The end of first grade has come and gone. It is hard to believe that Brianne was even in first grade, let alone is going into second grade on August 16th. Time has blown on by and the summer did not last nearly long enough (depending who you ask). Much like Keaten was prepping all summer, Brianne was too. She has worked through two different books, one as a follow-up to first grade and another as an introduction to second grade.
At the end of her school year, Brianne was awarded an Outstanding Achievement award for Academic Excellence. If you can't tell by the picture below, she was just a "teeny tiny little bit excited." In all fairness she deserves to be excited, she worked hard all year and continued to do so this summer. She also participated in the Summer of Reading program at the library and enjoyed picking out books to read, playing on their computers, and going to activities they hosted throughout the summer.
Brianne also decided to bake a strawberry shortcake for her teacher. Baking is one of her favorite activities to do, coupled with anything doing with crafts, such as, quilting and working with modeling clay. Lately she also got into sketching, using some princess stencils she received recently.
Before school ended, Brianne had a good time over Easter, celebrating it through various sessions and activities in her church class and our Easter egg hunt at home. This year we also invited our neighbor's daughter, Allison, to join us and she had a blast.
One of the favorite activities for the kids was flying their kites. Brianne received kites from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Melissa along with a kite from Papa Jim and Grandma Tam. Unfortunately, we've only had a couple of days that were nice enough to fly kites, but who knows, maybe there will still be another day or two before fall/winter starts.
We tried to fill the summer with a slew of activities, one of Brianne's favorites was going to the National Air Force Museum. I had taken Keaten there over Spring Break and then we all went this summer. She had a great time seeing the various airplanes, being able to walk in them, and the activities they had for kids to interact with. Even more exciting, is after leaving the museum, we went to First Watch for lunch, and not only is it a great allergy aware restaurant, Brianne absolutely loved it. I don't think there was a scrap of food left on her plate.
Speaking of restaurants that are allergy aware, Uno's Pizzeria and Rusty Buckets are two more locations that go the extra mile. Similar to First Watch, all three of these places make sure to write the allergen in bold (usually red ink) on the order ticket to make sure the kitchen is fully aware. The amount of effort they put in to ensure the food served was safe, was beyond our expectations and has been a real blessing.
Unfortunately, Brianne's allergy results were not an improvement to last year, thus the general consensus is she will not outgrow the allergy. We'll still end up doing another blood work next year just so we have three consecutive years of data, but I highly doubt the results will change.
Auntie Amber sent butterflies to Brianne again this year, and like all prior years, Brianne thoroughly enjoyed watching them go from little caterpillars to cocoons to butterflies. She would check on them multiple times a day, anxiously awaiting for them to begin their transformation. Once they were butterflies, she happily fed them oranges and apples, and then released them into our backyard. It is always bittersweet to see them go, but she fully understands they can't stay captive forever.
Brianne's second favorite summer activity has been riding her bike. After learning to ride without training wheels, it was time for a new bike. She was just getting too tall for her bike and now we have 16 inch wheels that should keep up with her growth for the next couple of years. She enjoys riding her bike so much, that she and her brother rode their bikes in the rain several times this summer. Neither rain or shine stopped these two from riding their bikes.
Earlier this summer we went up north to celebrate Aunt Cheryl's 60th birthday and Brianne got to enjoy a beautiful summer day with her cousins. They got to play all sorts of games outside, eat hot dogs and hamburgers and let's not forget the cake! The kids all had a great time.
The Tuttle mall updated their play area this year too, and the kids absolutely love it! It has several stations that are interactive, a section dedicated to babies/toddlers, and the rest geared for those a bit older. They can stomp to make music, pull levers and flip switches to make a ball take different routes down to the bottom and play with magnetic blocks. The kids have been there several times this summer already and it is quickly becoming a great place to visit on a hot summer day.
Of course, summer didn't officially begin until we went to Papa Frank and Grandma Claudette's house to help plant their garden. Brianne had a great time planting the seeds for the vegetables and then also spreading wildflower seeds for Grandma Claudette's flower garden. She even got to take a ride on Papa's tractor, multiple times.
And if that were not enough since the last blog post, these photos should help!
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne and Keaten