May 31, 1964

Of course this is not a newborn photo, I don't have any of those (third child and all) but this is within my first year... so....aren't I a cutie?

I have no trouble stating how old I am, but you can do the math! My birthdate is obviously up at the top of this page.

Birthdays are odd things...some people despise them, some like them, some ignore them. I am of the second group of people. I love my birthday and I am happy to celebrate and have others celebrate with me! Today my friend took me out to a nice lunch, just the two of us and if I am not mistaken she enjoyed my birthday as much as I did! The food was excellent and we both had good stories to tell. What a nice time! For those that choose to ignore birthdays...well...poo poo on you! I will celebrate my birthday with a youthful exuberance, and it will keep me feeling younger than my chronological age! I certainly don't feel 43! Oops! I guess I let the cat out of the bag!

Not all of us are Sporty!

If you take a closer look at these photos, you will see the, "eek, ugh, oops" look that a lot of kids, mainly girls, have on their faces when they play ball. She even likes this game! Her friends like her to play and she is not too bad. She doesn't like hockey, or many team sports, kind of like her mom. I encourage her but I don't force the issue. Cole is really anti sports but he is only in Kindergarten and hasn't been made to play any team sports. Kaleigh really hated PE at first, of course when she first started in first grade, they played around 2pm at the hottest time of the day! She complained everyday that she had PE. That was 3 days out of the week!

Now she plays a little earlier and sometimes she likes it and sometimes she don't! But at least there is no more complaining, unless of course she forgets her water bottle. Sigh....

Memory Books are a big hit!

Here is a small sample of the memory books that I made. The front cover has the poem on it, the September page is their first "Me" drawing and the other "Me" drawing is in May. You can really see how this little girl has grown! The page with the cross was their project for Easter. It is colored glue and they drizzle it on and then fold the paper to make the design. Each of my 10 kids got one of these. A two page spread for each month they were in school. A lot of work, but really worth it!

Open House in My Class!

Well, Open House in my classroom was a big success! All the parents came and eight of the kids came. The twins dad came but mom and the boys were in Santa Monica and on a Friday night the traffic would be horrible! So dad came and talked to me a bit and we ended up talking about the boys and their speech problems so that was helpful that I didn't have to bring it up on my own. The parent loved the memory books and they all expressed their gratitude at all the work I did putting them together. They really didn't have much of a clue about what happens since most of the parents are new coming into the school. Next year they will understand more about what goes on. But I think all of them really enjoyed looking at everything and letting their kids pull them around. I was going to put out snacks, cookies or something, but my lead teacher, Patti told me it makes them stay longer, and since I wanted to leave on time so I could see Kaleigh and Cole's classes, I didn't. As it was, I didn't get to leave until 7:00pm when my time was up at 6:45. Luckily Carl and the kids came by and as I am introducing them, Cole says, "when are you going to leave to see my class?" So there you go, they got the hint! It was a lot of fun and Kaleigh even had some art displayed for their Meet the Masters Program, where the kids all learn about famous artists and they do a project that imitates the artists style. Kaleigh was the only one with two peices up! Rembrandt and a french lady I don't recognize. So all in all we had a good time and we got to see everything we wanted to see!

Kaleigh recites "The Milkmaid" from Beka reading series at local Speechmeet.

Here she is, our little speech giver! Kaleigh participated in a school speech meet. Everyone in the elementary grades were required to memorize a Bible verse, Fable or Poem. Kaleigh chose a fable, "The Milkmaid". She practiced for her class and she was chosen to move on to the next level. They had about 5 kids in the class that were chosen and then the 3 best were selected to go to Costa Mesa at the ACSI Speech Meet held at Mariner's Christian School. The judges had standards that needed to be met to receive certain levels of accomplishment, blue ribbon - superior, red ribbon - excellent, other ribbons for good and honorable mention. As you can see, Kaleigh got an "Excellent" ribbon! She did really well, but repeated the first line twice because she thought she forgot a part. She also was nervous and swayed a little and looked at the ceiling. All of which reduces your score. But we are very very proud that she did it! Congratulations Kaleigh and great job!

Kaleigh and Felix

So Kaleigh's school does this fun thing. They give each child a little rabbit (seen in photo). Then they tell the kids a story about Felix, in which he travels all over the country and out of the country too! Well, each child then takes Felix home and can send him to different places asking for postcards from those places. Well, the other option (because some kids get attached to Felix) is to hold onto Felix and just ask friends and relatives to write a postcard to the school (as Felix) telling where he is at that time. It is really fun for Kaleigh to get postcards in class. So far she has only gotten one, from Seattle. Felix is actually in Oregon right now and will actually travel to Colorado. That is as far as we are sending Felix, because we don't want him to get lost. So if you know anyone who lives in another state or country that would be willing to send a postcard from Felix, feel free, the more postcards the better! Since Kaleigh's grandma is going to Utah with her hubby for a golfing trip she is sending one from there. Carl will be going to Minnesota on business and will send one from there. We are hoping to get a postcard sent from Germany, but are not holding our breath! So that is the story of Felix and Kaleigh and we hope Felix has fun at all the different places. Oh by the way, Tina and Diana will be making Felix an honorary GC even tho he's a boy! Don't tell him that the vest is for girls normally!

Swim Lessons for two!

Well, we finally got on the ball and the kids are in swim lessons. This is the SWIM FAST swim school in Fullerton at the Janet Evans pool. The teachers are great and the kids are doing really well. We started in mid-March and Kaleigh started in Level 2, Cole in beginner. So far Cole is still struggling a bit, he doesn't like to get his face in the water much and he certainly doesn't like going under water! The closest is what you see in the first photo. Kaleigh on the other hand just received her level 4 ribbon! She is moving up quickly and reminds me a lot of a certain girl that swam like a fish! Our family grew up with a pool in the backyard so it is very weird for me to have kids that don't really swim. Kaleigh is actually moving along and will be able to swim on her own by June. That is the end of the session but we will continue until they are totally comfortable swimming over and under the water. That way we don't have to worry if they go to a swim party or something.

So, they are on the way and doing great! I am hoping by the end of summer I will have two fish swimming around in the pool!

Omi and Opa will be so proud!

So, keep them in your thoughts! And "keep on swimming, just keep swimmin' just keep swimmin'" ~Dory