Kids!

Olivia has a school folder with all the names of her class mates. And some parents were ok that the teacher, Miss Reischman, gave out the addresses. In just looking at the addresses I found out that a twin pair, Isabell and Austin, were living in our street! Since our street is a circle, their house is at the opposite corner of us, of course!

After introducing me and my kids to their Mom on Friday, when we walked by their house, we made a playdate for Tuesday. Austin and Isabell came over to our house and played a while but then they wanted to go outside.

Until now Jonah and Olivia were not aware that at least one of our front trees are climbable. Isabell and Austin have two older brothers (so alltogether they are 4 kids at home) and these brothers were obviously friends with the boys who were living in this house so Austin knew that the kids climbed this tree. Thanks, Austin! Now my kids know, too what I actually wanted to avoid at least of a year...lol!

So, the kids were climbing the tree and I took this very nice picture of them!

School pictures!

It was this time of the year again that school pictures got taken. This time the photographer's company is called 'My Lifetouch' or so but from the 3 I had now (Preschool, Kindergarten and now) I like them the least. Instructions on how and what to order were not really clear, you needed to pay in advance even before the photo shoot (how do you get the money back when the picture turns out ugly?) and in addition they give you a number for ordering online but only have example pictures.

Even now after getting the kids' pictures back, I got a portrait ID and Access Code but if you enter all this, you STILL don't look at your kids picture but at an example image.

The company has quite some backgrounds to choose from but quite hon

est, they are more or less all ugly. I loved the quality from the preschool picture much much better, the company took a picture of 3 different poses and you got little wallet sized example pictures to finally choose what pose you like and what size or how many pictures you want together with your payment. So much better! And if you checked online, you actually looked at the actual picture of your daughter, not at just somebody.

Anyway, I instructed my kids how to pose (hair in front, chin into

back, no stupid smile but nice smile...) and both pictures turned out quite decent to my surprise!

The Play Room

One more time the play room in our house. In the meantime the kids got their PC's for some educational children's stuff what they really enjoy! So I need to take another picture...lol. Sooner or later we will get rid of the tiles or cover the blue and yellow squares with something else or replace them with just white tiles. This is really our last concern. The window valances will be replaced at one point in time, too.

The computers still sitting in the shelf waiting to be connected. This room was actually a loft with bannister to the downstairs but the previous owners closed them so for not having the noise of the kids' playing as well downstairs in the kitchen. So the 'shelf' is actually the chimney.

This green shag rug left by the owners had pee stains all over and was pretty smelly so I dragged it out on one sunny day and hosed it off for quite some time and treated it with stain remover. Stains on the underside faded almost completely but the smell is gone! So it is ok to put it back into the kid's play room for a) noise control and b) for bare feet and c) for the looks!

Olivia's Classroom

Finally now pictures of Olivia's class room. When I remember how our class rooms looked like way back when I got into 1st grade...my, these rooms now-a-days look so fancy!

In total there are 3 1st grade schools at Prairie Crossing and considering that Olivia is in her class together with 27 other kids....Parker obviously has a ton of little children!

This is the sign at the class room door

Pictures of everybody in Mrs Reischman's class above their cubbies where the kids leave their back pack and coats.

The 'menu' for the day. Each kid needs to move their picture magnet on the right spot so that the teacher is as well aware of what's going on at lunch.

A sign Olivia made for us. I don't know why this blog keeps turning it to the left when I uploaded it correctly.

The classroom. Olivia shows us her seat and what's in the chair pocket. 'Honey' (Chris' Mom) joined us for this 'open house'.

Cubbies where each of the kids have their own box with work books, calculator, pens and some other things.

Selfportrait

The music room

Something all children in the class needed to do. What want you 'bee' good at in 1st grade?

The lunch room. Olivia eats the school lunch for about 3 times a week, the other 2 times I pack her lunch. She feels so grown up when she can eat in the kitchen with all the other kids! Of course we have to pay for it but one meal costs about $2.50. Meal, dessert and drink included.

The school library. Every Monday the class goes to library and rents out a book that Olivia needs to read at home and put into her reading log which I have to sign.

And Olivia's classroom again from different angles. Honey stands in the entrance door.

Olivia reading

Olivia reads awesome! She got really good at it but listen for yourself!