End of Summer School

Jack stopped going to summer school two weeks ago, so this post is a little late. He could have gone the whole month of June, but I really didn’t want him gone that long and I felt two weeks was plenty of time to do summer school. He loved it, loved his teacher and is very excited to start “real” kindergarten in the fall. Here are some of his favorite things about summer school:

- Skittles from his teacher for good behavior. Ms. Walls would “catch” them being good and give them a Skittle.

- Dancing time. They danced a lot during the day using the Wii and songs from YouTube.

- Lunchtime. He took his lunch everyday except Fridays (pizza day!). So he got to try hot lunch twice. The first Friday he chose pizza, chocolate milk and cherry pie. The second Friday he told us he made healthier choices and got white milk, pizza and fruit. He was very proud of himself.

- Recess. They went out twice a day and of course, this was his favorite part of the day.

- Walking to his classroom by himself. The first day the kindergarteners met their teachers in front of the building and all walked in together. The next day we went in the walkers’ door and I dropped him off at his classroom. The third day he was ready to walk in by himself. We said goodbye at the door and he marched off down the hallway. He turned around a couple of times to grin and wave. Of course, I worried all day that he didn’t get to his classroom and was wandering around the school crying!

My favorite part about summer school was walking with him to and from school. It takes about 12 minutes to walk and, especially on the way there, we talked the whole time. On the way home he was usually pretty tired and also hot. On the last day, I had to wake Henry up to leave to get Jack. He fell right back asleep immediately in his stroller. He slept all the way to school and the whole way back to our house.

Overall I’m glad Jack did summer school. It will make the real start of school a little easier in August. It’s going to be much harder for me than Jack! He can’t wait.

Dandelions

We live close enough to walk Jack to school, so for the past two weeks we've been making the 1 mile (roundtrip) walk to school twice a day. In the mornings, on the way home from dropping off Jack, Henry gets to walk instead of riding in his stroller. This week, his mission has been to pick every dandelion he sees. Yesterday he discovered there are tons of (mostly dead) earthworms on the sidewalk that he can also stop and pick up. He loves this walk home and yesterday we took a picture of his dandelion bouquet. Jack got in on the action this morning and picked a bouquet for his teacher.

Jack's Soccer Video

Jack finished his second season of soccer a couple of weeks ago. He enjoyed it, but because of all the rain we had several practices and games cancelled. They did end up playing all of their games and Nathan made a video of the last one, which you can watch below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-MBnppTi4Y&feature=youtu.be

The funniest soccer moment this year was in the last game. Jack had scored a couple of goals in previous games, but he was doing really well this particular morning. I think he ended up scoring 5 or 6 goals. So one of the other dads (a friend of ours) announces after one of Jack's goals, "Did you put your kid on steroids?" The funny thing was, he was on steroids at the time for his awful allergies.

Here he is with the mascot for the soccer club. The mascot comes at the last practice to help pass out medals.

Henry's First Bike

Henry got his first bike this weekend. We got him a little balance bike, so it doesn't have pedals at all. So once he gets the hang of it he'll just push himself along with his feet and learn to balance at the same time. He liked being a big boy and wearing his helmet, but he got frustrated pretty quickly because he wasn't able to go very fast. He liked it though, and I think he'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Brave Sir Jack and His Shark Tooth

This morning Jack had to go to the dentist and get a baby tooth pulled. Lucky for him, the tooth next to it came out on his own while he was sleeping on Saturday night. Otherwise he would have had to have two teeth pulled. The reason for all this tooth pulling was his second permanent tooth is already up behind the baby teeth. So the dentist needed to make room for that permanent tooth to move into the correct place.

Jack was so brave at the dentist. He was a bit hesitant getting into the chair, but after that he did exactly what they told him to do. They started giving him laughing gas right away, which helped him to relax. His dentist and hygienist were great and said exactly the right things to keep him calm. Jack didn't even flinch during the very long shot to numb him. He was a bit out of it due to the laughing gas, but his first words when he started talking and saw his tooth were, "That looks like a shark tooth!" And it does... that tooth was not ready to come out on it's own so it still had a very long root. It did not look like the two other baby teeth he's lost so far.

We decided he would stay home from sumer school today since his mouth was numb all morning. We also went to Target and he got to pick out soft foods to eat today and tomorrow. He chose mac and cheese, pudding, yogurt and ice cream. What a brave boy!

Actually...

Henry is in a bit of a mood today. His day took a turn for the worse this morning when he slipped on some rice in the driveway (from the rice box) and skinned his knee. He felt a bit better while we were at the gym since he got to be outside and be pushed in his stroller while I ran. After a sprinting relay he declared, "That was amazing!"

But then when we got home he missed seeing the trash truck and only caught a glimpse of it driving away. He was crushed and cried for several minutes. I just put him down for his nap and after we read books we were singing our normal songs: Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children and Oh, How I Love Jesus. When we were done, he looks at me and says, "Actually, Jesus just loves me." When I explained that no, Jesus loves everyone he was very insistent that, actually, Jesus only loves him. We narrowly avoided another crying fit as he processed this shocking information.

We'll see how he feels after his nap. He should be in a better mood because we'll get to go pick up Jack at school. Yesterday the first words he said when I woke him up were, "Can we go get Jack at school now?"

First Day of Kindergarten Summer School

Today was Jack's first day of kindergarten summer school. Here in Liberty they really encourage kindergartners to go to "summer adventure" so they can get used to going all day everyday and also become acquainted with the building, teachers and future classmates. He was very excited to go today. Yesterday we met his teacher and saw his classroom. One of his best friends from preschool is in his class, along with a friend from church. I can't wait to pick him up to hear all about his day.









Here he is with two neighbors who are starting kindergarten too. They wanted him to put his arm around Cameryn and he replied with a quick "no."

Royals game

Nathan took Jack to the Royals/Cardinals game on Tuesday. They had a great time tailgating and watching the Cardinals beat the Royals. Jack's favorite part was eating cracker jacks.



While they were gone, Henry and I went on a date to Culver's for hamburgers and ice cream. He loved it and talked and talked the whole time. And he ate every bite of his ice cream!