Cute Girls

About a month or more, I found this cute material to make the girls some outfits. I finally finished them on Saturday. I even made matching outfits for thier Build-a-Bears. They turned out pretty cute!

Halee and Happy

Hannah and Star Bear

Fun Stuff

I let Halee wear a night gown the other day. It has been a long time since she has worn a night gown because she doesn't stay under the covers. Anyway, she was so excited. She walked around calling herself Cinderella and twirling in her "dress."

Halee has been into spelling lately. She'll say, "I can spell Halee with my eyes closed." She closes her eyes and says, "HALEE." Then she'll say that she is going to spell something else with her eyes closed, like street. Then she'll just say random letters. The other thing she has been doing is asking what letter does any word start with, like what letter does car start with. She still has no idea about letters and sounds so it is kind of funny, but a good game to play in order to learn.

For Christmas Hannah received an ant farm as a gift. We sent off for the ants in January but they said that they wouldn't send them until the ants could survive the mail (meaning it is warm enough to send them). We got the ants this week. However, it wasn't warm enough to send them and about half of them are dead. I was going to pick them all out, but they have started to bury them. the dead ones are the little curled up ones everywhere. It has been fun to watch them work. We are all interested in their progress.

Last thing today is Hannah's class picture came in. I work in the office on Thursdays, so I was able to get Hannah's today. Pretty cute picture!

Fun stuff

I've been trying to get the girls more involved in household duties. It has been more difficult for me than I thought it would be because of the limited amount of time I seem to have. One of those deals where it is quicker if I do it! I'm really trying hard to take a breather and let them do more things. I'm really good about having them set the table for dinner. They take turns - whoever didn't have school that day is the day they set the table. I need add clearing the table and vacuuming, all duties they have done but I haven't made part of everyday life. Here is Halee vaccuuming the living room.
On Saturday I was looking thru my school stuff to find something. I ran across this math board. I was hoping it was addition, but it wasn't. Hannah has been doing some subtraction at school, so it was good practice. She worked on it off and on all weekend.

Tuesday evening Ed got some motivation to do some things around the house on the "to-do" list. He put the toe kicks up in the kitchen. Oh, they look so nice! On the side with the sink and dishwasher he decided to put the toe kick all the way across, even where the dishwasher is. I went to do the dishes the next day and couldn't get the dishwasher open. So, we can't put the toe kick under the dishwasher!

He also put of some of the trim under the windows. Oh, that looks nice too!

This past week, Hannah brought the UNO cards down to play. We had played once or twice before, but she lost interest quickly. Now she really enjoys playing! I think we have played every day this week. Tonight was the first night all of us played together. Ed had helped Hannah earlier in the week, but this time all three of us played our own hands. Halee was interested too and it was good practice on learning her numbers. She played with me and I would ask her what number it was as she put it down. We have a long ways to go, but this is a start. She was good about matching the colors, tho!

We have a busy weekend ahead. Our church is hosting a lectureship. On Saturday evening, I'm the cook for the dinner. My friend, Tisha, volunteered me for this job as a "trial" before camp. She's my assistant. Members of the congregation are providing all the ingredients. I asked for the chicken to be cooked and chopped and the onions to be chopped. So basically all I have to do is stir it all together and layer it in the pan! Also making the dessert which will be fairly simple, I'm thinking. But that led into making Orange Rolls on Saturday morning. So, Friday night, I'm going to making a batch of 75 orange rolls. That will be good practice too. Then their is potluck on Sunday. Plus all the lectures, etc. I'll be ready for a nap on Sunday!!!

Spring has sprung

Spring has finally decided to show its face here in Montana. Yesterday the temp was probably in the 50's. Hannah had 2 friends over for a playdate and we all went to the park for about 45 minutes. Then later the girls went out to ride bikes. Today the weather was probably closer to 70 (at least that was the forcast and it was pretty warm!) Oh what a joy!

A week ago Friday, we had parent teacher conferences for Hannah. I was going to post her report card then, but my computer was doing something weird and then I forgot! Anyway, here is her 3rd quarter report card.
Mrs. King had very nice things to say about Hannah and that she was doing well in school. The only thing she wanted to see Hannah do better at was to slow down on her work. Sometimes she just rushes thru and she could do better. I asked about the 0 marks. She said that ment that she was just right on target with those things (grade level basically) and could use some more work on them. Basically she would like to see Hannah memorize more of her math facts so that they just come naturally. Same with the sight words. She does fairly well on most of them. Just a few that she has trouble with. But (and this is how Mrs. King put it) she is a little bit behind the other kids because of her age. I don't know about that, but take it for what it's worth! Hannah is doing well in kindergarten and will advance to first grade next year!

Snow, Snow go away!

I can't tell you how ready I am for this snow to go away. I know I should be greatful for the moisture, etc, but 7 months later, I'm ready to see it go! How about some rain????

This is what we woke up to this morning - about 8 inches of snow!

However, Hannah has taken advantage of the warm spring day to play in the snow. She and her dad built this snowman at lunch time. Then she wanted some ice cream to eat outside!

The other big news of the day is that Hannah will not be allowed to go to 1st grade in the public schools. Last year when I went to the school and talk to them about this whole situation, they said that they wouldn't make any exceptions for kindergarten, but would for 1st grade. So, I called yesterday to see what I needed to do to get Hannah enrolled in school. Today I finally got ahold of someone. The law states that a child must be 5 on or before Sept. 10th for kindergarten and 6 on or before Sept 10th for 1st grade. They cannot make exceptions to the law. We could enroll her in kindergarten and after 6 weeks the teacher and principal could evaluate her and then they could move her up, but there is nothing we can do until that point. So, we decided to keep her at Heritage for at least another year. It's not worth putting her through all of that! Poor girl. She did tell me that we wouldn't have to go thru anything to enroll her in 2nd grade (at the public school) that since she had already completed the required entry years (kindergarten is not required) they would except her into 2nd. Hhhhhmmmmmmm.

Bubble, Bubble

Spring is having a hard time making it's way here this year! The girls are just itching to go outside and play. In between snow storms, one day last week they were able to ride their bikes. This is what I found them doing. Halee would push them off and then Hannah would pedal.

Today it snowed off and on all day. It didn't matter, Halee still wanted to go outside and ride her bike. I know spring will get here soon!

Also today as I was cooking dinner, Halee was reading some books. She started the story with once upon a time. I thought, oh this will be a kodak moment and went to get the camera. As soon as she noticed me, she stopped what she was doing. Isn't that how it always goes? Anyway, I asked her to keep reading her book and this is the video I got. (I'm not sure what she is saying in the beginning, but the her attention moves away from the book to a song she learned at school. A turtle was in the tub and ate the soap and got a tummy ache. The bubble, bubble part is how the song ends. You will see that she moves her hands up to her neck. When they sang the song at school, they were motioning how the bubble rises and got bigger and then popped.)



Tonight is the night the college kids come over for a Bible study. Tonight was a bit different than normal. We've been studying the book of Acts and last week we were in chapter 2. That led into a perfect discussion tonight about trying to start a "campus ministry" here. There was lots of good conversation from the students about how this can and will work. Please keep this in your prayers.

Spring in Montana

For easter, the girls received kites in their easter basket. Finally, last Tuesday, the weather turned out to be fairly good kite flying weather. So, Ed and the kids headed to the park to fly their kites.

Here is Halee flying her kite.

And here is Hannah.

But spring in Montana is quite unpredicatable! Yesterday we got 4 inches of wet, heavy snow!

Can I tell you ready I am for spring and how over winter I am? Well, I bet you got the hint!!!