Busy Boy

Kai has done a great job adjusting to our move so far and we have been very grateful. School, soccer, and Church have gone a long way in helping with that.

Some highlights from the last week for him have been:

He was his class student of the week last week. Perks included getting to make this poster (with answers recorded as given without any prompting) and getting to be the door holder for the class.



Soccer has been great. The first game is this coming Saturday but he's been having a great time at practice so far. His coach (whose daughter is on the team) is a police officer and he majored in PE in college. He's doing a great job with the kids and we are thrilled that he is actually learning.



Another great park of soccer is his good buddy Cooper from his kindergarten and Church classes is also on the team. There is also a little girl on the team from their Church class so it will be fun for him to get to know her better too.



We also tried out a new pediatrician for flu shots. This wouldn't have been a highlight except they handed out these cool toys as a prize for good behavior:



Finally, we had fun getting Lance to take a quick study break to shoot off rockets one night at our local park. Love this park!

Stylin

Rori and I have been having a little more 1 on 1 time since Kai went to kindergarten. I think she has been enjoying having my full attention, reading books with me, and figuring out what she wants to play without big brothers guidance.

We've always found it funny that she naturally often gravitates to girl stuff despite the abundance of boy toys we have around. Recently she has been having fun playing accessory dress-up.

This is what she chose to wear to the bus stop the other day- glasses, a baby hair bow, and her doll backpack:



After looking at a princess book she added these accessories today- another baby hair bow, a ribbon made in to a necklace and there were lots of bracelets before too but I didn't get the camera fast enough:



And not to leave Kai out here he is in his school PE shirt:

More Labor Day Pics

Here are some of the Wilkinson's pictures. This first one is a good summary of how much fun we had with them. Thanks again guys!

The Wheels on the Bus

Kai has been begging me to let him ride the bus. I'm not sure if it is the bus or the fact that you get a wristband if you are rider that is most motivating for him. I always rode the bus growing up. I had 2 reasons for just taking and picking him up myself.

1) If he rides it in the morning he doesn't get time to play on the playground and since they don't get a recess I think this is important.

2) It takes me just as long to walk to the bus stop as it does to drive to the school. Anyway, we've made a deal. I get to take him in the mornings and he gets to ride the bus home in the afternoons. When asked how school was this week he replies: "Good- I got to ride the bus!" He said they sang "wheels on the bus" on the way home on Friday. The other perk to just riding home is it is only kindergartners on the bus.

So for now we are both happy with the compromise. We'll see what we both think in another month or so. :)

Waiting for the bus:


Here it comes:


Loving it:

Mama Bear

My sister-in-law recently used the term Mama Bear when describing an effort that she successfully made on behalf of her son in regards to a school situation. So I guess I've already had my 1st Mama Bear school moment.

When Kai's school started we learned that he was in a class that they would allow 36 kids in the class. The other morning Kindergarten class had 24 kids. What in the world? Turns out the other class had a smaller classroom so they can physically fit that many desks. 24 sounds a lot better to me than 36. So.....

I talked to the school to see if there might be a chance of getting him switched in to the smaller class. They were nice but said sorry that the class was full. So I asked if we could get on some kind of wait list in case something changes. They told me there was so such list but I could come in and fill out an administrator request for contact form. So I did.

The afternoon of the 1st day of school I got a call from an administrator who said that 2 kids in the class hadn't shown up for the 1st day. They needed to give those kids 2 more days to see if they would show up and then they would call me back. They didn't call back so I called them again. In every conversation I tried to be nice and understanding and patient but still persistent. I watched my parents do this most of my life when people would tell them that something wasn't possible with my sister. Whitney and I ended up getting to go to school together for the 1st time ever when I was a Senior in High School because my parents used this technique is helping get a program started that they were told wouldn't be possible.

So the 4th day of school Kai started the new class. This teacher only teaches morning so she has 24 kids and parents to think about- the other teacher taught afternoon as well so she has about 60/ 70+ kids and parents to think about. This teacher has taught kindergarten before- the other hadn't. This class has 3 boys in it that go to our Church which is cool. This class brings in 4 special needs kids for some inclusion for certain subjects which we think is awesome- Kai will be a great kid to be with them since he already has a loving heart for "whitney friends". Plus the old teacher said "me and her" twice at the parent orientation night.......I'm thinking she was just really nervous...right?

Kai liked his old class and his old teacher and it would have been fine- he likes his new class and his new teacher and we just feel like it will be even better. He did the switch without issue and now thinks it is cool that he knows kids in both classes. All in all we feel really good about it and are glad we made the extra effort.

Labor Day Weekend

The Wilkinson's came and visited us over Labor Day weekend. We had SO much fun being with them!

We showed them our new digs, we played and played, we swam, we got soaked in splash pads, we tried out playgrounds, we ate yummy food- like homemade crepes , we celebrated Amanda's birthday, we danced to live music, we checked out the carousel and outside movie, we went to Church, and we just hung out and caught up on everything.

It was so neat to see the kids play together again so well. They all really do love each other. Soon after they got here it was time to go pick up Kai from school. Rori chose to stay and play with Matthew instead of coming with me which I thought was so cute. Plus every time we went anywhere Amanda rode in our car with Kai and Rori rode in their car with Matthew. She would happily run to their car and wave goodbye. Rori has been pretty clingy to me since the move so it was super refreshing to have her finally be back in comfort zone with them.

I was really wishing we could keep them here with us when it was time for them to go home. Thanks for coming guys!