Meredith's Trampoline Time!

Here's another quick movie from Meredith's gymnastic show!  

Meredith's Spring Gymnastic Show

This weekend Meredith had a gymnastics presentation.  She has been taking classes all year, and it was great to see her progress.  She really enjoyed swinging from the bars, bouncing on the trampoline, and jumping or flipping into the foam pit.  She was very excited and bouncy during the show.  I hope she will follow in my footsteps and do cartwheels everywhere!  I remember doing them behind my mom at the grocery store and off the diving board into the pool!  There was a point where I just HAD to do cartwheels all the time! Wish I still had that flexibility and strength!  We also watched a rhythmic gymnastics routine done with a ribbon, rhythmic gymnastics might be another class that Meredith would enjoy trying!   We will take a small summer break from gymnastics and start again in the fall.  The kids want to have time to 'enjoy summer' without many obligations.  Oh the days when I used to enjoy my summer laziness! 

Third Grade Play

The Third Grade at Corl Street finished up their studies of Africa by presenting 3 plays that they memorized and painted scenery for.  Jeffrey told us he would be a narrator for one of the plays, and I was excited to see all the kids perform.  I didn't know what to expect because Jeffrey didn't tell us a lot about what they were doing for the plays, so it was fun to see all the kids come out with different animal hats/headbands!

Jeffrey is a Giraffe!

Jeffrey and his Friend Ellis were Narrators for one of the Africa Plays.

Three 'Animals' make soup together during the play Jeffrey Narrated.

 The kids did a wonderful job, and it was great to see how well their parts in the plays suited their personalities!  All the 'Animals' were very well chosen.  Jeffrey told me that he really likes to speak into the microphone, he did a nice job speaking clearly.

Meredith's 6th Birthday

Meredith turned 6 on a Friday.  We were very excited and counted down the days.  The evening before her birthday she declared "I'm going to be the first one up in the morning!", and I said "Okay" but I didn't really believe her because she always sleeps late and we wake her up everyday.  I went down early to get ready in the morning, and there she was!  So sweet to spend this morning time together.

We brought in cupcakes to share with her class, and we all played together during 'choice time'.  Meredith played with the three squeeky fluffy bunnies that were a present from Grammie Laurie.  She brought them in for sharing, and we built them a house.

Meredith enjoyed lots of presents on her birthday, and lots of cake she had a wonderful day, she eagerly anticipated her rainbow birthday party on Saturday!

We had a Rainbow Party at Meredith's Dance Studio with Miss Jess.  Miss Jess has taught Meredith to dance with Miss Valerie, and is wonderful with kids.   She planned a rainbow wind chime craft and everybody had a great time doing a rainbow obstacle course.  Miss Jess taught the kids a rainbow dance to go along with one of our favorite songs! 'Roy G. Biv' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf33ueRXMzQ

Meredith had a great time with all her friends from Kindergarten, I'm happy she had such a wonderful time at her party!  

Meredith Reading

Meredith is really becoming a reader.  She has been demonstrating her skills lately reading all sorts of signs, packages, and books.  It is wonderful to see her learning and growing.  I am happy to look up and see her sitting quietly with a book, or to have her proudly bring me a book she wants to read.

She is also starting to learn to ride her bike without training wheels!  Although she is a little hesitant, she is excited.  She still loves riding the tag a long bike behind us, its lots of fun for her and a workout for us to tow her up the hills!  We will keep you updated on her progress. :) We are going out again this afternoon in the beautiful spring weather.  

Spring Activities

The Martial Arts Gym has red mats and a fighting ring.

This Spring Jeffrey is starting Martial Arts Classes.  He has a good friend from school he takes Wednesday classes with, and he gets to wear a cool looking uniform called a 'Gi', I had to learn how to tie Jeffrey's belt so it doesn't fall off during class.  I like driving Jeffrey and Meredith to their activities on Wednesday evenings because they both wear their 'uniforms' and look so grown up sitting in the back seat together.  (Meredith has gymnastics).

First Day of Martial Arts

Meredith has been enjoying Gymnastics and Ballet.  She had her spring performance class and I enjoyed watching what she has learned.  She is a very graceful dancer and it was nice to see how much she has enjoyed her classes.  We look forward to summer camp with Miss Valerie and continuing Ballet in the Fall.

Bunnies!

We had an exciting St. Patrick's day at our house.  Mike reported to me that he saw a nest on the ground in our front garden and that I should take a look.  When Mike and the kids were getting ready to bike to school I took a quick peek and saw that it was a nest of bunnies!  I had been reading about bunnies as pets, so I knew that the bunnies were safe and that their mommy was nearby.  We had seen her in our front yard sitting and munching grass.  We also saw her relaxing in the back yard:

Mama needs a break.  

That was the first time I had ever seen a rabbit just lie down, and after we found the nest I understood why she needed to relax for a moment!  I observed the bunny nest from the window in Meredith's room and could see them snuggling in the grass and fluff lined nest.

In the middle of the picture is a fuzzy grassy rabbit nest.

I wanted to try to observe the mother rabbit coming to the nest in the evening, so I peeked out of Meredith's window around dusk 8pm to see if I could see anything.  I saw small movements near the plants in the front garden, and realized it was the baby bunnies!  I snuck down to the office and peeked out the window.  There were two small (tennis ball sized) baby bunnies hopping around!  They were the smallest rabbits I had ever seen, and the were old enough to leave the nest and find their own greens to eat.  The bunnies and their mom still live in the area and I hope she might have some more babies some day soon!  (Easter bunnies!)

Jeffrey's 9th Birthday!

This year for Jeffrey's Birthday, he had his first sleepover party! Jeffrey and his friend Ellis have been asking me to have sleepovers for years.  Jeffrey's birthday was on a Friday it was perfect timing.

 Ellis came over for Pizza dinner and he and Jeffrey immediately ran upstairs for a pillow fight.  After scarfing down two pieces of extra cheesy Papa John's Pizza, they played some games on the Wii. Meredith and I prepared some glow in the dark balloons.  The glow in the dark balloons have LED lights in them and when you pull a tab and blow it up and they glow!  We all enjoyed flinging and kicking the balloons around in the dark playroom.

Jeffrey had Almond cake for his birthday this year.  I was so happy he enjoyed it!  The kids watched a movie - 'Big Hero 6' after cake.  The movie ended at 9 on the dot and all the kids went to bed.  I heard faint talking/laughing from Jeffrey's room until 10:45, then they were asleep.  They are such good kids they slept until 7 the next morning and did not get up early!  We had pancakes, bacon and OJ for breakfast, and then Jeffrey and Ellis played until his mom came to pick him up.