Today was big day for our little family. Not only did Karaia and Beckham start school, as I mentioned yesterday, they are in the same class. Beckham in 1st grade ( I swear it feels like he MUST be older than just a first grader)
His shirt of choice? Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We love those movies.
And Karaia as a bid 3rd grader. Where in the world does the time go?
And a couple of the two classmate together.
Both their smiles make me laugh in this picture!
My favorite quotes of the day are:
I asked Karaia how it was having Beckham in the same class with her today. Her reply was, "Well, it was weirder than I thought it was going to be. I thought he was going to sit far enough away from me that I could just forget about it for awhile. But his seat was right behind mine....right next to Cole's."
"Oh, so you saw Beckham every time you snuck a peak at Cole?"
Turning bright red, " yeah."
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Beckham finished telling me all about his first day of first grade. He was especially detailed about lunch as he had been very nervous about finding a seat (Thank you, Diary of a Wimpy Kid). At the end of the tale of his adventures he added, "I think I'm going to handle 1st grade pretty well."
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Sanders came and gave me a quick hug. Stepped back a bit, put his arms around my waist and started patting my waist with his hands saying, "You tiny. You no big. You tiny!" And then continued informing me of my stature for the next 5 minutes.
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After I tucked Beckham into bed he began bouncy his body in his newly tucked in blankets squealing with delight, "I can't wait for school tomorrow!!!!! Mrs. Pickett ROCKS!!!!"
Karaia and Beckham started school Monday, August 23.
Karaia, 2nd grade.
Beckham, 1/2 day kindergarten. Which is really only barely considered school, what with the barely dropping them off only to have to turn around and pick them up again. hence only having a half a kid in school.
That didn't stop him from being SUPER excited. So excited, in fact, that he practiced his piano that morning with his backpack on.
The tragic part is the kindergarteners only went for one hour that first day an now have to wait clear until Monday before officaly starting school. They had the rest of this week off for testing.
Karaia has been looking forward to that day as well. She was wearing her special outfit that she helped pick out right down to the shoes (such a girl).
At one point during the morning I called her to come up stairs because we were running out of time to get her hair done. Lo and behold, this cute girl of mine came right up stairs.......
......with her hair already done!
She's been practicing all summer putting her own hair into pony tails and just recently pig tails. But she had never tried this particular hair style.
It's a little lumpier that I would have preferred for her first day back, but since she did it all on her own I think it looks perfect!
I made a head band for myself (cute right?!!?) a few days before that she BEGGED me to wear because it matched so well. It really made the outfit.
It was so fun to see her meet up with her friends. She is really getting so old. Even the way Karaia and her friends were standing was more grown-up than last year. I just know I am going to blink and pretty soon I'll over hear conversations about boys rather than jump rope. Sigh.
Beckham has already done his testing and he says the only thing his teacher asked him to work on was writing his 8s. He knew all his letter sounds, which is a relief because he never vocally went through the phase of sounding out words so I am happy to know he can break it down if he needs to. How to write upper and lower case letters. He did well with reading comprehension. And how to do math.
When I asked him if he was tested on math he said, " Yes. Add and Subtract. I just used my fingers. She didn't say that was cheating or anything."
Heaven help his teacher. If she can keep him occupied the rest of the school year we will call it a Tender Mercy for sure.
He class has a lot of kids, especially girls, from our ward.
(look at Beckham's face! You can totally read his thoughts, "Oh yeah. These cute girls are ALL my friends.")
He will have his work cut out for him keeping up with these cuties.
All in all school is going wonderfully...for Karaia. I will let you know how Beckham fares when he actually gets to go every day.
(Beckham and Karaia waiting for the first day of school to begin)
I love that they get to got to school together. I'm hoping they keep getting to be better and better friends.
On a side note: How can two darling kids from one family look SO different?
Karaia had an SEP (parent teacher student) conference on Tuesday. Can I just say that I LOVE her teacher! She is one of those teachers you hope and pray your child will get.
Mrs. Pickett teaches the 1st/2nd grade split class. Karaia loves being in with her friends as well as some older kids.
But back to the conference.
I am so proud of my little girl I could just burst! For documentation sake, she is reading at a 3rd grade level and has just been moved up to 2nd grade math. Her comprehension skills are wonderful and she does very well on tests. She does need to slow down when she is writing so that other people can read it, but Kevin heard the same things growing up. Perhaps it is genetic?
Beyond all that, the thing I am the MOST proud of is that her teacher said she was very sensitive to the other student's needs. If someone needed help she was the first one to offer it.
That's all a mother needs; to know her child is growing up to be a functional, driven, kind human being.
I really should have posted this one BEFORE I posted the 8 month update, but whachagonnado?
I was asked to help out with Karaia's class/ 2nd grade Halloween party. I wanted to do the spook boxes ( you know the ones you stick your hands in a feel something yucky that is really normal, but because you can't see it, it becomes extra gross) and began researching all of the ucky things I could stick in there and what to call them.
Procuring the boxes from Costco, I set to work figuring out how to cover and label them. Thankfully, black garbage sacks did the trick nicely and Photoshop, once again, made things so easy. Plus, my mom has these fantastic spider-web table clothes. Add a fog machine and some spiderwebs and we were set.
This is what we ended up with.
Goblin Guts (cooked spaghetti noodles)
Monster Scabs (crumbled tortilla chips)
Witch's Eyes (green olives still floating in the juice) This way by FAR the thing that grossed the kids out most. Success!
Ogre's Skin (Tortilla wraps with olive oil on them)
The kids loved it. More like they loved to hate it. But the repeat customers who brought their friends because, "Dude, you just HAVE to feel that!" tells me it was well worth the effort.
Karaia had a blast.
She was very grateful I got to be there and help out. She is keeping a tali of how many things I have NOT come and volunteered for; field trips, big craft days, etc. It's a very big deal to her. I don't remember feeling like that. I'm glad I was there too!
Your kids finally get to a point where they are more helpful than work and then you send them off to school for the whole day. Sheesh.
Karaia started first grade on Monday, August 24. She is in a 1 grade/ 2 second grade split. She was nervous going into the school and Shy Karaia came out in full force. We don't see SK very often but when we do she is hard to convince to go away.
Luckily, her teacher is amazing and did what we could not and the Karaia I know and admire came shining through.
Seriously, though, this teacher is on fire. I have never seen a love of teach so personified. I have no doubt this will be a year Karaia remembers fondly.
I asked Karaia what her favorite part of the day was. She answered, "Mrs. Pickett!"
I thought I would be an emotional mess. The days are long without her, but when she is enjoying herself that much, as a mother, you can have nothing but joy yourself.
