Sigh.

Teacher Appreciation Day

My kids have loved their first year of school.

I love these women and how much they have taught, loved, and believed in Ellen and Jack.

Jack's teacher was named Teacher of the Year for the entire school district. We are so grateful and appreciate all they do!

Girls' Day

I took the girls to their first ever Baylor Women's Basketball game. Rose looked like this for most of the game. When I noticed she looked a little concerned about something, I questioned her and she told me, "Mom, there's a bear." She wanted nothing to do with the mascot, and kept her eye on him at all times.


We were up in celestial seating, a.k.a. nosebleed, a.k.a. far from the bear.


The bus ride to and from the parking garage was fun! The girls counted buses. We had to wait for the fourth bus to get to the game, and we had to wait for the eleventh bus to get back to our car.


Following the game, the girls voted for Chick-fil-A for lunch, playing, and ice cream cones.
We loved our girls' day!

Resurrection Ruffles

This morning at breakfast Ellen asked me how old we'll be when we're resurrected. "Will we be babies?"


I told her I didn't know, but that we'd probably be at our perfect age.

Jack said, "Like five?"
Mom: "You think five is your perfect age?"
Jack: "Yes, because you don't have any ruffles."
Mom: "What are ruffles?"
Jack: "You know, you get ruffles on your face when you're old. Look at my face. I don't have any."

Mom: "You mean wrinkles?"
Jack: "Oh yeah. Wrinkles."

It's true. No wrinkles or ruffles on these cute little faces.

But I like Daddy!

Jack has to go to a work conference for a couple of days, so today he was telling the kids that he would be out of town. His conversation with Ellen went like this:

Daddy: "I'm not going to be sleeping here tomorrow night, Ellen."
Ellen: Immediately bursts into tears, wailing, and sobbing.
Daddy: "What's the matter? It's just for a couple of days. I'll be back."
Ellen: "But I like Daddy!"

Sheesh. She's only seven. I can't wait to see what we get when she's a teenager.

Ellen is 7!

We let Ellen choose a friend party or a family party this year. She chose to go out to eat as a family. We had lots of fun.

Ellen loves school and was so upset to miss a day last week when I had to take her to get her ears checked. Ear infection. One day absent.

She is a sweet older sister, and sometimes bossy, but she loves to teach her siblings what she knows. She loves crafts, and asked for art supplies for her birthday.

Ellen is creative and independent, and very kind.

She's so grown up. Sigh.