It simply seems like yesterday that Brianne started school, but can you believe she has been at school for nearly 6 weeks! She has adjusted wonderfully and most days, she takes a 2 and half hour nap after she gets home from school (who knew school was "so taxing"?).
Each week her class is given a letter to work on, they learn to write it, the sound of it, how to identify it in words, etc. As a challenge the morning class and the afternoon class create a list of words that start with the letter for the week to see who can find the most words. Needless to say, most weekends/evenings at our house is spent searching for words, definitely a creative exercise for the kids (and us parents!).
At school the kids go through daily routines of identifying the day of the week, the date, the month, and the weather and season we are in. We have the exact same routine here at home and our kids love doing it.
About a month ago, we decided to have pizza one Friday evening and as a "change" we opted to have it as a picnic in the Living Room (laid out a huge table cloth and got our plates and all sat down and to enjoy the meal). Now everytime we have pizza our kids automatically think "picnic", and so they go get a table cloth, lay it out and sit down just waiting for the pizza to be done. Talk about CUTE!
Brianne also had her speech and hearing test at school a few weeks ago and had a follow up evaluation done recently (just to confirm a few thoughts or suspsicions). It seems our little one likes to drop her 's' and 'l' sounds, 's' blends, and needs to work on her sentence structures (she likes to skip the little words -- such as 'an', 'am', etc.).
I'm not sure how much we'll need to focus on these items, seeing how this is her first time in preschool and she'll be learning most of these letters for the first time from a professional. I imagine a lot of these will work themselves out, but we're checking to see if our insurance will pay for any additional "help" in the meantime.
This past month we found a new "activity" to do, that becomes available in the fall. Apple Picking. That's right, we've now gone apple picking twice, taking home a half bushel of apples both times (lets just say, we have a LOT of applesauce)! Our kids loved it. They ran through the row of trees finding trees that had a lot of apples and start grabbing them left and right, showing them to us to make sure they were okay and then placing them in the bag.
We'll definitely have to go back, as the farm that hosts the apple picking has a bunch of activities from zip lines, wagon rides, bounce area, peddle cars, and several more. Add their little restaurant and you could spend all day there!
This past weekend we went to the zoo with Grandma and Papa, and boy oh boy did we have fun! We decided to show the "Heart of Africa" exhibit to them, as it was a new area, and as we were making our way back to the front of the exhibit, we were treated to a "Cheetah Run" watching. Yes, that is exactly what it sounds like, there was an host who talked about a few of the African animals and then they sent out one of the cheetahs to chase a ball on a string and "Wow", it was exciting!
After visiting the cheetahs, we made our way over to the Reptile house, Briannes' favorite place. As we were walking up to the building Brianne informed Grandma and Papa that they were going to get the chance to touch a snake, just like her. I was dying inside of laughter just picturing Grandma touching a snake, and you could see Grandma trying to back out of the experience of a lifetime. Unfortunately, you can't outwit a 4 year old. Brianne without missing a beat, laid out the best defense I've ever heard. "Grandma, don't be scared, be strong like me", needless to say, I don't think Grandma, Papa, or I had any idea how to respond to that but with laughter that a 4 year old could lay out such a defense. That truly was a priceless moment.
Last but not least, Brianne's class went to a field trip on Friday to Kuhlwein's Farm for a hayride and pumpkin picking. To say Brianne had fun would be an understatement. First off, Daddy took off work to go with her on her field trip. So we left around 11:00, went to lunch (Daddy/Daugther date), then we went to the farm to join the rest of her class at 12:30. As soon as we got there, she was yelling out pleasentries to her classmates and had the biggest smile on her face. Up to this point she had been adament that she was not going to ride on the tractor/wagon, but was only going to walk. It was amazing how fast she changed her mind once she saw all of her friends piled up on the wagons on the hay bales. The ride was nice and slow and she kept leaning over to tell me she was loving it (as if she needed to reassure me).
Once we got to our location, we were greeted with a corn maze. Now the corn maze was FANTASTIC! Brianne was my leader and we were in a group (of 3-4 classmates) and I think we only got back to the beginning of the maze once (which is impressive). After finding the beginning, we quickly discovered our error and found the exit, where we were greeted with a gigantic pumpkin patch.
Brianne quickly ran to each and every pumpkin she saw and yelled "What about this one?" Of course, I wanted her to pick it out, but I wanted her to pick out the pumpkin that best suited her, not just the first one she saw, so I'd look at it and then ask her, "Do you see any others that catch your eye?" 5 pumpkins later, she found it! Her eyes lit up brighter than ever and I thought for sure she was going to hug that thing so hard it would burst in her arms. Needless to say she picked an awesome pumpkin and we bagged it up and placed it on the wagon for the return ride.
Once back at the barn, the kids enjoyed a snack, looking at the farm animals and playing a few games with cornhole bags as each child eventually left at their own timing. The day was a blast and a day that won't easily be forgotten (at least by this Daddy).
Well that's another month gone and a lot of memories made, so until our next posting enjoy the following photos.
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne and Keaten