January Schoolwork

Sarah continues to do very well in school and enjoy it!  Her second quarter grade card came home with all S's!  (S = Satisfactory, and is the best mark that she can receive on her report card this year.)  She has also mastered 3/5 sight word lists!  We are very happy that she is doing so well.  

She has also started to enjoy looking at and reading books even more now that she can read some of the words herself.  It is a challenge to her, but she likes it... Telling us, "Don't tell me the word!  I want to do it." (talking about sounding out words in the stories.)

Sarah enjoys coloring, writing words, and creating.  She likes to get paper and a pencil and write words and sentences to go along with a picture that she drew or colored.  Many times throughout the day she will ask Eric and I... "How do you spell... or What does this spell....?"  

Me: Have you done any art projects at school?  What are they?
Sarah: "Ya. Penguins, snowmen, the gingerbread house, and caterpillars.  We used cutting and gluing.  And, we used paper.  We used crayons to color it."

She has been learning to count by 10's and continues practicing writing all of the numbers in order.  

Me: Do you get to play games at school?  Like what?
Sarah: "We get to play Around the World and we get to play I Have Who Has, and we get to play BINGO, and the Frog game.  It has letters in it and there is a button on his back and when you push the button a letter comes out of his mouth.  You have to get it and say the letter."

Me: What is your favorite work to do at school?
Sarah: "Helping my teacher do some papers.  Well she gives them out to everybody and then we have to do them.  We work on them together."

In math, they have been working on simple addition, money, and counting.

Below are two pictures that she drew during an indoor recess this month.  One picture for Phoebe and the other for Eric and I.

She was excited to tell me she had won a sucker from her teacher one day when I picked her up from school... She told me that her teacher asked them all to draw a picture of a Dalmatian and the best one would win a prize.  Three people were actually awarded the sucker and Sarah was one of them!

Glass Ornaments - Handmade By Dad

My Dad made these super cool postage stamp ornaments for each one of us for Christmas.  He used brand-new postage stamps placed back to back for these, but he also made some for other family members with old postage stamps with Kansas and Colorado pictures on them.  Two pieces of clear glass must be cut and placed on each side of the stamp.  To seal the edges of the glass he uses stained glass techniques, tools, and foil soldering methods.  

Sarah's ornament ~Jessie, Woody and Bullseye, from Disney's Toy Story movies

My ornament ~ Nemo and the little sea turtle Squirt, from Disney's Finding Nemo movie

Phoebe's ornament ~ Sulley, Boo, and Mike Wazowski, from Disney's Monster's Inc. movie

Eric's ornament ~ Mr. Fredricksen and Doug, from Disney's UP movie

This ornament is a surprise gift for someone special ~ Buzz Lightyear and the Aliens, from Disney's Toy Story movies

Silas's ornament ~ Lightning McQueen and Mater, from Disney's Cars movie

(Little confession... I actually knew he was making these for us ahead of time because I personally requested them when I came across these Disney movie postage stamps.) Thanks Dad!  They turned out great!

NuWAY - New To Me

A first for me.... last Saturday Dad and Mom took us to NuWay.  NuWay is an old burger joint here in Wichita.  They don't have regular hamburgers.  Their burgers are crumbly.... and delicious!  Eric ordered the NuWay burger and I actually ordered a pork sandwich and onion rings, which were also delicious.  The other yummy thing that NuWay makes is their own Root Beer.... YUMM-O!  Mom ordered a Root Beer float to share with all of us.  I could have eaten it all by myself.  I wanted to have a jug of their Root Beer to go, but felt a little slothish, so decided to not even say that out loud till now.

Here we all are seated in our booth.... Eric and Silas sat at the table right next to the booth, because seven of us were just too many to squeeze into the biggest booth that they had there.

MMMmmm, NuWay Root Beer float.  Come to mama.

Sarah also enjoyed the Root Beer float.  She had never had a float before, but as you can see she enjoyed it just as much, or even more, than I did.  When she got it in front of her she did not want to stop eating it or pass it on for anyone else to enjoy.

Thanks Dad and Mom for introducing us to this Wichita oldie.  I can't wait to go back.

The 25th and 26th of December

We spent Christmas afternoon at Eric's Grandma Dorothy's house in Olpe.  She fixed a GREAT Turkey and Ham meal with all of the yummy side items... mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade stuffing, cranberry salad, rolls, and pies for dessert!  It was delicious.  She is a GREAT cook!  We also got to see some of Eric's Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.  It was nice to see them all and for them to get to spend some time getting to know our kids.

That evening we headed to my parents house.  There we had Christmas with Mom and Dad, Lindsee and EP, Matt, Ernie and Judy.  Then we had homemade pizzas for dinner.  Yumm-o!

We all got some great gifts... Phoebe held up, and posed for a picture, with each clothes item that she opened.  Sarah really liked this Merida and Angus set (characters from the movie Brave) that Uncle Matt got for her.  Dad liked his new fishing lamp that we got him.  Matt was glad we gave him some coffee because he said he had just run out that morning.

Lindsee was very excited to get her new "Vera" purse from us.  That is her "I cannot believe you got it for me" face in the picture below as she realized what she was opening....  EP got a Christmas Duck Dynasty shirt from Mom and Dad.  I have never watched this show, (we do not have cable) but EP and Lindsee tell me it is funny.

Eric was happy to get this new K-State polo shirt.  He has wanted one of these for a very long time.  One of my favorite gifts from my parents is a ladder quilt rack that my Dad made for me.  I do not have a picture of it yet, but as soon as I have it put together in my house I will post a picture for all to see.  It is just what I had been wanting!  Dad also made a glass ornament for each one of us.  He used postage stamps and cut clear glass to fit over the stamps and then using stained glass techniques, he put metal around the edges.  These turned out awesome and I will post pictures of them soon too. 

Lindsee was the MOST EXCITED about her engagement ring... She kept reminding us all of it whenever she thought of it... which was about every ten minutes.  She is excited, so am I, but maybe I am not quite at her excitement level.

We played some cards that night.  Hand and Foot Canasta and Pitch.

The next day Sarah picked out and made everyone wear a headband out of left over fabric strips.  Ernie refused, but the rest of us went along with it for awhile.  Silas looked like a happy little karate guy. The rest of us just looked like happy little dorks.

Here's Silas with Aunt Lindsee practicing his karate kicks.  Lindsee says he is already at a black belt level.  Look out Ralph Macchio.

The guys played some darts in the shop (with real sharp darts - they weren't messing around).  The Erics against Dad and Ernie.  I heard Dad and Ernie may have won.

Judy got out her teacher voice and told the girls about a service dog.  She gave them a storybook all about this particular dog.

Pictured left to right: top row - Matt, Ernie and Judy, Mom and Dad, bottom row - Eric, Silas, me, Phoebe, EP and Lindsee, Sarah

Thanks for a great Christmas Grandma Dorothy, Dad and Mom, Lindsee and EP, Matt, and Ernie and Judy.  We had a good time.