A Mobile, a Moon and Push Ups

Chloe was excited to take her mobile into school that she made after reading a Junie B. Jones book.

She worked hard at drawing the different characters, writing their names and then writing out parts of the plot to hang on her mobile.

Owen wanted to get in on the early morning pictures, if only to try to sneak in some bunny ears.  But I snapped a photo before he got them up behind Chloe.  Momma is too fast for this boy!  Sometimes.

The moon was still out before we left for school.

In the afternoon, Chloe had tennis lessons.

Thought she looked pretty cute wearing her purple and black dress with Owen's black tennis shoes.

She didn't make all the hits and had to do push ups at the back of the line.

Owen's Report Card - Semester 1

Owen brought home a fabulous report card.

A's in spelling, language arts, science, social studies and math.  Awesome job, smart boy!!!

Lunch with the Kids

Today is the last day of school for the kids in 2011 and they were begging for Mommy to go have lunch with them.  Chloe's class had pajama day, which was also turned into dressing up as reindeer.

Chloe had worn off her black reindeer nose before lunch was over and she gave her first grade teacher Mrs. West a special Christmas hug.

Owen was thrilled that his best friend Tayden was allowed to join us for lunch at the visitor tables outside the noise of the cafeteria, even though we weren't all family.

Chloe's Birthday at School

I drove up to school on Monday to have lunch with Chloe for her birthday.  She felt like such a big girl getting to pass out pieces of cookie cake to her classmates.

It was finger licking good.  I did a better job measuring and dividing up this time and actually got to bring some home to share with the family.

(Early) Happy Birthday, Owen!

I went up to school to have lunch with Owen for his birthday.  He got a special free ice cream for his birthday.

After lunch, his teacher said it was okay for me to bring the cookie cake back to the classroom to share with his classmates.  Owen's best buddy in class, Tayden, helped pass out the cookies.

After all pieces were passed out, Owen asked his teacher for permission to shake his hips and she said yes.

His classmates slowly joined in.

Until the whole class was up on their feet and shaking and grooving like nobody's business.  There wasn't any music playing, but you'd think there was by looking at these photos.  It was a really neat moment to watch a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds dancing together like this.  I'm glad I was there to share it with him!

Owen and Tayden are constantly working on writing and illustrating a book together.  They have created their own Club Penguin characters.

There friend Adam had to join in the group hug.

And at the end of karate, Owen got the traditional birthday belt spankings from his classmates and instructors as he ran to through their line.

And then back again.

I love that school and Tae Kwon Do friends helped make celebrating his weekend birthday so special on a Friday!

Second Day of School

And the kids were up early enough to ride the bus.  The bus comes at 7am on our street, so we have to be up and out of the house in record time.  So early that they even tracked footprints of dew across the street with them.

They couldn't get down to the end of the street fast enough to wait for the bus with all the other kids from our street.

See?  Fast.

Those are the Kindergarten moms hovering close to the bus.  Even on the second day of school, they were shedding tears over their babies growing up.  Our kids barely looked back.  

First Day of School

The alarm clocks sounded early, but the kids woke up and got ready quickly.

They were more than willing to make plenty of silly faces for me.

Have a great first day of school Owen and Chloe!

It's really difficult to hold up a heavy camera and take pictures sometimes.  When I'm driving.  :)

Kelley was supposed to be in Colorado Springs today for a three day photography workshop, but it got canceled yesterday.  She was glad she didn't miss the kids' first day of school.  And the whole family also got to meet her boss Marie who was in town for customer meetings.  We went out to dinner together and then had frozen yogurt at a place called Yogli Mogli.

The kids liked staying out a little late and getting to celebrate their first day of school with a sweet treat.

Chloe is really perfecting this face.

She must be getting some really great reactions to it as this is non-stop and not just for the camera.  It's awesome.