Into the swing of things...

We are keeping busy this week with school and soccer. Austin has had already a spelling test and a vocab test, as well as the results of his reading test. His reading level is at fourth grade, month 2, so he is supposed to find books for his reading tests at late 3rd grade through 4th grade levels. Here at home we are reading Pippi Longstocking together. So far he thinks the most hilarious part is when she shouts weird songs while making pancakes. He has had two soccer practices with his wonderful coach Tim, and loves that Tim's son Logan, as well as his best friends Drew and Andrew, are on his team. Austin has done a fantastic job concentrating on his game despite the social distractions. He has not had to run laps for not paying attention (Tim's favorite punishment, which has been used quite a few times already this season).

Karsen is getting into kindergarten, too. This week was five senses week. The homework was to bring in an object used for smells, touch, sight, and sound. Miss Beth provided the "tastes." She has also been asserting herself on the playground, which has provided the teachers with a little peek into Karsen's personality. Apparently today a little girl was not taking turns on the slide. Karsen said this girl was kicking others and pushing them out of the way, and then going down when others hadn't emerged from the end of the slide yet. Karsen took charge, telling (bossing) Graham to go get Mrs. Grieser (poor unsuspecting Mrs Grieser, the playground teacher today) while instructing the others to wait for Mrs Grieser to come mete out the punishment. Mrs Grieser explained the slide rules, and the offending party had to run laps, much to the delight of Karsen and Graham. (It is always helpful to have Graham over for playdates, as you get a more complete view of what has happened in school that day. His mother feels the same way about Karsen.)
Austin is at a get-together at Andrew and Collin's church this evening with a movie, popcorn, and then playing the Wii on the projector screen, so Karsen is learning checkers. When she gets down to 2 or 3 checkers left, she adds a few of hers back to the board, so the games do tend to go on for awhile. Karsen has also had two soccer practices this week and is enjoying her role as one of the experienced members of the team. Her coach Tyrone is her coach from last spring, and his adorable little Ashton is on the team, so as long as she can refrain herself from picking up and carrying Ashton around the field, she usually does a fine job.

Gettin' Busy

We have had a busy day here at the Morgan's. I slept a few hours after I got off work this morning and Josh took the kids to school and picked Karsen up. After a desperately needed trip to get groceries, Austin came home from school.
Both kids had homework today. Karsen was to make a collage all about herself. We printed out several pictures of Karsen and her activities and found some things in a few magazines that Karsen likes. She has a couple of pictures of playdates she has had with a few of her friends from school so she put those on the poster to show how she likes to play with her friends, and of course we had to cut out an American Girl doll. She loves to leaf through the catalog and wish for which one she wants for Christmas. Also on the poster were her favorite animal (dog), pictures of her this summer playing, and a picture of her and Austin.
Austin had a busy day at school. He had to take the Gates reading test on the computer as well as more reviewing. He had music today, a favorite. He was happy that he earned points for his table by keeping his work area neat and clean. His table is called the "Kings Island Coasters." Andrew and he came up with that, of course! After his math, spelling, and reading homework, and a quick trip to the dollar store for more glue sticks (I don't really know how Karsen uses all this glue, someday I will probably find it somewhere), they made birthday cards for a special someone.
After dinner we had our first Cub Scout meeting of the year. After some overview of the year and introductions of the Wolf Pack (2nd graders) to the new Tiger Cubs (1st graders), the boys got into teams to make little airplanes and have a contest to see which flew the furthest. Even though one of their planes was wrecked many, many times, the Wolf Cubs ended up winning the contest. The prize was to throw water balloons at Andrew's dad, their Den Leader.
Soccer practice for Austin starts tomorrow, and Karsen's starts on Wednesday so you'll get the scoop on that later this week. Also, Tuesdays will be "Drew-days" for us this fall as Drew will be coming to keep Austin company on that day. They are on the same soccer team so that will work out nicely.

The games Karsen plays

Today was the first Thursday of school. They are both learning (and reviewing) a lot. Austin has only had a small amount of homework, some math practice and a reading sheet, both of which he remembered well. He says during school they are mostly doing review, but are starting a new social studies unit on communities. Today they talked about how people celebrate holidays. Karsen had another good day. They played detective and detected different colors and shapes today. Tomorrow they will talk about good hygiene. Her homework is to bring in three items she uses to practice good hygiene. Another thing Austin has learned about this year is the new bathroom situation. Before, in kindergarten and first grade, the students had one girl bathroom and one boy bathroom right in their classroom. This year, there is a community bathroom down the hall from the classroom, and, according to Austin (a big deal to Austin), some of the TOILETS DO NOT HAVE A DOOR. He is not enthused.

After school we went swimming at Papa and Grandma Hall's pool. This was pretty funny, because Karsen is at the phase where she makes up weird, maybe I should say, interesting, games for us to play. The first game was called Electric Eel. She repeatedly smacked the top of the water with a swimming noodle and tried to hit people with it, thereby "electric-ing" (electrocuting) them. This was okay until she hit Austin once too many times. Then she made up a game called Feed the Animals. She pretended to be a variety of animals, and I was the zookeeper. I had to hold out my two hands and say what food was in each hand. The "animal" would then choose which food she would like to eat and crawl, slither, cartwheel, jump, or otherwise migrate over to my hands and lick them. I didn't know what was going on the first time we played, and I didn't realize I was about to be licked. So after the first round the animal just made licking motions. I wonder how these games would go over with Miss Bowman, her gym teacher.

More School Days...

Well, the first day has come and gone and so has the second morning. Both kids got up well again today and I am looking forward to that trend continuing. Austin had a great rest of his day yesterday as well. He liked the fact that the 2nd graders seem to be in charge of the playground kickball game, since they are the oldest ones at that particular recess. He also liked comparing new cool backpacks and lunchboxes with his friends. His teacher seems wonderful so far. She seems very into responsibility, if they forget to bring back a paper that should be signed they walk 5 laps at recess, or if they forget to do an assignment they do the assignment during recess. She has little planners for the kids that they write important dates on or when assignments are due and the parents have to initial each night. I love the organization!
Karsen had another great day at school. Again, she played a lot with Ellen on the slides. They learned a lot about the days of the week today. Her sandal slipped off today during recess, but Graham helped her retrieve it and put it back on. She had an "accident" with her glue but Ellen helped her clean it up. Such helpful little friends she has! I should clarify something in my previous post. Library Lady was particularly impressed that kindergarteners were looking in microscopes. Actually, I didn't really think about why they had a microscope in the kindergarten, so I asked Karsen about this. It turns out by microscope, she meant "magnifying glass." And by "magnifying glass", it turns out she means her finger and thumb held into a circle near her eye. So...while Westwood is a very education-forward and wonderful school, they are not as scientific as some readers may imagine from my blog. Sorry to burst any bubbles, Library Lady!

First Day of School 2009

Well, it's that time of year again-the first day of school. Karsen and Austin's first day was today, Tuesday August 18. Austin wished he could have more time off, but by the time he got there and saw Drew and Andrew, who are both in his class, he was ready to begin. His 2nd grade teacher will be Mrs Amman when she comes back from maternity leave after Christmas, but for now he has a great teacher to fill in, Mrs Underwood.

Karsen goes 1/2 day to Miss Beth's kindergarten class at Westwood. She was very excited. Josh and I dropped her off, and she was already into her coloring without a thought of saying goodbye to us! She had gym class with Miss Bowman today, in which they learned a new game called Crows and Cranes. It sounds like a version of tag, and her friend Sam was super fast and kept tagging her. She had recess as well, and played with Ellen on the slides. Apparently they are not allowed to go down the big gray slide, so Karsen and Ellen stuck with the green one.
The class also got to play a colors game and a train game. She also had fun with her friend Graham looking through microscopes. Karsen also learned an important lesson today: when you interrupt, you must say, "I'm sorry for interrupting." So now she knows not to interrupt Miss Beth with questions about the playground equipment during lesson time. She saw Austin on the playground, but as predicted, Austin played kickball and Karsen said "hi" but played with her own friends. I'm sure this was appreciated by Austin.

Austin's 8th Birthday

On August 7, Austin turned 8 years old! We celebrated with a bowling party on Thursday, August 6 in the evening. The kids, and adults if they were so inclined, bowled for about an hour at the Rose Bowl, then had hot dogs, fries, cake, and the cutest bowling cookies courtesy of auntie Erin. Who knew she was a baker? Ha! The kids got to play in the arcade to cap a very fun birthday party!

Some of the silly birthday partiers!
Papa helping the guests take turns and keep score.
Will it be a strike?!? Luckily we used bumpers, and to my knowledge, only one ball got stuck for the bowling alley staff to retrieve.
Natalie, Hattie, and Emily ready for fun!

Some fine bowling form!
Yikes! Look out, there goes Karsen!
What a sweet, well-mannered, good looking group!
Happy Birthday, Austin!

How quickly you have gone from this....
...to this. We love you so much and you make us proud every day with your sweet spirit, your giving nature, your fun loving antics, and your bright smile and enthusiasm for life. I can't imagine the world without our Austin.

ME Zoo

On Thursday, August 6, we took a trip to the ME Zoo. We met Grandma and Papa Beneker, Amy and Luke, Erin and Ken, Aunt Judy and Uncle Steve, Maria, Max, and Meryl there. Our tour guide for the day was Aunt Judy's friend Janie, who volunteers at the zoo and is so wonderful with the animals and the people.The kids doing Spiderman climbs and poses on a huge rock.

Erin and Prince Charles, the tiger.
Karsen loved this tiny pony. Maybe for her next birthday - ha!Karsen petting a guinea pig. She is really the animal lover of my two. She had the deer eating from her hands and loved every second.

One of the big hits with the kids was the huge turtles!The zoo had a baby kangaroo. Here is Aunt Judy feeding "Cinderella" her bottle.

Just look at this happy face!
The happy zoo-goers!