Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Some September Photos, It's Been a While....

Open House at School...
 












Emma in her classroom, showing us her first storyboard of 1st Grade. She's very excited to be doing "actual schoolwork" now that she's in first grade. Kindergarten was very play-based, (and I think that's the way it should be) and first grade will be a lot more reading and writing, which she loves. She brings home several of these storyboards each week, and she's always so proud to read and translate them for Dave and me. I believe this is the one that says, "My name is Emma. I am a girl."


  Pointing to her daily schedule on the board.


 
Rebekah writing on the board.


 
Emma and her friend, Lauryn looking at some papers on Em's desk.


 












Still in Emma's classroom, Alyssa checks out Emma's desk, she was all about giving Emma some first grade advice :-) And Rebekah is being all nosy looking in the desk of Emma's neighbor, Nathan.


 












In between visiting the girls classrooms, we stopped by the ice cream social. Dad was at a table for the Foundation at the time, so I don't think he made it over to the ice cream, but the girls were all excited about the new flavors this year: chocolate malt and birthday cake!


 












Over in Alyssa's room, Rebekah sits at attention listening to two of Alyssa's friends, Martina and Skylar giving a "lesson". Alyssa is laughing very hard in this pic, not only at her friends, but also with how Rebekah was hanging on their every word. It was kind of cute.


 












In this picture, Rebekah is looking back at the teacher's desk because he started talking to the children. Alyssa's 4th grade is also going to be more intense learning than third grade was. But she's making the adjustment well, and has brought home lots of 100% work so far. Her teacher is a native German speaker who has very high expectations for the students, but all the kids seem to love him. I arrived at school early one afternoon and he was playing tag with the kids at recess. Work Hard, Play Hard seems to be his philosophy. Works for me.


This next pic is for my friend, Michelle...
 
I love what they teach our kids at school. Apparently, the German word Springen means "the most awkward vault ever on possibly the first vaulting horse ever created." Not to mention that leo! I think it's actually some form of the verb "to jump," but still funny the attempts to weave poorly thought out gymnastics illustrations into classroom lessons, they never to seem to get our sport quite right.


Back at Home...
 Over the first couple of weeks that the older girls were back in school, Rebekah missed them a lot! One time we were on the way to the grocery store and she suddenly asked with a great sense of urgency, "Where's Emma?" Like we had accidentally left her behind somewhere. There were also some mornings she would tell me, "Okay, I'm ready to go pick up my big girls now." She would tell me this at 10:30 am, and school doesn't get done until 3:40. We had lots of tea parties, but still I was no replacement for her big sisters.


 











Uh oh, I spilled tea on my pretty dress.


 











This tea party is exhausting!


 Playing with a broken umbrella. She insisted on wearing this church dress to the grocery store on this same day. She woke up that morning telling me she wanted to wear her "puffy dress." I guess some days just call for the pinkest, fluffiest dress in the closet.


First Friday Fun...
We always try to have relaxed evenings on Friday nights. I know if it has felt like a long week for me, it must have been a really long one for the girls, so we always do easy dinners, mostly pizza, watch a movie, and sometimes play a game.
 











Right when we got home on the first friday of the school year, Emma wanted to do her homework immediately. Alyssa kept telling her she had the whole weekend for that. Their different approaches to stuff like this amuses me sometimes.


 Still hard at work while...


 Her sisters run around the yard and...


  Play ballerina dress up...


 And dance around the living room.


 Ka'iulani carrying Kamele on her shoulders like this made me nervous, but Kamele loved it! They were putting on a show in the living room.


 Posing for pics outside by the flag.


 Smiling even though the poor thing has the sun in her eyes.


 Leaping across the front yard.


 











Still all dressed in a ballet tutu Rebekah gets all sneaky on me and takes out her bike. That's why she has no helmet on, I didn't even know she had taken her bike out until I turned around and there she was.


 Dancing around all goofy in the driveway.


 
Hooray! Emma finished all her homework, and now she's ready to play too!

4 comments:

KmCaCFamilyof5 said...

oh my gosh, that gymnastics or "springen" picture is hysterical. Who's to know exactly what this girl is trying to demonstrate, LOL?!?

Alyssa's legs look so long in those photos of the girls playing dress up.

And I love how Emma wants to come home and work on her homework right after school! Ava will be that way, I'm convinced. She looks forward to "homework" time and Cristian always wants to put it off just like Alyssa.

KmCaCFamilyof5 said...

Oh, and I love how you guys do Friday Fun Nights too! My kids really look forward to those all week.

jessica said...

Alyssa does have very long legs! Seeing her in a bathing suit or leo is a little deceiving because she looks SO TALL. But then, when she stands with her classmates, she's one of the shortest.

KmCaCFamilyof5 said...

She does look like she's pretty tall for her age! I can't believe she's going to be 10 next month! WOW, double digits.