Oh, what a year!

Sofia had her last day of school today. What a year it's been! We've survived our family's first year of school! Sofia did an awesome job this year. She grew up SO much. Just look at these two pictures. The one above was taken just this morning and the one below was taken on September 7th, the first day of school. WOW! She is such a BIG KID now! She's reading somewhere around a 2nd/3rd grade level, writes full stories, is doing math that I wasn't even introduced to until late 1st or 2nd grade, can tell time (pretty much) on a clock face (notice her pretty watch she got for "graduation"), knows more about animal habitats than I ever cared about, knows and can spell the days of the week, has a good grasp of the concept of time (minutes, hours, days, year, etc), sketches GREAT pictures (usually of animals), and can sing AT LEAST 15 songs that I didn't even know existed. Can you tell I'm proud of her? We had a WONDERFUL Kindergarten teacher. We're going to miss her in 1st grade, but Grayson will have her in another year. Congratulations Sofia on a great 1st year of school!

The "FAB FOUR": Sofia, Mya, Olivia G., and Olivia C. at the Kindergarten Concert.
Sofia and Mrs. Zentz at "graduation" time. Sofia got a certificate and a book with a note written in it from Mrs. Zentz. What an awesome teacher.

Sofia and her portfolio.

Sofia and Mrs. Zentz again.

Sofia wrote this cute letter to Mrs. Zentz on the last week of school. I never even saw it until her teacher pointed it out during the class party. She said it made her laugh and cry at the same time. Sofia wrote that she would miss Mrs. Zentz very much but would still get to have lunch with her next year and that she "is pretty good for a teacher". Mrs. Zentz posted it on her board to stay there "forever".

Recital 2010

Sofia is just finishing up her 3rd year at The Turning Pointe. This year, she decided to take both ballet AND tap. She hasn't decided which one she really loves more. I think she likes her tap class because her friend Olivia is in it too, but she LOVES her ballet teacher, Ms. Anne A LOT. These pictures and movies are from her dress rehearsal yesterday. The actual recital is next Saturday, June 19th, but we're not allowed to video then. I'll probably add another post after the recital, but here she is in the top picture in her ballet costume for "Muppet Babies" and below in her tap costume for "Fraggle Rock". The theme this year is "The 80's" and the little dancers all dance to Saturday Morning cartoon themes. Kind of cute.

Little Ninjas

When Grayson turned 4, he was officially old enough to join Little Ninja's at PKSA Karate. Mom's been taking kickboxing classes there since February and really likes the programs and cousin Amandine has been loving it for a couple years now. So Grayson got his hand me down uniform from Amandine and began. Within a couple of weeks, his buddies David and Andrew joined in too. LOTS of fun, high energy, focus and discipline. Just what little man needed. These pics were from class on Friday June 11th.

Mr. Shaun in all his wisdom keeps pairing up Grayson and Andrew. They giggle more than they work I think. Here they are doing pad work... practicing their kicks.

Kick the pad, NOT Andrew, Grayson!!

The last exercise of the day was a tug of war between two teams in the class. They were pretty equally matched and each took one or two wins. Then Mr. Shaun decided to take on the entire class. He held his own for a bit...

... but was eventually defeated.

Kindergarten Zoo Trip

On June 11th, I got to chaperone Sofia's Kindergarten field trip to the Detroit Zoo. It was a HOT day as far as June goes, but we had a good time anyway. Since Koepsell Kindergarten has a very supportive parent base, my group only had Sofia and Laila. Laila's parent's were even there for a little while but had to leave early for their other daughter's Preschool graduation. So the 3 of us gals hung out all day.

This was a pretty cool looking tiger that I think was painted for a baseball celebration or something. I'm not too sure.
Sofia and Laila posed behind these little animal cut outs at the playground.

These water squirting frogs were right outside Amphibiville. Sofia decided to try and get a drink and got splashed in the face and chest instead. goofy girl.

Beautiful peacock strutting his stuff.

the girls could have spent all day in the prairie dog exhibit. VERY cool.

Splash Village with the Aminis

The first weekend in May we went with our good friends, the Aminis, to Splash Village water park inside Zehnder's Hotel in Frankenmuth. It was something we had hoped to do in the cold weather, but schedules only worked out for this weekend. It was GREAT fun anyway. This top picture is Sofia and Grayson chillin' in the hot tub.
Here is (almost) the whole group... Sofia, Grayson David, Sofia, and Andrew. Bella was just too little for this purple slide, but it was just right for the rest of the kids. It emptied into pretty shallow water too, so none of them were scared to do it.

Tadj and I took turns taking the kids down the big tube slide. It was SOOO crowded on Saturday that it was hard to find a floatie to go down it with. We had to hold onto our floats for dear life so nobody would steal them. On Sunday, it was much better and we went down that slide a zillion times. Sofia had a blast doing in by herself. I LOVE the these kids are getting more independent.

Sofia and I went down on the double tub quite a bit. There were 2 slides up at the top. The Green one was MUCH faster than the blue one. Little dare devil Sofia liked to brave the Green one almost every time. Mom, not so much.

Gray-Man Turns 4

It's so hard to believe that our little man could be 4 years old already. He is still in love with Thomas Trains... almost as much as he loves Mom. He started preschool this year too! He is very sweet and snuggly just often enough to make Mom happy, but he's mostly a VERY rough and tumble boy (much to his sisters' annoyance). Grayson is a master at you tube video watching (usually home made Thomas movies), is great at dominos and is quick with jig saw puzzles (just like his Dad). He LOVES to eat PB&J and has gotten quite good at making it himself if we set it up, but also digs broccoli, raisins, bananas, apples, and all sorts of candy of course. He's made a few friends this year at school and is happy that he'll get to be with them in the Fall too. We're so happy he's in our family. Here are a few pictures from his party.

Dad Painted this "Pin The Nose on Sponge Bob" game. It was a hit. Good job Dad.

Sofia's "nose" landed on the ping pong table

A few of the kids had good skills, but I think a couple could just see through the blindfold.

Every parents' dream... wack the heck out of Sponge Bob. There were a few good hit's, but the hanger broke before we got any candy out of it. Mom just had to tear it open and pour the candy out.
Aunt Rachel and Uncle Chris found the much coveted Annie and Clarabel that Mom couldn't find. Good job guys.
Grayson picked out the cake theme at Costco. They didn't have Sponge Bob. This was also the first year that Grayson got to invite as many little buddies as he wanted in addition to the family. His friends David, Andrew, Zac, Thomas, Jordan, and Johnny all came to the party.

funny.

I'm committing to catching up on a little blogging this weekend... I think (does that count as a committment?) . Anyway, to get things started I just HAD to record these funnies.

Tuesday on the way to school, Sofia puked in the car. When she got home, I asked her why she was so sick. Her response: "Me and Scarlett partied WAY too much last night". HA! Luckily that "hangover" didn't last long.

Tonight Sofia and I had an interesting conversation:

Sofia: "Mom, do you know what it's called when your butt gets really hot??"
Me: "No, Sofia. I have no clue. What's it called?"
Sofia: "FIRE ON THE POOP DECK!!! HAHA!!"
ME: (laughing hysterically and rolling my eyes at the same time)

*Where does she learn this stuff??