Parent Teacher Conference

We had our first parent conference with James' kindergarten teacher, Señora Kennedy, on Monday night.

First, we stopped by the book fair. James had already been there with his special guest, Uncle Joe. We had a chance to invite a guest to a special donut breakfast, book fair preview, and then the morning class meeting. Uncle Joe reported back that it was a great morning! James picked out two books with Uncle Joe's help. Thank you :)

James pointed us to his classroom. I'm so proud of him that he knows his way around now! It's a big school.

We found his artwork outside of the classroom.

My little James IS SWEET!

Artwork inside the classroom.

 

So Señora Kennedy only said the most wonderful things about James. She told us that she thought James might be a shy kid when she first met him, but he has proved to be a great student- he participates, he speaks up, he holds his own with his group of boys at the table. I was so very glad to hear all this. He is really going to do well!

 

With her help we were also able to identify James' friends in his classroom for his upcoming birthday party!

 

The next day James wanted to go back to the book fair, with his own money, to buy a Pokemon book :)

 

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Bye George!

I caught this video after James started frantically waving and yelling goodbye to George. I'm so glad he has a great little friend like George!

 

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School Art & Worksheets

We're collecting quite a mass of worksheets, papers, and artwork. I don't want to be a hoarder. I am trying to work out a system of keeping the really, really great artwork (isn't it all though??) and recycling the rest. Before I recycle I snap a picture. This helps my guilt. I can decide later if I want to create a separate photo book of his artwork.

How could I throw away this "Baby in Space"???

 

Seriously... no idea what is going on with that one!

I've also sent our family an invitation (through email) to see the artkive of artwork. I have an app on my iPhone called Artkive where I can upload the pictures, name them, and categorize them according to grade. If we had multiple children you could sort it that way too. I'll see if I can keep that up. I guess it's no different than the system I have right now for my thousands and thousands of photos :)

Enjoy!

Click here for the Artkive.

 

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Swimming Update

I've taken James to his last three swimming lessons. They are still going well! Little James will be a fish sooner or later :)

 

He is definitely getting braver about jumping in!

This was the end of the lesson "treat". I was so surprised James was willing to do this!

Awesome!

 

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Taylors Falls

Last weekend- we knew it would be a chilly fall day but there isn't much outside time left in the year.  I LOVE FALL!  My Jimmy knew this and arranged for a fun fall day for our family.

We headed to Taylors Falls (about an hour drive) to enjoy the fall leaves, some outside fun, and of course, each other!

Up first- we went to Wild Mountain to ride on the alpine slides!  These pictures are from the second time down the slides.  The first time I was so terrified on the chair lift that I basically clutched the "oh shit" arm rail and had one arm around James as we made it up the hill.  Why weren't there safety rails?!  It's just a lawsuit ready to happen!

I watched my boys go up the hill and I prayed.  Yes, I prayed.  I am not a religious girl but I prayed just in case.  It was a long time before I saw them coming down the hill.  Too long!  I was getting worried but I have faith in my Jimmy that he would keep James safe on the chair lift and then the slides.

I finally spied them coming down the hill!  The sled goes so fast that I couldn't focus well on them but I managed a few shots.

The first time down the slide I had James on my lap.  I didn't know how to work the sled so I'm afraid we never gained much speed.  I think James had much more fun with his Dad!

After the alpine slide we headed over to the St. Croix river for a boat cruise.

James loves to crunch the leaves!  He insists on stomping on every leaf he sees.  EVERY LEAF.

Yay!  I'm in a picture!

James was excited to spy the boat!

Bundled up inside the boat.  We stayed inside the boat for most of the cruise.  We could see the fall leaves, birds, people hiking, and just about everything perfectly well from the windows.

After a while we did venture up to the top of the boat to get closer looks at the cliffs, the river, etc.

The fall colors didn't really translate in my pictures but it was beautiful!  We may have missed the peak but it was still beautiful.

Crazy rock climbers!

The ride home was awesome.  I felt like we were driving through a magical forest!  James fell asleep.  It was a busy day for him :)

Thank you Jimmy for a wonderful day!

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Family Fun

We've been making greater efforts to spend more quality family fun time together. Less technology and less TV. The Wii is a good compromise because it's interactive and fun competition.

Jim and James are boxing! I forget who won...

 

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Sunday FunDay

Jim was at a pool tournament all day so James and I spent a productive day together.

Swimming up first. He is continuing to do well and loving every minute of it. His instructor Marcell is awesome and energetic.

James helped me to run errands. He looks grumpy but he was delightful. Helpful and cooperative. He laughed when he saw this picture. He really liked that he was in the pickle aisle!

We made a great homemade dinner for Jim and had a great night together.

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Decisions

What will James be for Halloween this year?

I won't reveal it in pictures, but we are in the right aisle above!

I told Tia ChaCha that this could be a possibility though... there's time to change our minds!

There were lots of scary things in this Halloween store! Things popping out at us, left and right! James wasn't scared. He was very brave.

 

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