To Kendall on Your 6th Birthday

Kendall- Kindergarten school portrait Fall 2013

Sweet Kendall,

In your sixth year of life you have experienced some big changes and matured a lot.  You graduated from pre-K at YCW and began Kindergarten in August at Kay Granger.  A year ago it was hard for me to imagine you as an elementary school kid, but you have risen to the challenge and have done great!  From the beginning of the year you have loved school.  You say it is "awesome" and "so much fun!"  I am so glad that you are having such a great first year of school.  You have learned to read, write stories, add a little and so much more! You have lots of friends and one best friend named Libby that you made on the first day of school who continues to be one of your favorites.  Your teacher says you are a very bright girl, always follow the rules, and have all the characteristics of a successful learner.  In the third six weeks, Mrs. Schindler chose you for the Kid with Character Award for the trait of Citizenship.  You were so excited to be like Avery and have a yard sign with the little Granger Wranglers on it. This year you also moved up in gymnastics to the girls' Bronze level and you have started piano lessons with Memaw.  You have really surprised us with how much you enjoy that and how you often just go in the study and start practicing on your own without being told.  Sometimes you will say, "I feel like playing piano," and that's exactly what you do.  You have also started playing more by yourself in your room- usually with your dolls and stuffed animals.  Two other big events for you this year have been that you lost 3 teeth (and a fourth shortly after your birthday) and you stopped sucking your thumb.  Once your front teeth started getting pretty loose you said it felt funny to suck your thumb and then one morning you told me that you didn't suck it the previous night.  Honestly I was a little skeptical at first, but after several mornings of you saying the same thing and then witnessing it myself there was no denying that you had stopped the habit.  We were so proud of you for making that decision on your own and having the will power to carry through with it!  In fact, your determination and self control are two of the qualities that Daddy and I feel will help you so much in life and will allow you to do great things for the kingdom of God.  After two weeks of no thumb sucking we let you pick a special activity to celebrate, so we all went to Chuck E Cheese for a night of pizza and family fun.  You are such a special part of our family with your smiles, laughs, sweet kisses and cuddles, and the quirky, funny things you do.  We are so proud of the way you are growing up to know and love God as seen in your sweet prayers and in your actions like giving your tooth fairy money to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. We love you so much Kendall! Happy 6th Birthday!!!

Valentine's Day

Judson's teachers made these for all the moms and dads for Valentine's Day.  I thought it was so sweet and such a cute idea

Valentines Day for us this year was a very busy day, but filled with fun and love.  Judson and I spent the morning going over to the Cooper Clinic to pick up Kendall's birthday cake from one of my mom's co-workers who had made it.  We stopped on the way back to eat lunch at McAlister's since they had free kids' meals for Valentine's Day and made it back home just in time for me to go up to the school and help out with the girls' parties.  I went to Avery's first and watched them do a craft and then helped them make Valentine's snack mix.  My time in her class flew by and then I had to go on over to Kendall's party for awhile.  When I got to her class they were finishing up handing out their Valentines and then they had some treats and played Bingo.  The Bingo cards had pictures of all the kids in the class on them, which was a big hit.  the kids loved hearing their names called and everyone having to find their pictures on the card.  Scott came home with some delicious chocolate covered strawberries and roses for the girls and I.  I love having fresh flowers in the house to enjoy for a few days!  Then we took the kids to Cane's for dinner and I headed over to the Grapevine Convention Center afterwards to drop off my stuff for Divine consign the next day.  Like I said, it was a busy day, but spent with people I love!

My sweet Avery at her Valentine party

Avery and one of her good friends from class

Avery and her buddies

Kendall with all her Valentines from her classmates.  We got to decorate a shoebox for the party for her to put her Valentines in.

Kendall and her best friend

Playing Valentine Bingo

Kendall's class

silly picture!

My smallest Valentine dressed in red for his party (and acting like a pirate)

Eating dinner with the loves of my life at Cane's

February school events

The girls had a couple of special events at school in February on top of Valentine's Day and Kendall's birthday.  One morning the PTA sponsored a "Pastries with Parents" breakfast.  They served juice, donuts, cinnamon rolls, and muffins before school in the cafeteria for all the students and their families. The girls were really excited to have us come to school with them and to get to have donuts for breakfast on a school morning.  The girls were extra excited because Scott chose that day to Watch DOG (Dads of Great Students), where he got to go into the girls' classrooms to help their teachers and to spend some quality time with them at school.  Also in February the kindergarteners celebrated the 100th day fo school with a parade, a special snack and some other fun activities.  Each child was supposed to wear an item in the parade with 100 of something on it.  We made Kendall a foam crown with 100 pastel colored pom-poms on it.  It was really cute and she had a lot of fun looking like a queen for the parade.

The only picture I was able to get of the 100th day parade turned out blurry, but gotta go with somethin's better than nothin' 

The first thing Kendall did with Buster was pretend that he wrote "Give me a tour" on the dry erase board, and then she gave him a tour of course.

Next she wanted to make some clothes for Buster, so we made him a little outfit using one of Judson's washcloths.

Kendall and Buster watched a little TV together.

Buster watched and listened to her practice piano.  She played "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

She made a little bed for Buster in between two of her Build-a-Bears.

She put Buster in her backpack so he could walk to school with her the next day.

One day this month, Kendall got to bring home the class pet- Buster the baby snow leopard.  We had to take pictures of the things she and Buster did together, and then she had to glue them in Buster's journal and write journal entries to go along with them.  She was so excited to finally have her turn with Buster!  She had fun coming up with unique things that she and Buster could do and writing about them to share with her classmates.

Kendall's school birthday celebration

Kendall's birthday ended up being a snow day, but I was still able to take cupcakes to her class to celebrate her birthday a few days later. I had some cupcakes made at Target that kind of went along with the "Frozen" theme of her birthday party at ASI.  After I passed out the cupcakes to everyone, Kenall got to put on a birthday crown and choose 6 friends to be the candles for her cake.  She of course chose all girls and, following class tradition, they stood around her in a circle and she "lit" the "candles" with her finger.  Then the class sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she got to blow out the "candles".  As she did, each little girl squatted down.  It was so cute and a really fun tradition for the kids.  She actually had a sub that day, but the kids were able to tell us exactly what to do and they made sure we didn't miss anything for Kendall's birthday celebration with her class. 

I originally saw these cupcakes in the display case at the Target bakery and they looked just like this but with a snowflake ring in the middle of each one.  Since winter was almost over and Frozen themed parties had been so popular, all the Targets were out of the snowflake rings.  So instead they just added clear edible glitter on top to give them some sparkle.  They turned out pretty and Kendall really liked them.

Enjoying her chocolate "Frozen" cupcake

The birthday girl and me

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Scott with his girls all dolled up for the dance

For the second year in a row, Scott took the girls to the Daddy-Daughter Dance at the Hills Church in Southlake.  The girls had a lot of fun getting all dressed up and fancy for their special night out.  At the dance they had dinner, carriage rides, a photo booth, crafts, and of course dancing.  Several of their friends from school were there, which made it extra special.  They had a great time and I think it will be something all 3 of them always remember!

Mimi bought both the girls new fancy dresses for the dance.  They also had little faux fur coats and purses.

Avery really wanted her hair curled for the dance.  It took me 20 minutes to do all those sections of hair, but it did turn out pretty and it held all night!

Kendall's dress was a little long, but she really wanted to wear it and I thought it still looked cute.

Kendall's sassy pose

2nd Grade Grandparent's Day

Avery with her 4 grandparents.

My parents and Scott's parents were both able to have lunch with Avery this year on 2nd grade Grandparents Day.  Avery said she was the only 2nd grader with all four grandparents there, which of course made her feel really special.  She got to have one of her favorite things, Pei Wei, for lunch and visit with Mimi, Poppi, Memaw, and Dedaw while she ate.  She is one loved and lucky girl!

Avery and Mimi

Avery with Mimi and Poppi

Avery with Memaw and Dedaw

Space- Where No 2nd Grader Has Gone Before

Avery with her class before the show

Silly pose! The kids had planets and stars painted on their shirts with glow paint and the teachers were dressed up as aliens.

Near the end of January the 2nd graders put on a musical called, "Space- Where No 2nd Grader Has Gone Before."  They sang all sorts of songs about space with clever lyrics that were also very informative.  Their music teachers do a great job of putting together programs that are cute and fun to watch, but that the kids also learn something from along the way.  As part of their program this year the kids had to make their own instrument from recycled materials to play during one of the songs.  Scott helped Avery make a guitar using glove boxes, plastic candy tubes, paper towel and toilet paper rolls, and rubber bands.  At the end of the program they auctioned off some of the instruments and donated money to the landphilharmonic, which makes instruments for kids in other countries using recycled materials.  As usual, Avery did a great job performing.  She was very expressive, sang all the words, and did all the motions/dances.

Avery with her guitar that she and Scott made for the show

Avery playing her guitar in the show.  When it was time to play the instruments the kids passed them up to the right person and the one girl who passed Avery's broke it by grabbing it at the neck.  She was able to put it back together well enough to play it, but she was not very happy!

all the kids playing their instruments

This particular song was about solids, liquids, and gasses.  This was the motion for gas.  It was a pretty clever and funny little song.

All the 2nd graders

Avery and I after the show

sisters after the show