To School We Go!

 Age 7-Mrs. Buchanan

 Age-6 Mrs. Bessey

 Age 6-Mrs. Bessey

Summer vacation has come and gone.  I cannot believe it is time to send my little ducks back to school.  I have to admit I prefer the lazy, spontaneous, schedule-free routine of summer.  We are excited for this school year though.  The boys have made a big change and will be going to a new school which means a new class.  We have meet the teacher and aids. Matt and I were thoroughly impressed and have a wonderful feeling about this year.  We know our boys are going to be in good hands.  We cannot wait to watch them grow and learn.  Kaia is really looking forward to 2nd grade and has a wonderful teacher.  We can only hope that this year will bring accomplished IEP goals and happy learning.  Here we go off to school!

Another Toothless Wonder

His body thinks just because he is now 6 it is ok for him to grow up all of a sudden.  Gabriel lost his first tooth last night and the one next to it fell out today.  Really?!  We have another toothless wonder wandering around our home.  Lucky for me, Gatlin's baby teeth are still holding on. Whew!

Perot Museum

Living outside of Dallas definitely has its perks.  We decided to take advantage of our big city and bought a family pass to the Perot Museum of Science.  We spent the whole day exploring their hands- on exhibits. We learned about everything: dinosaurs, weather, the human body, how things work and sports.  We also enjoyed roaming around the Children's Museum.  The boy's loved the water table and climbing on a mini version of Dallas' skyline.  Kaia love the Farmer's Market grocery store and making crafts.  We wore ourselves out but had a blast doing it.  We will definitely be heading back for more fun.

Matt's drawing

Mine

Gatlin was throwing a fit because we had just left the children's museum.  He wasn't ready to leave.  Silly boy, he laid there in protest for about 15 minutes.

Gabriel got in on the drawing/coloring action too!

Daddy and Kaia made a Sponge Bob

Yee-Haw for VBS!

A friend of mine told me about a vacation bible school that is here in our community.  She said that her children had been each year that they lived here and that they loved it.  The boys have ESY (extended school year) so I thought that this would be something fun for Kaia to do while they are gone.  It lasted for a week.  She received a t-shirt, made lots of new friends, and learned a bunch of songs.  On the last day they had a little program.  It was the cutest thing.  Kaia had a wonderful time. This will definitely have to become a new summer tradition for us.

Dr. Dad's Day

I loaded the Rowdy 3 up to go and pick out something special for our extra special and totally awesome Daddy!  Matt has really taken up golf and for a medical school graduation present my parents got him a set of clubs.  The clubs have been great to him except the driver.  I decided to take advantage of the Father's Day Sales at Dick's Sporting Goods and got him a new driver. He was shocked but it didn't take him too long to warm up to it.  I took the kiddos to Target and let them each pick out some candy for him. It was a low key day and with Matt's busy schedule that was just what our Doctor ordered. 

We love our Daddy!

Super Star Student

Kaia's school had their awards ceremony today.  She received 3 awards!  Her first one was the Six Flags 360 Minute Reading Award.  The students were asked to read for 360 minutes.  If they completed the task they would receive a free ticket to Six Flags, a picnic, and their certificate.  Kaia absolutely LOVES to read so this was no challenge for her.  She was very willing and excited to take on this challenge. The second one was the Miss May Vernon Citizenship Award.  This was for receiving a 90 and above conduct grade for each 6 weeks of school.  The final award was the Chick-Fil-A Certificate of Achievement for: Good Character.  She was so proud of herself and we were too.  She finished out this school year with all As and only one B (in Math).  As a first grader by the end of the school year they are required to be reading on a Level 16.  Kaia is reading on a Level 38.  Yeah, she is pretty amazing and on her way to 2nd grade this fall. 

Splashing Their Way out of Pre-K!

It is the end of another school year for my sweet boys.  This ending was a little different because this was the last year that they will be attending the school they have been going to for the past two years.  Next year they will divide their time between a life skills class and kindergarten.  We are looking forward to the change in pace and hope they adapt and continue to learn. We are going to miss the group of teachers and aids that have worked with them.  They are so special to us and have helped the boys progress. We didn't say goodbye.  We decided to say til we meet again.  Luckily everyone lives really close and we will be able to keep in touch. 

During the last week of school they had beach day. The teachers set up 7different stations that the children rotated from every 15 minutes. There was a water table, bubbles, tricycle wash, sidewalk chalk, sand pile, pool, and bounce house.  The boys had a little difficulty understanding that they couldn't spend all of their time in the pool but with a little extra help and some verbal reminders they spent 15 minutes at each station and enjoy every minute of it. 

Gatlin and his GQ pose.  He is too cute for his own good sometimes.

I love this picture of Gabriel and Miss Connie.  He looks so surprised by all the bubbles.

Camp Miss May

The end of the school year is approaching.  For the past two weeks, Kaia's class has been working on a camping unit. Today was the last day.  All of the 1st graders had a picnic and then we went on a nature walk.  This has been a great year for Kaia.  She has made some wonderful friends and has grown so much.  It's hard to believe she will be in 2nd grade next year.

They made their shirts. 

Aubree and Kaia playing tag.

Ready to Run

Kaia had field day at school.  She participated in 3 events: softball throw, 50-meter dash, and 2 x2 relay.  She is quite the little athlete.  She won 1st place in the 50-meter and 3rd in the softball throw.  I loved watching her.  I was so proud of her.  She is a determined little girl and did her best in everything. 

Mildred, Kaia, and Tanner

Softball throw

Caroline, Kameryn, and Kaia getting ready to run.

Tug of War