1st Semester {Pre-K}

My sweet Nora started school this year! She is in Pre-K everyday in the mornings. Her sweet personality quickly stole everyone's hearts (she is sassy too, but she reserves that side for her time at home ;)

She adores school, learning, making friends and her teachers!

During the fall her class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. She even got the courage to ride a horse!

Her class also put on a few performances...here she is singing a Christmas carol before her Christmas party.

Nora has been recognized for her good behavior. Early in the fall she received her first Broncho Brand for being ready, responsible and respectful.

Nora LOVES to craft and create! So here is peek at some of her artistic work.

our little turkey!

Her class was doing a lesson on the 5 senses...I love her response and her drawings for these smells:

this one cracks me up!

one of her very first fashion drawings ;)

Laundry Room/Mudroom Renovation

Our house has a combination laundry room/mudroom. This is the room where we enter off the garage, so it's definitely the workhorse room of the house. After living here for 6 months I knew this room was not being utilized to its full potential. It serves a lot of purposes and I was simply sick of seeing the mess. So, it was time for operation functionality!

When we first moved in we thought it would be fun to have a locker system and each person gets a locker for their shoes and coats. While I still love the idea it just didn't work in this room. Below is a before picture (I forgot to take a true "before" picture, so this is actually way cleaner than it normally was since I had already picked up the shoes).

 The locker was really cutting the room off and the bright blue walls with the pink tile hurt my eyes.

As with every room in this house...there were a few holes to fill.

Our main goals with this room were:
1) clean and paint
2) add shoe and coat storage
3) Find organizational tools for holding the cleaning, ironing and drying supplies.
4) Add a family command center

This was a room we didn't want to spend much on, but it needed to be very functional and I think the finished product is perfect for us and we did everything for under $50!

Kyle built an awesome bench with cubbies for shoe storage (most of the wood he had from other projects)! He also created a row of hooks for bag and coat storage. I love how this looks, but the best part is the functionality!

We painted the walls the same gray as the kitchen and living room (with leftover paint). I also painted the trim, cabinets and doors white (they were pretty dingy and off-white before).

To make it more functional we took the shelves out of one of the closets to store the taller brooms and ironing board. We hung a drying rack, chore chart and mail/homework catcher. The only other thing I want to add is a cork board to hang up school announcements.

I love how clean and bright it feels. And now it functions so much better for our family. This room and the clutter always annoyed me, but I'm glad we waited a while to tackle this project because we were able to pinpoint exactly what we needed to make this room function efficiently.

Sawyer's Seven!

Sawyer is seven and due to the weather he enjoyed a week long birthday celebration.

On his birthday he woke up to balloons, banners, gifts and a snow day!

In all actuality the ice storm never fully developed, so to beat cabin fever we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch with friends. A little birthday ice cream for lunch.

Then he got to do his favorite thing! Play with Legos during rest time! He had a few new sets that he finished in one afternoon!

Mom: What would you like for your birthday dinner?
Sawyer: ICE CREAM
#isaidyes #yolo

His fun day with friends was scheduled for Saturday, but due to the ice storm it had to be rescheduled until the next Saturday. He was happy to oblige.

He chose to take 2 friends from school to the trampoline park and then Chick-fil-a.

the whole gang

so excited for his party to begin

He finally got his cake of choice once we reached the restaurant...he chose this one because it had a toy on it ;)

And he gave his party guests invisible ink pins and a blank book to write secret notes in.

Legos, snow day, jumping, friends and ice cream...I would say it was a perfect way to celebrate our favorite 7 year old!

1st Semester {Kindergarten}

Sawyer has completed his 1st semester of kindergarten and he is loving it! Some highlights:

His favorite subjects are science and p.e.

In November he completed all his sight words for the year and has moved on to reading AR books. He is currently reading at a 1st/2nd grade level.

He received a Broncho Brand (ready, responsible and respectful) when he helped a classmate that didn't have a partner find a partner.

His spelling and writing is developing and we love to see the things he has written in class.

Below is a sampling of his artwork and some his (funny) writings ;)

I thought this was a pretty good representation of Arthur

I was impressed by his vocabulary and writing of camouflage

I love you Evelyn (too cute)

lettuce on your turkey...cook for 300 hours...

love the spelling of cornucopia 

Love that he is thankful for God and his siblings!

Love his little handprint and the fact he believes he will be a purple ninja when he is 50 ;)

precious

 Over the summer I...went to the water park and pool in Branson with my cousins.

 Translation: I can see pronghorn (antelope...I didn't know what this was) at the zoo.

A sweet drawing of Kolter and Evy

 I love his little mind! Yes, the sun is big, but who thinks of a snow shoe hare when you are thinking of small things (which by the way they are small ;)

This school year I would love to learn about...sins.
All about me...I like to play with legos and Star Wars.

Favorite food: PB&J

Favorite Toy: Legos

With the addition of Evy I wasn't able to volunteer in the classroom as much as I would have liked too, but I was able to help with the Christmas party and we had so much fun at the craft station!