Fall Fun!

Fall here has been amazing!  The colors are so beautiful and the weather has been great.  Brenna was especially excited about raking leaves!  It's something we never had to do down south.  I didn't even have a leaf rake, I had to go buy one.  Our backyard was completely carpeted in brown, orange, yellow, and red leaves.  So, one afternoon me and Brenna got to work and raked up our small backyard into a very large pile!  I was surprised by how much there was!  A friend shared with me that he has no less than 100 bags of leaves each Fall from his yard!!!

After the last leaf was raked onto the pile, the leaf jumping commenced!  Oh, the fun she had!  Happy Fall from Canada!

Class Field Trip to the Greenview Aviaries

One of the things I love about our new school is all the extracurricular activities that it offers.  Its not the standard cookie cutter school that we've grown accustomed to.  As a private school they have to ability to offer so much more!  The lower elementary students take swim lessons, cross country, and track and field, just to name a few of the fun activities.  Last month our school held the Terri Fox run to support cancer research.  The whole school, kinder thru 8th (along with a lot of volunteers), ran/walked roughly 2 miles on a nearby nature trail.  The kids loved it.  They encourage each other along way, the big kids helped the little kids, and they all had a clear understanding of why we were doing it.  Last Friday again the whole school took the the afternoon for kite flying!  They broke into teams with representatives from each grade and built a team kite!  It was a great lesson in teamwork!

Another fun perk is class field trips.  In our public school in Texas, we were only allowed one field trip per year.  Here, we have one field trip per term!  So, three trips a year!  And we didn't have to wait long!  Our first class field trip came within the first month of the new school year.  We visited Greenview Aviaries and Zoo.  In their current science unit the kids were required to chose one bird to write an animal report about.  The field trip allowed for the opportunity to further their research.  The kids really enjoyed exploring the grounds.  While the park had the normal lions, tigers, bears, zebras, and monkeys, it also had some more usually animals like timber wolves, buffalo, albino raccoons, and lots of birds!

After exploring all the animals, we had a picnic lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the massive play area.  The kids enjoyed zip line races, the spider climb, and an array of different swings!  All around it was a really fun day and we can't wait to see what our field trip will be!

First Day of Second Grade

We're already off to the start of another school year.  I'm having a hard time saying that Brenna is in 2nd grade.  Somehow that seems so much older than 1st!  Brenna was excited to get going with her new year and that is an answered prayer, considering she has started a different school every year since the beginning.  When Brenna turned 4 we chose First Baptist Rosenberg for preschool to help her begin her transition to a classroom setting.  Then, when she turned 5 and officially started school we moved to Frost Elementary for Kindergarten.  After being re-districted, we opened the brand new school in our neighborhood, Adolphus Elementary, our first grade year.  Then of course, we had the move and now Brenna is at Sarnia Christian School for 2nd grade.  I'm aware that to some this all may come across as bad parenting!  Looking back on all of it, I can assure you that school hopping was nowhere in my parenting plan, but God has thrown us some curve balls that we've learned to trust Him with.  I also believe that God knew his plan for Brenna and blessed her with a personality and outlook on life that has enabled her to easily navigate and manage these changes.  Through it all she's never missed a beat and has openly embraced her new surrounding and friends.

As of this writing, we are a month into the new school year and we're off to a blazing start!  We've already had our first class field trip, a new basketball season has begun, and Brenna joined a girl's club at our church called Girl's Alive!  We've only been here 6 months, but we're already tied in and connected to so many things.  We're quickly settling into a comfortable routine.

Here's Brenna on her first day of Second Grade.  She was also very proud of her new school shoes!

The Run Down

This is a very much belated wrap up of summer!  Summer felt all too short here due to longer school year, but we made most of it with trips to the beach, soccer, tennis, library fun, and lots of friend time!  Here's our Summer Run Down and all the fun!

Lemonade Stand

All summer Brenna patiently waited to have a lemonade stand.  Immediately at the start of summer I told her that we would, but there was too much going on with school ending and preparing for the vacation.  Once we were home from vacation, I delayed again saying that we needed to prepare for her birthday party.  After her birthday, my excuse was that we had to wait for a hot day.  This was really the reason I had been waiting all summer.  I thought that as the summer continued the temperature would rise and a lemonade stand would be much better suited for a hot day.  We didn't get any hot days here!  I'm not complaining at all, because the weather was fantastic!  This mild summer allowed us so much outdoor time that it was hard to keep us inside.  But it didn't really lend itself to the "tall glass of cold lemonade" feel that usually leads to us dragging out the lemonade stand.

So as a last ditch effort, on the last Friday before school started (just like last year) the kids whipped up four gallons of lemonade and went to work.  It was only about 75 degrees and a little overcast, but thanks to our neighbors and social media, we had a good turnout.  They peddled lemonade at 25 cents a cup and even though the kids drank most of their inventory, they still managed to make $38!  Which should tell you we have some very generous neighbors!  The kids were very diplomatic and decided that they would donate their earnings to our neighborhood's playground fund!  Just beyond our street is a clear grass area that's reserved for a playground/park.  I was very proud of the their selfless decision after all the work they (and even more so me! My kitchen was smeared with sticky lemon juice/peels/seeds from one end to the other) had put in!

Turns out it was worth it to drag that stand all the way from Texas!  I've stored it in the garage to be ready for next summer!