Kindergarten has been in full swing for a few weeks now and we just had our very first Parent/Teacher conference (at least for Kindergarten). Brianne is doing well in class, constantly improving on her reading abilities (yep, they are practicing reading already), her confidence is growing, and very attentive. All in all, her teacher is pleased with her progress and has no concerns at this point in time.
At school Brianne has made a few friends, her current best friend is named Sophia. Sophia sits at Brianne's table in class and sits with her at lunch, in fact, they are probably inseparable by this point. It was a few weeks after school began a mom came up to Kami to introduce herself and let her know that her child (Sophia) told her that Brianne is allergic to peanuts. After Kami confirmed this fact, the mother proceeded to indicate how hard that must be to send her to school and that as a result of Sophia befriending Brianne, they would no longer be sending peanut butter in her lunch anymore so they can sit together.
And with school up and running, Brianne now gets a monthly homework packet. It contains daily tasks for her to complete throughout the month, of which she is doing pretty well. Some days she isn't up to doing any of it, but others she wants to knock out two or three days of it. Either way she is at least getting a taste of what the next several years of her education will be like.
We've also experienced our first week of Spirit Week at school. One day was beach day and so she made a custom shirt using a special glue to draw a beach with water, an umbrella, and so forth. Of course, she had help from her Mommy and Daddy, but she did a good job herself with parts of the shirt as well. Then there was a "blast from the past" day, and she got to dress up as Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie.
Speaking of Little House on the Prairie, Brianne and Mommy have started reading those books. So far it seems Brianne is very much into it as she'll bring the current book they are on to her and ask her to read it. Not only is she reading Little House on the Prairie, but we have several other books she is working through too, in fact, we've put a few on her tablet so she can easily open them and try to read them herself.
Just last weekend, Grandma and PawPaw visited us and they watched Brianne and Keaten while Mommy and Daddy had a couples date night on Friday night. While Mommy and Daddy were away, they took the kids to Glow in the Dark Putt Putt and to Cappy's pizza. Brianne seemed to have a lot of fun. Ate a lot of pizza, played all 18 holes of putt putt and just thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her Grandparents.
We then took Grandma and PawPaw to The Wilds on Saturday and did an Open Air Transport tour (a open sided bus). We got to see a good range of animals. It was a tad on the cool side, but it was definitely a beautiful day. Following The Wilds we took Grandma and PawPaw to see Big Muskie, or at least Big Muskie's Scoop. The shear size of this scoop is amazing and the kids have a blast going to see it when we are up at The Wilds. On the way home Brianne fell asleep and was rearing to go by the time we got home.
Of course, this would be the end of summer/fall without apple picking! A few weeks ago when the Gala applies were in season, the kids went apple picking. As usually filling the bag full of apples was not a problem. The kids bounced from tree to tree, grabbing a hold of apples and placing them in the bag, barely waiting long enough for us to get home before biting into one. I think we had roughly 30 apples in a bag that holds a peck of apples. If you ask me, that's pretty good!
Oh and let's not forget about Church, now that School is in full swing they are back to small groups at Church. Each week they are given a memory verse, and when you can repeat it, you earn prizes. Brianne has been doing very well with her memory verses, and can typically have it close to memorized within the first week. They will reuse the same verse for the entire month, as repetition is a good way for instilling these lessons in their minds.
And this leads me to my most saddening news. Brianne already has a boyfriend. I know, I know, how can this be?!?! Such a young age, so much potential. Thankfully Uncle Elijah came for a visit on Sunday for lunch, and when we told him to ask Brianne about her boyfriend status, she quickly recanted with "I don't have a boyfriend anymore." Needless to say the first Uncle Intervention for Brianne's boyfriends was a success!
That's been the past few weeks in a nutshell, and I can only imagine what new and exciting things will come out of this school year. Oh, and let's not forget to showcase some new photos!!
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne, and Keaten