First Grade Finale

For some reason it so much harder for me to see Finn graduate first grade then Kindergarten. It is hard to swallow that he will be a 2nd grader next year.  Second grade is big time.  Time really does fly when you have kids.  Finn had a great first grade year.  It was a little tough for him in the beginning not having any close friends in his class and he struggled a little bit with his anxiety, but all of those things didn't matter by the end of the year.  Finn made a couple of really close friends this year and really excelled at academics. Finn's school put on a first grade show at the end of the year singing songs about all of the things that they learned about this year.  It was super cute.  Finn's class had an end of yera donut party where teh kids were given awards.  Finn received the Milky Way award for being "Out of this World."  It's sad to see the end of a great school yera, but we are so happy to spend all summer together.

Sweetberry Farms

I was lucky enough to take off work for Finn's final first grade field trip.  I was sad to miss the first one, but it's hard to take off work in the beginning of the year.  The field trip was at Sweetberry Farms, a cute little farm in Marble Falls where you can pick your own fruit.  Our field trip guide was Farmer Fran, who started off a sweet little lady, but increasingly lost her patience with the first graders as the field trip went on.  there were a ton of activities for the kids to do, plant a seedling, feed the goats, pick strawberries, and shoot splatberry.  Splatberry is a gun-like contraption that lets the kids shoot strawberries at a flag that they get to keep afterwards.  Finn had a blast and I'm so glad I got to spend the day with him as one of his last activities as a first grader.

 Farmer Fran playing nice.

 Finn planting his seedling.

 Farmer Fran not taking any guff.

Easter photos

 We put together a flashlight Easter egg hunt at a local park.  The kids had a blast.

 Home hunt on Easter morning.

Easter basket goodies

No cavities!

Sloane had her first dentist visit and she was a perfect angel for them (really, not lying!).  Finn has had pretty bad luck in the teeth department so we were just holding our breath to hear what was in store for us.  No cavities!  Phew!

Sloane is 3

This post is way overdue, but it is now summer and I have time to blog again.  Sloane turned 3 back in February.  It's hard to believe that my baby is no longer a baby anymore.  Sloane insisted on a Princess and the Frog birthday party, because Tiana is her favorite Disney princess.  We decided to hold Sloane's party at Kiddie Acres, an old school Austin amusement park.  Kiddie Acres has been around for 30+ years, and I'm betting that it hasn't changed much.  It has a merry-go-round, a train, and ponies to ride.  The weather was less than perfect.  It was misty all day and very windy.  The 3 year olds didn't mind- they had a blast. 

Sloane's first haircut

My plan has always been to let Sloane's hair grow as long as possible and leave it untouched.  Let's face it, I had some pretty bad haircuts as a child.  Some were my choice (the pixie cut), and some were not (the mullet).  My only defense was that it was the 80's.  I wanted to save Sloane this pain and let her have long, beautiful hair.  Sloane does not always agree to having her hair combed and brushed.  It is pretty much a daily battle.  Getting a girl to put on a bow is a huge battle.  I swear that every morning Sloane will go to school with a perfect set of pigtails, but when I pick her up she looks like a cat attacked her while she was napping.  So, it was time for a little trim.  I took Sloane to a local kids' hairdressing studio, and she got to sit in a car and watch a movie while she got her trim.  Sloane was surprisingly a perfect little client.  All in all, she only had about an inch cut off.  We kept a few locks of hair as a keepsake and got a few pictures.

Reading Parade

One of Finn's goals for this year was to qualify to be in his school's reading parade.  He just missed the cut off last year and was really sad about it.  If you read at least 1500 pages, you can be in the reading parade.  The kids in the parade dress up in patriotic garb and the whole school gathers around and blows bubbles at the participants as they walk by.  We were very proud of our little reader!  Finn has become quite the reader this year.  He is reading above grade level and has graduated to reading chapter books.