Kaylee's Thanksgiving Chapel

Pilgrims on the Mayflower

The Narrators

Signing the Song

Kaylee and Mommy

The two first grade classes were in charge of chapel this week. They reenacted a scene from one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations. It was pretty cute seeing the kids dressed up as pilgrims and indians. Kaylee was one of the narrators for the play. She did a great job. The kids told some silly jokes, which Kaylee is still quoting. They also performed a beautiful song doing sign language. The chapel ended with a slide show of all the kids. It was a fun service.

Here is the video so you can see Kaylee as the narrator:

Science Kits

Making the volcano

Letting the volcano dry

Ready to watch it erupt

Getting ready to dig for gold

Digging for gold

Two of Kaylee's birthday gifts were science kits and boy were they a hit. Kaylee had fun building the volcano, painting it, and erupting it. Unfortunately, the eruption was a bit weak, but still fun. Her other kit was a gold dig kit, which both she and Kianna had fun using. Kaylee LOVES these things.

Our Sweet Kaylee

It is hard to believe that our sweet little girl is 7 year's old already. She continues to be a very social little girl who makes friends easily. She seems to be everyone's friend. I told her that when I was in first grade I didn't have 10 friends to invite to a party, sad but true. Kaylee loves school and is very smart. She is an excellent reader and currently reads at a 3rd grade level despite only being in 1st grade. Kaylee is my little helper, especially when it comes to helping me cook. There have even been a couple of times when she has surprised me in the morning by getting Trace dressed. She is a good leader and really wants to do the right thing. She gets very sad when she does something wrong and has become a lot more sensitive recently. She is a very nice little girl.

Some of her interests include:

•  Crafts, crafts, and more crafts- she received lots of new craft projects from her friends and has already started working on several of them. One of them is a kit to make her own volcano. It takes a few days to complete, but once it is finished we'll share some pictures.
• Gymnastics- she started taking gymnastic again this Fall after a 2 year break. She is really enjoying them and has been making a lot of progress. We think she is beginning to get a bit more competitive, as she has been frustrated at times by her inability to perform a task. We view that as a good thing though, as it has motivated her to practice those skills outside of class, and she is seeing results. Her goals are currently to be able to do a cartwheel, a backwards somersault, and a controlled handstand.
•  Brady Bunch- she loves watching the old reruns and even dressed up as Cindy Brady for Halloween this year. 
• Video games-she loves playing her DS, the Wii, or computer games. She especially enjoys playing the New Super Mario Brothers game.
• Playing outside- she really likes playing freeze tag, jumping on the trampoline, and swimming in the summer. She loves to dive for things and swim under water. She is a little fish. Lately, Kaylee has been more interested in sports. She has been wanting to play soccer, volleyball, and even a little basketball with us, which makes Mommy and Daddy happy!
• Playing with Kianna and Trace- some days they play better together than others...
• Listening to Trevor and I tell her about when we were little.

Kaylee's 7th Birthday

Cara and Kaylee, their friends keep telling them they look alike.

Group Picture

Silly Faces

Present time

Slumber party

Singing karaoke

Ready for the tea party...

The birthday festivities began on Friday with Kaylee's friend party. She wanted to have a slumber party this year and not wanting to exclude anyone we ended up with 10 little girls are our house, not counting our 3 kids. The evening was spent playing freeze tag outdoors, eating dinner (tortellini, carrots, grapes, and puppy chow), opening presents, doing a craft, watching "Mary Poppins" while eating popcorn with M&Ms, and singing karaoke in the morning. The girls went to bed at 10:00 PM and woke up at 6:35 AM. I was impressed that all the kids made it without having to call their parents. It was pretty comical listening to their conversations first thing in the morning. It began with one child talking and within minutes everyone was awake, although you could still hear "shhhhhh" from those that weren't happy about being woken up early after a late night. Then I would hear them one by one get up to check the clock. One would announce, "It is 6:35 AM". Another would get up to verify the time. Then several minutes later another would announce the new time, "It is 6:14 AM". Another child would get up to verify and say no it isn't, it is 6:41 AM. This continued until close to 7:00 AM when I finally went and told them they could turn the lights on as long as they were all quiet. It was a fun party and Kaylee should be in craft heaven with all of her new gifts. Her friends must know her well. 

After her friends had left, the birthday fun continued with present time with our family. Kaylee's big gift from us was her American Girl doll, Molly, which she received back in September during our trip to Chicago. I wrapped Molly up just for fun even though she has had her for awhile. Other gifts included new clothes for Molly and several matching dresses for Kaylee, some new magazines, pajamas and a few smaller items. Then some more fun times came in the version of an American Girl Tea Party, or at least they were supposed to. The girls got all dressed up and drove 30 minutes away to go to this tea party with two of their friends, Reed and Ruthie. Unfortunately, as soon as they arrived Kianna vomited all over herself while still in the car. That ended up being a tea party stopper as you can imagine. There were definitely some tears as the girls arrived back home unable to go to their tea party. Thankfully, Kianna seems to be feeling okay today. It appears the vomiting was due to her being motion sick, which unfortunately I passed onto her. The girls are hoping to reschedule their tea party with their friends in the near future. 

The day concluded with a fun evening spent at home where Kaylee enjoyed her favorite pasta dish and Wii night. We had some good laughs as we got out our Wii Fit Board for the first time in 997 days. I was apparently pregnant with Trace the last time we played. I was happy to learn that I am no longer "obese" just "overweight" as reported by my game. Kaylee's Wii fit age is 31. Kianna's is 40. Trace's is 22. Mine is 44 and Trevor's is 28. You can imagine the bragging that brought about by my beloved husband. Trace rocked at the soccer head butting game and ski jump. He is so cute. Kaylee did a great job with the ski jump and had fun with the tightrope walking. Kianna enjoyed the ski jump, although she was rolled into a snowball quite a few times. Fun times. Hopefully we will use the board a little more frequently now that we were reminded how much fun it is!!!

Halloween 2011

Trace the cowboy riding a horse. This cutie deserves 1st prize for sure!

Cindy Brady, our girls are hooked on The Brady Bunch reruns.

Kids at the Barnyard Bash

Rapunzel

Kids excited to go trick-or-treating

Our sweet dragon

Our Halloween festivities began on Friday evening with The Centre's annual Fall Fest. The kids had a great time getting dressed up, playing games, doing crafts, jumping in the bouncy house, and spending time with their friends. We attempted to watch the movie "Mars Needs Moms", but it was a little too intense for our crew. They declared it too scary and we left midway through. It was a fun evening nevertheless. Oh and did I mention that Trace won the costume contest for kids 2 and under. He dressed up as a cowboy riding a horse that night. I say "that night" because the kids changed costumes depending on the event. The first night Kianna was a penguin and Kaylee was Cindy Brady. I guess that is part of the fun of having a good dress up bin!

On Saturday evening, our church hosted their annual Barnyard Bash. The kids again had fun getting dressed up, playing games, petting some animals, decorating cookies, and eating popcorn. Trace and I even won the cake walk, which was pretty exciting! That night Kaylee was Cindy Brady again, Kianna was Rapunzel, and Trace was a dragon.

On Sunday, we rested.

On Monday evening, we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and took our longest route to date. The kids started off strong, especially Kianna and Trace who were sprinting from house to house. They petered out a bit towards the end, but not before getting a ton of loot! Our treat bags were already full from Friday and Saturday's events, so we are working on finding a new location for the rest of our stash. The table has been today's location. Kaylee decided to be a doctor and Kianna and Trace remained Rapunzel and a dragon. We had a fun weekend of playing dress-up!

Prayer and Bible School

Trace praying

Trace said the sweetest prayer at lunch. Usually he says the same prayer, "Jesus, thank you for this food. Amen." and says it super fast. Instead of his usual prayer, he surprised me with a rather detailed prayer. He prayed for his sisters at school. For Kianna specifically in Mrs. Potter's class. For Daddy at work. For Trace and Mommy that we feel better (we have both been a little under the weather lately). He has also begun thanking Jesus specifically for his oatmeal, his fruit, his peanut butter, etc. It is so precious listening to our little guy as he learns to pray. 

Trace has been attending "bible school" on Wednesday mornings while I am at my own bible study called CBS (Community Bible Study). He has been learning about the life of Moses. The first week they talked about baby Moses. They learned how God protected baby Moses after his Mommy put him in a basket to float down the river and how God will protect us as well. To help the kids remember this lesson, they had babies to play with. They were able to swaddle the babies with blankets and then place them in little boats made out of milk jugs. They then placed them in a tupperware containers filled with water to simulate floating down the river. Trace LOVED it. Later, when we were driving around town and saw a river, he told me about the baby in the basket. He remembers these stories and it amazes me.

Another precious conversation I had with Trace recently was regarding the moon. The moon was still out one morning, so Trace decided to say "hi moon". He got frustrated that the moon didn't say hi back to him and said to me "why moon not say hi me?" I told him that God didn't make the moon so it could talk. I began pointing to things around us and I asked him "does the grass talk to you?" and he would answer "no, grass no talk to me". We pointed to a tree and had a similar conversation. We came upon a bush and I pointed to it and asked does the bush talk to you. He paused and said "God talk bush". I remembered that he had just been learning in "bible school" about how God talked to Moses through the burning bush. I mentioned that story and he agreed. I continue to be amazed at how a 2.5 year old can remember these bible stories and apply them to things he sees around him. God is working in his life at an early age and I treasure these moments.

The Fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22

The girls both memorize bible verses each month in school. Kianna's class has been learning about the fruits of the spirit. They learned a song to help them memorize the verse and Kianna LOVES saying it. She has been eager to tell her verse to whomever will listen and is very proud of herself. She says the verse as follows only with cute hand motions: "If you're walking close to God then fruit will grow in you. The fruits of the spirt are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22". She was excited to share her verse with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Wayne while they were here recently. Kaylee decided to memorize the verse too, since Kianna was getting so much attention. We'll call that good sibling rivalry.