Second Grade!

We've had a pretty busy two weeks here...getting ready for school!  Aurora started the second grade on Monday!  Alex does not turn 5 until October so he still has another year of preschool. 

The week before school, we met with Aurora's teacher, Mrs. M.  I was very impressed by her.  She was very organized and upbeat and was great with Aurora.  She did a reading assessment on Aurora and she is reading at a third grade level, which is great!  She also told us about a few things that Aurora is excited about.  The kids all get hot air balloons that they get to raise every 100 minutes of reading they do.  When they reach 1000 minutes they get prizes!  They also have a chance to earn 'behavior bucks' for making good choices.  If they don't make a good choice, they have to give one back.  They can spend their 'bucks' in the classroom store at the end of the week for candy or small toys.  It sounds like a lot of good incentive!

The Friday before school, my mom and I took Aurora to lunch and clothes shopping.  We found a lot of great outfits for her to wear, and discovered that Aurora looks great in hats!

On Monday Aurora was excited to get all dressed up for the first day of school and had a great day!  She discovered she had a few friends in her class that she already knew, and she even earned a few behavior bucks.  Hopefully it will be a great year!

Daddy's Father's Day Book

I HAVE to post these pictures the kids did for the book we gave Josh on Father's Day telling him about our planned weekend in Colorado.  I gave them a bunch of props and told them to pose how they wanted and had them hold signs with the words explaining the plan.  Here are the pictures, in order:

End of the School Year Recap

The kids finished the school year in May.  Aurora completed the first grade and finished strong!  Her report was really good.  She brought up a few subjects that we were concerned about and kept her her good grades in all of the others. 

She reads really well and has an amazing talent for art and drawing. 

My friend Alida is a graphics designer and she is a good mentor for her.  She drew this picture of Aurora and Freddie!

Aurora is spending the summer at the city's community center summer program where she plays games, swims, and goes on various field trips before moving on to second grade!

Alex is still in preschool but he's been doing a great job too.  He can identify and write his letters and he can write and spell his full name.  He can also count to ten in Spanish.  He also draws really well and loves to sing and dance. 

He's spending the summer in the same school doing fun summer stuff like water play, pajama days, and trips to the park.  Since he doesn't turn five until October, he'll be continue there for another year.

Both kids have had some behavior problems though.  Aurora just can't stop talking and intterupting.  Alex has temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way at school.  The marble jars were not working well to curb these school behaviors so we implemented a sticker chart.  Every day that they don't get in trouble at school they get a sticker.  We tend to do a lot of fun things on the weekends, so they now have to get at least 4 stickers out of the 5 days, or we don't get to do anything that weekend.  It's been working really well!  We only had a week or two each that they haven't gotten enough stickets.  They definitely don't want to miss out on any plans we have!

Swimming Lessons!

The kids started swimming lessons yesterday!  It was Aurora's second time and Alex's first time doing a class by himself, as last year I wasn't able to get them into classes and the year before we did the Parent/Tot class.

We go every Saturday morning for 8 sessions.  Alex is in the tadpole class and Aurora is a sea horse.  Both kids did great!  They listened to the instructors and had lots of fun.  Alex even put his face under the water!



Listening to the pool rules



Practicing kicking

Learning to use kickboards

For the last five minutes of class the kids were allowed to take turns on the frog slide.  They had a blast!

Birthday Celebrations!

We're all about the birthdays around here!  On the morning of Aurora's birthday, we had birthday cake for breakfast!   

And we gave her one of her gifts.

Then on Sunday we had her party at Putt Putt Golf and Games.  Despite the party being at a mini golf course, she still wanted a Monster Truck theme.  So that's what we did!

Birthday Girl

The writing they did on the party room door.

Birthday cake made by the talented Megan.

Aurora's name on the sign outside the center.

Golfing!

Alex had a blast too!

Me, Megan, and the kids.

The whole family!

Opening presents.  Her big present from us was family season passes to Cliff's Amusement Park.



Playing in the game center.

The kids really made out!  The birthday package included game cards and prize tickets so they went home with tons of little prizes.  I think it was a great birthday!