End-of-the-Year Awards

Sorry to write this post out of order, seeing as Payton has already completed the school year; but I know the grandparents and other relatives would want to see these pictures. :)

Payton had a busy last week of school complete with a carnival, movie day, book/picnic day, and even an ice cream social!

(This is Payton and his silly friends enjoying their ice cream sundaes... and of course Parker got in on the ice cream too!)

 They also had an end-of-the-year awards ceremony where the principal and vice principal came to the classroom to hand out awards and shake hands.

Payton received a school award for his grades for the quarter.

And an award from his teacher for being a consistently "Hard Worker."

And then he received a metal from the Principal for having top grades on all of his report cards throughout the year.

Here he is with his best buddy and his sweet teacher, Miss Adams:

We couldn't have been more proud!!!

What a great way to end the 1st grade! 

Awesome job Payton!!!

Our 1st Grade Graduate!

It's official! Payton is now a graduate of the 1st grade! The year flew by, and I can hardly believe that I am going to have a 2nd grader this fall. Crazy.

I love a reason to celebrate, so I decorated the kitchen the night before the last day of school.

 

 

 And put together a little graduation basket full of fun little things like books, chalk, a drawing pad, new markers, some books, and a couple treats. All sorts of goodies to help kick off summer!

 

Of course I also stuck a little gift in the back...

 Can you tell that he was a little happy about it the next morning???

 (I love this picture because you can see Parker on the side who has already swiped a balloon and is happy as could be.)

After school, my neighbor and I ambushed our kids with silly string, completely surprising them (I only have video of this unfortunately. Sorry, maybe I'll post it later). And then the kids swam at their house for the next 4 hours!

To top off the night, we had friends over for dinner and a movie and then Payton had a sleepover. It just doesn't get much better than that for a 7-year old!

 (Morning-after proof of the sleepover - everyone climbed into our bed!)

I'm so proud of the way Payton handled himself at school this year. He made lots of new friends, learned SO much, matured in many ways and rarely got in trouble. His teacher adored him, and consistently told us about nice things he did for other students. He received numerous awards throughout the year and finished with an excellent report card to boot!

We love you Payton and we are so excited to spend the summer having fun with you!

Congratulations on finishing 1st grade!!!

Library Book Store

Just checking in quick tonight.

 Does your library have a book store? Ours does, and you might pass right by it without ever noticing it. It's just a little room in the corridor that leads to the main entrance. All the books are donated to the library and they cost anywhere between .25 and a couple dollars. I have found some amazing deals in there!

Today, I found this gem:

 I LOVE Little Golden Books! The stories are so classic and timeless; and this puppy has 46 of them inside. I'm so excited to work our way through each and every one this summer. Oh... and it only cost $2 compared to $71.22 that it goes for on Amazon.com!!! What a STEAL!!!!

I also picked up a couple other books that will go in Payton's graduation gift basket (more to come on this - promise!):

 I got each of those for .25 - they retail for about $4.

I also got 5 Christmas books for .25-.50 each. What? Buying Christmas books in June is crazy? You won't be thinking that in December when I bust out those beauties and Payton thinks it's amazingly awesome to have new Christmas books this year (and I only spent $1.75!!!!)

My other "scores" today weren't from the book store, but just regular library books.

Guess who's going to be learning Spanish this summer???

Last Minute Summer Preparations

Summer break is only 4 short days away, so I am trying to get a lot of things crossed off my list before I have 2 little ones home all day. One item on my "to do" list is... our Summer "To Do" List!

I did this last year too and Payton had so much fun checking off the activities as we completed them. It's also a really fun thing to create together because you learn what your kids want to do with you over the break.

This is how ours turned out this year:

 It is now boldly displayed on the side of the kitchen cabinet ready for someone to just check off some fun! Speaking of checking off some fun... did you notice the very top "to do" item? Payton wanted to make sure that "FUN" was our top priority this summer. :)

Another thing I needed to do was create a "Summer Electronics Rules List." It sounds harsh, but TV and video games can become babysitters during the summer and I don't want that to happen. I want him to keep up his reading level, learn some Spanish, play with his brother, and help out around the house instead of being glued to the TV during his downtime. So I created a document that we can have posted in the house so that we're not arguing about it. He'll know what I expect and he'll have a list of things he can do to earn "bonus" time. Leave me a comment, or email me if you would like a copy of the document.


A fun thing I came across also has to do with keeping up his reading this summer. It's from one of my favorite blogs called "How Does She." It's called the "Summer Reading Star Kit" and you enter the password "Welcome" to download the free printables. 

Basically it's a Bingo board with each square listing a time or place to read. You enter the amount of time you want the child to read for each place and then they get to cross off a square each time they complete the reading. When they get "Bingo" they get to choose a coupon to "cash in." The great thing is, YOU get to fill in the coupons! So, I got to choose things I thought were appropriate (and not a ton of work on my part). For example: Stay up late one night; No veggies at dinner; Special dessert of your choice, etc.

He was so excited when I showed it to him after school today. He loves reading, but this just adds a bit of excitement to it!

Oh! I almost forgot! When the child gets a "blackout" - or crosses off every single square on the board -  they get a "Golden Ticket!" Ours is good for a trip to Chuck E. Cheese with a friend - he can't wait!

(I mounted my Bingo chart onto blue cardstock and then attached an envelope to the bottom to hold the coupons.)

One more thing I printed off today was a little Graduation Certificate to Chuck E. Cheese good for 10 free tokens. I am going to include it in his graduation gift (more to come on this later). You can download it here for free if you have a CEC lover in your household too. :)

 I hope some of these ideas inspire you to create a fun summer for your kiddos! We're bursting at the seams for the summer fun to begin. :)

Weekending

We had a great weekend filled with various activities - most of which were enjoyed at home I might add. This is not something we get to enjoy often, as it seems our schedules are always so full on the weekends. Not that that is a bad thing, but sometimes it's nice to have a low-key weekend around the house (especially since I was nursing a bad cold).
I previously posted about Payton's 1st grade carnival that was held on Friday. Since I was volunteering at the event, my mom was nice enough to come into town to help watch Parker, and stay for a couple days to visit.
While Payton was in school on Friday, we headed to the mall for some fun with the little guy. It was pouring rain all morning, so the mall was the perfect spot for him to burn off some energy. Of course when you go to the mall with a grandparent, they let your child do all the things that you normally don't do because they cost extra money. Like...

Ride the carrousel:

 I was trying to get a good close-up picture of them, but the ride was over and all Parker would do is sign the word "more, more, more." He didn't want the fun to end!

And he got to ride the rides by the play area:

(e.g. Nana really put money into the ride, as opposed to me who usually just lets him sit on them and I make noise like they are really working.)

 Nana also got Parker a great set of Elmo books that he is now obsessed with:

On Saturday, Brian & Payton got to play in the Westchase Dad's Club Mini Golf Tournament. They were teamed up with another one of Payton's buddies and his father. It was such a fun event.

They had this portable course set up under the covered basketball courts at Payton's school. There were 18 holes and the kids really got into it!

 

Here is Payton & his team mate, Grayson.

(How cute are they?!?)

 We stopped by after Parker's nap and of course the little guy couldn't help but "get involved" too:

 Big brother trying so hard to pose for a picture. Parker was having nothing to do with it.

Here's the team:

 After the tournament, there was a food truck rally in front of the school. I was too busy to take any photos of it, but I wish I had. The food was SO good! If you've never eaten from a food truck, I highly recommend it. YUM-O!

After saying our goodbye's to Nana, we all rested for a bit and then headed out on a bike ride up to spray park in our little Village area. Again, no pics from this as my cold had now fully taken over and I was not feeling so hot. I ended up at the urgent care center fearing I had a sinus infection ($134 later, I found out it was just allergies/cold - I HATE MEDICAL INSURANCE!!! Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.)

Sunday was also a low-key day - probably because when Mom isn't feeling well, the whole family slows down.

Brian was teaching the first service at church, so I was home with both boys. I guess they must have known I wasn't feeling 100% because they were little angels!

They actually sat on the couch together with their blankets and read books for like 20 minutes!!

 Notice Parker is looking at his Elmo books? He loves them!

 Of course the calm didn't last forever. But they did find ways to entertain themselves.

Like rolling up into blanket mummies:

 After church, Parker took a nice long nap and Brian took Payton out to run some errands. So I took advantage of a quiet house, and rested on the couch. I felt much better in the afternoon.

We even busted out the baby pool and Popsicles for a fun afternoon treat:

 This boy loves Popsicles!

Great tip: If you're going to give a 15-month old a popsicle, do it in a baby pool. All you have to do is rinse them off when they're done! No mess!

 It was just what the doctor ordered!

Aside from a bit of a runny nose, I'm finally feeling back to normal.

Thanks boys (all 3) & Mom for taking care of me this weekend. I love you!

1st Grade Carnival

It's finally here.

The last week of 1st grade.

I can hardly believe this school year is over. It FLEW by. I seriously feel like it was only a couple months ago that we first met Miss Adams at orientation. And here we are, kicking off all of the end-of-school festivities.

And when I say "festivities" I am not kidding!

Yesterday (Friday) was the 1st grade carnival, complete with face painting, carnival games, prizes, food and music. And even though it was raining, the kids had a wonderful time.

Our class was in charge of face painting. And just FYI, if you ever host a carnival for kids, face painting will be the most popular booth so be sure to have plenty of supplies.

Our table had at least 20 kids waiting in line the entire 2 hours.

Here is Payton getting a stenciled face painting:

 

 The finished product! It was called "Rock Out" and it is picture of a person with headphones on.

 Of course there were tons of games too, like the parachute ball toss:

And potato sack races:

And best friends:

 Did I mention face painting? How about tattoos? Yes, these boys were covered by the end of the carnival!

 Next week Payton has all sorts of fun things lined up at school including movie day, book picnic in the courtyard, ice cream sundae party, game day and an awards breakfast. 

I don't think there's going to be much learning going on the last week.

Summer... here we come!