Wow does time fly once school starts. Believe it or not, the first report card has arrived! Thankfully, it arrived with good grades and not a child steaming the envelope open to try and alter them before the parents could see it (yeah, yeah, I probably have a few years before she'll even start to think of that as an option).
The report card has shown her to be on track with her reading level and slightly ahead in math. Of course, that shouldn't be of any surprise to the majority of you, just look at who her father is! Okay, okay, her mother is obviously playing a part in the reading portion. ;) It is a good thing she loves going to school, that was probably our worse fear, apart from sending her off to an environment we have zero control over with her allergies.
As with all kids her age, can you figure out her favorite thing about school? Well? Can you? Bzzzz! It was recess. Who would have figured that one out? It really doesn't surprise me any, she loves to play and run. Her second favorite is "centers". Centers are done within their classroom and each table has an activity on it. After a specified amount of time the kids are told to move on to the next table and so forth.
School isn't always fun and games though, no, we've had three notes recently that kids in her classroom have strep, pinkeye, or chronic head lice. EEEEEKKKKKKKK! Of course, this can happen in day care, pre-k, the workplace, but boy oh boy, was it not fun checking Brianne's hair daily, spraying it in the morning to help ensure lice would not be interested, and/or putting it up in pigtails.
Oh and Brianne's school took on an interesting twist to Thanksgiving. Disguise a turkey! She had to take home a turkey cutout, glue it together, and then figure out a way to disguise it so it would survive the Thanksgiving holiday. She choose to disguise hers' as a snowman. Only time will tell if it survives the holiday though... I'm sure it has a chance, but considering there isn't any snow on the ground yet... it may not have been wise to choose a snowman.
The school also had book character day, a way to celebrate Halloween but without the hassle of what costumes kids may choose to wear. The school lets you pick a book character to dress up as and you are to bring your book with you so you can show it to the class (a nice way to encourage reading too, way to go School!). Brianne choose Elsa, from Frozen (surprise, surprise) and I must say, she does make a very pretty Elsa. When Halloween actually came around, Brianne was thrilled to hand out candy! We had allergen free gifts too for those who wanted it, but just like Halloween's in the past, we didn't partake in collecting candy, we simply bought candy for the kids and hide it around the house. They had a blast finding it, and we had the peace of mind knowing it was safe for them.
Oh and can you believe this little girl, this precious darling of mine, who is as sweet as can be and has never had a cavity has lost her third tooth! I mean seriously! Does she think the tooth fairy is just made of money? She already has two more wiggling and ready to come out as well! When this third one came out, no one knows, as we were playing hide and go seek and all of a sudden we noticed her smile was different. Sure enough, the tooth was gone. She was upset too, as she didn't have a tooth to put under her pillow, so we had her write a note (see how good parent's we are, we got her to practice her writing/spelling skills), and to her surprise the tooth fairy left her money, stickers and a note in return! She was super excited. Note to Brianne, sorry this is how you had to find out we "took your concern" and used it to trick you into using your skills, but you are better off for it.
Finally we got to have a few play dates again with some of Brianne's Pre-K friends. From people in our home being sick, to their homes being sick, it was hard to find a time and place for us to meet. But it happened! Brianne got to play with Joey at our place, and the kids had a snack after running around for countless hours. We then got to play with her friend Sophie this past Friday, where we had pizza, brownies, and ice cream, and the kids got to play for what seemed like hours on end, until we realized how late it was getting. Next time you see Kami, be sure to ask her about her "Great Catch!" :)
Wow, so that was the past 6 weeks in a nut shell, and the next 6 weeks that will close out the year, will surely be just as action packed! Please enjoy some of the photos showcasing the past 6 weeks below.
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne, and Keaten