Today in Preschool...

Preschool was in the Auto Shop today while we waited for the oil change :) Putting words together... on laminated sheets with chunk words (at/og/en/etc) and velco. Emily can velcro different beginning letters and create words.

It doesn't get much better than a day at the zoo with Andrew!

Today in preschool Emily loved our activity. To review letters, I wrote letters on stick-it-notes and then talked about them with Emily. Emily would find things around the house that begins with that sound and stick it on.

The girls had picture day at school today. Since we don't do school pictures, we did a quick photo-shoot before the girls left so we could capture them in their pretty dresses.

Look at Emily's beautiful handwriting!!

Fun Run at Henderson! Look how cute Carolyn looks while she runs!! Oh my goodness :)

 ...and still looking cute. The "Fun Run" is the only fund raiser Henderson does (thankfully!) where kids get to run to raise money. The girls love it. I was lucky because I got to be one of the "water girls" and pass out water to kids that needed it during the run.

 Sadly, Emery's (one of Emily's best friends) mom was sick today. The good part of that was that we got to have her play with us! She came to cheer on the runners and the girls helped me make Lasagnas :)

 Angela was awesome running!! She ran so hard the first few laps (it was hot and slowed down after a bit :) Her class won for the most laps in 1st grade and they get a PJ party in a few weeks.

 This cute girl ran hard in the heat!

Angela working on her words for reading. Just write the words on felt and she'd add letters to make words.

Angela started another gymnastics class today!

This very cute girl started a Co-Op Preschool with her friends today ("JoySchool" - there are a group of 6 kids that meet once a week for a couple of hours - all us mom switch off teaching). She was pretty hesitant about leaving me until I told her she would get Angela's old backpack to hear to it. Then, preschool was cool with a backpack :) During Emy's preschool, I have it set up with Angela's teacher (Ms. Xiao) to help out. I don't feel like I know what I am doing in her class, but it's so fun getting to know her classmates and trying to help out with centers while Ms. Xiao does reading groups. Yay for Emy in preschool and yay that I get to see Angela in school with her friends learning.

For FHE, Angela did the scripture. She talked about the Jaredites with the map and then told the story beautifully. I love that she keeps the papers from when she learns/teaches scriptures to use to teach her “class.” (if you know Angela, you know she is constantly teaching her “class” in the basement, car...where ever she goes).

Angela started soccer today!!! Can't wait for the games to start!

 Carolyn is such an amazing example to me of being a missionary! She definitely has a gift of loving and sharing the true gospel of Jesus Christ. When the students and Librarian in Carolyn's class were talking about their favorite thing they did in the summer, Carolyn told her class and teacher that her favorite thing she did in the summer was getting baptized. That led to a discussion of Carolyn telling them what it means to be baptized. The Librarian and students had questions for her that she answered beautifully - what faith and amazing example of truly living those baptismal covenants - remembering the Savior and sharing His light with others.  Another time, her teacher asked the class how they are challenged in life. Carolyn raised her hand and told them about Family Home Evening!! She explained it was something we had each week in our family. And in that in Family Home Evening we teach each other. After we teach each other, we challenge each other to be better in a certain way that week. I loved that! Today Carolyn demonstrated another way we can be a missionary to all those around us. She brought home this paper home. They were asked what their favorite movie is.

....and I love that Carolyn thought of this sentence in her spelling test...about being weak from running a marathon. I just ran my 2nd half marathon a few weeks ago and maybe seemed a little weak from it. It made smile!

Angela's experience in school has been okay thus far. It's been a few weeks into school and she has come home on a few occasions expressing incidents in school where classmates were not being very nice.  I also worried because every day she would tell me that during Recess she would play by herself. On Friday Angela came up to me and said something like, "I know why kids are being mean in school. I haven't gotten a blessing from daddy yet." Andrew had talked to Angela a few days prior and about giving her a Father's Blessing on the upcoming Sunday.

What happened on Sunday and the blessings that came from it is no short of a miracle. On Sunday all three girls received amazing blessings. In Angela's blessing, she was blessed to have fun in school. This week has been night and day in the difference in Angela's school experience. On Monday one of the first things she said to me when we got home after school pick-up was, "Today was the funnest day at school." She went onto tell me the complete opposite experiences she had had previous. She and her friends played a game where they were kittens during Recess. On Tuesday, she reported that during Recess they played that they were fish.

I talked with Ms. Xioa, Angela's teacher, today (which is Friday) and continued to be filled with gratitude for the power of the Priesthood. Ms. Xioa reported the the first two weeks Angela was pretty quiet, but since Monday she has seemed so happy and friendly at school. She smiled as she talked about Angela's big laugh.

How amazing is the power of Priesthood blessings. That my Angela's experience in school could change so dramatically over night. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who heard our prayers and answers our prayers. He loves us. He watches over us. He knows our heartaches. He blesses us. One of those blessings is the power of the Priesthood here on earth. I know it is the power of God.

Today our good friend's, the Masielos, invited the whole family to Lauren's (Angela's friend) birthday party. It was fun to see the girls with friends and doing some cool gymnastic moves.

Today for learning time, Emily and I took a cereal box and created an "Emily." We then made chocolate chip and sprinkled cookies with paper. On the opposite side of the chocolate chips and sprinkles, I wrote letters. Then, Emily "ate" the cookies while talking about the letters. It was a fun way to review letter sounds.

I love this secret santa business. It makes us all serve everyone. Emily busily has been making cards for people while they are at school. Careful, she is, not to write her name on the card so they don't know it's her :) Look at that beautiful handwriting! :)

I love our new learning corner we made in our home! It will bring lots of hours of fun. Angela gets home from school and goes straight to the Learning Corner and begins to teach her class. I love being Angela's student. I get to see what she learns about in school and see her be the amazing teacher she is. I love this girl! Carolyn also teaches just about every day. She teaches Emily and gives her homework to do. I love it. I also love that I have a fun environment to do learning time with my Emy when the older girls are in school.

 (I love that the Learning Corner allows room for all the girls to teach at the same time. Here are two of three teaching after school today).

On Saturday, I took Carolyn to play practice and left the younger cuties with Andrew. Andrew took pictures of the girls on the swings at the park and sent it to me. They were cute. Since then, Emily likes me to take pictures and send them to Andrew. Seriously, can you get any cuter than this girl?!

JUSTSERVE

Our family used the JUSTSERVE website for the first time to find a family project. It didn't really turn out like we wanted. The lady coordinating it wasn't around and it looked pretty clean. We found a park and cleaned it. We mostly played. Hopefully the next one will bring us more to do. But it was a start.

After that, we went to Chris' house (for the second weekend in a row) and watched the BYU/Texas game. BYU crushed them - which was a huge surprise. Great game and great company.