The End of the School Year

Maddie's preschool wrapped up for the year last Thursday, finishing with a cute end of year celebration: an animal fashion show. Miss Kate went all out and rented a tent for the Pre-K graduation and the preschool refreshments after the show. The kids had each been assigned a particular animal and had to do homework assignments concerning that animal over the past couple of weeks. Madelyn had chosen a lion - and had been going around the house practicing her roar for at least a few weeks! (Funnier still is that she's also had her sisters practicing, so Sienna and even Little Miss Lyla have gotten their ROARRRs down pat!) Miss Kate had taped each of the kids describing key facts about themselves as the animal, which she played while each child was walking down the "runway." It was so adorable to hear Maddie's cute little recorded voice saying, "I am a lion. I live in Africa. I weigh 500 pounds. My enemies are: buffalos. Something special about me is: I only live in Africa." She had her face lightly painted and a posterboard lion placard that she had painted and decorated hanging from her neck. Some of her friends were frogs, panda bears, tigers, etc. and they were all just adorable.

After the fashion show was over, the kids sang some songs and then we headed to the tent for refreshments and socializing. It was a very nice end to what has been a great year. It's amazing the difference that a great school can make... Madelyn has truly flourished this year in Miss Kate's class, and has so thoroughly enjoyed it that I really wish I could send her every single day, just because it makes her so happy to go. The amount of things she has learned in one year just amazes me, and she's had such a nice opportunity to grow her leadership skills and to make some good friends with the other two girls in her class. Her end of year report indicated we should continue to provide her with opportunities to do higher order math (addition, subtraction, word problems, etc.) and to sound out words, etc. These are things she loves to work on -- she amazes me with her ability to do math in her head at age 4! If you ask her what 7 minus 5 is, for example, she can usually answer without hesitation and get it right. I think she has inherited her daddy's mathematical mind -- because it surely does NOT come from me. The thing about Maddie is that we're never trying to encourage her to learn this kind of thing - I'm all for kids being kids, knowing they'll spend plenty of time over the years in school, etc., etc. But Maddie usually begs for this kind of exercise and just really has fun doing it. So we figure we might as well encourage it. She probably won't enjoy word problems and homework forever!

I give it max 2 weeks before Madelyn is begging to go back to Miss Kate's. One thing is certain, she will definitely get bored around the house this summer with a less structured weekly schedule, so I need to find some ideas for Rachael. Bored kids = trouble for everyone around!

Back to School

It's been such a busy week with all of the fall/back to school activities! Madelyn had her first week of preschool at her new school, and even though she's been before I still had a hard time thinking about my little baby going off to do her own thing. It's still such a strange thing to get used to - even if only for 3 hours.

She did great on the first day, though she was a bit shy. By the end of the second day, her teacher told me she was "emerging as the group leader" and very chatty with all the other kids, often saying "Let's do this, guys!" or "Come on over here and play, guys!" (At our house, we often remind Maddie not to be a "bossy Gillis," which is a term her Grampy uses a lot. She's got no shortage of self confidence and has no problem herding other kids to go along with her idea of fun. The challenge for us will probably be to make sure that her "leadership" is constructive at preschool, and doesn't turn into something else...)

In other Maddie news this week...she started dance lessons! Very exciting for her, as she absolutely loves to dance and just perform in general. She's doing a one hour combo class of ballet, tap and tumble. I quickly realized though that I may be one of the only moms there that isn't really "into" it as a serious effort, if you know what I mean. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine with her doing dance if that's what she's into. But at age 3.5, we're pretty much just letting her try different things and see what she likes. Last year it was gymnastics, this year it's dance, and I think next year will be soccer once she's finally old enough to take soccer lessons like Dora! But all of the other parents there had clearly been coming for a while, and had multiple kids in dance.


And speaking of doing things on her own...the dance instructors won't let parents anywhere near the dance studio, because parents are distracting. I asked (sort of jokingly...maybe with a hint of sarcasm??) if I would ever get a chance to see her and what she was learning, and the instructor told me yes... at the recital in June. I know Maddie is pretty self sufficient and doesn't "need" me for things like this right now, but it just put me so on edge to have her down on another floor, with a teacher she'd never met before, doing something she'd never done formally before...with no parent there by her side, even for the first class. She was a trooper and didn't mind a bit -- it was me who was kind of a mess. I guess we'll just keep trying it as long as Maddie is happy doing it, though. I'm sure I'll get used to it too!

Long time, no post...

It's been a while since I've updated. What with the holiday, getting ready for fall activities like preschool, etc., and trying to be better about working out on a regular basis, I feel like I haven't had much time for things like blogging (or scrapbooking for that matter -- man am I behind!). So a quick recap of what's new here...

- Labor Day weekend was fun, but far too short. We went to my parents' for a cookout and got to see family and friends that we don't see all that often, which was really nice. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent lots of time outside. We took the kids to the playground and for a nice bike ride along the canal with the new bike trailer. Maddie loves it, but Sienna is still in that "I won't be confined!" phase where she wants to walk everywhere, never ride.

- We've been transitioning Sienna from two naps to one and it has been PAINFUL. She is a kid who really needs a decent amount of sleep, and it's a little rough getting to one nap. Some days she can do it, and others she's begging for a nap by 9:30 a.m. I'm so ready to just get through this though, so she and Maddie can nap on the same schedule and we can have a little bit more flexibility to do fun stuff during the day (rather than having someone always asleep!).

- Maddie started her second year of preschool, in a new school this year. She only had a short one hour day with parents, but seemed to enjoy it. She's really looking forward to meeting new friends. I hope this school is a good fit for her.

- Lyla is getting super mobile, and it even up on all fours rocking on occasion. She does a bit of army crawling and can get anywhere she wants to go by rolling. Where has my little newborn gone to??

- See post below about sisters. I mean to post this update first, then the pics of the three girls. Can't figure out how to change the order of my posts, so I guess I'm stuck with it!