Schools Out for the Summer!!!

Kaylee has just finished her second year of elementary school. She has graduated "with honors" to the second grade! We are very proud of her accomplishments this year. We recently received her report card and test scores for the year and they were amazing. Her test scores for both math and language arts were above 98%. She received all + on her report card which would equate to an A. Her reading level is very high for her age. She received the summer reading list for 2nd graders and there is only 1 or 2 books that are at the very bottom of her range. I think we will have to read books from the third or fourth grade list. She also brought home an extra math workbook at the end of the year and has been doing "homework" from it since school has been out. She also spends a lot of time writing stories. Her writing has really improved since the beginning of first grade. She received awards at the graduation ceremony for art, reading counts (reading tests that are taken on the computer), bringing in the most soup labels and reading. Here are some pictures of her receiving these awards.

After awards day, Kaylee spent the afternoon with Grammy. This has become a little tradition for them to spend some time together. While they were together they decided that Morgan deserved to get some awards too. They went on the computer and made up some certificates for Morgan and also got her some ribbons. She received a third place award for Best Three Year Old, her second place award was for Best Sister and she received 1st place for Best Tomato Eater!! Here are the pictures of her awards ceremony.

On May 28th, Kaylee had Field Day at her school. I was a little worried that she would not have a good time, but she proved me wrong! She had a great time and enjoyed participating in all of the events except for the sack race and the tug of war. She played a horseshoe game and even got a ringer! They played a game with a wet sponge that got everyone wet and they did a game where you had to drop three clothespins into a bottle and Kaylee got all three in on the first try! After field day, Morgan and I stayed and had lunch with Kaylee and all the kids got to have a dance party outside. Morgan loved the dance party and there is a great video of her dancing to the Cha Cha Slide. Here are the pictures and video from Field Day!

At the last PTA meeting of the year the Kindergarten and 1st grade students performed. We have some really great videos of Kaylee singing (with the other 1st graders). It was also a big meeting for me as I was sworn in as Co-President of the PTA. My friend Jennifer and I are going to be co-presidents this year. We are hoping that with the two of us it will save us from running ourselves into the ground. We officially take over on July 1st so I will be very busy over the next year with this added responsibility. Jennifer and I have a lot of great ideas and are looking forward to working together and doing a great job. I'll keep ya'll posted on how things are going over the year. Here are the videos of the kids singing.

Our swim season has started here in South Carolina. We spent Memorial Day with my friend Tina and her son Davis at the pool at their country club. We have also bought a small wading pool for the girls to use in the backyard. Since it has been over 90 degrees everyday this past week, they need a place to cool off if they want to go outside to play. Here are the girls in their lovely swimwear! PS - Mom, enjoy the sarongs!

I took the girls out a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday to downtown Greenville to go our Saturday Market. It wasn't really what I was expecting from my experience in Portland. There were about 10 stands total in a 1 block area and they were just selling produce. So needless to say we were a little disappointed. Since we were downtown, we walked to a place called Falls Park and I took a few pictures of the girls in front of the falls.

Morgan recently went on her first field trip! She spends a lot of time at the YMCA while I am working out. The group at the Y was going to be taking a field trip to go strawberry pickin'. I figured it might be a good experience for Morgan so I signed her up. I told Miss Mary that I would probably just drive Morgan with me in my car to the strawberry patch. She told me that Morgan would probably want to ride the bus with her friends. Now, the only information I have to go on is my experience with Kaylee and she would always choose to ride with me before the bus. So the day of the trip comes and I go to get Morgan so I can drive her in my car and she says "Mom, I want to ride in the bus with my friends!". So I had to move her carseat and we both got to ride in the bus. What a fun experience! She loved it. Morgan did a great job picking the berries, but I can't get either of the girls to eat them. Kaylee doesn't like the seeds and I would assume they are way too sweet for Morgan. She mostly eats tomatoes and other veggies! Enjoy the pictures of Morgan at the Strawberry Patch!

Well, I think you are all caught up to what we are doing here in South Carolina. In the coming months I hope to get Kaylee enrolled in swimming lessons, get my year in the PTA off to a good start and enjoy the warm weather! We have also started a garden in our back yard. We are growing tomatoes, herbs, peppers and cucumbers. We have several green roma tomatoes and we have already started using cilantro, oregano, rosemary and basil in our cooking. We are really having fun watching everything grow. I'll add some pictures soon so you can see how good they are doing.

Have a great summer and I'll talk to you soon!