Open House at Folsom Hills

I cannot believe there are only 8 weeks left of this school year.  Time just flies!  I love, love, love summer and not having a busy schedule, but I really get sad as the year winds down and I start thinking about how the kids are growing up so fast.  Noah has had a great year with the lovely Mrs. Hedgpeth.  She is the warm and fuzzy kind of teacher every first grader should have. Noah has taken school very seriously this year and has taught himself how to write in cursive and is working on his times tables.  His reading has just taken off and Mrs. Hedgpeth told us that Noah has better handwriting than she does.

Noah standing in front of his diorama of the Brazilian Free-tailed Bat, native to the Folsom Lake area.  Like Emma, he did most of the work himself.  He molded the bat out of some light weight clay and then drew the features on after it dried.

Emma and Ms. Chicca. The most shy teacher we have ever had has worked our great for Emma.  We were worried at the beginning of the year that fourth grade with the strict silent type might be tough, but she has proven us wrong.  Emma might be the only kid in the class who has not had her card pulled for anything. She is a letter of the law kind of girl, just like her teacher so it works for her.  Academically, Emma has stepped it up working harder than ever and her Spanish fluency is amazing.  I really love our kids teachers and appreciate the outstanding education they provide.  We are so lucky to live right next to the greatest school in town.

Mission Accomplished

A few cleaver words to describe Emma in fourth grade might be ~ busy beaver over achiever. She has spent more time at the homework this year than ever!  She is doing great and we couldn't be more proud of her perfect report card and the glowing compliments.  She works really hard and does not take the easy route when it comes to completing her assignments. When it came time to build her the Carmel Mission she literally built everything from scratch.  Not the kit from Michael's and not just the church like the other kids, but the whole dang mission!  Between writing, typing and editing her own report to building the structure she spent 3 months and countless hours.  It was sometimes tough to sit by and watch as she'd collect the rocks, wash them, lay out her landscaping, hot glue, paper mache the domes, write on the tombstones, texture the walls, etc..  We helped now and then, but really this is right up her ally and so we just let her go with it.

She also had a science report and project to do at the same time, and somehow, many Saturdays later it is all done!  I am so thankful for a playroom with a big art table that can take a beating and store all the junk for this kind of stuff.

Death by Dog

Our cute puppy seems to be challenged in the cooler weather months, when she doesn't always get a good walk or run.  On a quiet weekday afternoon I found her in our playroom innocently chomping down on not one, but four Barbie dolls!  Fortunately the dolls are on their way out of our house and Emma wasn't a bit disappointed.  I'm not sure why Suri chose the dolls that were stashed away in a cabinet and not one of the other million toys at her reach.  I wish I could get inside her head so I could prevent some of her nonsensical destruction.