Grandma Goes To Kindergarten, Chris Has Fun in the Country!

On Thursday of last week I experienced something new to me, something I hadn't done since Suzie, our adult daughter, was in second grade.  I visited and volunteered in Chloe and Claire's classroom which led to a very enjoyable morning! It was so great to see how and why the girls enjoy school so much. I was super impressed with their teacher who never skips a beat, but seems to keep things right on track, stimulating, and interesting. Claire had met me at the door to tell me that she had been chosen Kindergarten Student of the Week in the daily school assembly for demonstrating the virtue of "friendliness". She was beaming ear to ear of course, and her teacher praised her once again when they began their morning classroom session for being a good friend to her classmates. Chloe quietly reminded me that she too had been student of the week a couple of weeks ago. :)

My role was to help two small groups of students when they started on their math worksheets, their first subject of the day. I also observed the math lesson presented (so I would know how to help them...LOL) and was able to go outside with the class as they did their PE, had their morning snacks, and later helped with other table activities geared towards math skills. It went well, and so for now, I will be attending Kindergarten each Thursday morning for a while.

Here are eager learners, Claire on the left in the blue sweater and Chloe in the flowered jacket.

 

Claire and one of the girls' sweet little friends, Allie, enjoy their morning snack. You have the option of bringing your own snack or purchasing something from the snack bar. Claire and Allie got popcorn.

 

 

Claire and Chloe wait in line to go back in to the classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

Chloe working hard during her time with the Ipad. She seemed to enjoy that very much!

 

 

 

Later in the day when Paula picked up the girls, she took a picture of Claire with her certificate and her coupons for frozen yogurt. I can tell you that I think those free coupons for yogurt are the primary attraction for being student of the week! I know Chloe loved her treat and Claire was super excited about stopping for yogurt after school.

 





 

 

A couple of Sundays ago, the children were invited to a birthday party where they would be riding ponies. All of the kids were excited and ended up having a great time. After the pony rides, the children attending PAINTED the ponies. What? Painted the ponies? That is what I said, and thought, too. I guess it was really fun and the only rule was you couldn't paint their faces. Anyway, I wasn't there but did see some cute pictures. This week Mike sent me this one of Chris at that party....makes you wonder what was on his mind...he is definitely giving something important some thought.

 

 

 

Yesterday, Claire and Chloe were invited to yet another party and this time Chris wasn't included. That was fine because he came home after church with Papa and me to spend the night. We were so looking forward to having him. Our good friends Miss Connie and Mr. Wayne knew he was coming and called to invite us out to the ranch. Chris got to sit on and in some farm equipment and took a long ride in the ATV Razor with Mr. Wayne and Papa. Boy did he have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

After our time on the ranch we came home to fix dinner. We tried a new recipe using chicken tenders and in the picture below Chris is shaking the bag to coat the oven baked tenders. He had originally told me he wasn't going to help because he didn't want to burn his finger on a pot. Apparently that has happened before, but we assured him he wouldn't be around anything hot. The chicken was pretty good and he ate like a trooper, chicken, smashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and grapes. Wow, we were shocked!

 

 

 

 

We all had a great night's sleep after making sure there were no dogs under his cot that he sleeps on in our room. He was positive there were some bad dogs below him and we had to get the flashlight and check everything out. Our room was all clear and he soon was fast asleep.

 

Enjoyed every minute with him and was sad to see him go when Mike picked him up in the early afternoon. Hopefully he will be back soon!

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Early in the week Papa and I took Chris for a playtime in the park. I don't think he had used the swings the previous two visits there, but on this day he probably was in the swing for 20-30 minutes. He loved it.

 

After swinging, he did a little climbing and then we headed off to lunch. He seemed to enjoy every moment, especially with his Papa.



 



On Saturday, the occasion of Mike's birthday, Paula took the night off and hosted a family birthday party. As usual, the food as excellent and we had lots of laughs. Mike always requests tacos for his birthday and Paula's were the best I've had in a long time. Rather than birthday cake, Paula thought Mike would like birthday pie and that was on the menu too. A few pictures will tell the story of the evening.....

Uncle Superman Jon and Lisa spent some time reading with the kids....

Chloe, ready to smile for the camera and enjoying all the activity....

 

Chloe and Christopher have a few chuckles with Uncle John and Nonie.....

 

 

 

 

Chris starts practicing an abbreviated version of the happy birthday song....



 

 

Candles and singing for Mike.... Claire was at the other end of the table singing her heart out....

 

 

Claire taking her lemon pie very seriously.....

 

 

Can't believe we have a son as old as......better not say, but Happy Birthday, Mike, and many, many, more to come!

 



 





Lizards, Snakes, Frogs, Oh My!!

Yesterday, Saturday, Papa and I met up with Mike, Chloe, Claire, and Chris to attend a reptile show. A fun surprise was that Uncle Superman came too, so the three C's were especially excited about that. We saw many interesting creatures and although most of my pictures below are of the girls, Chris enjoyed it very much as well. He mostly hung out with Daddy and Uncle Superman and they tended to move through the displays a little quicker than we girls did.

Interesting sculptured shrub outside the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally a shot of Chris, happy as a clam, with his button and a toy snake in his hand.

 

 



 

 

The buttons that each of the children are wearing were from the booth of our friend TJ. He is an avid reptile owner  and creates some beautiful artwork featuring reptiles and exotic plant life. His website is here in case you would like to see more of his work.

 

Mike always had creatures of every kind in our house when he was growing up and so it was no surprise when he purchased a small snake to take home yesterday. Yuck...not my favorite house pet and I'm sure Paula won't be thrilled either!

 

A funny little incident happened this week that I will share. Hopefully since I print up the blog into a book each year, someday the kids will be able to look back and have a laugh or too. So on Thursday evening Papa decided to call and talk to the kids. Since no one answered the phone he left a message in a deep disguised voice saying that he was "the homework monitor calling to make sure all homework was completed." Mike had just stepped out of the house for a moment and came back in to a beeping message. He played the message and Mike reports that the color drained from poor little Claire's face. She is so precious and always wants to do he right thing and she was very concerned. She told Mike she didn't know there was a homework monitor. Mike told her she better get it finished before she returned the call. When she did call, Papa says that her little shaky voice told him that hers was done and that she thought it sounded a little bit like Papa but she hadn't been certain that it was him. We laughed and laughed, but I told her on Saturday that there is no homework monitor that will ever call her except her Papa.

 

Love those Grandchildren!!!

♫♪♫♪ School Days, School Days.....♪♪♫ Good Ole' Golden Rule Days...♫♪♫

The second week of school went well. My task of getting Claire and Chloe to school on time went fairly well also. I think next Monday I will leave just a bit earlier from their house as traffic was heavier than I anticipated. We did get there with ten minutes to spare so that wasn't too bad. My laugh for the morning was that they each wanted to wear their blouses on top of their uniform, which happened to be a jumper, that day. I encouraged them to put the blouse inside but decided it wasn't important enough to hassle about. They soon discovered  on their own that the blouse works better inside. Chloe was actually going to wear hers unbuttoned but I did say that was certainly against the school rules and policies. Fortunately, she didn't like that unbuttoned look anyway. :) The great news of the week was that Chloe was chosen Kindergartner of the Week in the school's morning assembly. It had something to do with their "Virtue of the Week" and the virtue was 'enthusiasm'. The teacher has already emailed Paula and said how much she was enjoying the girls and that she loved Chloe's "spunk" and Claire's kind spirit. (Apparently the teacher had overheard a conversation Claire had with another student). At any rate, Claire got a special award in the classroom for her politeness, so they are off to a good start. Below are their jumper uniforms with their blouses properly tucked in. Not sure where this posing has come from.....

 

 

Chris wanted in the picture too.....

 

 

 

 

Surprisingly, after dropping the girls off at school and Chris and I arriving back at their house, he began to cry and say, "No, Grandma, school!" He, apparently thought it was a school day for him, as well. I finally convinced him that we were going to have fun too and he was fine. We decided to take his bike to the park but due to low air in the tires we had to substitute one of the girls' big wheel bikes. He was as happy as a clam as long as he had wheels. We had a great time at the park and then went out for lunch on the way home. Both of us then took a nap until Mommy woke up. That felt wonderful! I love naps!

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday night was "Back to School Night" and so Papa and I went up for an early yummy dinner with their family and stayed with Chris while Mike, Paula, and the girls went to school. The school seriously discourages bring younger siblings and so that was great with us, it gave us a little more time to see our grandchildren during the week.

 

When we arrived Chris was so excited to show us his newly rearranged and updated bedroom. He was very proud of it. The beautiful quilt on the wall was made by Chris' great Aunt NJ who lives in Iowa. It has been on the wall previously but it looks especially good where it is now.

 

 

 

 



The holiday tomorrow will change our schedule for this week but I am looking forward to the following Monday when I'll be able to do some child care again.

 

Happy September!!!