First and Fourth

Apparently this is how you entertain yourself waiting for back to school night to start.......

This first day of first grade was a big day for Nora. Her first full day of school, first cold lunch, first lunch recess... She loved lunch recess and was stoked when we told her it was going to happen every day! She has been so excited for school to start and loves her teacher and her classroom. Zeke has been super nice to walk her to class. 

The first day of fourth grade is not quite as momentous for Zeke. This is old hat by now. New teacher, new mix of classmates (although he knows almost all of his class to some extent from years past), new routine. But everything else is the same and he is the big dog of the school this year. He was dreading the start of school but was more excited than I expected on the first day. So far he's liking it which is a relief. 

 Happy first day of school smiles.

Love this one... a true, real smile from Zeke and Nora's super excited face. 

End of School

May was super crazy busy. In addition to the marathon, Fancy Nancy, and the track meet, we had a bunch of school activities. Some in the evening, some during the day. We had quite an active schedule for the whole month!

The school did an arts night, and both kids performed with their classes. After performances we went to stations for music, dance, drama, and drawing. The whole family got to participate and I really enjoyed it.  

Zeke did a presentation on the kookaburra. He did a fantastic job! He and his partner really wrote great dialogue for their interviews.Learning all about birds for the last 6 weeks or so of school was really fun for him. 

Nora's class had a picnic and playtime in the park that Aaron and I joined her for. 

Nora's class also did a performance for parents to show us what they learned in kindergarten.

And everyone got an award. Nora got the 'colorful' award - the only problem was her reward was skittles, which is the one kind of candy she doesn't like! We traded her life savers for skittles and she was happy. 

This school year was a great one for both kids and we are glad to finish strong and head into summer!

Marathon

The kids did a 'mile-by-mile marathon' this month. They did 25 miles at home (my kids did most of them by walking home from school) and then did the last 1.2 miles with a huge group of kids. Aaron and I were near the back of the group and the view up ahead was impressive. They pretty much filled the trail! And Zeke ran nearly the whole way. 

At marathon's end, they got a medal and a tshirt that they immediately wore (Zeke wore his backwards, silly kiddo). Then they got to hang out at the safe kids fair. There was so much to see and freebies to get. We toured an air ambulance helicopter and then watched it take off. It sounded like they were a little worried about the weather getting worse and wanted to get back to the hospital in case lightning started. 

Very tall fire truck ladder. 

The Sherrif's office did a car crash simulator. The kids loved 'crashing' at about 5 mph. It made my neck hurt just to watch them. 

It was lots of fun and the weather held out. Everyone enjoyed all the extra walks this spring.

Track Meet

We were super excited to find out the high school track team was planning a track meet day for the younger kids again this year. This year Zeke was feelin' fine and got to run his sprint. 

At the starting line

Partway through the race. He got 4th in his heat. 

Zeke rocked the standing long jump. I wondered if he could jump his height, which is 4 feet 5 inches. He blew that away on his first jump! His best jump was 5 feet 7 inches. This kid has little frog legs!

He did javelin too. 

Then it was off to the stands to enjoy snacks and shade while watching the distance runners. 

I am super proud of Zeke for doing his best and not stressing about coming in first in everything. Nora was bummed she couldn't participate but we've promised her we'll go try out the long jump sometime this summer.

School Projects

The last few months have been full of school projects, particularly for Zeke. 

In January, Zeke's class wrote short biographies on a person of their choice. Then, they dressed up as that person and invited their parents to listen to them read their biographies in the classroom. Zeke is Matthias Baldwin, an inventor specializing in steam locomotives. 

In February we did Valentines and Valentine boxes. Zeke went with vehicles.

And Nora did Frozen. 

Zeke's next project was to make a puppet that represented his career choice. This little guy is an air ambulance pilot. I really enjoyed this project. It was fun to work together to figure out how to make felt clothes and figure out what accessories he needed to look like a pilot. There were a few late nights working on this one!

Again, parents were invited to class to listen to them read the descriptions they wrote about their careers and to see all the puppets. Zeke wants to be an air ambulance pilot because they get to fly planes and helicopters, they help people, and, depending on where he works, we might be close enough to have lunch together. 

And in March we did the science fair. Zeke has wanted to for a few years, but we never committed to it. This year we went for it. He did an experiment about how long different weights will swing on a string. The results weren't very conclusive but he did a great job of identifying the reasons why and how he might do it differently next time. The repeated trials part was not his favorite but he stuck it out and I am super proud of him!

Veteran's Day Program

The third graders put on a wonderful program for Veteran's Day. Here they all are, looking fine. 

We were excited that Nora's kindergarten class got to come to the parent performance, since they weren't there for the performance for the students. We were sitting about 4 rows behind Nora!

Zeke told us where to sit because he was on the stage right end of the line. We got good seats this year thanks to his advice and arriving earlier than for previous years. 

Zeke volunteered for a speaking part and did great! A lot of the kids were hard to understand but I thought he did a great job of speaking slowly and clearly. 

The program was a very stirring patriotic event. The flag was brought in by older veterans and then the students invited all veterans in the audience to stand when the song for their branch of the military was sung. It was so inspiring and touching and I was filled with gratitude for living in the United States and having so many people willing to be our defenders. 

Queen and Vampire

Nora has known for a whole year what she was going to be for Halloween - she came back from trick or treating last year saying she wanted to be Elsa. 

Zeke was a little slower to decide. Eventually he decided to be a vampire. 

He also requested a bat mascot so Aaron made him a bat on a stick. 

We were so excited to be able to have costumes at school this year. Zeke has never done a costume parade before, so it was a first for both kids! Nora's class led the parade, and she managed to be first in line. She has the parade wave down. 

Zeke was harder to get pictures of because the older kids were more of a bunch than a line. But he still gave me his best vampire look. The parade was so fun and I hope they get to do it again next year. 

We had a blast trick or treating. It was a little chilly but fortunately the cold wind wasn't blowing in the evening. We even had the perfect Elsa-blue shirt to make Nora's dress a winter one! 

After trick or treating we went to Grandma's to hang out with cousins and decorate some cupcakes. It was a wonderfully festive night!

First Day of School x2

We had 'the first day of school' twice around here this year. 

Zeke started third grade. 

He was sort of excited to go back to school. Glad to see his friends, not so glad to have to get up early in the morning and do homework in the evening. We are getting into the school groove pretty quickly, so that's making the less-than-fun parts a little easier. 

He's getting so grown up so fast. I'm so proud of him for being such a great student.

Nora started Kindergarten. 

She was (and still is) so incredibly excited to be in kindergarten. She loves it all! She is so happy to go to the same school as Zeke. 

Preschool Program

Nora ended her preschool year with a program/graduation/celebration. It was short and sweet and fun. Nora has been lucky enough to go to school with her cousin all year. 

Nora was so excited that she bounced through the whole program. Here is a clip of Nora and preschoolmates dancing and jumping while their classmates walked to the front of the room. 

They recited their colors, letters, shapes, and nursery rhymes. They all did awesome. Nora and her nursery rhyme buddy Logan rocked their 'Dickory Dickory Dare'. 

After the program everyone got a bucket full of fun summer activities. 

Nora has adored her teacher and her teacher has adored her. They have a wonderful bond and that has made preschool that much more wonderful. 

Nora's teacher tells me that she has loved her 4 and 5 year old class and will miss them. She has teased that they were going to start the alphabet over so all the kids would have to come back next fall - but the kids won't go for it because they are so excited for kindergarten. Nora is no exception - she is so excited to go to 'Zeke's school' and so incredibly ready. We feel so blessed that both our kids have had wonderful early school experiences and love learning.

Zoo Field Trip

Zeke's class went on a field trip to the zoo this month, and he really really really wanted me to come. So we went to the zoo! The best part was that more than half of his classmates' parents came too, so we were our own group. Just me and Zeke, at a day out at the zoo. 

The special feature this year is robotic dinosaurs. We loved the baby triceratops. However, the mama triceratops was quite protective and growled at us every time we walked by, even though we tried to reassure her that we didn't want to hurt her baby. 

The spitting dinos were a hit with Zeke's classmates. A few of them got really wet.

We had lunch while watching the seal and sea lion show. 

We were impressed by the peacock.

After lunch we hunted the rest of the dinosaurs and found the t-rex. 

Then we rode the train. I think this was Zeke's favorite part. 

I loved spending the day with my Zeke. It turned out to be really great one-on-one time!