All Better

Karen has healed phenomenally well. By the 5th day after surgery she was hopping around and wanting to do everything like normal. The doctor insisted that she stay down for 10 whole days and it was quite the battle to get her to sit or lay on the couch for the last 5 days. After 7 days she won more often than I did. But she is all better now and eating more than she ever has before. For example, the other day she had 3 cinnamon rolls for breakfast, a snack, 2 drumsticks for lunch, cookies, popcorn, candy (we went to a movie) and everything on her plate at dinner (can't remember what we had). She's like a bottomless pit. I know that she will be growing in no time. We feel that this will bless her life in many ways and we are glad we did this tonsillectomy.

We also had school pics taken of the kids. We love to have a local photographer take the pictures rather than get the real school pictures. The school picture packets are very expensive and you get a bunch of wallets that are never used anyway. The lady who takes their pictures get much better and cuter photos anyway for a much better price with a CD of 5 poses. We love it and are very grateful to her for them. Karen's pics are even posted on her blog because Karen is just that cute! http://capturedpix.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-dates-for-school-pictures.html Scroll down at this link to see them. I'm posting my favorite of Karen and Michael below.

It was a beautiful area where she took their pictures, so I took the kids back to get a few more of my own with both of them together. Mine didn't turn out quite as good as hers, but they did turn out cute.

Back to School

My kids are both in elementary school now. Karen started 2nd grade last week and Michael started Kindergarten today. Wow they grow up fast. Michael is very excited to be a big boy in Kindergarten. Today we were able to go with him for the first half hour and then we had to leave him there. When we said goodbye, he said "I won't miss you mom". So much better than screaming and crying and saying "don't go mom" like he did last year at preschool. And even though he won't miss me, I will most definitely miss him. Here are a couple pics from today.
Karen loves 2nd grade. She only has a couple kids that she knows from last year because they switched tracks on us and we now have B track. But she's very friendly so I wasn't worried about her making new friends. She came home the first day with stories about her new best friend in her class and how she got to see all her old friends at lunch and recess. She's very excited about doing here homework this year because some of it is on the computer. She gets to play math games online for her math homework. Here are a couple pics from her first day.

June

June is always a busy month for us, but it also bring us a lot of fun too. Early this month Michael graduated from preschool! We are so proud of him for all he has learned this year, especially to sit still for more than a couple of seconds. He's also learned all his numbers, letters and is now reading. Thanks to his wonderful teacher Miss Angie, he has also learned his numbers in Spanish and all his colors in Spanish too. She had a darling graduation program and we are grateful to her for all she taught our boy.Michael had an early birthday party so his school friends could come. We had uncle Anthony come and do a magic show for us which everyone loved especially Michael.
Mom did face painting and cousin Jeremy made balloon animals for everyone.
And everyone enjoyed the goodies.Here is a picture of the girl Michael wants to marry when he grows up. She's so sweet. Unfortunately they will be going to different schools in the fall so Michael will have to find a new sweetheart.We celebrated on Michael's real birthday too and I'll post about that later.

Starting School

School has started and we now have 2 students in our home. Karen has started 1st grade this year. A full day, lunch at school and best of all 3 recesses has Karen loving 1st grade. She's so excited to be such a big girl and loves making new friends. Here she is on her first day.
Michael has also started school this year. Preschool that is. He's watched his sister go to school for 2 year and has wanted so much to go too. Well, it's finally his turn and he's so excited. He loves his preschool and new teacher. He told me that he loves the girl with the princess backpack in his class. Look out girls, here comes my heartbreaker!

Life

Karen has been in school for a week now and she is loving it. She is able to sit by a couple of girls from her primary class and has started getting to know the other children sitting near her too. She loves her teacher and we were surprised to have her tell us that Karen is ready to start reading. She gave us some would parts to have her start sounding out. It's amazing to me that she is able to do it on her own. We checked out a website that her teacher recommended and it has simple stories with a focus on certain sounds. She did a really good job and loved it! She didn't want to stop. We are really proud of her and her desire to learn.

Michael got sick this last weekend. He's got a virus that causes sores in his mouth. I've never experienced anything like this before and he's having a really hard time. He doesn't want to eat or drink or speak or anything. He just lays around all day, which is very much unlike our energetic little boy. It will last for about 2 weeks and until he's better we need to keep him hydrated. Poor guy. We'll be keeping him quarantined for a little while til he's feeling better.

Kindergarten

Karen started Kindergarten today. She was very excited to start school and a little nervous. I wasn't too worried since she's had preschool for a year. They asked a parent to come with the child for the first hour of school so daddy stayed home this morning to watch Michael so I could be with Karen at school. We all went together to see Karen off and take pictures, then Daddy and Michael walked home while mommy stayed at school. Here's some fun picture in front of the school.

They have a cute playground just for the kindergartners separated from the rest of the school by a half wall all the way around. It's really a cute little playground. Michael loved it too and wanted to get in on the picture taking.
They line up along the wall of the playground when the bell rings and the teachers come out to get them to take them into class. (I blurred faces for safety)
Mommy was able to help Karen with a few "get to know you" activities in the classroom. She was excited to be able to sit by two girls that she knows from primary. There is also a little boy from primary that she knows too. There are 24 in her class and she's excited to make new friends too. I know she will love school. As I was driving home suddenly I felt a little sad. I didn't expect that, but I guess it is a big deal after all. I no longer have a baby girl, she's growing up so fast.

(P.S. I'm so excited to have a camera again!)

Karen's First Day of Preschool

Today was Karen's first day of preschool and she was so excited. It's called Kayla's Preschool, a little private preschool in a home about 5 minutes from our house. I had to get pictures of her going in and coming out. They didn't turn out too well, the sun was really bright and washed her out. I was in a hurry so I couldn't take time to redo them but this shows how excited she was a shows her cute preschool room and teacher.

She had a great time and when we got home regaled me with play by play version of her day at preschool. I was amazed at her memory capacity and glad that she had so much fun. This is going to be a fun experience for her.

I've been looking forward to the time when Karen would be in school for a long time, so it suprised me yesterday when I started having an emotional reaction to my baby starting school. It hit me that this is the begining of her school career and that she will be in school now for the next 13 years at least. I started getting all choked up about my little girl starting school. But she will learn and thrive with this experience and I am really excited that we are able to give her this experience.