A Kindergarten Graduate

     Mikayla has graduated from Kindergarten!  I am extremely proud of her.  Although she tends to rush through everything {which frustrated both her teacher and I}, she passed the required letters and numbers.  There were some points in the year where I'm sure her teacher just wanted to grab her and say "what is this?"  We knew she could do so much better than the majority of things that were coming home, it was just a matter of getting her to sit down and take the time to do it.  And man do they cram a lot of stuff into Kindergarten now.  I don't remember doing anything but writing a few letters and cutting, but she did way more than that.  She wrote all her letters, knows 100 site words {+ others}, worked on adding and subtracting, telling time, cutting, and of course reading {which she is already above what they require for the end of first grade.  Yay!}.  And like I said she knows her stuff, it is just a matter of getting her to sit down and take her time to do it.  Below is the same information I gathered at the beginning of the year.  Man did she really grow 2 1/2 inches?  I'm sure I just didn't notice because I see her all the time, but it sure does explain why her shorts seemed so short this year. 

First Day of Kindergarten
Height:  42"
Weight:  37 lbs.
Hair Color:  Dark Blonde
Favorite Color:  Purple
Favorite Book:  Fancy Nancy:  Ooh La La!  It's Beauty Day!
Favorite Activity:  Visit Friends
Favorite Food:  Mac & Cheese
Best Friend:  Flora
Looking forward to most in Kindergarten:  Reading books

End of Kindergarten
Height:  44.5"
Weight:  {our scale is broken so I will have to update later}
Hair Color:  Dark Blonde
Favorite Color:  Purple and Pink
Favorite Book:  Any Biscuit book
Favorite Activity:  Visit Friends
Favorite Food:  Mac & Cheese
Best Friend:  Flora
Best Thing About Kindergarten:  Centers

Things They Say Thursday--June 2

     It has been a while since I have posted one of these, so here goes...  Instead of the traditional, this one is more a Things They Do.  While in Minnesota my mother-in-law had this great idea to take all the kids out to this Kids' Outdoor Adventure thing.  There were different activities for the kids to do, such as paintball, slingshot, trying on scuba gear, looking at animal furs, I think you get the picture.  When we get there it was nice outside with a cool little breeze.  We made it through the first four exhibits before it started to pour.  Thankfully each exhibit was covered by tents and we were able to stop at one of the larger ones to take cover.  When the rain had stopped we walked to the next one and just before we got to it, it started to pour again.  So we once again took shelter, this time for much longer.  By this time the kids were wet and ready to go.  I was holding onto Noah trying to entertain in any way I could.  The lady gave him a sucker {which lasted two minutes before he dropped it}.  I started singing songs to him, and as I was singing he started giving me kisses.  First on the lips, then on the forhead, and ears, and eyebrows.  Very, very sweet, but also a little strange.  Well, it helped pass the time and we moved again between showers.  Finally the rain let up and we were able to make it all the way to the car {while getting our shoes completely soaked}.  Oh, and of course the weather seemed to clear up just after we left.  When we got back to my brother-in-laws we turned on the t.v. and saw that there were tornadoes just in the area near where we were.  Really glad we left when we did.

Trip to Minnesota

     The weekend of May 20th we took a trip back up to Minnesota.  It is always good to visit family and let the kids play together.  The main reason for the trip, however, was that we had a disturbing diagnosis for Mike's mom.  So with the hopes of finding out more of the story we made the drive up there.  Come to find out that what the doctors were expecting to find was that cancer was spread out more in her body, and with that in mind gave her a prognosis of only living a few more months.  With more tests they discovered that it was not as spread out, but there is still cancer in her brain and that it has spread into her bones.  It was probably about three years ago that all of this started.  She was initially diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer.  With radiation, chemotherapy, and eventually surgery the breast cancer was gone but not before it had spread to her brain in the form of two tumors.  Surgeons were able to remove one of the brain tumors but the other was inoperable.  They continue to watch it for growth and spreading which is in part what tipped them off to it spreading into the bones.  Anyway, so there is a little of the back story.  When we got up there and were talking about it, it turns out that it is not as far spread nor immediately terminal like they had thought.  Such good news to hear.  The bad part is that the University of Minnesota implemented a new hospital system and it seems to have created a lot of confusion.  So for now we are at a stand still with how they will treat the cancer.  She may or may not get a port and go through chemotherapy again.  We just have to wait and see.  I was hoping to make another trip up there this summer, but Mike says that he will be doing a lot of travelling for work and it might not make it possible for us.  It looks like for now we will just plan on being up there for Thanksgiving.  But on a much brighter front, this trip did allow us the opportunity to see our newest niece.  She was born back in January, but with Mike's school and work schedule this was the first time we were able to visit her.  She is such a cute little baby.    Oh, and we celebrated Noah's and our nephews birthdays {since they share the same day}.

Mother's Day Bouquet

     Long time, no post...  There could be a long story for why, but let's just leave it at that we were very busy and blogger annoyed me.  I know it is past Mother's Day, but hey I like to use this blog as a sort of memory keeper.  So here are the Mother's Day flower bouquets that I did with the daycare kids.  I got the idea from here.  Instead of using plain white cardstock I went with some cardstock I thought would be more fitting from the kids.  I found the poem to go with them here.  The vases are made from empty toilet paper rolls and coordinating cardstock paper.  I think they turned out really cute.

My Little Snuggle Buddy

     Yep, I have one.  He is the cutest little thing {biased, I know}.  One of these days he is going to grow up and no longer be my little snuggle buddy, but for now I will enjoy the early morning and after naptime cuddling.  Sometimes I think he does it just because he knows I like to cuddle with him.  Take the time he came in our room in the morning over the weekend and climbed up to cuddle, after about 30 seconds he says "that's enough," and gets down to head down stairs for breakfast.  Oh how I love him!

Things They Say Thursday--May 5

     As hard as I tried to avoid all the hubbub over the royal wedding, it makes it very difficult when ALL the local channels were airing footage.  So what does this have to do with the things they say?  Well for the brief moment that I had the coverage on Noah was watching and asked "is that a reindeer?"  I of course said no silly boy {although I was not fully paying attention}, that it was just a hat.  It was not until I was watching The Insider later night that I got a real look at the hat.  Even Sharon Osbourne commented on how it looked like a moose.  And for some reason I could not stop laughing thinking back to Noah's comment.  Take a look for yourself, could it be a reindeer?

Gymnastics

     On Saturday Mikayla had her Spring Gymnastics Festival.  We get to watch her practice each week, but it is nice to be able to have the opportunity to see her put it all together.  She did a great job!  And if you can't tell, she really likes the spotlight.