Our Little Swimmer

I didn't want the summer to go by without making note of one significant achievement.  Last year even after taking two weeks of swim lessons, Brenna still struggled in the water.  She was deathly afraid of putting her head underwater and not a fan of getting her face wet in general.  She was terrified to be in water where she couldn't touch the bottom.

In preparation for summer, we put Brenna in Aquatots swim lessons in April with hopes it would improve her comfort level in the water.  My child, who was seriously frightened of going underwater, was dunked every day for 4 straight weeks!  When I made this statement to someone who asked how things were going, they responded "Isn't that water boarding?"  The coaches were fantastic and she quickly moved through the paces and was swimming on her own by the end of the 4th week.  After returning from vacation, she continued to progress by enjoying playtime with her friends at the pool.  Now, its like the fear never existed!  She's swimming in the "big" pool with no worries that its 6 ft deep, she's diving underwater for rings without hesitation, riding water slides, and even doing flips in the water!  I know that she's not a marathon swimmer, but she can doggie paddle like a champ!  Her new found courage has definitely improved our fun-time at the pool.

Mom and Me Day

I was inspired by a friend who dedicated a entire week to her daughter while her youngest son was away at camp.  While every day is a Mom and Me day at our house since Brenna's an only child, I realized that we've never had a day to do just what she wanted, at her pace.  Usually its a comprise of my errands backed up with some kind of kid friendly fun that's convenient to wherever we are.  Also, Brenna's reached an age where her thoughts of fun usually consist of friends and Mom is the method of transportation.  So I thought it would be nice to have a day just to ourselves to enjoy some things that she likes.

We started our day bright and early by summer standards.  Brenna picked out her new favorite dress to wear and we made our way to Town Center in Sugar Land.  Town Center is a very nice shopping and entertainment area centered around the Sugar Land Court House.  The area is beautiful with fountains and brick paved streets that follow along fun shops and restaurants.

The Run Down

It's been a while since I had an Instagram run down.  Here's what we've been doing in June and July!

Pottery and Donuts

Last week we got together with a sweet friend to paint pottery.  After a quick tour of the options, the girls decided that mermaids were the way to go.  I didn't realize that picking what to paint was the easy part.  Leaving two 5 year olds to decide what colors to paint their mermaids took much longer.  They picked each paint color with careful thought as to which part of the mermaid it would be applied.  After everyone had a rainbow of colors on their palette, the little artists got to work!

Battle of the Bangs

For nearly 7 months we've been trying to grow out Brenna's bangs.  It hasn't been easy!  For the longest time we were in the "Peeking Through the Bushes" stage where her bangs just hung straight over her eyes.  Recently we've moved to the "Sweep to the Side" stage, which is an improvement, but they're not long enough to tuck behind her ear.  So she's always leaning to the left to keep her hair out of the her eyes.  This has created a major styling issue, since we can't do pig tales, a pony tale, or braids, because her bangs are left hanging out.  Her hair is very thick and soft, so we haven't found a barrette that will stay in.  To manage the situation we rock a side pony tale of just Brenna's bangs!  I sweep them over to the side, tie them back with a tiny band, and then pull her hair over the band so that is doesn't show.  I wonder how long this phase will last?!?

Can't I Just Sleep!

Pickles was trying to take an afternoon nap on the couch.  Then Brenna finds him!  She wanted to love on him, but I told her not to bother him.  She says "But he always wakes me up in the mornings to get lovin'!"  I really couldn't argue with that since most mornings he does get impatient waiting for her to wake up and often goes up to her room, hops in bed, and does the job himself.

The 4th of July

This year things were low-key and easy going for the 4th.  We enjoyed just being home and having nothing to do.  It seemed like a nice way to kick off the long weekend.  Jacob grilled steaks and Brenna and I worked on some My Little Pony craft projects.  As the afternoon wore on, we decided to meet up with friends for the La Centerra Fireworks Show.  The low-key attitude carried over to the afternoon.  Instead of fighting the crowds that packed into La Centerra, we all met up in the parking lot behind Target and backed the vehicles up to an open grassed area.  We threw out the blankets and popped open the lawn chairs!  The kids entertained themselves with Go Fish, tag, and hide and seek!

Bermuda Vacation

This year there were several failed attempts to schedule a summer vacation.  This was mostly due to the renegotiation of the Union contract and the pending strike associated with it where Jacob works.  I had all but given up hope that we would have a nice relaxing vacation that we all were in dire need of.  Finally the stars aligned, the Union compromised, and the strike was avoided.  So, in a mad dash I managed to book a Bermuda Vacation with only 3 weeks to spare.  For most people, it's a very common occurrence to book a vacation 3 weeks out.  For me, however, this goes against my true nature.  I like to plan!  Especially vacations!  I plan vacations months in advance and comb through all the details so I know I'm getting exactly the vacation I want.  I do all the work up-front, so on vacation day all we have to do is show-up and everything is taken care of for the week.  So in 3 weeks, I managed to find a fantastic suite on a new cruiseline, book airfare, airport parking, hotel stay, transportation, shore excursions, make all on-board reservations, and schedule a cat-sitter!  All the while I still had to manage my Room Mom and volunteer duties at school with Teacher Appreciation Week, Frost Field Day, Book Fair, Kindergarten Graduation, and End-of-Year Parties.  For me those final three weeks were total chaos and insanity!  This vacation became the light at the end of the tunnel!  Brenna finished up school on a Thursday afternoon.  We packed up Friday (which is usually a week-long event in itself), and left for vacation on Saturday!

We flew to New York to board the Celebrity Summit for a 7-day cruise to Bermuda.  Besides this being to the first time to book on such short notice there were lots of other firsts involved in this vacation; my first time in New York, our first cruise with Celebrity, and our first time to Bermuda.  Going into this vacation, we had lots to look forward to!

Packed up and ready to go!

Fogel's Future Stars

Brenna was recently invited to a birthday party at Fogel's Future Stars, which is a local children's theater.  It produces plays with all kid actors from around the area.  They also offer drama summer camps.  For birthdays, they give the kids a backstage tour and allow them some fun in the dressing rooms.  They get to pick there favorite characters from nursery rhymes and fairy tales and put on a fashion show.  The kids had a great time and with the exception of one child, all the others never seemed to have an issue with stage fright.  Brenna chose Little Miss Muffit as her character.   They told her Miss Muffit was shy and polite and I thought she did a really good job "acting" out her character. After a few rehearsals the parents were invited into the theater to enjoy the show.

Practicing her "Strike a Pose!"

Brenna's Kindergarten Graduation

It's been quite a year!  I had no idea what we were getting into when we started school!  It has been an adventure for both Brenna and me.  Brenna loved every bit of kindergarten!  There was never a morning that she woke up and said "I don't want to go!"  And even on mornings when she was sluggish, all I had to do was say "I guess I'll call Ms. Franklin and tell her we're not going to make it to school today!" and she was up and at it like lightening!

Now, I know I complain about people who get on facebook and carry on about how fabulous their kids are at everything they do.  In most cases I know those kids personally and have an insider knowledge that they are not the saints their parents have professed them to be.  Given that information, I have a disclaimer.  Since this is my personal blog with a limited audience I chose to toot the horn of my very smart, yet very stubborn child who has done so well this past year.  She excelled in her studies!  For 4 straight semesters she mastered every skill with perfect report cards.  We were all green smiley faces all year which earned us a Good Citizenship Award.  She blew through her reading levels and by the end of the year she was reading DRA level 18 books when only a DRA level 4 is required to pass kindergarten.  Her writing quickly moved from chicken scratch to neat and legible and she mastered basic spelling using phonics!  Just to brag alittle more, all the kids were given the CogAT test shortly after the beginning of the school year.  CogAT is Cognitive Abilities Test which tests a students general reasoning abilities.  Brenna scored higher than 92 percent of children in her age bracket nationally.  She's always been a good thinker and has a natural ability to learn.  I hope this continues to carry us through the our many years of school.

Given the amount of time I spent at school I had the opportunity to get to know and see all kindergarten teachers in action.  I have a whole new respect for the teaching profession.  I also realized that like in any other profession, there are those that are especially talented in their career choice and there are those that just get by at what they do.  I have no doubt that Ms. Franklin was an answered prayer for us and we were blessed with a fantastic teacher!  I consider this one of the reasons Brenna enjoyed school so much.

Kindergarten Graduation was held the last week of school.  The kids put on a short program and then 110 kindergartens were called one at a time to receive their diploma and awards.  Brenna received  a medal for learning and reading all her sight words for the year, a trophy for participating in the Science Expo, and awards for Good Citizenship, Good Attendance, and Library Reading Club.

She looked very grown-up in her pretty dress and high-heel shoes!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend pretty much kicked off summer for us.  We spent the entire weekend doing fun summer stuff; long hours at the pool, riding bikes in the street, playing basketball in the driveway, and just enjoying friends.  The kids couldn't wait to kick off the long holiday weekend, so as some as everyone was home from school on Friday afternoon they tossed the frisbee around.

Frost Field Day

Until last year, I had no idea what Field Day was.  I've learned that most Texas preschool and elementary schools host a Field Day every May where the kids get to have a fun day outside with games, competition, and water!  It's highly anticipated by the kids and there's lots of hipe before hand with game selections, t-shirts, class themes, and banner making for the school parade.

So, after some beautiful weather leading into Frost Field Day, we woke up that faithful Friday morning to find a bleak sky and an ugly forecast!  It didn't dampen our spirits!  The school was buzzing that morning with some very excited kids!  Instead of backpacks, there were balloons!

Science Expo

Since this is our first year, we were excited to participate in the Science Expo.  Kindergarten was given the choice of two projects;  make your own markers or bouncy polymer.  Coming from a family of chemical engineers, of course we chose the bouncy polymer.  Having never been to an elementary school science expo, I took the approach of keeping everything grade appropriate.  After explaining the experiment to Brenna, she wrote her own title, purpose, and conclusions and labels all the polymers.  She had alot of fun doing the experiment!

Brenna's Spring Picture

The Run Down

I've never been so behind on blog posting before.  Wrapping up school and planning a last minute vacation has monopolized my time over the last few weeks and now I'm frantically trying to catch-up on pictures before we go on vacation next week and I come home with a thousand more (which is pretty much a guarantee).  So, things will be rolling out quickly over the next week.

It's been awhile since I published an Instagram Run Down, so here's what been going on in April and May!