Field Trip!

Daniel's grade was invited to attend an event at the hospital earlier this month. I had the day off of work, but had other things that I needed to get done that day. However, the teachers said we would only be gone until around noon-time, so I joined them. It seems as though there are never enough hands to help with the 4 year old class. I was assigned my 3 kids (including Daniel) to keep an eye on for the trip. To pass the time before departure, we read stories in the classroom.
We had front row viewing of the stage. I was sitting on the grass with 1 four year old in my lap and two others leaning up against me. I could't help but giggle when Mickey came out and the kids around me all cheered!

I was amazed at how well these little ones were listening to the stories of the other children that had been sick and were now getting better.

Most of the class with two of the best teachers at the school! Notice Daniel's little head right beside Mrs. Dianne - he loves her.

Me and Daniel hanging around. He's still small enough for "pick me up, Mom, I'm tired". But he's so long, I don't know how much longer that will last.

So proud of his finding! Talk about attention to detail, even the confetti sprayed into the air were shaped like Mickey heads. Of course, now that one or two kids had confetti, some of the adults had to poke through the grass to make sure everyone had one.

I was thinking that we were done, and I was ready to board the bus again. Then the principal of the school came out and suggested to the teachers that the kids take a tour of the lobby.
We let the kids do a quick walk-through and then it was time to go.
Daniel was not interested in walking through the lobby. Our kids have been through the lobby many times during various different trips to the hospital to visit either me or Grandma at work. So for Daniel, it was a little too crowded for him. Like his Grandpa Joe, he's content to just find a chair and hang out.

While outside waiting on the school bus, we ran into one of the volunteer dogs. He looked just like our Lilly.

The teachers decided to visit a local park briefly so that the kids could have lunch and run around for a while.


They had a great time and burned off quite a bit of energy! It was a really cool park and I'm hoping to remember how to get there, so I can take all the kids sometime this summer.

Daniel and his friend sharing my seat on the ride home in the bus telling me what a good time they had.

Daniel and his friend 2 minutes later.... sound asleep.

They all went home with adorable glowing magic wands. So cute!!

March 2011 - FLEC 5K

The kids participated in the Forrest Lake Education Center (FLEC) 5K this year. Their run was a 1 mile fun-run. This run raises money for the worthy student fund. However, we've never actually heard what the qualifications are for being one of these worthy students. :)

The pre-K kids were the first corral of kids to cross the starting line, accompanied by a police escort!

There's my speedy fellow! His little legs were just a moving away!
However, when he saw everyone clapping, he stopped to clap and look around to see what was going on. :) I was just a few feet away and told him to keep running until he gets to the balloons.
And there he goes, crossing the finish line!

Megan crossed the finish line just a few minutes later. That girl can run!
With their medals, and their water, they hung out waiting for Joshua to cross the finish line.

And there he is! He did great!
They all got their medals and were very proud of themselves. We decided to stick around to see the 5k race, but had a lull in the activity, so we wandered around inside in the air conditioning. We came across the Florida Hospital for Children logo, and Megan asked if I had brought some babies to the school to watch her run. She's obsessed with babies and now in her world, it's okay that I go to work and miss dinner some nights because I'm "taking care of babies". Anyhow, we wandered over to see what was happening, and she was slightly disappointed that there weren't any babies. But there were t-shirts to color on...almost as good!
We chatted with some nice folks that work with Grandma, and they encouraged the kids to think about what they wanted to do when they are 100 years old.
When Daniel is 100 years old, he wants to live by himself in a small house near the water. So funny for the baby of the family to want some alone time! He's such a typical third child!

When Megan is 100 years old, she wants to swim in the ocean with me. Uh, we haven't talked about how old I'll be when she's 100 years old, but if I'm expected to swim in the ocean when I'm 128, I better start working on my backstroke, or in the very least cut back on my sugar, caffeine and cholesterol.

Joshua was too shy to let me take his picture with his shirt. However, he drew an awesome chess board and insists that he'll be playing chess with Meow-meow when he's 100.

It was a good time! We stopped for bagels and bananas on the way home.

Wrapping up the School Year

The school year is almost over for Keith and the kids. Keith is actually off at school right now taking one of his final exams. The kids have enjoyed school this year. They like seeing all of their friends, and for the most part, we like their teachers. Some samples of school work from this year....

Joshua's illustration of Do Not Steal. It is a bank robbery in process.

Part of Megan's Thanksgiving book...what she is thankful for at mealtime. Notice the two pieces of pumpkin pie on her plate!

Megan's illustration of her family, complete with the dog!

Aww...more pictures of the family from Megan.

The book below is written and illustrated by Megan. What a great way to see what is flowing through her mind.

Below are some of Joshua's stories from the writing center in his classroom, mixed with some other classwork.

I don't understand this new "castle math", but Joshua sure does! If things have changed this much in just the 2nd grade, I'm in big trouble when they hit the teen years.

A lovely coloring job by Megan.

More writing by Joshua....

And we can't forget about Daniel. Daniel's teacher is amazing and understands that children his age shouldn't be at a desk any more than necessary, and so most of his learning is through experience, and so he doesn't have a lot of worksheets to share.

Daniel's sweet first day of school!

For each letter of the alphabet, Daniel came home with a paper plate craft representing that letter. It was very clever. (That's a frog.)

More writing by Joshua...