Playing Catch Up

Well here goes nothing....I've been avoiding catching up Zoe's blog since forever ago. I know....I shouldn't worry too much but really...it has been too long. So here goes nothing.

This summer....We went to visit our family in Mississippi. We not only visited relatives, but we went to the beach, and Lynn Meadows Discovery Center which is a super fun place for kids to build awesome imaginations....Here are some pictures.


























































































We spent a lot of time hanging out with Grannie and Shane when he was off work. We went to the park and the pool. Zoe learned to swim without her float this summer as well. All by herself I might add!














































































For the 4th of July we were all in for a special treat. Grannie took the whole family to The Great Wolf Lodge. It is a rockin' cool indoor water park were everything is so kid friendly. Zoe and Lani (and even the grown ups) had a blast!













































































The whole summer she attended Dance Camp at Sheena's Dance Academy. She had fun two mornings a week and I had a little free time :) Here is a picture of her after dance having a girls lunch with Grannie and I.






















She also decided to give up the violin for a while and take up Irish Dance classes.

Then before we knew it it was back to school....back to early nights and even earlier mornings. No one was happy.



































So that is pretty much that, We've been going to school, dance on the weekend and watching football on Sunday's. Life is grand, OH and did I mention she turned 5???? Well she did....More to come later (I promise).

Earth Day????

**Warning:  This is me getting on my "Green" Soap Box :) Sorry Y'all, I just can't help it!!

The Earth Day celebration at Zoe's school was far from what I considered Earth Day.  They had a picnic lunch...sounds good right??  BUT, the students were supposed to bring a totally disposable sack lunch, so that they didn't have to worry about keeping up with what belonged to who when they went outside to eat.  Now you need to know some background to understand why I took issue with this....

Normally, Zoe takes her lunch and aftercare snack to school everyday in a lunch bag that is specified by the school (meaning we had to buy this particular bag from her school and it is the only one we can use).  I pack an almost if not completely waste free lunch using reusable containers everyday of the year, except for Earth Day when I had to pack a lunch where everything has to be thrown away.  Make perfect sense right??? IDK

They also wore crazy socks for the occasion???  What do crazy socks have to do with the earth??  Please put me in my place and help me understand...tell me I'm overreacting!! Please ;)

So here are her adorable pictures in her crazy socks with her cute little leftover Easter gift bags (we had to have 2 - one for lunch and one for aftercare snack) that I purchased at the Walgreen's the night before Earth Day because we did not keep brown bags around for her lunch.

So, here is what Zoe learned from Earth Day....

She Loves Wearing Crazy Socks!!!  Here she is last weekend....

On a lighter note :), I did teach my kiddos about recycling/reusing things on Earth Day.  We made vessels from old magazines.  The directions are here if you are interested in how to make them.

** I am now stepping down from my "Green" Soap Box.

Tell me what you think...Was I making too big of a deal out of it??

I have a Boo Boo

On Monday, April 20th I got the scare of my life. During my last class of the day Zoe's school called and said that she had been hurt at school and needed to be taken to see a doctor. She fell out of her chair and stabbed her pencil into the palm of her hand.

I left school immediately and rushed her to the doctor's office. After many tears and lots of screaming she let the doctor see her hand. He cleaned her up and decided it was going to be just fine. He did put this awesome camo band-aid on it.

Everything turned out great in the end, but she did con her Grannie into letting me draw a blue mustache on her and she got to stay home from school on Tuesday. The things we do for our kids!!!

Presentation Night

Last Thursday was Presentation Night at Tutu's school. It is a night where the students teach their parents a lesson that they have learned this year at school. Zoe was so excited about this night...she's been talking about it for weeks. Of course they have been preparing for it for weeks too. We brought Grannie and Papaw with us and went out to dinner before heading back to school. When we arrived at school, we headed down to her classroom where the entire room was set up and each student had their own little work station labelled with a name plate that they made earlier in the week.

Zoe taught us "The Grand Layout". It is a project designed to teach them about numbers and their values. The first step uses several sets of tiles of numbers. It starts with the ones place, then progresses to the tens, hundreds, and thousands. The kids layout the tiles in the correct order starting with the ones and working across the mat to the thousands place.







After all the tiles are laid out, then the kids begin adding beads next to each tile. They are to count out the beads to equal the number on the tile. As they change from the ones to the tens and so on down the line things are simplified by using what are called units. The tens are 10 beads fused together to make one unit of ten beads. When you move from the tens to the hundreds the beads become blocks with dots on them to represent the beads. It really shows them the value of each number.





At the end of the night we only did up to number three for each number place. Her teachers said that if she does the entire thing during the school day it takes her about two hours. We saw pictures of her with the whole thing done displayed on the wall. It was really impressive. The blocks on the thousands place were stacked as tall as she is.


We also learned about how things work in her classroom because we saw her taking out supplies and putting them away. She even demonstrated to us the correct way to walk from one part of the room to the other. Her teacher said we better take a picture of that, because she never does it that way with a bubble in her mouth :)



It was a blast! I learned so much and was so impressed that she is learning so much. I cannot remember when I learned about numbers with a thousand place, but I'm certain that it was not when I was in preschool. It was an amazing sight to see!!!

Me and My Pops

Not too long ago, Zoe started calling her Dad "Pops".  I'm not particularly fond of this name, but her Dad thinks it is super cool.  (I guess I can't complain really.  I've called my Mom the nickname Fred ever since I was in high school.) Here are the two of them together on the morning of March 13th which was Donuts with Dad at her school.  She was really excited about getting to show off her Pops.

"Awwwww Man!!!"

Those are the words I heard this morning. Every Monday and Thursday is required uniform day at Tutu's school. It means that she has to wear what I affectionately call her "monkey suit" (a jumper, sailor style button up white shirt, shorts, and tie). On those mornings we can be sure that she will not be happy about what she has to wear to school, and if we are lucky we are even given this awesome hands on the hips, bottom lip poked way out scowl. It is too funny! She really HATES wearing this. We all have those things that makes us go "Awwww Man!" and this is hers.

This blog is all about Zoe! She is my fabulous 4 year old daughter. This is a picture of her on her second day of school. Don't let the cute smile fool you. She is always getting into something and this is where you can learn about what she has been up to lately. The stories here will be told through the eyes of me, her mother. Hope you enjoy them!