School Pictures...

Both girls had their school pictures made. I wanted pictures that would match, so I chose the same pose and background for each of them. Unfortunately, since they were taken at different schools and more than likely different photographers, their backgrounds ended up not being quite the same color. This is Rachel's second grade picture and Rebekah's pre-K picture. Yeah, I know...Rachel has on her "fake" smile! :) Gotta love school photos to document all those stages we go through!

Book Character Day

Both of the girls had Book Character Day at school. This is a way the school can allow the kids to "dress up" for Halloween, without calling it Halloween or costumes. Both of the girls decided they wanted to be the same character - Skippy Jon Jones! The girls love these books because they are funny, but more because that is their Daddy's name - Jon (Paul) Jones - and it is spelled like he spells his name! I made their costumes and here is how it turned out!







Rachel's school had a contest for the best costume, judged by the mayor of Cabot. Rachel won first place over all the second graders!!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Rebekah's Pre-K class was supposed to go to the pumpkin patch on 10/30. Because of all the rain we had, it had to be postponed to this past Wednesday. I was able to go and be a part of all the fun! Here are some photos from the day.

This is Rebekah's class and her teacher, Mrs. Spaulding on the far right and the teacher's assistant, Mrs. Hoover, on the far left.


When we first got there, the kids played on all the play equipment for a little while. Rebekah liked this slide because it was fast!


This is Rebekah with her friend Madison. Those are turkeys behind them!


Rebekah loved the goats. She wanted to pet them forever. This white one was so calm and loved to be petted.


Here is one of the smallest pigs I have ever seen.


After seeing the animals, we had a picnic lunch and then went on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. They still had lots of pumpkins to pick. Each kid got to pick one pumpkin - but it had to be small enough for them to carry. The adults were on strict orders that we couldn't help them carry their pumpkins! Not to worry with Rebekah, she picked one of the smallest pumpkins out there!



It was a beautiful day and a fun trip!

Rebekah's First Day of Pre-K

Today was Rebekah's first day of Pre-K. She was so excited to leave this morning. She was disappointed when she learned that Rachel would be dropped off first. She wanted to go first! Included in our tuition is both breakfast and lunch. She could not wait to eat breakfast at school. She did however, want to take her lunch from home. We woke up this morning to rain, so we didn't get to take her pictures outside, like we did for Rachel's.

And did you notice her great new haircut? She has been wanting her hair short for a while now. I think her hair looks better shorter since it is so thin and fine. I think it looks like it has a lot more life to it now. She loves it. She likes to tell everyone that she got her hair cut short. She says, "I got my hair cut short like a girl, not short like a boy!" Too cute...


Is it time to leave yet?


She picked out her new backpack and lunch box. She wanted Hello Kitty for both. She has never really been into Hello Kitty before, so this surprised me a little. She does however love cats, so maybe that is why she was drawn to it.


Is it time to go NOW???? :)


This is Rebekah's cubbie in her classroom. She has a hook to hang her backpack on and a shelf spot for her lunch box. She is standing directly in front of hers and where is her name is.


Here is Rebekah with her teacher, Mrs. Spaulding. For a while before school started, we were working with her to help her remember her new teacher's name. She couldn't say "Spaulding" and instead would say, "Mrs. Bottoms" - Cute again!


Rebekah is with Mrs. Hoover, her teacher's helper in the classroom.


Our very first circle time. Mrs. Spaulding was explaining how they had to be really quiet and sneaky in the hallway when they went to breakfast.


The girl in pink next to Rebekah is Jenna. She is a friend that Rachel and Rebekah met in their gymnastics class. We were excited to know there was a familiar face in her classroom. Rebekah lit up when Jenna got to class this morning. I also found out this morning that two other kids from our old school (Sherwood FBC MDO) are also in Rebekah's class!


Getting in line to go eat breakfast. We had been there for just a little while, probably too long. Rebekah was getting sadder by the minute. She wanted us to go eat breakfast with her and had a really sad, lonely look on her face. We finally said our good-byes and she went on to breakfast. Mrs. Spaulding said she had a great day and that she was very quiet. No surprise there, she is the quiet one!

Rachel's First Day of 2nd Grade

Today was Rachel's first day of second grade. I can't believe I'm the mom of a second grader! She was really excited this morning and ready to start this new year.


This past Monday night was the open house at Rachel's school. We were able to go and meet her new teacher. Her name is Mrs. Mitchell. She seems like a wonderful teacher. This is her first year to teach so she should be full of wonderful ideas and great enthusiasm. She was also recently married - a lot of firsts this year. Rachel was also excited to see that a few of her friends from last year are in her class this year. Her desk is among five other desks of all boys - something she wasn't excited about. We told her that I'm sure she will be moving around throughout the year and that this wasn't permanent.


Of course we picked out a new backpack and lunchbox. This year she chose a Littlest Pet Shop backpack and a Tinkerbell lunchbox.


She made this apple with a caterpillar on it for her teacher. It was made out of these foam thingies. Yeah, her creation didn't survive the car ride to school.


Here is Rachel standing outside her classroom. She is standing directly under the bus that has her name on it. She was excited to see that her new classroom was right across the hall from Mr. Patterson's room - the GT teacher. She is supposed to be tested after this first week and we'll know soon if she will be in the GT program this year.


Funny thing this morning. When we walked her into the classroom almost all of the students were already there and were sitting quietly, working at their desks. It was kind of odd seeing all of them being SO quiet! Rachel said her teacher kept bragging on them all day about how well they were behaving! Guess they were all a bit nervous! We can't wait to see all that she is going to be learning this year! Here is a picture of Rachel at her desk. She was excited about having her own desk this year. The past two years she has sat at a table with three other kids.


A shot of her first assignment! This is what everyone was so quietly working on!

Rachel's Thanksgiving Play

Rachel's first grade class had a short Thanksgiving play before their classroom Thanksgiving feast. It was precious. Rachel was a "Pilgrim Woman" and she is the second to the last girl there on the far right of the video. Here she is in her costume.

And here are the four Pilgrim Women!

And here is the entire class!

Hope you enjoy the video!

Rebekah's Second First Day of School

After much prayer and thought, we decided to move Rebekah to a school here in Cabot. We LOVE her old school. This was the school that Rachel went all the way through and I hoped Bekah could as well. This was the only sad part about our move.

We are about 25 minutes (one way) from her old school. And, with the high price of gasoline, we just thought it would be best to find a school closer to our home. I was also having trouble finding time to work while she was gone. I only had five hours and one of those hours were spent driving!

I called around and one of the best places in town had an opening. We went and toured the facility and felt like it was a great place for her. She started this past Wednesday and will go on Mondays and Wednesdays. And this school is two hours longer than her old one - I should be able to get a lot of my work done now! Here are a few more photos of her first day. She was excited to have a backpack like Sissy (what she calls Rachel) to take to her new school.


We are both going to miss her old school. I loved her teachers, one of which was named Mrs. Cynthia (which is my sister's name) and it was only fitting that her new teacher's name is Mrs. Jennifer! Her first day she found this pink pony and played with it all day. She has talked about it every day since. Here is Ms. Jennifer and Rebekah - doesn't she look happy!?!?

On another note...Rebekah has been off her daily antibiotics for one week. And last night she woke us up throwing up. This is the second time in her life she has ever thrown up. She only did it three times and the last time she made it to the potty! We'll just have to wait and see if this is a taste of what is to come now that she is not taking the antibiotics daily anymore!!

Rachel's First Day of School

Rachel's first day of first grade at her new school!

She was so excited about going to first grade.
She picked out her outfit for the first day...
ALL High School Musical.
She also has a HSM backpack and lunch box.

We were really impressed with the school
when we went to the Open House on Sunday.
The school is really colorful and clean.
Her room was decorated in a farm theme.
There was a barn with a ladder in the
corner, a nice place to read a book.

We also love her teacher, Ms. Buck.
She seems so nice and fun.

For Open House, Rachel made her a card.
She came to me before we left and said she
wanted to put a gift inside for her teacher.
She said she wanted to give her money.
I told her, "Well, you have your tooth fairy
money if you want to share it with her."
So, she put $1 inside.
Guess we're already bribing the teacher! :-)

Rachel was a little hesitant to go sit at her desk.
But when she saw the girl next to her had on a
HSM shirt too, she was more excited to sit down.
(Doesn't the boy behind her look like he's checking her out?)

Hopefully she has a great day!!

Last Day of Kindergarten!

Rachel is officially a First Grader! We finished our Kindergarten year last Thursday. She was so excited and sad at the same time. She is glad to be out of school, but sad to not see her friends everyday. On Monday, they had field day. Her favorite was the three-legged race and getting to eat a snow cone. The rest of the week, they didn't do a whole lot. On Thursday, there were only ten kids in her class. Normally they have nineteen.

Rachel could not wait until the last day because that was when she was going to give Ms. Knutson her gift. I took Rachel to The Painted Pig in Little Rock to paint something for Ms. Knutson. We looked for about ten minutes before she found exactly what she was looking for. She saw this container and the lid had a bone on it. Ms. Knutson had told the class all about the new puppy she got about a month or so ago. Rachel was determined to paint this for her teacher's doggie treats. So, she and I painted it. She lasted for about the first coat and I had to paint the two other coats. Here is a photo of Rachel and Ms. Knutson with her present.

Ms. Knutson LOVED the present. She said she had been wanting one for a long time. She had a friend who had one and has wanted one ever since she saw hers. So, hopefully she will get a lot of use out of this one and think of Rachel every time she sees it.

Rachel was accepted to participate in Summer Quest. It lasts for two weeks and began today. It is a program for gifted students. She will go every weekday for these two weeks, starting at 8:30am and ending at 11:30am. She has two classes. The first hour is a class on Egypt, studying all things Egypt. The second class is "Give My Regards to Broadway." She will learn what it takes to put on a theatrical production. And the production of choice this time? High School Musical. Rachel was disappointed. She wanted Annie or Peter Pan. She has never seen High School Musical. I think it is a bit old for her. But we went and rented it so she could see it would still be fun. She watched it and said she liked all the singing and dancing.

And last, I leave you with this photo. One of these things is NOT like the others...

Rebekah wanted to go with me to take Rachel to school on her last day. We went inside to see her open her present. Rebekah didn't want to leave. So, Rebekah got be a kindergartner for about 30 minutes. After that, she was ready to leave!