Kate is done with 1st Grade

Kate did so well in 1st grade this year. She loved going to school so much that she won an award for perfect attendance and also one for academic achievement. Her class voted her friendliest, which I think is true. She is always nice to everyone. I can't believe that she will be starting 2nd grade tomorrow (we are year round here). I was the room mom for her class this year. The end of the year party was a lot of fun. Her teacher told me she wanted to have a breakfast, so I had parents contribute food and I had Brandon come and make pancakes. We played a bingo game I made with all the kids names. Her class was called Bear Country so I made little white bears for all the kids and we used permanent makers and decorated the bears, then passed them around for all the kids to autograph. The kids really seemed to like it and there were some very creative bear decorators.

Kate started 1st grade

Can you believe it? And she loves it. I was worried that it would be hard for her to get up everyday and be at school all day long, but she is doing great. She is so excited to go and to do all the homework. I hope that she will always love school. Matt is a little lonely and bored, but he goes back to school tomorrow. I am going to have so much free time, or kid-free time, I love it.

Catch up on two months

So, most of you already know that I am pregnant. I am almost 18 weeks and have been really sick for the past 12 weeks. I've had only a couple of good days in those weeks, most have been pretty bad. I have spent many days laying on the couch yelling up the stairs at the kids. I have also been know to pay Kate to entertain Matt, it actually works really well. Today we had a great lesson in Relief Society about keeping a journal and I have been inspired, despite how I am feeling, to recommit to my blog. So here is an update on the kids for May and June. Warning-this may be long and boring to most of you....

Matt had his 4th Birthday on May 17th. We had a little family BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's. Matt got a lot of gifts and was excited about every one. His favorite present was from Brandon and I, we got him his first bike.

Because of Matt's food allergies he cannot have a regular cake and requested a Jello Cake instead. (His first birthday I made a dairy free, egg free, wheat free cake and no one would touch it).Right now Matt is obsessed with Spider man. He loves everything Spider man. Grandpa Kirk got him a Spider man swimsuit and it is the only one he will wear.

In early June both kids took swim lessons. Kate really didn't care for them, but Matt went from being hysterical when water got splashed on his face to going completely under. He loved swim lessons and when they were over asked over and over again for more. He is currently taking private swim lessons from a teenage girl in our ward. It has been so hot and we have been in the pool almost everyday and both kids are swimming so well now. Brandon offered to take them anywhere they wanted to go on a daddy date if they would swim across the pool, something we thought would take all summer for them to do. Last week both kids did it and Kate got to go get ice cream and Matt chose Chuck E Cheese. I am so proud of how brave they are at learning to swim. If you knew how scared they were a few weeks ago you would be impressed too.

Kate only has one more week of Kindergarten left. Recently she won an award for being a good writer. She wrote out all the words to a song they were learning in school, including the humming part and gave it to her teacher. That is why Kate was given this award and the Principal ask Kate to sing it for everyone and she did it in front of all the other Kindergarten classes and all their parents.

I am sure many other things have happened, but these are the most important. I will try to be better at posting from now on.

Praying Mantis

Kate had a project for homework this week to make a 3D insect. She told me she wanted to do a praying mantis. I'm not sure where she even learned about them because they don't live here in California. I tried to talk her into something cuter and a lot easier, but to no avail. Once we started doing some research on the praying mantis I found that the female eats the male after they mate, so I liked them a little more. The project is suppose to be done as much as possible by the child and I really did try to let her do most of it. Here are some pictures of her praying mantis. She is so proud of it that she asked me to take a picture of her holding it.