Play Safe

I found this cute little drawing in Anna's bag. I am guessing it was from health class because in the corner it reads "play safe." I just love her drawing.

Another week

has slipped away. I am not sure if I ever blogged about Anna's new doll house. Gerard had been shopping for a shed for his garden stuff. Our garage was feeling a little stuffed to him. I will not mention that I told him years ago that we needed a shed...I guess I just did. So he had decided on an 8x10 shed. I resisted. Really I wanted a bigger shed so that we could also have a play house. He blames pinterest I just say it was good planning.

We ended up with an 8x16 foot shed that we cut in half. Part of it houses his garden tools and stuff from the garage. The other half is Anna's new playhouse. We finished the inside with a loft for future use. I plan of putting a small futon mattress up there to make a reading area. He finished the walls in a white bead board. Our friends laughed when I said I wanted hardwood floors, a chandler, and a doorbell. Well it is all complete minus a real hardwood floor. We ended up with a floating floor that looks like wood. This was a compromise that I am okay with. Now the big decision is what to put into the playhouse. I love how it turned out. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures soon.

I have also decided to sign Anna up for Daisies. I am so excited about this. I was never in Girl Scouts but it was something I remember wanting do so badly. Hopefully Anna will love it. I also have decided to become the leader. I have an interview and a background check but once that is complete I will be the leader. My new pinterest board is filling up with crafty ideas for the girls.

Anna's Birthday!

Has it really been this long since I have written something down. Oh not good. Sunday we celebrated Anna's birthday. How is it possible that she has turned 6? We decided on a bowling party this year. I had invited her class but only 3 children came to the party. I had mixed emotions about only 3 children attending but in the end I was so happy. Of course Julia, JoanMarie and Hans came to the party. I had already knew the one parent and the other two parents were very nice. I thought it was pretty cute that more fathers were at the party than mothers. It is a silly observation since I usually send Gerard to the parties so I can get school work done.

The funny thing that happened at Anna's party was her cake was a Rapunzel cake with her hair being the icing wrapped all around the cake. The children kept saying "I want hair on my cake!"
It just sounds like such an odd request until you saw the cake.

School for Anna is way different this year. She has to be there by 7:45 which is pretty early in my opinion but she gets out at about 2:30 which is actually better than I thought because it give us time to do homework before I go to work. Oh yes she has homework every day. Mostly reading but last week she had some math homework too. I have made her a lesson plan book. What I do is slip any homework that does not need to be returned into a plastic sleeve and I let her use dry erase markers to complete it.

We have made a couple of trips to the library for new reading books. We are encouraged to practice reading every night for a minimum of 30 minutes. There have been times when she is not too excited about it but usually if I start reading aloud she becomes interested.

I am getting back in the swing of my own schooling. I am only taking one class this semester and it feels so different from last semester when I had to take two classes. My goal is to get into a routine where I am getting all my work done when she is in school. So far it is working. I have completed 3 weeks and I only have another 12 to go. If I power through I will be set to graduate in the spring of 2015. I would really like to next summer off however so we will see. I am just not in a rush to get it done. The last year I will be required to work in a physician's office part time. I am not quite sure how I will be fitting that into my schedule yet.

The first day of kindergarten

The long awaited first day of kindergarten snuck up on me this past week. How is it possible that she is old enough to go to kindergarten. Didn't she just come home from Russia yesterday? Well I guess time flies when you least expect it. In the past I would pick out all of her outfits but I know the time is coming when she will no longer let me pick them out. I savored picking out her outfit for the first day.

We decided on a cute little sweater dress with a pair of grey leggings. She decided on her sparkly silver shoes. We decided together that her hair should be pulled back in the front so that it is easy for her to see. The night before I made sure she had a nice long bath to rinse off all the summer time fun that we had. I ensured that her nails were clean and clipped. We talked about how having a good routine will be very important for us because she will need to be to school very early.
Preschool started at 9:30 am but kindergarten starts at 7:45 am...YIKES that is early is all I could think. I think setting her clothes out the night before is an important first step to letting her pick out her own clothes. Tonight we decided on her outfit together and made sure it was in an easy access spot for her.

After the first day of school she came home very excited but she did shed a few tears because she was missing a few of her friends. She told me that she asked the teacher to drive to the other school to pick them up. I can tell this teacher is a no-nonsense teacher which I do believe it good. Anna came home mimicking her (not is a bad way) when she was telling me about the rules. I have not met the teacher yet.

The first night I got a boat load of papers to fill out with the appropriate contact information in the event of an emergency and so forth. I was a bit rushed and did not get it completed. Friday night we (yes I do mean we) got our first homework assignment. She has to fill out 2 sheets that describe her favorite things. I must supervise her that it where the we comes in. The note attached said that this was a graded assignment. YIKES! A graded assignment already. I had a bit of anxiety wash over me. The perfectionism in me immediately took over. I took a deep breath and made the decision that this is really Anna's assignment and I am the supervisor of time management and making sure that the criteria is met. I have a feeling that I will be taking many deep breaths in the future when it comes to homework. The assignment is due this coming Friday. I have made the decision that we need to be complete this assignment early if possible. I want to save procrastination for my own homework.
Anna and I decided on a few pictures that she would like to include on the project. We have shopped for some horse stickers. So tomorrow I think we will start to put the project together.
Here are some pictures from her first day.