Katie's Kindergarten Graduation

May 25, 2012
Katie had a special speaking part "Please stand up and join along, we'd like you to dance with us for this silly song!".  We practiced and practiced, and she could do it great. Then, when she stood up there, she got stage fright I guess. She couldn't remember it, and even when the teacher prompted her, she acted like she had never heard it before. Oh well. She still did a good job.

Grandma Irma and Grandma Paula and Ryan made special arrangements to come to Katie's graduation. My mom had another Kindergarten graduation across town, so she didn't get to have a picture with Katie afterwards.

 With her Daddy:

 Her Mom:

 Her cousin, Abby:

 My Kindergarten Graduate. What a cutie!

Second half of May 2012

I trimmed Elayna's hair, for the first time, on May 24. Her hair, mostly the ends, are a little green from my parent's swimming pool. She had a hard time holding still.

 The finished product.

 The hair that I cut off. Not much, really.

Elayna will say "whatever" with an attitude.  The other day I heard her say, "well, well, well." I don't even know what it was about, but it was funny.

Elayna is getting pretty good at riding her bike with training wheels. She thinks she should be at Gracie's house, or vice versa every day. Which is kinda what happens. Elayna is so fun to watch. She dances and sings most of the time. (May 17)



We put Annalisa on the swing, and she loves it. She was a little nervous at first, so I just sat on the grass next to the swing and gently swung her back and forth. She likes it a lot now. She acts like she thinks she is as big as her two sisters.

Annalisa is cruising between furniture, and so close to walking.  She will  practice standing up, especially on uneven surfaces like the grass (with a blanket on it-she hates the grass) or on our couch or bed. She loves to balance on the trampoline, as well as bouncing on it. The other day, Katie and Elayna were bouncing her, and she would laugh and laugh. (May 3)

Anna's got her top incisor May 5. Her top middle tooth broke through May 12.

Annalisa is becoming more verbal and communicative. One day my Mom went upstairs and Annalisa was still downstairs. Anna just stood there, cause I had it blocked, and yelled (heh! heh! heh!), until Mom came and got her. Annalisa loves going up the stairs, and being outside. She gets really excited when she hears the girls coming. She will nod her head yes sometimes, and also shake her head no. She loves the bath. She will hear the bathwater running, and she will head to the bathroom as fast as she can.

Katie is graduating from kindergarten tomorrow. Her report card was fantastic-She got 3's (above grade level) for knowing 56 sight words, instead of just 25. For her fluency-reading with appropriate accuracy, pacing and expression. And for comprehension-understanding, interpreting,and analyzing text.  She loves to ride her bike and play with friends. She is always wanting to go anywhere and do anything, besides staying at home. We are starting summer chores on Monday. Katie and Elayna are both really excited about it. I'm not sure they know what chores are, the way they are anticipating it.
Katie and I rode our bikes to school Wednesday morning. She is getting pretty fast. She said she missed her gymnastic friends the other day. I just gave her a look, and reminded her that she had wanted to stop.

Katie's 6th Birthday

Katie turned 6 on May 29.  Abby had gotten a LeapPad (kinda like a combination between a smart phone and tablet, only for kids) for her birthday, just a week earlier. Katie decided that was what she wanted also. We explained that would be her only present from us, and she agreed that would be fine. She has been pretty happy with it.

We also took her out to dinner to Sizzler. We asked her where she wanted to go, and she said DQ. We told her that wasn't fancy enough, and we really wanted it to be a special occasion, and different than where we normally eat. It took some persuasion, but she decided Sizzler would be good. I felt a little guilty that we didn't go with her first choice, but DQ wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary.

Her birthday cake from Irma:

After having root beer floats in the backyard.  She didn't want cake and ice cream, so we had floats instead.

We ate at Mi Rancherito, and they let her wear a sombrero and they gave her some fried ice cream. I'm not sure if she thought this was a good experience, or not. The smile looks pretty forced.

My parents with Katie. They went to KFC for dinner, then they went to Walmart so Katie could choose her present. She must have taken quite a long time, because now there is a time limit for any future present choosing. :)

Opening her presents from Irma and Jerry. I have been trying to get a picture of each girl with both of her grandparents for each birthday. This is not a very formal picture, but I think everyone looks happy. 

We love our Katie. She is beautiful, smart, loving, caring, thoughtful, loves writing notes for people, and drawing them pictures. She takes really good care of her two sisters. She is a huge help to me. She is happy and wants to do what is right. We love you Katie, Kate, Kathryn! (whatever she wants to be called at the moment.)

Kindergarten Zoo trip

Katie's Kindergarten class went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. Ryan was able to take it off work, so we made it a family day. Katie rode up on the bus with her class. The rest of us drove up separately, and kinda got lost. Thankfully, her teacher had given us her phone number; we let her know we would be a little late, so Katie stayed with her until we got there. But after that, we could wander around and do whatever we wanted.

We brought the stroller, which was a life saver. By the time we were ready to go home, all three girls wanted to ride in it, and because Katie was the biggest,  she couldn't, and so proceeded to have a melt down.
I wanted to make sure the girls kept their hats on. After we had been there about 30 mins, I noticed Elayna had taken hers off AGAIN, and wasn't wearing it. When we looked for it, Ryan remembered seeing Annalisa playing with it. Yep, she had thrown it out somewhere along the way. Oh well. 

Anna seemed pretty happy with her hat.

Well, maybe not so happy.  I gave Katie my hat, and Elayna wore Katie's, and Anna obviously was tired of hers:

"Here you go. I'm done with this"

Around lunchtime, we met up with my sister's family. We kinda stayed with them for a while. This is a huge wooden elephant that makes noises and squirts water out of it's trunk.

We attended a bird show.  It was funny and entertaining.  The girls really had fun with it. The birds swoop right over your heads. There were also birds that were obviously preening and doing funny things for the audience. The narrative was amusing also.

There is a Carousel with lots of seating around it. We ate first, then Jay (Amanda's husband) and Ryan took the kids on the Carousel. They are so nice.

We stayed at the giraffe exhibit for a while. It was shaded, and had places to sit, and restrooms. What's not to like? Besides the smell, of course. :)

We rode around on the little train they have there, and then ended up at the playground.  The kids had lots of fun playing on the spider web (rope course to climb on), eggs you can climb into and hide in, (in fact, I couldn't find my girls for a couple heart stopping moments, until I looked in an egg), turtles and crocodiles you can climb on, and a snake slide, among other fun playthings. There was also a "night creatures" exhibit by the playground. It was dark and shady in there, plus they had these little areas where the kids could "pop up" and see the people outside.
 
Here is Katie.  Elayna wasn't quite tall enough yet.

We had a really fun time. We were all exhausted by the time we left. I think the girls fell alseep in the car, and Ryan and I took naps when we got home. Who knew the zoo would be so tiring? I'm really grateful that we could go, and that Ryan could take work off to come with us. I can't imagine that I would have been able to do it without his help. He's so great.