Fun with friends!

I had to figure out something for AK this week with her being off school and Richard and I unfortunately working as we're out of holiday days.  The Huys are off-island and were willing to share their wonderful nanny Lanie with us!  They had a fabulous day together and there's even pictures on the camera to prove it!  What's really nice is that Lanie is friends with Maurene, a lady who nannies for friends of ours who live at San Sebastian as well!  Who knows what good fun they'll get up to tomorrow??? 

AK and Maddie had a playdate!

Who's the better crawler???

Getting started on the gingerbread house

Maddie tried on the funny Christmas hat!

Finished product!

Great teamwork :)

Friends!  The picture previous to this had Maddie poking AK in the eye.  Ha!

Super model super pose!

Self portrait!

Just one more photo!

AK loved this ice cream SO much, she ate it ALL up!!! 

Kiddie Christmas Party

We have a lovely Christmas tradition within my group of friends.  The kids draw names for gift giving and we plan a fun little get-together before everyone starts to go their separate ways for Christmas!  We kept it easy by ordering in pizza but it was great of Jon and Erin to host :)

All the kids - shortly before the gift-opening chaos began!

For me? 

Unwrapping diligently.  AK got a new gift charm for her Pandora bracelet!

Playing in Ethan's room

Girls' turn on the trampoline

Boys' turn!

Chilling with Gracie!

Pizza time!

Back outside to play...  these kids have loads of energy

Not sure what was going on here!  Funny picture!

Sweet Maddie... 

...but not too sweet to take out Rudolph!  LOL. 

Parade of Lights!

One of the Christmas activities we've done recently with AK is take her to the Parade of Lights.  Richard and I weren't sure we were up for it as it was on the heels of our busiest work week all year, but it was good for us to be out and about rather than sitting on the couch falling asleep!

How tired are we???  Photo courtesy of AK!

Someone's got energy for all of us!

Woohoo!

Lights!

More lights

This how we watch fireworks! 

Ballet and Tap Recital

Earlier this month, AK's dance studio held a series of recitals.  It was a pretty big undertaking for the studio staff, from choreographing dances, ordering costumes, holding rehearsals at the theater, to the big day itself!

AK was quite excited, I think mostly to finally be wearing the lovely frilly costume that hung in her costume for what must have seemed like forever to her. Let me tell you, an all-white costume is anxiety-producing for this momma!

AK's class did two numbers, one tap and one ballet.  They were great!  The audience was asked to not take pictures or video during the performance so I can leave you with only some shots taken before and after.  I will share the video once I get my hands on it! 

Waiting backstage - dressed up as Frosty the Snowman!

Beautiful happy ballerina

Christmas chapel

"Mary and Joseph" taking care of Jesus

Sweet "Mary" singing!

Finally - an update!

I uploaded some video and photos from Monday's chapel session.  It was a special Christmas one with all of the classes participating in telling the Christmas story.

The video is a bit long but can be accessed here. 

When AK and I talked about the chapel concert later that day, she mentioned that she likes Daniel (the handsome young boy who played the part of Joseph).  Of course, I was curious so asked AK if she meant she wanted Daniel to be her boyfriend.  Of course, that started off a "Silly mommy, NO boyfriends!".  Whew.  Let's hope it stays that way for a while yet!

Hope you enjoyed!!!  xo

School photos! Kindergarten...

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How awesome are these photos???  Any family members wanting a printed copy of any of these photos, just shoot me an email with the # and desired size so I can get these printed and into your Christmas cards!

Speaking of, guess I'd better buy some Christmas cards soon!!!  I can't promise you'll actually receive them by Christmas... 

Christmas is on its way!

Taking some Christmas photos...

Loving these Christmas gift displays!

Checking out the Nutcracker

We attended the Christmas tree lighting on Saturday

Trying to catch a peak of Santa Claus!

We found Hunter!

Camana Bay had their Christmas tree lighting on Saturday.  We decided to head over and check it out.  We enjoyed catching up with friends while the choir sang.  AK definitely started paying attention to the proceedings when Santa Claus showed up!  She was happy to not talk to him that night when I explained that we could come back another day for a visit and a photo with him.  She's decided that she wants to come and see the Caribbean Santa in his Hawaiian shirt this year instead of in his red suit.  Unfortunately for me, she still won't agree to do the photo without me in it...  plus it sounds like she may drag Richard into it this year as well! 

I can't believe Christmas is just one month away.  Yikes! 

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Cake for breakfast!  Actually we just lit candles so I could blow it out.  Richard and I ate it every night after AK went to bed.  Oops!

My birthday pedicure! 

Just wanted to share a few memories from my birthday this year.  Richard and I had some friends over for drinks and games one night, which was fun and relaxing.  The next day, Richard and AK surprised me with some gifts.  AK picked out some new sparkly nail polish for me and was quite pleased to put it on me!

I wasn't too keen to turn another year older but Richard and AK sure made it a lot less painful :)

Kids get to do some reporting!

AK's class had Career Week this week.  Different parents came in to discuss their jobs with the kids.  Unfortunately work was too busy to allow me to volunteer my time, and besides, how exciting is it to tell kids I work with numbers?

One of the kid's mom is a TV personality in Cayman.  She took her crew into the classroom and the kids got to interview each other.  Turn up the volume, sit back and get ready for a laugh!!!

Kids get to do some reporting

What a great way to kick off a long weekend :)

Stellar week for AK!

How has over a month passed since I last posted???  Life simply has not slowed down at all.  And it's not going to for the foreseeable future!

Some great news for AK:

• She has completed her first term of swim lessons this school year and has moved up from the Starfish group to the Sea Turtles Group.  She has made a lot of progress in a short time and I credit the 2x a week lessons for that.  She no longer looks like she's having a tantrum when she's doing the front crawl.  Ha!
• AK's math proficiency is at the level of someone who is halfway through Grade 1.  Woot!  She takes after her accountant momma!  That is a source of pride for me - can you blame me?  She does have some troubles with writing numbers backwards at time, and mixing up numbers like 12/21 but the teacher said that should resolve itself with time. 
• AK's reading level is at a Grade 1 level as well.  Her spelling is also coming along very nicely, the teacher said she is able to pick out the right letters for the sounds in the word, even though she's not quite assembling the word properly.  I am so pleased with her.  I cannot believe my little girl does journal writing at school.  She can write.  Blows my mind.
• The weekend coming up is a long weekend here so we will be able to spend three glorious weekend days together.  I cannot wait!

Talk soon! 

(Blueberry) Pancakes

When I picked up AK from school last Friday, she told me that everyone had blueberry pancakes but she had plain ones because she doesn't like blueberry pancakes.  Mind you, this is a kid that inhales (raw) blueberries if they are within sniffing distance.  Based on what AK told me, I assumed that the teacher must have made a small batch of pancakes for AK before she put the blueberries in the batter.  When the teacher emailed later that day to give us her account of the making of blueberry pancakes, I emailed her back to thank her for leaving the blueberries out of AK's pancakes.  Her response?  "She ate around them...  which was funny to watch!".  Ha ha.  Goes to show you that you can't take a 5yo's word as gospel...  they were blueberry pancakes, just not the part that AK ate!

Every day, I ask AK what the best and worst parts of her day were.  They tend to be relating to the behavior of herself and others in class.  She's rather fixated on behaving properly!  :)

School Rules!

I read a book called "School Rules" to AK tonight.  When we finished reading it, I asked her if there were any rules at school she didn't particularly care for.  Here are her answers:

1.  "I have to stop touching everyone all the time."  Poor girl.  She's such a cuddler and I guess that's not always beneficial in the classroom! 

2.  "I have to go to gym after I play on the playground.  I get sweaty and then I get sweaty again."  Goodness.  I suppose that would mess with her hair something fierce, wouldn't it?

Keeping a straight face during conversations is really tough sometimes!

AK and I headed out to Camana Bay after school today so she could play with some of her new kindergarten friends.  They had a blast running around for an hour, while us moms chatted and got to know each other.  We had just enough time at home when we returned for AK to finish her homework before we headed off to our first strata meeting.  AK did incredibly well...  I packed her supper and the ipad / headphones for her, and she was quite content for an hour.  I had hoped the meeting would only be an hour long so was quite happy to leave with her when she hit her limit.  Poor Richard stayed another 45 minutes!

Bedtime is SO much easier now that the daycare nap is no longer in the equation.  AK is tired but still happy by the time she goes to bed.  Loving it!  She's usually sleeping til about 7am as well, which is perfect.  

"You forgot to give me my five dollars!"

Richard and I recently decided that we would give AK an allowance of $5 each week that she is with us.  AK and I had read the Berenstain Bears' Trouble With Money book which talks about how Brother and Sister are ultimately given an allowance to help them learn how to handle money.  Of course, AK thought the idea of an allowance was quite grand! 

With life being as busy as it has lately, I had completely forgotten that we'd started this practice until that particular book was pulled out for bedtime reading on Sunday.  While Richard read the book, I raced around trying to find five $1 bills for AK's allowance!  I managed to find enough and brought it back to her room just as Richard finished up the book.  We discussed the idea of the allowance again to remind AK how it worked, and agreed that any monies she needs for certain school events might come out of her allowance (we're talking $1 or $2 a week that she's with us, so still plenty to save and play with!). 

I put the whole allowance thing out of my mind until the next week AK is with us, but tonight, she had other ideas...  We did the usual bedtime routine and were just about to head downstairs when she came running out of her bedroom...  yelling "Mommy, you forgot to give me my five dollars!".  I have to admit...  I had to work hard to not laugh...  while the accountant in me is furiously calculating in my head exactly how much it would be each month to give her an allowance EVERY DAY!  Ha ha ha!  She didn't seem too upset when we reminded her it was a weekly event, and not a daily one, so part of me wonders if she was trying to trick me into giving her an allowance off of the agreed-upon schedule!

Too funny of a story to not share!  xo

Flashback to Mother's Day

Was looking through old photos and realized I never did post any photos from Mother's Day.  AK and Richard were kind enough to take me out for a nice breakfast at the Beach Suite clubhouse!  We colored, I drank a mimosa, had some good eats...  it was a great celebration!  I loved the opportunity for us to dress up in our similar yellow dresses.  We did get a few compliments! 

Perhaps the only time you'll ever see us in matching dresses!!!

Ah, mimosa!

Kindergarten Blog

AK's teacher, Mrs. Bain, is keeping a classroom blog.  She hopes to add some information every day so please save the link in your favorites and check it often!


http://fbcs.edu.ky/kindergarten/

Cutie patootie uniformed up!

School buds

AK with Hunter at the end of the first day of school

Annabelle has had a few stories from school this week! 

First Baptist has a visual behavior system where the children start off with a green paper in their pocket.  As they misbehave, the green is replaced with yellow or with red for more serious misbehavings.  Annabelle's major news each day was that she had not received any yellows or reds...  except for one day when she did receive a yellow for not listening when the teacher was talking.  Sounds like it was a good learning experience though!

She also spoke yesterday about being a "pointer" where she got to point to words so that the rest of the class could read them together.  She complained that they didn't listen very well though...  I'm sure some yellows were given out for that!

She also said one of her little friends got a red when she sneezed on Annabelle...  yuck.  Let's hope that doesn't happen again!

We've also had our first school injury this week - the school called to let me know that Annabelle fell off of the swing and hit her head on the sandbox - must have been some dismount!  She was fine after some ice was applied to her head but I am very grateful to the school for letting me know, and even more grateful for the care she receives.

AK had her swim tryouts yesterday to be placed into her swim class for the upcoming term.  She did very well but unfortunately her front crawl has a lot of room for improvement!  Swim lessons are now twice a week so I hope that the increased frequency will help her learn faster.

Talk soon!
Paula

Swing on into Kindergarten

Getting a helping hand from Marley

Swing on in!!!

 

Looks like she's still trying to wake up - tired after holidays!  Kids are pointing to where lunchboxes go. 

PE uniform

21 kids in AK's classroom!

Here's the classroom - all ready for a brand new school year!