A Perfectly Pink Tea Party

Emily hosted a "Perfectly Pink Tea Party" this rainy afternoon.

I sure do love this little girl!

Oviparous Animals

I can almost guarantee that I didn't learn what an oviparous animal (animal that hatches from an egg) was in kindergarten but Emily's class has been studying them this spring.

They had praying mantis eggs and once they hatched they released them in the garden. They have chick eggs that they are turning each day.  Each day they write in a journal and tell about what is developing that day.  They have caterpillars that have now formed chrysalis'.  They also have lady bug larvae. They are learning so much!

Emily also had to do a project on an oviparous animal of her choosing.  She chose a platypus.  She thought it was cool because it is one of the only mammals that are oviparous.

We did our research and Emily had to fill out a graphic organizing of lots of facts about the platypus.  This ended up being about 5 pages of writing.  Then we had to build a diorama that included the life cycle, habitat and diet of the animal.  Emily worked so hard.  She was very proud of her project.  Next week they will have a living museum and they will present their projects to parents and older children in the school in small groups.

You can see that the platypus makes it's burrow on the lake shore or river bank.  It finds it's food on the bottom of the water.  Then it brings it to the surface.  It eats worms, shellfish, mud and gravel.  It uses the gravel to break  up it's food because it has no teeth.  You can see a nest of eggs and babies.  The babies are the size of lima beans when they are born so we used painted lima beans for the babies.

Great job, Emily!

Washing The Pollen Away

In last few weeks it has looked very yellow around here.  Thankfully, the yellow pollen is almost gone but Emily loved it.  It gave her an excuse to play with the hose.

My Birthday (In March)

Well, as you can see, I'm a little behind in some posts.  My birthday was March 9th.  It was on a Saturday so I was able to spend a wonderful day with Emily and Jeff.  They gave me breakfast in bed, flowers, cards and wine, and a yummy cupcake cake!

Jeff asked me to choose what I wanted to do on my birthday.  I chose rollerskating!  I hadn't been rollerskating in probable almost 20 years but I used to love to skate.  Emily had never been before so she was very excited.  I didn't fall but I certainly didn't skate fast.  Here are a few pictures.  They are not good but you get the idea of what our day was like.

We had a great time.  Going to a skating rink is like going back in time for me.  Later that night, we had dinner with friends.  It was a very happy birthday!

Spring Planting

Saturday was beautiful and we decided to start planting in the yard.  We knew we wouldn't be able to do it all in one day but we wanted to go ahead and get most of it knocked out.

"Look mom, I made my own clay.  Take a picture and put in on facebook." 

Emily took this one of me.

Jeff had finished his part of the planting and Emily and I were still working.  We went looking for him and this is where we found him.

He was actually asleep.  I think this might be his way of telling us he would like a hammock!

We had a nice day.  We cooked out for dinner and then went on a bike ride/walk.  What a wonderful Spring day!

Spring Break 2013

Emily had 6 school days off for Spring Break.  Unfortunately, as I posted earlier, Emily and I were dealing with a stomach virus during some of that time.  We still managed to have some fun!  We went to lunch and to get a mani/pedi, Emily played with some friends in the neighborhood, we went to the Science Center and Chick-fil-a with friends, we had a school friend over for a play date, we went to the Children's Museum and the park.  

  I didn't get pictures of everything but here are some I took with my cell phone. 

At the park there was a photographer taking pictures of a family.  Emily decided to shadow him to learn all about it.  He was very kind and allowed her to follow him around.  She was so cute. 

We enjoyed the break but Emily was excited to go back to school.  It's nice that she likes going to school:)

Emily's Reading Adventure

Emily loves math!  She didn't get that from me or Jeff but we are so happy she enjoys it!  She gets it right away and it's easy for her so far.  Reading is not something she has enjoyed.  She loves books and being read to but she get's frustrated easily when reading herself.  She really struggled until after Christmas and then something clicked and she started really getting it but she still didn't enjoy it.  At school they have "just right books" that are color coordinated so that the children find the books that are just right for their reading level.  They choose about 3 books or so each night to bring home and read.  They also have book baskets to read from at school.  We already had lots of Hooked On Phonics and Bob books at home.  I found some other books on her level and put a "just right book basket" for home.  This has really helped her to get excited about reading, she loves getting new books. 

The other day we read "Hop On Pop" and we took turns reading pages.  She got tired half way through and wanted me to finish reading.  I told her that I knew she could read this book by herself and if she did we would take a trip to her favorite donut shop to celebrate.  Well that's all it took.  She was a women on a mission.  The next day she read the entire book by herself, all 64 pages!  She was so proud!

When we got home we wrote a note to her teachers to share the good news.  Her teachers are so amazing!  They were so excited for her.  They wrote back to her on her note and let her share about it in morning meeting.  Emily wanted one of her student teachers from last semester to know so her teacher agreed to let Emily call her this week.  

Emily is so excited about reading.  Now she wants to do all the reading at night.  I have to beg to read a book or two to her!  It's just wonderful! 

Emily's Art Wall

Here is a recent picture of Emily's art wall in her room.  I can't keep all the art so I try to take pictures occasionally to remember.  These are some of her masterpieces at 5 and a half.

Emily's Chalkboard

100th Day Of School (February 5th)

February 5th Emily's school celebrated the 100th day of school.    I just realized that I never posted about it.  This was the day before we left for Disney so it slipped my mind.

Emily's class had many fun activities planned for the day. They were also encouraged to dress up like they were 100 years old.  It's not easy to dress a 5 year old like an old lady but here is what we came up with.  Baby powder in her hair and a walking stick helped complete the look.

The teachers went all out too!  It was lots of fun!  Next year we will find her some glasses:)

Convertible Weather

This week we have had amazing weather!  It's been especially nice considering we had a day with snow and sleet last week.  This fall, my dad decided to sell his little convertible and Jeff jumped at the chance to buy it.  This week he has been driving his cute little red car like crazy!  Emily enjoys riding around the block with him.  She isn't able to ride in it on any real roads yet but she still has fun!  I'm not sure she can see anything when she is riding in it but she loves it.  She was even helping Jeff shift gears the other night.

Easter 2013

Emily was out of school on Good Friday but she ended up getting a stomach virus.  She woke up early Friday morning throwing up.  We had a fun Saturday planned with friends but we ended up at home instead.  We still were able to manage a practice egg hunt and we dyed Easter eggs.  

Emily got a special flower delivery from her grandparents in Connecticut.

Emily left her basket and empty eggs along with a carrot snack for the Easter Bunny.  She wrote a note to find out how many eggs he hid and whether the eggs were inside or outside (rain was expected over night and in the morning).

The Easter Bunny comes and gets the basket and eggs at night.  He returns while we are at church to leave the filled basket and hide the eggs.  This is because Jeff has to be at church really early every Sunday for work and we don't want to get up that early and we don't want him to miss the fun.

Easter Sunday was raining but we headed out to church hoping for the sun to arrive later.

Here Emily is on stage after the service with the big cross her daddy built.  There are three crosses all together (one on each side of this big one).

Then we went home to find her Easter basket and visit with her grandparents.

After lunch we headed outside for an egg hunt.  The rain stopped and the sun came out.  It turns out the Easter Bunny hid 51 eggs filled with all kinds of goodies!

By the way, Emily was very excited about her shoes.  They had "heels".  She also picked out her own Easter dress this year.  Lots of pink, who would have guesses?!?!

The Easter Bunny put each egg in a plastic bag to protect it from the rain!

She found all 51 eggs!

Happy Easter everyone!