Monday, April 12, 2010

My Girl's Parent Teacher Conference

BRAG ALERT - Go no further unless you want to hear my shameless brags about Elise!

I am so proud of Miss Ellie. We went to her parent teacher conference on Thursday and got a WONDERFUL report. Most importantly she's significantly improved her listening, responsibility, and organizational skills. She's a wonderful friend. She has a great sense of humor and has been "coming out of her shell." (She takes a while to warm up to new situations.) She's really enjoying show and tell and speaking to the class. This is a something she never would have done a few months ago, and I think her voice lessons (and some maturity) are helping with this. She's also doing very well with the academics. She recognizes and can write and make sounds for all upper and lower case letters and is reading simple books. She recognizes and writes all numbers up to 25 and can count to 100 (and then some). She can do simple addition and is really enjoying it. She's even been making up her own compound addition problems. But, her favorites are still art and language.

Max's New (Old) Haircut



Max's Hair in China


Max's Haircut From This Weekend
We took Max for a haircut this weekend. We've been missing his China haircut. The one he had when we first met him. We decided since the weather is warming up we'd try to replicate it. Unfortunately we didn't bring pictures and the stylist was not familiar with Chinese haircuts. We guided her the best that we could and I don't think it turned out too badly. I think we left the front a little wide and short, but it still looks cute.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Garden Project

It's all Grandma and Grandpa. This is a new venture for me. We'll see if I can manage to help her keep it alive.

After

Before





Ellie's creativity




We definitely have a budding artist on our hands. Ellie's mind is constantly coming up with new projects, ideas, and creations. Her are some of her latest.

The first one is her "Jane" outfit. Think Tarzan.

The second is a hula girl made from the leaves from a strawberry.

The last is her playdough creation. It's a park with flowers, bushes, a picnic setting, and a girl jumping rope. This is seriously better than I can do with playdough.

I love this girl. She keeps it interesting.


Dental update

I took both kids for their dentist visit last week.

Ellie is an old pro. She loves seeing Dr. Warden and getting her teeth cleaned. She got her first set of x-rays and her 6 year molars are set to come in soon. This means she's not far off from starting to lose her baby teeth. I can hardly believe it. That makes her seem so old. Her little pearly whites are so cute, I'll miss them.

Max did really well. He sat on my lap for the cleaning. He was a little intimidated at first, but settled right in and let them do a full cleaning. He does have one tiny superficial cavity, but we are going to wait until his next visit to have it filled. Not to shabby after being bottle fed and not having dental care for two years of his life.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Easter 2010

















We had a fantastic Easter this year. The kids woke up and opened their Easter baskets. No pictures since Max was in his undies. Max got some sand/dirt toys including a dump truck and two books, and Ellie got seeds/gardening supplies. She has been dreaming of planting a garden this year. She also got a couple of books including the second in the series of BOB books. (Since she READ the first set.) After Easter baskets, we dressed the kids and met my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew for church and then drove to my mom and dad's. It was a gorgeous day, almost 80 degrees and sunny. We changed the kids into their play clothes and they flew kites and played with their cousins. We had a great ham lunch and then a giant Easter egg hunt. I know my kids probably had at least 50 eggs each. My sister-in-law brought the bunny from her science classroom and the kids got to play with it a bit as well. They thought that was so cool.