Sight Words Pizza Party

Tuesday was the long awaited sight words pizza party.  I think Jasper has been waiting for it since the second day of school! 

The goal is to pass off 300 sight words for 1st grade.  Jasper passed those off April 5th while he was in Kindergarten. (Photo is from April 5, 2013.)

This year he re-passed off 1st list and passed off the 2nd grade list.  He has also passed off spelling 170 of the first grade words. 

He knows all 400 of the 3rd grade sight words, but he is not allowed to officially pass them off until he passes off spelling all 600 of the 1st & 2nd grade words. 

If he gets through spelling all 600 of them by the end of 1st grade I will be impressed.

I'm not quite sure how the pizza party selection works, but I think they pick the kids who have passed off the most sight words for a special lunch.  He was treated to two slices of pizza, a Capri Sun drink AND a fruit roll up.  I remembered for a week that it was on Tuesday, until Tuesday morning when I forgot and packed him a lunch!  Duh!

Holiday Hat Day

This week is Spirit Week at Jasper's school.  Monday was holiday hat day.  Jasper was so excited that he wore his hat to bed!  Jasper calls it his Dr. Suess Santa hat because of the stripes.

We bought this hat a few years ago at Target for holiday hat day in preschool.  I had a really hard time finding a hat small enough for Jasper's 3 year old head.  Jasper plucked this one out from the dollar section.  The crazy part is that it was part of the "pet dress up $1 section."  :)  

Christmas Stories: "The Story of Holly and Ivy" by Rumer Godden

Jasper and I have been reading a Christmas book every night before Mike tucks him in.

Most nights we read on the couch snuggled up in fuzzy blankets by the glow of the Christmas tree.  Sometimes we read in my bed under the covers.  That's where we read the book we just finished, The Story of Holly and Ivy.  It was written by Rummer Godden and the vopy we read was illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

It took us three nights of reading to finish this book and we loved it.  Every night we were full of anticipation as to what would happen next.  It is a book about wishing.

Rumer Godden wrote this book in 1958 and it is more of a story than an illustrated children's book.  The first edition was illustrated, but it is written so vividly and clearly that you could picture all the details in your mind.  I loved that about it.

It has a sweet message of hope and kindness.  It left me wanting to find more of Rumer Godden's writings.  I think it will be a new Christmas classic for us.

I Love a Rainy Day

Our end of summer monsoon season seems to be longer and wetter than usual.
No complaints from me, as I welcome the change in weather.

I've positioned our Little Tikes sink under the corner of our patio cover so that it fills up with water for Henry.  Every time I open the sliding glass door and let him outside he makes a bee line for the sink to splash and splash.  It's his happy place.

Sunday Morning

 I had to snap a few photos of my boys before church today before they get any bigger.

Jasper just turned 6. 

Henry just turned 10 months.

I think Henry looks like he is up to something in this photo.

Jasper just knows that he is going to lose a tooth at any moment, so I guess I should be grateful that he is showing so many teeth in this photo.  It may be the last one I take before he gets a visit from the Tooth Fairy.

 When Henry was a newborn he had wispy, fluffy hair.  Like baby chicken feathers.  It seems to have come back and I couldn't be happier about it.

  Jasper loves Henry SO MUCH!

Jasper is growing up so fast.  Too fast for me.

Yes, Henry is always drooling.  He has his 2 bottom teeth in, and 1 tooth on top.

I figured out that if I put an IKEA Lack side table in front of Henry it keeps him somewhat contained and entertained so I can snap a photo of him.  

Of course he crawls under it and around it.  He also loves to open and close the front door.

Jasper's Birthday Lunch at School - Age 6

At Jasper's school the parents can come and bring their child a special lunch and eat with them on their birthday.

Since McDonald's is not my favorite, we opted to get a pepperoni Domino's Pizza and bring that in with some applesauce cups and a Vitamin Water fruit punch drinks.

I bought sugar cookies with sprinkles for Jasper to share with his class for a birthday treat, and I brought a few extra of those to lunch too.

Henry came with us and was the hit of the lunchroom.  We ate with Evan Gornichec (who is in 3rd grade) and Jasper's friend Gunnar from his class (because Gunnar didn't have a lunch today.)  

1st and 3rd grades eat lunch from 12:00 - 12:20 PM, and Jasper loves it when he can find Evan and eat with him.  They have recess at 11:45 AM, and then lunch.  The lunchroom is PACKED, as in the school staff have to help people find a seat.  Kind of crazy!

 

Jasper's teacher gave him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY bracelet (which he wore to bed tonight) and a special star sticker saying that it was his birthday.

Happy 6th Birthday Jasper!

 

Summer 2013: Last Day to Swim at the Black Mountain Rec Center

 We have a tradition to go to the Black Mountain Rec. Center near our house the last day it is open.  We stayed until the pool closed and Jasper was the last one down the big waterslide for the summer.  Henry was a splashing maniac.



It has been raining on and off all weekend. The weather was so nice and overcast and the water was warm. I wished we could go there every day with weather like that. There were more lifeguards on duty than people swimming due to the weather. We almost had the place to ourselves.  We loved it! .

Good times and fun memories with my boys.



Jasper likes to crawl inside the ring of water made by this water feature and pretend he is trapped by laser beams.  Silly boy.


Henry likes to crawl around the beach entry area.  Sometimes he goes out too deep and I have to grab him when he goes out so far that he's crawling through water as high as his head.


Even though Jasper loves the big waterslide, he still has some fun in the kiddie zone.
Henry LOVES all the water features and wanted to try and grab the water coming out of the colorful pipes.


For most of the time Jasper was the only person going down the big waterslide.
The lifeguards were having a lot of fun with him and being silly.

Jasper had fun going down the kiddie slide too.

Henry keeping watch before he go in the water.  He always stands up in his stroller.  I honestly don't know if he knows that he's supposed to sit in it.

Here are a few videos from our time at the pool.

Jasper's "Me Bag" for School

This is the only homework Jasper has been asked to do since school started.

The bag says:

Please help me decide what item goes inside, something about me for all my friends to see,

What I like or do that makes me special too!

We also received instructions to bring 4 small items that match the above description for Jasper to bring for a glorified show and tell.

  

Jasper chose a Hot Wheels car, a tower of Legos he built, a light up ball and a book he recently earned from the library summer reading program.

I thought he did a great job picking out smaller items that would fit in the bag that highlight some of his favorite things.

Jasper LOVES to get a lot of balls on the trampoline at once and play "Poison Ball."

Baby Henry attempting to play "Poison Ball" and trying not touch any of the balls on the trampoline. 

Let's just say he was not winning that game.

 Jasper building a Lego train and a Lego tower on a train.

(These 2 photos are from 1 year ago when our downstairs was still getting put back together.)

 

Jasper is ALWAYS reading a book.  We have had to ban books at the kitchen table, because he would rather eat than read.

Our library is in the same shopping complex as Target.  So if we go to the library before Target Jasper asks to ride in the cart so he can read the new books he just checked out.

 

I've lost track of how many Hot Wheels Cars Jasper owns.  A couple years ago I made a  fold out track to play cars on with storage pockets for the vehicles in a fold-n-go format.

 Jasper would have liked to have take Baby Henry as one of his favorite things, but he wouldn't fit!  

Jasper is a great older brother to Henry and is quite proud of him.

Jasper's first day of 1st Grade at Smalley Elementary

Jasper is thrilled to be in 1st grade at Smalley Elementary.  He loves school. He is still 5 years old. but will be 6 soon.

His teacher is Mrs. Doughty, and he has 19 kids in his class.  The class is decorated with hot air balloons.  Which is really cute and kind of fun since Jasper and I just finished reading "The Wizard of Oz," as part of our preparation to go see the musical at The Smith Center in a few weeks.

Jasper went to 2 years of preschool at Smalley, and last year he went to PM Kindergarten, in Ms. Montemayor's class.  So he is starting his 4th year at Smalley.  This is his first year eating lunch at school and he is excited to bring his lunch each day.

Morning recess is at 8:40 AM, and Jasper is supposed to be lined up to go in school at 8:52 AM.  School gets out at 3:11 PM.

Henry and I are walking Jasper to school every day.  Smalley is .7 of a mile downhill from our home. 

 

We made it four of the five mornings the first week, and Friday's torrential rainstorm made it so we had to drive that day.

 

It was an overcast and humid day the first day of school.  After Henry and I walked backed home we went to Mission Hills Park to meet up with the mom's in our ward for a potluck breakfast.  I was dripping wet from the humidity and walking.

Here's to a great year in 1st grade!  Two thumbs up!