First Day of School

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I forgot to take Buddy's first day of school picture until this week.  We "started" our school year the day after Labor Day like the rest of Virginia this year.  We're still slowly getting into it, having the new baby and all.  We decided that since Little Guy can read (he's working his way through Princess Sparkley's first grade phonics books) that we'd start him with Kindergarten this year even though he'd have to wait a year for public school.  And even picking out Kindergarten workbooks for him was difficult because he knows all his numbers and letters.  He does a great job with school too.  He knows when it's "school time" and rather than disappearing every chance he gets like the big kids (especially Buddy) he finds books to read, brings me the workbooks and has me read him the directions, ets.  Basically, he's going to teach himself Kindergarten while I'm holding a sleeping newborn whom I can't set down.

First Day of School

Our month long California/Utah trip mixed with moving at the end of August made it so our school year got off to a crazy start. We kept up with handwriting, reading and math over the summer (except for the trip) so we started that back up a few days after we returned home, early September. We gave ourselves a week or two of that before we were unpacked and organized enough to start the other subjects. And then I just never got around to taking our First Day of School pictures, which are already super nontraditional since the kids are homeschooled and could do school in their PJs if they so desired (and sometimes do, as does their teacher). Oh well. And have I mentioned that the lighting in our living room is horrible?

Princess Sparkley - 4th grade

Buddy - 2nd grade

Little Guy - pre-pre-school

Graduation Pics

B ended up skipping the Saturday, entire university, graduation ceremony since the Thursday night one had been just the right size for us to see him and them to call his name, etc.  We hadn't gotten very many pictures of him that night though so we went up to campus yesterday with the cap and gown and had a photo shoot with his entourage (the kids).

Master

Last Thursday (5/19) night, B received his Masters degree!  

His parents, our little family, and his sister and her family were in attendance.

Then we went for ice cream.

Buddy and cousin S

And we stood on a compass rose because some of us have names that start with the first letters NESW.

100th Day!

Okay, so we're a little behind as far as the typical 100th day of school celebrations... it seems like those fall in mid to late February.  But we started late because grandparents were in town in September and then we follow B's college schedule and had about a month off for Christmas.  So Tuesday was our 100th day of school and for the first year ever (and I told the kids not to expect this celebration to happen EVERY year now) we celebrated!

 First we made 100 day of school "glasses."

 Then we read:

here

One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinszes

here

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

here

Counting Our Way to the 100th Day! by Betsy Franco

Then the kids drew pictures of what they think they'll look like when they are 100 years old.

I love Princess Sparkley's drawing.

I love that Buddy's drawing looks exactly the same as his normal self-portraits, only with a mustache.

We counted out 100 Fruit Loops (although we used the fruity Cheerios... I'd recommend Fruit Loops, I think they have a bigger hole).  And by "we," I mean Princesss Sparkley.  Buddy strung up about 15 and Little Guy just ate his.

Then we made a trail mix: 20 peanuts, 20 raisins, 20 peanut butter chips, 20 chocolate chips and 20 M&Ms.  Little Guy was off on his numbers and somehow ended up with most of the M&Ms.  

Buddy gathered up 100 Lego pieces.  Princess Sparkley drew 100 stars on a paper.  I didn't get pictures.

Occupying Little Guy During School

Little Guy still has a loud screech. He doesn't take naps, but desperately needs them. Spends most of the time we're trying to do school bugging the big kids and demanding that me, or Princess Sparkley or Buddy do something for him or with him. I can usually pop in a dvd for him and occupy him long enough to power through the difficult stuff when the kids really need to concentrate like math, or the instructions for the handwriting practice, etc. But our TV is only about 20 feet from our table where school happens, so I've had to have Little Guy watch dvds on the laptop with giant headphones on. He looked so cute today I took his picture, but once he realized what I was doing, he got a bit paranoid.

Art

The kids drew these for art a couple weeks ago based on this and this. Buddy's is on top, PS's is on bottom.

Homeschool

Those are my legs teaching Buddy about beginning sounds, middle sounds and ending sounds in words. Baby X wanted to learn too.

Line-ups

The "first day of school." Baby X obviously wasn't supposed to be in the picture but lined himself up at the door with the big kids.



B was taking this picture of just Buddy to show off his redneck outfit. PS stood next to him. So Baby X lined up with them. (Really, he isn't so unclothed this often.)

Visiting Washington DC

I plan to take great advantage of living so close to Washington DC over the next few years... especially as far as our homeschooling is concerned. We made our first visit to the capital as Virginians on Saturday and took in some sights. The kids were threatened that this was a preliminary trip and their behavior would effect the possibility of all future trips when I would be outnumbered three to one while B is busy and we're on "school" field trips. They did... okay.


The Capitol.



Buddy and PS at the base of the Washington Memorial.



The kids at the Washington Monument.



Baby X signing "bird" to me when he spotted some ducks.



We made sure to find the column for Kansas at the new
(at least since last time I was in DC in December of 2002)
World War II Memorial.



Baby X at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.



Baby X at the Lincoln Memorial.
I especially like how his binky looks like a big Italian mustache.



Cute Princess Sparkley.

Graduation photo shoot

(Click on the collage to enlarge images.)

After all our extended family had left, we drove back up to campus (when it wasn't so full of other graduates having their pictures taken) and took some pictures of B in his cap and gown.

The bottom row, where B looks like he's in a tunnel is in the base of Campanile (or bell tower). The story behind this is that the first time you walk through it is supposed to be when you graduate. Otherwise you jinx it. So if you go in it before you are graduating, you have to walk out the same door you came in. Princess Sparkley followed this rule. Buddy did not. I'm recording this so that in the future, we can see if this comes true for our kids. The graduate procession into the stadium for the ceremony earlier today led them through the Campanile.

Some pictures swith the rest of us.

The sun was setting so they aren't all the best quality. And, I'm blaming it on the camera, not the person holding the camera, some pictures are blurry.

Graduation Treats

We had class of 2009 and Jayhawk plates along with lemon cupcakes, and chocolate peanut butter cupcakes (I can't get the picture to load). And these cute little graduation cap pops I saw here.

Graduation: Day 2

B's parents came back for the main University Commencement that was today (Sunday) along with B's brother's family.

We met at our house and then drove to a building on the edge of campus where we got to ride a University bus (that looks like a Jayhawk) to campus. B had picked up free tickets for all of us to eat at the Chancellor's lunch. So we spotted Big Jay (the mascot) and ate our lunches before walking down to the stadium to get seats. We were really lucky that the seats we picked were on the side of the stadium B was going to walk past so we saw him close up.


Before the graduates came in.



If you click to enlarge, you can see where I've circled B's face in red as he walked through the line of professors.

Again, he's circled in red, smiling and waving.


Walking past us. The kids were really excited because they could spot him and wave and he'd wave back.


He's circled in red, in the crowd of graduates.

Graduation: Day 1

(Click on the collage to enlarge images.)

Saturday the Economics Department had their graduation ceremony. B's parents came out from St. Louis for both days. Our kids were wonderfully behaved, especially since there were probably only six kids in the entire auditorium, and three of them were ours.\

Congratulations B, we're all very proud of you!

School Carnival

PS's school carnival was today. I figured we'd spend about an hour there. I think it ended up being closer to three. Yikes. Each classroom had a different carnival like game. At first Buddy was timid but after a couple rooms he was jumping up and down on hyperactive overload. He had a blast since a lot of the games are ball oriented. His favorite included: bowling, basketball (which he was way too short for but did 4 or 5 time anyway), a stomp rocket, and this one where helium tanks are balancing beach balls in the air and you have to knock them down with a tennis ball. He loved that one. There was also a cake walk. PS was all about that because you won a cake. Buddy wasn't so sure so I quickly tried to explain the game to both of them figuring they've never really done it before and then I promised Buddy I'd walk along with him. It turns out it wasn't even the cut throat cake walk I was expecting. I guess I was picturing something more like musical chairs where people would be fighting to be the last one standing. They just called out numbers. PS ended up winning us a cake. Later on, we played again to use up tickets, and even with all of our family but Baby X on a square, so we had 4/12 odds, still none of us won a cake that time.


Here's what's left of the cake (or cupcakes) PS won us. The first time we were in the cake walk room a woman came in to check on her cakes... she wanted to make sure hers were the first to go, not the last ones that no one picked.


Baby X was a trooper just hanging out in his stroller the whole time.


The kids used their tickets to buy hot dogs, snow cones and cotton candy. They were SO excited about the cotton candy and have been talking about it since PS brought the carnival flyer home from school a couple of weeks ago... turns out neither of them really liked it. So, B and I got stuck eating a bunch of it because right after we got ours they shut down so we didn't want to throw away our nearly full cones in front of all those sad people who didn't get any.


PS was very excited about the umbrella in her snow cone. She also had a unicorn painted on her face. And was thrilled with all of the cheap prices they got.

Homeschooling

This year with the virtual school PS gets to meet in a virtual classroom with her education adviser and sometimes a small group of other students. This morning I talked to her education specialist and then told PS it was her turn to talk and get on the computer. She said to me, "I'm glad no one can see me on the computer, I'm in my pajamas." Here she is at the computer, in her PJS, with my phone's ear piece taped to her ear.

School Music Concert

Sorry for the horrible picture, this was the only one we got. That's PS in the light pink dress, front left. This was her classes music concert (2 first grade classes and 1 or 2 second grade classes... there are more kids I cut out of the picture).


They sang:
Puff the Magic Dragon
Chickery Chick
Baby Beluga
What a Wonderful World
Come Little Donkey

Dr. Seuss Week

*

It was Dr. Seuss week last week at Princess Sparkley's school. On Monday she had to wear something green. On Tuesday crazy socks. On Wednesday, wacky hair or clothes. On Thursday something with an animal on it, or an animal print. And on Friday, she had to wear red, black and white.

Since Princess Sparkley is homeschooled, but attends our neighborhood elementary school for the last part of the day, she sometimes misses out on fun activities that her class does in the morning. So at home we did some fun Seuss crafts from this website, and we had green eggs and ham for dinner on Monday night.


*So technically, it's not ham, and it's not green. To make up for that we had green milk and green, homemade, english muffins.