Pre-Christmas Festivities

Sara looked forward to Christmas morning just like most kids do.  In Pre-school they made a Santa chain thing so that she could keep track of the days.  The idea was to tear off one chain a day and when you get to the Santa it's Christmas Day.

In the run-up to Christmas, we also baked lots of treats.  Sara made "Pretzel Kisses" for her preschool class.  She unwrapped all the kisses and put them on the pretzels.

Sara had a Christmas party at Preschool that she was really excited about.  I volunteered to be a helper parent in the classroom for that day.  I was actually feeling a little nervous about it but it was a wonderful experience.  I had a blast helping all the kids make presents for their parents and then I got to watch them play all the fun games they play and sing songs.  It was a real treat and it totally helped me become a better person (and I was proud of myself for going).

 Also, Sara really looked forward to the Sears party up at Granny Karen's house.  

Showing their really fun gifts from Uncle Ben, Aunt Wendy, and Lil Benny :

The kids, Benny and Sara, did a great job eating at the kids table.  They talked to each other and really seemed to like having their own space.  This should be our new tradition.

I love this photo.  Granny KP was showing the kids some notes on the tin whistle :

 Everyone had an eye poppin' good time :

I love our tradition of having a get together at the folks in Salt Lake and I hope we have many great years to come.

Writing

Sara has been working really hard on her numbers and letters.  She can spell out our names mostly now.  Still she does not read yet but that can't be far behind if she's spelling words I suppose.   She is also memorizing "sight" words, words that can't be sounded out.

I took some pictures of the things she has written lately.  Her writing looks kind of funny, almost like Russian but she's getting closer.

She hung these upside down on our wall but they say Rosey, Daddy, and Brennan.  We did not help her at all with these.

Here is another one with her scribbling.  She wrote Benny in the middle and Dan, Rosey, and Brennan again.  We never told her how to spell our names either so she figured that out phonetically I guess.

Sara has also learned her phone number and her street address.

We are really proud of the progress she is making at school.  Also I love her teacher Mrs. Amber.  Mrs. Amber tells her how special she is every day and I know it's been great for Sara.

Day at Thanksgiving Point

We spent the day at Thanksgiving Point at the Dinosaur Museum with cousin Benny and Uncle Ben.  The Dino museum is one of Sara's favorite places and she was really excited to get to share it with Benny. 

We got to see some reindeer. 

First we went to the sound exhibit before going to the Dino museum.  Brother tried on the bat ears in the sound room.

Fun time playing with the sound oscillator

Diagnosing the car engine by sounds

Sister was trying to keep track of her brother, who was running everywhere.

Climbing around

Uncle Ben trying to appease angry Brennan

Everyone had fun digging in the sand pit and finding fossils.

After the museum we had fun at the petting zoo.  These baby cows attacked the stroller, smelling snacks I suppose.  Brennan like it, he loves animals.

Hopefully we can meet Benny and Ben for many years to come at the museum.  It was a great day where everyone got to spend quality time together and we are really thankful for it.

Sara does funny things

Tonight Sara took a spaghetti noodle over to Brennan's tray and held it up for him to see.  She said, "Brennan, here is your worm. You need to eat it because we are pretending we are birds and I'm your Mama bird."  Brennan happily ate the worm.

Also tonight, Brennan really likes to brush hair so he was trying to brush Sara's hair.  It's not very much fun though because he usually just ends up either hitting you with the brush repeatedly or pulling your hair really hard.  Sara was protesting but to no avail, so she got a small basket from her room and put it on top of her head.  Problem solved.  He pounded on the basket instead and everyone was happy.

Preschool Pics

Sara had her Pre-School photos this week with her class:

Sara is telling me their names as I type, starting on the top left : Cody, Sara, Becca, Aiden, Treygon, Tate, Morgan, James, Mrs. Amber.

We are really proud of her.  Her teacher is Miss Amber and Sara loves school and her class.  The kids love her too.  She is the hit of the party.  Once I dropped her off and she flung open the door to preschool and said , "Surprise!" and all the kids cheered.  I hope she is always as bright and cheerful in the years to come.

She is learning so much at school.  She is starting to sound out words, read small books, and do addition.  She can do all her 1+ addition now. 

Politiks are crap

Sara has been paying attention to the election and from articles I've seen on the internet pre-schoolers seem to have an interest in this election.  Maybe because they are picking up on their parent's sense of urgency and desperation and so they are paying more attention or maybe they are always that observant at this age, or the fact that it's all over TV and the internet.

Also I think that Sara hears about Mitt R. especially at pre-school from the other kids, and possibly the teacher.  She usually says she likes M.R. but I told her that Daddy and I don't like him as a candidate.  Then she started changing her tune a little.  However she did tell us that she might want to go live with Mitt R because he would let her have candy for dinner.

For some reason she went on this diatribe the other day.  There are about 5 parts but I only put 2 of them up so far, I might put the others up later or not.    This gives you the general idea and you can probably tell what her new favorite word is.

part 1 
part 2

Halloween

Sara was really sick today and missed out on most of the fun.  She was supposed to have a pre-school Halloween party, a birthday party at a friend's house, and trick-or-treating at Daddy's work.  We skipped all of that so she could take a nap.  She has a really bad cough too, so I was worried about her walking or running too much. 

When Dan came home he didn't think she was sick enough to miss Halloween all together, so we took her trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.  She ran excitedly from house to house, somehow putting her cough on hold.  It was all we could do to hold her back from running off without us.  She was really enjoying running with the other kids and even loved the people answering the doors.

She got tons of candy and then started to cough really bad so we went home.  She helped Dan hand out candy on the front porch for a hour.  She was really selling it, calling out to people to come get our candy and giving out handfuls of it.  She is so social.  She was having fun giving the candy out with wild abandon.

Then she came inside and was coughing so bad she was choking and throwing up.  I guess if she has to be really sick now, at least she will have great memories from Halloween as a 4 year old hopefully.  I will probably be taking her to the doctor tomorrow.

Here are all the cute pics:

A Big Help

Sara has really been trying to be very independant and extra helpful lately.  I think she is learning this a pre-school too because the teacher says she is very good helping with the other students because she is very responsible and observant.  Also, another thing about pre-school is the teacher says she's the most popular kid and all the other kids want to sit by her and they vie for her attention.  Also the teacher says that Sara is very polite and thoughtful.  Of course we knew all this, she is a great kid!

Anyway, Sara was helping me in the kitchen today.  I gave her the task of washing all the mushrooms and she washed each one and dried each one individually.

Then she helped me take all the sage leaves off of the stems

I asked her if she wanted to be my official sous chef and she said, "No thanks, I like who I am, I don't want to be somebody else."  Well , there you have it.  We like who she is too.  Don't ever change.

Also, Sara and her neighbor friend play every night in the back yard.  Last night they were singing very loudly making up songs.  I tried to record them so they wouldn't stop.  It was very cute.

The new reader?

Sara has been taking huge steps towards reading and sounding out words.  She walks around all day sounding out things with everyday words that we use.  If it say let's go take a walk to the park.  She says, "p...p...p...Park".  She does this with all kind of sounds and she always guesses them right.

So far, she has read three signs by herself, she read the words "no, Stop, and Trick or Treat" on different signs that we passed by in the car.   I think she will have this figured out in no time.  I think she is ready and self motivated, two good things that will help her succeed.  I'm not the kind of parent that is driven to have her read as early as possible so I can brag to everyone.  It really doesn't matter to me how long it takes her but I'm happy for her and willing to help her because I know how much she loves her books and I think it would open up a whole new world for her if she could read to herself.

Today we sat with one of her Thomas books and I asked her to pick out certain words that I had read her in a paragraph, she got every word I asked her right.  Then we went word by word through a long books, sounding them out together.

She is making leaps and bounds at preschool too.  However I'm starting to feel slightly disappointed that I think the other kids are either younger or behind her in preschool and maturity.  They are quite a bit smaller in size, even though they are supposed to be 4 year olds.  Is she really that tall or are there some 3 year olds, not sure yet.  I've been meaning to ask the teacher.  Sara looks 5 and they look 3 and it's quite drastic.  Also Sara tells me every day that the kids have behavior problems.  Today she said that a kid got sent home for kicking, biting, and screaming.  So I think there are some kids that are having issues.  However every time we see the kids going in our coming out of preschool they seem nice enough and they always say hi and bye to Sara.

I was hoping that Sara would really learn a ton at pre school this year and I hope she still does.  Her teacher evaluates them and we even have parent-teacher conferences.  So far we've only received one evaluation on paper saying she knew all her colors, she can count to 11, and she can write all her numbers except for the number 10.  I know her teacher praises her every day and Sara tells us she is happy in the class so I hope everything is going well and she feels comfortable there and adjusted.  So far she has really loved going this year and she brings home really cute things.  We have expanded her art wall in her room to accommodate more art.

A necklace she made today at preschool :

Slightly expanded art wall, still needs work:

Sara has also been helping out tremendously around the house.  She is on a kick to prepare all her own meals.  She actually puts together some good food for herself.  We guide her telling her how many veggies, how much cheese, or fruit she should have and then she puts it together.  She uses the toaster but does not use the microwave yet.  She also has no problem getting in the fridge, pantry, or freezer.  Here she is in action putting a meal together and here is the result.

Pretty nutritious, yogurt, cheese, Cheerios, and dried apples.  She has also decided she likes to eat at the kitchen cabinet like a big girl, not at the table where the "kids" eat, is what she says...

Here she is showing off her dance moves.

Here are some pics of the sibs being cute.  They get jealous every now and then but mostly she goes way of out her way to be kind to her brother.  She will share her favorite foods with him and treats, she gets him things that he needs, and comforts him when he's upset.  He has a great big sister.

 
The one last one of sweet Sara.  She has really gotten in to drawing chalk on her face like face paint.  At least it comes off easy.

The best part for me is I really feel like the time we've put into Sara for the last 4.5 years is really starting to pay off.  She is a great, compassionate, active, and fun little person.

Messing around in the yard

Since Moosey is healing up pretty well now we are playing in the yard a lot.  Sara and Brennan were wrestling, swinging, and playing in the dirt tonight.

Sara things the swing is a jungle gym.

Today she had school pictures at pre-school and she dressed up a little.  I told her to smile normal because when she is told to smile she usually makes a funny face. I hope it worked out because we bought a large packet of pics. 

She likes to pick up her brother and drag him around while they're playing and sometimes he's not so happy about it.

They like to wrestle and roll in the yard.

Sometimes it's fun to put rakes down brothers back too...

They love the bubble blowing bucket that their Auntie got them too.

Her brother is her little shadow.

I hope they continue to play well because it really gives me a break.  Also I hope they are friends someday when they grow up but only time will tell.