Owen: End of Kindergarten!!

This young man has had a great year in Kindergarten!! He was excited to go to school each day and never got a bad note or call. He learned a lot and made some good friends too! We'll see if I can track down this tshirt in 12 years when he graduates high school!!

Owen came home with his desk supplies and notebooks. He seemed to really enjoy a notebook that he was able to draw in during morning work or just before dismissal. He described the pictures for me in this "short" 14-minute video. He really blows me away with his drawing ability AND Star Wars vocabulary in describing it!! (and I'm trying to get over the fact that all of these drawings include blasters!!)

Owen's Kindergarten Performance

After Owen despising musical performances in preschool, we're happy to say that he's enjoyed his 2nd musical performance of his lifetime (1st being this past Christmas at church)! The Kindergartners had an evening performance and Owen did great! He knew all the words and motions to the songs and genuinely looked like he was having a great time!

Animal Song

Caribbean Amphibian

Chickery Chick

Ladybug Picnic

Mary Had a Little Lamb

(I'm not sure what they're saying...haha!!)

Owen: Ninja zone, swimming, and writing

Since it's basketball season again and Owen doesn't really have any interest in watching the games, he brings activities to do while we're there. Sometimes he sticks around us and other times he makes a new friend. Quite a few times he's brought a writing journal, story starter cards, or a step-by-step drawing book. He'll draw the pictures then dictate the story for me to write. He's really enjoyed it!

 (he'd seen a cursive sheet, which inspired this attempt at cursive together)

He's still really in to Star Wars and Legos (and Star Wars Legos)

Owen still enjoys doing his Ninja class. We're having his birthday party there this year, which should be fun!

In action:

Bars

Floor

Trampoline

Beam

Vault

Owen is still in swimming lessons too. There have been more and more times where Dayna doesn't have to help him much! One time we were having a hard time finding a clean swim shirt so I asked if he wanted to go shirtless. He looked at me like I was crazy so I explained that boys could do that and reminded him of two boys in his class that never wear a shirt. He got pretty giggly and decided not to wear a shirt but almost couldn't get over it the whole class. Silly boy. 

In action:

Back

Front

Jump

Neighborhood Buddies (and lost tooth #2)

A prayer was answered when a new family moved in next door and they had a 5 year old son. The house beyond them has an 8 year old boy and suddenly the 3 of them have become quick playmates! They love playing outside together, no matter how cold it is! I snuck a couple pictures of Owen and Jacob playing together recently. 

Owen wasn't able to make it to a birthday party for a boy in his class, so I set up a playdate for them at the new Children's Museum and they had a great time and played really well together!

 Owen has also recently loved typing sentences on the computer! He asks for help stretching out some words but has also learned how to use spell check to see if it recognizes what he's spelling. When he's done we pick a picture off Google and I print it for him. He's been so proud!! So far he's written about king cobras, elephants, and fish. 

There are 4 things that I can definitely attribute to being learned at school for Owen:

coughing/sneezing in his elbow

an interest in coloring in the lines

music/singing (he's even excited about being in the church holiday program!)

dancing (check him out!)

Owen love his new Ninja pjs!!

Owen had a wiggly tooth on the bottom for.ever! He'd asked Chris to try taking it out a couple times but it wasn't quite ready. Last week when Willow and I were at gymnastics he asked him to try with floss, so Chris tied it up and gave it a yank but it wasn't quite ready but started bleeding a bit, which got Owen worked up (as it would any of us at 5 years old!). He didn't want Chris to mess with it any more so he ended up needing to cut the floss off and noticed it was sitting kindof twisted in the gums. Owen started shouting at 11:00 that night and thought he'd swallowed his tooth. I was doing my best to see if it had even fallen out but was drowsy and it was too dark to see. Then Owen started spitting and ended up spitting out his tooth onto his bed. Whew! He then plopped his head down and went back to sleep without any talk about it. Thankfully the Tooth Fairy let it set on his table that night so he could see it in the morning then she came to get it that night ;)  

Thankful!!

We have so much to be thankful for and my heart has been overflowing with gratitude in the past few weeks, especially enjoying the little moments in our day-to-day life!

Owen has really enjoyed coloring and writing since starting school. He's enjoyed reading "Magic Treehouse" books and even illustrated his own little book! Check him out explaining it!

Here's his camouflaged turkey for school. Hee hee!!

There's no doubt that the kiddos got their artistic talent from their father (sledding pic on the left)! Check out Owen's turkey and Willow's trampoline detail! 

I cherish moments like this!!

And I love the sweet friendships that our kids are building with their cousins! I'm so thankful we live close enough for this to happen!

Alli continues to love us and be loved by us! We are so thankful for her!!

We're thankful for our kids' creative minds. Owen is always building something new and loves to tell us all about it (or Gramps and Gramma on Skype).

The kids have always loved tickle attacks but have been requesting lightsaber battles and "Scare" (in the dark) a lot lately.

And here's the sweetest signature possible on my birthday card from Willow! My heart overflows!!

School Pictures

3rd grade

Kindergarten

Random Happenings (art, jersey day, GLASSES!!, puzzle progress, Alli cuddles, caramel apples)

Owen continues to blow me away with his art! Check out these cars!

And this poison dart frog. He didn't want to look at a picture of it to draw it either!

This Bill's jersey has been around for a while. It fit Owen well for jersey day recently. 

Here's Willow wearing it at 16 months old:

Willow had commented this fall about having a hard time seeing the board so her teacher had sat her close to the board. She also said that when she put her friend's glasses on that she could see better (gasp!!). Chris and I both have glasses so we knew both kids would at some point. Her vision was 20-20 at her last eye appointment so we have reason to believe this has been a decline in the past couple years versus believing she's never seen clearly. She did cause my heart to stop when her face completely LIT UP when she put them on and said, "Oh my gosh! I can see everything now!!" 

Aaaaaaand....my "summer project" has finally been finished! It was a doozy for sure!!

It's packaged and ready for it's next "victim" (haha!!) - a teacher friend at school!

It always surprises me when Alli decides that the kids lay still enough to hop up on our laps. It's super sweet when it happens though (not often!!).

 It brought back childhood memories to make caramel apples with Willow on Sunday! They're super yummy too!!