Megan's Nursery Rhyme Recital

Both Kindergarten classes participated in the Nursery Rhyme Recital today. Megan was happily participating! Such a change from last year when she would just stand on the stage and not sing or do any movements. Megan is wearing a light blue shirt and is standing at the very top on the right side. Unfortunately 8 children in Megan's class were home sick today with the stomach flu today, so luckily we are going to get a repeat performance next week during their Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast! And I can't leave out Kyle. He hasn't had any recent performances but he sure looked cute cuddling with his bear! And I realized I never got a Halloween photo posted either, so here it is! (you will want to go to the bottom and pause the music before you start playing the video clips)

Justin's artwork at Book Fair

Justin had his artwork displayed at our local Barnes and Noble this week for the Hill Book Fair that was held there. He was quite proud to go into the store and show us his masterpiece!

October Updates

Megan and her friend, Sydney, made a trip to Libby Lu's today. They had a great time and so did their moms! I just noticed I haven't posted an update for ages. Sorry, we have been BUSY! One more week and soccer will be over for the year. I have been heavily involved in the school's PTO and our huge Jog-a-thon fundraiser. The event and the award ceremony were great successes!!!! Most of the other committees I am involved with are events of a much smaller scale. I have several friends involved and they all pitch in, so it is actually pretty fun to participate. The committee I am most excited about is the school yearbook. That is right up my scrapbooking alley!!

Justin and Gary went to Cub Scout camp this weekend. They stayed in a cabin with lots of other scouts and their dads. It is kind of cold and rainy here this weekend. Hopefully they stay dry and warm. I am sure they will have fun regardless!! There were lots of activities planned to keep them busy. Hopefully Gary follows instructions and gets me lots of good pictures!

Kyle is really enjoying preschool, at least most days. I was surprised today to hear him reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to Megan this afternoon. I didn't know he knew it!

I will be helping at both Justin and Megan's class Halloween parties this week. The kids are so excited to go Trick or Treating!!! Justin's class also has a field trip to the zoo this week. Gary is chaperoning. Justin thinks that is pretty cool. So lots of fun picture taking events coming up!!! October always seems to be a big picture month.

I hope to get more scrapbooking done now that the Jog-a-thon is over,so hopefully you will be seeing more pictures soon. Happy Halloween. Danielle

Blake's Orchard and Cider Mill

Camping at Port Crescent

Roller Skating

Megan's T-Ball layouts

Justin Baseball Layouts

First Day of School Layout

Here is my layout of the photos from last week of the kid's first day of school. I am getting a lot more scrapbooking done now that I have a laptop and can sneak in a few minutes here and there. It was more difficult when I was tied to the basement computer. I also work while I watch TV with Gary in the living room after the kids go to bed.

Justin's best friend's name is Carter, they met two years ago when they both attended the Young Five's Kindergarten and stayed best friends all through last year in their regular kindergarten class and it appears it is continuing again in 1st grade, they are happy to have the same teacher again. There are a lot of coincidences between Carter's family and ours,to start with his mom's name is Danielle and he also has a younger sister who is 5 and is now in Kindergarten with Megan. This has thrown us together with Carter's family frequently for playdates, sporting events and school. We have become pretty good friends. The funny part is we don't discuss it, except afterwards and laugh, but Danielle and I must think alike because we are constantly dressing our kids alike. Notice the bottom right picture, that is Carter and Justin. We did not discuss which shirts they would wear the first day of school. And I can't tell you how many times this summer at T-Ball, Safety Town and Soccer Camp Megan and Sydney (Carter's sister and Megan's friend) had their hair styled the same, down to the color of hair bands holding their pony tails or pig tales. They already had matching shirts at this events because you wear the shirts they provide but people kept asking us if they were twins. Just funny coincidences.

Today is Carter's 7th birthday and after school I have to pick Justin up (rather than the bus bringing him home) so he can get ready for the party at Chuck E. Cheese. I am picking up 3 other friends and taking them all to the party. Afterwards I have to bustle home, drop everyone off and run to the PTO meeting. We also have curriculumn nights on Wednesday (Kindergarten) and Thursday (1st grade) this week. It is where you go meet the teacher and get the scoop about her plans for the year. Oh and I can't forget soccer practice for Megan and Justin on Thursday as well. The arrival of fall is keeping us busy! But so far the kids love being back in school.

Last year Justin used to make books (daily) and go through a lot of paper. While it drove me crazy to see him use so much paper, I just bit my tongue because it was a good cause. Over the weekend Megan decided to take up where Justin left off. She (on her own) decided to make an alphabet book. One letter per page! Then she decorated each letter and is quite proud (and so am I) but I need to introduce the idea of using both sides of the paper. I couldn't get my stapler to go through all the papers. I am going to have to get brads to hold her book together.

Kyle's first day of preschool is tomorrow. I am sure I will have a report and pictures for that occasion as well.

1st Soccer games

Today Justin and Megan had their first soccer games of the year. Gary and I had to split as they were at the same time. Since Gary is Megan's coach, he went with the Kindergarten girls and I took Justin with me to watch the 1st grade boys. Justin is playing with most of his friends and thinks it is great. Click the title to go to my Photobucket album with pictures from Justin's games. Hopefully I will get pictures of Megan next week.

Our first week of school went well. The kids love school and riding the bus. Justin is anxious to join Cub Scouts.

First Day of School

click on the "First Day of School" title above to go to my photo album with pictures of Justin and Megan's first day of school. Justin is excited to be a first grader and Megan is thrilled to be going to school. She told me she was going to school and going to learn how to read today. I think she thought it could happen in one day. Both kids like their teachers and are excited to go back again tomorrow. :)

Tigers game

Pictures from a Tiger's game we went to in June. We split a partial season of tickets with some friends this year. It has been fun attending games.

Soccer Camp for Justin and Megan

Justin and Megan both attended soccer camp this year. They both had a great time. This was Megan's first year to be able to attend. This will be her first year to play soccer on a team and Gary will be one of her coaches. Justin will be on a 1st grade team of boys at his school. He already knows (and likes) all the boys on his team, so he is excited to start next week. With 2 kids playing games on Saturdays our weekends will be hopping. Luckily they both have practice at the same time and on the same day at the same park.......a handy benefit to Gary coaching and being friends with the coaches on Justin's team. :)

Nature Center Field Trip with Megan's class

Megan's preschool class took a tour of a local nature center. The kids loved learning about the animals! They especially liked touching them. This guy was wearing the snake around his neck while he talked about him. Finishing this page today reminded me that on our last camping trip the kids were playing with some worms and recently Kyle had seen someone wearing a snake around their neck on TV. I look over at Kyle and he is trying to get is worm to stay on his neck. It was adorable until it fell down into his shirt. Kyle didn't mind, but the worm and I were a little freaked! YUCK!!

Port Huron Camping

While we were camping at Lakeport State Park in Port Huron this year we met up with some good friends for the day and spent the day at the beach and riding on their boat. It was a blast. Their family owns a beautiful home right on the water. We had a lovely meal and great fun haning out that evening as well. This layout shows all the kids.

Megan Safety Town

Megan attended a 2 week camp this summer called Safety Town. It is for children who will be entering Kindergarten and preparing to go out in the world on their own. I feel we have prepared her best we can to get on the bus and go off to school....by herself. She learned all about these different safety issues: fire, electric, stranger danger, traffic, poisons and ect. On the last day a policman came and let them check out his car and get in it and use the loud speaker and then they had graduation.

Photobucket Updates

I have been (finally) uploading my summer photos in my Photobucket account to share. Click on a link title to see a slide show of those photos. Enjoy!!

Summer T-Ball and Baseball

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Port Huron Camping trip

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Hoffmaster Camping Trip

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Soccer Camp for Megan and Justin

Flag Football

I found this is my files. I had started working on it before all the computer woes. These are photos of Justin playing Flag Football last spring. It was his first time playing flag football or for that matter any organized football. He really enjoyed it and proved he is a really fast runner.

Click picture to go to my Iowa Trip 2008 photo album

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Basketball Camp

Justin attended Basketball camp last week and loved it. Here is the 2 page layout I made. Megan had Safety Town during the same time, but for 2 weeks. She learned all about the different types of safety in our lives: electrical, traffic, fire and so on. They also got to take a bus ride to one of the local parks to familiarize themselves with bus safety for the upcoming school year. Megan has been busy telling me all the safety rules lately....not that she always follows them.

Justin and Megan are both playing ball this summer. Megan is in T Ball and Justin is in Coach Pitch....as parents we were in for a suprise that this year they finally give our coach pitch kids an "out"...in T Ball they didn't do outs :) More pictures and layouts to come.

We loved seeing all of our out of town "Iowa" family and friends. I will be posting more pictures and sending out pictures to you soon! Take care!! Danielle