Happy Birthday Sweet Gavin!

Wow! A year ago today? You are such a BIG boy!

Yes, I guess I am kinda partial to this little guy.

Not that I love him anymore than the others....

But he IS my nephew!

And he is exactly 1 year old!

Yay Gavin!

Love this boy.

Today concluded our Back to School Week!

We started off with another movie from the Leap Frog Series,

The Talking Words Factory!

Zakary picked it out...

Kasen was my extra special helper today!

He has been my #1 helper all day!

Thanks for your help Kasen!

He is holding the awesome book we read this morning,

I Am Too Absolutely Small for School.

Its about a little girl who is SURE that school is not for her!

After much coaxing, her brother finally makes her realize that

SCHOOL IS COOL!

Every Friday we will be doing our handwriting.

We always write our names and some words or letters

that pertain to that week.

One on one.

Here are the kids working hard-

Lane.

Zakary.

Brayden.

Tead.

Kasen.

Roper.

And Miss Vivian.

At this point, my camera battery is running low!

I tried to get a quick shot of the little guys!

Excuse the burrines!

And then- right before I get pics of the babies, Gavin and Eli.

It dies.

Grrrrrrr.

Of course it does.

So here is a sweet picture of a sweet baby , who I did not get to photograph today!

So sorry Eli!

With Love,

Miss Melea

A Beautiful Day.

We started out the morning with a little old school cartoons.

Can I hear it for Looney Tunes!?

They watched while I cleaned up breakfast.

We dont watch alot of tv.

Only while we cook and right before nap.

I seems to settle them down.

Then we did our usual - prayer, pledge, ABC's, counting,

shapes, colors, calendar, weather, etc..

I read a book about starting school and some of the wonderful things about school.

One of THE most wonderful things about school is our

FRIENDS!

So I read Friends at School.

Then- to get to know eachother a little more,

we talked about some of our favorite things.

The kids each got to tell me a story about their favorite thing and why.

We then went upstairs to put it on paper!

Here the kids are hard at work!

And speaking of friends at school- these two have been inseperable!

Sweet boys, Lane and Zakary.

Kasen, Vivi, Tead, Roper, Brayden, and Hudson were all working hard!

They each were rewarded with 6 skittles for working so hard!

Great job guys!

This was my gang today!

Poor Vivi! Her sidekick, Lily, was absent today!

She was ALONE with ALL those BOYS!

I dont think it phased her!

Stop taking picures! Can we go outside already???!!!

Sweet Cadyn.

I had to bribe these 3 with skittles just to get this picture!

I love their bargaining tactics as 2 year olds!

I totally get it!

Beautiful Nevaeh,

Sweet cheeks, Eli.

Gavin and his 100th cracker of the day!

Look at who CLEANED their plate!

Every last bit of it AND seconds of applesauce!

Great job boys!

Hope your day was great!

With Love, Miss Melea

Welcome to Preschool Evan and Eli!

This is a BIG day for these 2 boys!

Welcome Mr Evan!

Are those not the most SQUEEEEEZABLE cheeks you have ever seen??!

And a BIG welcome to Mr Eli!

He is full of sweetness! Every last inch!

It got hot quick outside this morning!

His little cheeks were red- we went in right after this picture!

Poor little guy!

(And YES they always have frequent water breaks- we make sure of it!)

We played inside most of the morning, due to the HOTNESS!

The kids were begging to play in the newly rearranged Center Area.

This is a playroom set up for different types of learning through play.

Here are my Litle Suzie Homemakers!

Do you like their aprons?

I bought them at the THRIFT STORE!

Cool, huh?

They played in the kitchen and fed their babies!

There is no doubt in my mind that these boys will become

 good daddies and husbands one of these days!

Here is Brayden making me a beautiful picture in the Arts & Crafts Center.

Here is Grady, Kasen, and Zakary in the Blocks Center.

We have several different kinds of blocks along with cars and trucks and animals.

The boys love this center!

Emma is in the Math and Sensory Center.

She was practicing tying her shoes and doing some

 math skills with the colored cups and counting bears!

Lane was also in the Dramatic Play Area (Kitchen area).

He was the cashier, swiping everyones debit cards!

Look who is in the BIG KIDS CLASS!

Yay Vivi!

She was getting some good practice with the scissors in the arts and crafts center!

The little kids enjoyed some early outside time.

It was short lived- but its always nice to get outside for a little bit!

Gavin's cracker is YUMMY!

We have had a great day!

 I think everyone is settling in just fine!

So sorry for not blogging yesterday!

I attending the Memorial Service for Tommy Ratzlaff.

It was AMAZING.

I got to see so many people from high school!

Please continue to pray for his family.

Also, I want to THANK all of you who mention reading my blog!

It means so much to me.

 Im so glad that you enjoy reading about the kids!

They ARE pretty great!

I hope your day has been wonderful!

With Love, Miss Melea

Welcome to Preschool, Zakary, Emma, and Nevaeh!

I know it has been a first day for LOTS of kids.

Today was no different for a few preschoolers!

I want to welcome Mr. Zakary:

(Aren't those eyes to die for?!)

Miss Emma:

(She has beautiful eyes too!)

And Miss Nevaeh:

(Isn't she precious?)

I think maybe the hustle and bustle of preschool can be overwhelming,

but they have done GREAT!

This is how our morning went...

After a good breakfast of cinnamon rolls, a banana, and milk,

we watched a video about going back to school.

It is the Leap Frog series "Let's Go To School".

Lily is showing us!

We then did our circle time and talked about all the things we would learn about

in the next year. The kids listened very well!

I was so proud of them!

We then talked about some rules we have at school.

There were so many to remember!

We then read a book called "Manners at School"

It talks about all the ways you can show good manners, like,

being a good listener and waiting in line patiently.

Kasen is showing us the book:

Guess who my first special helper of the year is?

GRADY!

Yay Grady!

Nice shirt, Grady!

We then took time to introduce each other.

We told our name, our age, and what our favorite thing to play.

We then decided to make a craft.

A picture perfect puppet!

We made these out of the thin paper plates.

We talked about what color our eyes should be and our hair.

The kids drew their own faces too!

Here they are showing off their picture perfect puppets!

 

We then had some outside time and then LUNCH!

We had chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, peaches, and green beans!

At lunch I overheard Lane say the following:

"Guys, you don't celebrate God one time,

you celebrate Him a bunch!"

OMG.

The word CELEBRATE.

Very profound ,Lane.

Melted my heart.

Love. Him.

Guess what Gavin is eating?!

Big boy food!

He decided that baby food stuff was for, well......BABIES!

He had what everyone else had today!

Including a WHOLE CINNAMON ROLL!

Poor thing. I dont think he gets enough to eat as it is!

Then it was nap time.

Everyone's FAVORITE time, NOT!lol.

I told Dane to smile and this is what he gave me:

Miss Cadyn getting ready to rest.

Pretty Miss Vivi:

Look who woke up in a GREAT mood!

Miss Adria!

It was my babies first day of school, also!

Kaitlin and Kodee had their first day of their

JUNIOR YEAR!

Cannot. believe. that.

And Mr. Rhett Dawson started the 5th grade.

They all 3 were nervous.

Kaitlin and Kodee with their AP classes and their athletic period changing to first hour,

while Rhett was sure he has the meanest teacher in 5th grade and is positive he wants to be home schooled!

lol.

If only we had these problems, right?

Life is tough.

I hope all  your kiddos had WONDERFUL first days of school!

I have been praying for the teachers and students!

With the risk of sounding so cliche.....

Summer went by waaaayyyyy to fast!

And we welcome Miss Kathy back!

With Love, Miss Melea

I. WILL. NOT. CRY.

It's their last day.

Headed off to "BIG" school.

How come they are so excited and I'm not?

This one is full of spunk.

She is EXTREMELY smart.

Like seriously, EXTREMELY smart.

Kindergarten will be a BREEZE.

I will miss her sweet hugs and her love of learning.

She is precious.

I love you, Trinity.

Miss Mattie is the school crush.

If you ask the little boys "Who is your girlfriend?",

they say "Mattie!"

Or so I've been told.

She is so sweet.

I am not sure that she has EVER been in time-out.

Yes- she is THAT sweet.

I love you , Mattie.

Miss Paige starts the 2nd grade!

I am so thankful that I get to see these two after school!

Paige is a sweetheart who loves to sing and watch movies.

I know that she will love 2nd grade and 2nd grade will LOVE her!

Mr Austin will be a first grader!

I just met Austin this summer.

He is a sweet, sweet little boy.

He loves to give hugs as well as play with the play guns!

He's all boy!

I love you Austin!

Tristin, Trinity's brother, hung out with us this summer.

Being a genius DEFINITELY runs in the family!

This little guy is super smart as well!

He is such a good boy.

Sweet and handsome too!

I will miss you Tristin!

Love you man!

We tried to make the last official day of summer a little extra special.

The weather was perfect for a PICNIC!

We did have tacos.

Not so sure tacos are a picnic kind of food...

But no one seemed to care.

We love to eat outside!

After lunch, everyone was laid down getting ready for a nap,

I heard a knock at the door!

Look at what Ms Mary brought me!

Aren't they beautiful??

Thank you so much Tristin and Trinity!

We love you so much and will miss you dearly!

You better come see us!

Well, I guess the next post I do will be of our first "school" day of the new year.

We will have several new children next week.

I have those nervous butterflies.

I just hope they like me.

:)

Love, Miss Melea