School is Great!

School is going great for both girls. I received this really nice e-mail from Alexis' teacher when I e-mailed her to find out when the girl scout recruitment night was. I had to share since I am so proud of my little girl.

Hi Rachel,

I want to let you know how much I love having Alexis in our class! She is so sweet and always willing to help. She may have told you about organizing our magnetic letters the other day. It was a great help and she was insistant on doing the whole thing for me. :) I can understand her desire to finish projects and do them well, becuase I have that same perfectionist tendancy myself. I have tried to give her extra time with projects so she can perfect them to her liking.
Also, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover how good of a beginning reader Alexis is becoming. She has been able to read some simple readers to me, as well as "Are You My Mother?", one of my personal favorites. :) I know you mentioned how she reads to Abby at home, which I love to hear! Keep it up! The more exposure to simple words, the better! You can look on the sight word list I handed out and focus on those words. I am proud of Alexis already, and cannot wait to see how much more she will learn this year! :)

Talk to you soon,
Ms. Murray

First School Library Experience

Alexis' class went to the Library yesterday. She was so excited and got to check out a book and bring it home. Let me tell you how good she is at following directions. She really paid attention to all the instructions and details regarding the care for the book. That's my daughter, a perfectionist (totally unlike Abby). LOL
Anyway, she gave me all the instructions yesterday.

- "you have to hold the book like this (hugging the book) so you don't drop it".
- "you have to wash your hands first so they are clean". and then asked me before reading it last night, "mommy are your hands clean?"
- "I have to bring the book back next Thursday. that's our library day" "we get to keep it for a whole week" (with excitement)

And you should have heard her telling Abby all the instructions as well. Too Cute.

In Abby's world:
Abby has decided she does not want to be called Abigail and Alexis is having a hard time calling her Abby. For some reason Abigail keeps coming out of her mouth, totally pissing off Abby. I guess she will learn soon enough.

We are also dealing with issues of not telling the truth with Abby. Something very new to me as Alexis never did this (or if she did it was very little). I picked up Abby from school the other day and she told me her friend Gabby was in her class today with No Hesitation at all. I know that Gabby goes to a new school, but it is not hers and I was like are you sure? Gabby, your friend Gabby? Yes she says. I said, was she still there when I picked you up? And she says, no her daddy picked her up. And I said, her daddy (and said his name). And sure enough she said yes, him. OMG! I believed her to the point that I called Gabby's mom and asked if they changed schools thinking that maybe this really could be true. And sure enough it was Totally False.
I'm not sure what to do with her. She does stuff like this all the time. Little white lies. I think I need to buy a book on how to address this before it gets out of hand. My goodness, she is only 3 and a half. This is scary.

Second week...

When I picked Alexis up yesterday she told me all about her hunt for the gingerbread man at school. She was so excited and told be they had to look all over the school. In the gym, the Library, the music room, and finally found him in the hallway. "a whole bunch of them to eat". They read three gingerbread man books and now her favorite saying is "Run Run Run as fast as you can, you can't catch me because I'm the gingerbread man". Kindergarter is going so well so far. I did get asked why I can't come have lunch with her since some of the other mom's came and had lunch with their kids. That just broke my heart, but her school is too far from work to just go on my lunch break. Maybe in 2009.

Labor Day Weekend...

We had a great weekend. I feel so much more refreshed today than I have in a long time. Of course not much got done around the house so maybe that is why I am so much more relaxed. Just lots of fun this weekend. Saturday night we hung out with friends at their pool. I swear my kids would stay in the pool all night if they could. Heck they were still swimming at 9 pm. LOL It was so nice to hang out with the whole family this weekend.

But first the girls and I had to make a cake. I think they had more fun licking the batter off the spoons...

Hanging with our friends Funny faces... Basketball with Daddy... A little volleyball... Look at these cute babies..

DAY 2 of the weekend...Sunday we headed over for more fun with more friends. Lots of food, drinks and friends... It's never a party unless you dress up while you are there.. OMG..what a mess. The kids destroyed poor Ali's room.. And a joke for poor Holly. After you spill your wine more than once you are subject to wine in a sippy cup. Poor Holly didn't find it very funny, but it was all in good fun. We love you Holly. :)

Finally, Monday we went out to Aunt Nelda's to swim. Alexis has really started swimming a lot farther and a lot deaper in the water now. She will swim just about the whole length of the pool now and even learned how to do a flip in the water. Make sure you click on the video's below to see the girls doing their new tricks. Jumping off the diving board. I couldn't keep the girls off. They just loved it. Alexis leaps right in and swims to the side. And here are the video's

alexis doing a flip..
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Abby doing "her version" of a flip or more like a log roll..

alexis swimming toward me...

Me Helping Abby do a flip...

thanks for looking!