I spy

As we drove to church this morning the big kids were playing in the back.

Anna-Kate: "I spy with my little eye something blue."
Ryan: "I know, it's your shoe."
AK: (full of superiority) "Ryan, this shoe is black, not navy blue."
R: "Umm, I know, it's your shoe!" (totally reminded me of Dory from Finding Nemo).
AK: "No!"
R: "It's the clouds!"
AK: (very teacherly) " Now Ryan, clouds are white."
R: "Not the sky, the air--it's the air!"
AK: "Ryan, it isn't the air, it's the firmament. This ones too hard for you. I spy with my little eye something pink. It's on me. It's my dress."

We were rolling.

Favorites...first grade edition

Back to school questions

           Anna-Kate August 2012 (1^st grade)

1.     What is your favorite toy? Baby Kate

2.    What is your favorite color? Pink

3.     What is your favorite fruit? Cherries or plums

4.    What is your favorite TV show? Jake and the Neverland Pirates

5.    What is your favorite movie? Snow White

6.    What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac and cheese

7.    What is your favorite outfit? Flower girl dress (Uncle Hunt’s wedding)

8.    What is your favorite game? Hide and Seek

9.    What is your favorite snack? Milk and cookies

10.  What is your favorite animal? Zebra and giraffes

11.  What is your favorite song? None

12.  What is your favorite book? Samantha books (American Girl)

13.  What is your favorite vacation place? Disney, especially the Polynesian

14.  What is your favorite thing to play? with my dollhouse

15.   Who is your best friend at school? Grace and Marin 

16.  Who is your best friend at church? Natalie 

17.  What is your favorite sport? Basketball

18.  What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swing

19.  What is your favorite drink? Pink lemonade

20.   What is your favorite holiday? My birthday!

21.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Pinky the pig, blanket, & lambie

22.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? White donuts

23.  What is your favorite restaurant? Uncle Julios

24.  What do you want to be when you grow up? A Mommy

25.  What is your favorite thing about school? Getting to see friends and my teacher

26.  What is your favorite school subject? Art and reading

27.  What is your teacher’s name? Mrs. Farrar

28.  What is your favorite thing you did this summer? Be home with Mama.

29.  What is your favorite date to do with mom? Icecream date and going to the mall.

30.  What is your favorite date to do with dad? Starbucks to get cake pops.

Just a fun little comparison picture. She looks a lot the same--thinner face and she is almost 3 inches taller than last year. Still my sweet precious Anna-Kate!

First day of kindergarten

First day of first grade

The report is that school is awesome! She came home and had snack yesterday and asked if she could go back to school. I consider that to be a positive statement! :) I told her she has to sleep first. She said, "Ok, I'll go take a nap and then go back!". So, so thankful for our wonderful school, her sweet friends and a teacher who loves her, has prayed for her and has made this re-entry to school so easy and smooth.

First day of first grade

{alternate title: Time Marches On}

We spent the last 5 days soaking up the last minutes of summer--as in, more fun stuff than we've done all summer! Thursday we went to Six Flags, Friday we went to the zoo with Nana, Saturday Anna-Kate and I had our breakfast date with Leigh-Ann and Adam followed by Anna-Kate's back to school party, then a lunch date with Jessica and Marin! Sunday we went to church, attended the promotion Sunday picnic/bounce house extravaganza and went to home group that night. Monday morning we had a playdate here with Marin, followed by a huge Chick-fil-a gathering (15 kids total counting siblings, but 6 going into first grade with Anna-Kate) and then brought Grace home for an afternoon playdate. That afternoon/evening was spent at school to meet her teacher, see the classroom and enjoy the back to school picnic! It began pouring so we ate first (Chris had BBQ, I had Mexican and the kids, shocker, had CFA). I decided to truly be a fun mom and said we could stay and do the bounce houses/carnival games in the rain. All of the kids were soaked (except for Mark who slept peacefully in the sling under my umbrella with me!) and had the.time.of.their.lives. Whew!

This morning Anna-Kate came in before I had even gone to wake her up, fully dressed and ready to go! Chris stayed home for a fun family breakfast (and so I could take her and walk her in with a bit less chaos than is bringing all of my munchkins anywhere).

Eggs and muffins...breakfast of champions!

Mark wanted in on the family table action.
Ryan wanted him to sit next to him. :) 

My big 1st grade girl! No more canvas bag--
her own backpack this year!

Silly kids. Jack would not be separated from his muffin,
andevidently wouldn't be joined with his pants. Hmm.

Growing up too fast!

With the Daddy

Sweet friend, Adam (got this same picture last year.)

wWth her teacher, Mrs. Farrar

Saying goodbye to my big girl!

Hard at work already!

First grade, here we come!

What's in a name?

If you are me, a lot. :)

So I previously hinted at some of the "rules" or parameters for naming Mark. It became quite a lengthy and extensive list by the end of the process. :) We had many friends pondering with us as we attempted to find the perfect name.

Family name.  Had a good meaning. Four letters long.  Contained an "A".  Did not begin with "A", "R", "J" or "H". Couldn't end the same way as our last name. Not short for anything (ie, "Will" was off the table because it is short for William).

***

So, for fun, I will include all of the kids' names and their meanings.

Anna-Grace, favor
Kate-Pure
Ruth-Faithful friend

Ryan-Little king
Elliot-My God is the Lord

Jack-God is gracious/His gracious gift
Henry-Ruler of the home

Mark-Strong warrior
Christopher-Bearer of Christ

I have loved watching my kids grow up and take on their names, and what their name meanings have brought us to pray for them. Just a little special thing for me.

Dancing queen!

So, while we're talking about how April slipped away from me and I utterly failed at documenting my children...here's Anna-Kate's school ballet recital {hangs head in shame}. She did such a good job and we were so proud of her! My mom was able to come up and we had a yummy dinner at our favorite pizza place before getting to school. She looked beautiful in her dress and remembered all of her moves perfectly, even helping the little girl near her remember what to do. Very, very cute. They danced to Miley Cyrus' "Love That Lets Go". While I wasn't initially thrilled about her introduction to Miley, when I asked her about the song she said, "Oh, it's some Smiley girl song. What kind of crazy name is Smiley anyway?" Lol. Sure do love this girl!

Beautiful girl

They were butterflires. She danced so elegantly and the dress was perfect. :) 

Sweet friends...Annie, Natalie, AK and Marin

The kindergarten dancers.
Caroline, Alena, Marin, Anna-Kate, Sara Alden, Natalie, Rebecca, Annie, Marin

Her sweet buddy Adam came to support her and watch her perform. :) 

Mary Phillips and Anna-Kate

Chapters ending...

Here's a quick rundown that I've had most morning and evening with my unborn babe, on why he can't join us in this world until June 1.

1. His sister's birthday is all the party planning I can handle mid-May.
2. By the same token, we already have a family birthday in May, he can take June.
3. I wanted to finish school and be able to attend all of Ryan and Anna-Kate's end of the year things (ballet recitals, soccer games/parties, field days, last day of school stuff etc).

Clearly, we have a good listener on our hands. :) While it still isn't June, the major milestone of school ending, has come and gone. And I now have a pre-K4 and a 1st grader on my hands! Completely boggles my mind how this is possible.

Anyway, Ryan's school ended a week before Anna-Kate's. We had a sweet little party with pizza and icecream sundaes for the kids, their closing program that night and then a family carnival the following morning. So fun, super cute, and just completely re-confirmed the decision we made to move him--precious school, precious director and just an all around good thing. So pleased. 

 They had a luau themed party, complete with soccer plates. :)

Ryan and Lydia

Jack on cloud 9 with his bowl of icecream, sprinkles, gummy bears and "treats" (m&m's which he normally only gets for going potty. Lol).

Ryan with his sweet teachers, Grace and Lori

Jack at the carnival the following morning. Both boys couldn't get over their luck that there was cotton candy. :)

In fact, Ryan couldn't be bothered to stop eating and smile. :)

After our hotdogs, chips, cookies, cotton candy, snow cones, and time on the bounce house, Ryan opted into some face painting. He convinced Ms. Lori to give him a pirate patch. Sad that I felt very cool for not telling him no. He looked like he'd been punched by that evening in the pool for his sisters' birthday party...

With his best buddy at school, (besides Lyd, of course) Graeme. So sad they won't be together next year. Graeme is joining his sister at her school for pre-k. 

In the new format of blogger, I haven't figured out how to move pictures that are uploaded out of order...so these shall remain out of order. :) The Thursday evening show.

 Ryan and Lyd waiting to go on stage.

I love the intensity with which Ryan is pointing to his eyes. Lol.

Smiling and singing...love it.

The following week was Anna-Kate's big week! She had field day on Wednesday followed by a very sweet and special last day of school (chapel and a small party in her class). 

Yep, I got her to wear shorts. We "girled" it up with a pink accented hat and bows on the shoulders to try and keep the humongous shirt on. :) 

Haley, Marin, Anna-Kate and Natalie. So blessed with sweet little girls in her class. :)

 with Grace

Her TA, Mrs. Byrd and teacher, Miss Miller. Such a blessing they were this year. In addition to teaching the kids all of the academics, they helped bring my sweet girl out of her shell, make her comfortable being away from me all day, and frankly, helped me be OK with them having my girl all day. No small feat. :)

The kids stood and recited the whole of Psalm 8 for the parents--complete with energy and hand motions. It was awesome! After, Miss Miller handed out awards to the kids for various character traits, creativity etc. Anna-Kate was given the character award for "her over abounding love, joy and servants heart." I was so proud to hear these words!

To celebrate the end of school we went with our friends to Costco for some pizza (though Anna-Kate opted out, still "not liking sauce"...and got a smoothie) and then to Chuckee Cheese for some game time. Again, sad that I felt like such a rock star Mama for this little gesture. :)

"Ride Seh-dee?" These two are so sweet together and Jack just talks about Sadie all the time. :) 

My girl turns 6, gulp.

I had a mother-fail this year. Ryan's end of the year carnival was on Anna-Kate's actual birthday. He couldn't attend without me, and I so hated for him to miss it. So, I took her cookie cake (her request) the day before her birthday and we celebrated the last day of her being five. :) She seemed to roll with it pretty well. I told her this way we spaced out the sugar...Friday is icecream day at school (her actual birthday) and it was also her party day. She seemed OK with it. God love her!

Morning of her real birthday. She said, "Mama, do I look bigger now that I'm six? I feel taller!"

She has been begging for a sewing machine for almost two years. We saw one at Hobby Lobby and she saw that it said "ages 6 and up" so then changed to, "when I turn 6 I want a sewing machine" (such a first born rule follower...lol). She was beyond ecstatic to open her gift, and I was thrilled to find it at Ross for $11.99. :) Sewing lessons/pictures to follow.

This year she decided she wanted a luau. If you follow me on facebook/remember back to our creative differences, you'll see it's been a long road of planning. :) We had a great time and other than me running a bit late and the alarm at the clubhouse going off for 35 minutes (thus I couldn't get in to decorate etc...) it went off without a hitch! She loved it. :) Her cupcakes for the party.

Close up of the cupcakes. Brown sugar "sand" and piped on swimsuits for the bears (I mean, they couldn't just be naked!). :)

Food table. The pool is out behind this and the covered area is where we did dessert (cupcakes, cake, those nasty frozen sticks of sugar/dye/water--which the kids loved and was super easy, just sayin'. We served "Hawaiian fare" (ham on sister schubert rolls, cherries, pineapple, oranges, bananas, cheetos, and lays potato chips). There was strawberry lemonade to drink. (party fail #2 was forgetting the diet dr. pepper for the adults. Oops. Sorry, parents). The kids swam most of the time, but I also had a little craft for them to do as well--I painted picture frames--hot pink for the girls, turquoise for the 2 boys in attendance--and had sea shells for them to glue (with hot glue assistance) on to it. I'm emailing pictures of Anna-Kate with her friends to go in the frame. They seemed to enjoy that. Sadly, no pictures. ;)

Birthday girls had a special request...cherries and pineapple (though she later told me, "I like pineapple, but I really ordered it for my friends because they really love it." Yes, she said, "ordered it".)

The "Hawaiian luau princess" and my first attempt at a doll cake. I was pretty pleased and happy with what our lei from the Polynesian did to compliment the bottom. :) BTW, six candles is waaay too many!

A few of the party goers--Sara Alden, Marin, Grace, Anna-Kate and Haley. She has been so blessed with some precious little girls in her kindergarten class!

She LOVED her cake! By request she asked that everyone eat cupcakes at her party so we would have cake to bring home to have later. Lol. Smart girl.

It's OK that it took about 4 breaths to get those candles out. :)

Jack was in hog-heaven with his cupcake and popsicle.

It was really fun watching her open her gifts this year and take the time/be able to really read the cards. :)

Not a stellar picture, but the best we got. :)

Birthday girl with her awesome daddy!

Me with my precious girl. I sure do you love, Anna-Kate!

My mom and Anna-Kate share a birthday, so we always have to get a "birthday girl" picture! :)

She soooo loved having her Nana and Poppy there to celebrate with her!

Ryan wanted in on the pictures too (Jack, sadly, wanted nothing to do with it, and as it was 8:30 and bedtime is 7:30, I didn't press the issue). :)