Summer 2013

Well, another school year came and went and I didn't have the time to post any updates on the girls. Since this is a journal of my children's lives, I'm not doing to good;). Third grade was a long year for Bella! Bella had her eyes tested in the fall at school and at the time, she kept talking about how cool glasses were and how pretty they looked on the other girls, so when she flunked her eye exam, I thought she did it purposely. The teacher kept complaining that she was fidgety and restless and was lacking focus. I couldn't figure it out, because we weren't seeing it at home. We were all perplexed. One of my friends told me she saw a 20/20 or some sort of show where all these inner-city kids were struggling with the same things and were all tested for glasses and all needed them. After they had glasses, they had no more problems. So...... finally in April I listened to that nagging feeling and had her tested and she REALLY needed them. So, my poor kiddo couldn't see the board and her report card at the end of the year was "her glasses made all the difference in the world". Lesson learned! Keeping up with homework with her was rough. The older they get and the more they have to do is hard on us parents. With two kids this year, I felt like as soon at they came home they were working away and fighting me the whole time. Bella made a new friend at church, Sophia and she's a cutie, but at school, she was still friends with the same kiddos. She turned 8 in September and I let her invite the whole class for a sleep over. Wow!! That was exhausting - didn't expect for the whole class to actually show up! The girls both did gymnastics this school year and loved it. Aaron built them a bar and balance beam, so every morning when I had an extra couple of kindergarteners and a pre-schooler, I coached gymnastics. The girls both had good friends in their classes, so they were all excited to go together every week. On Wednesdays they were at church for AWANA. Working on verses was rough too. It seemed like there weren't enough hours in the week! I was afraid Natalie would really struggle with kindergarten being all day, but I was the one who found it difficult. I hated being away from my baby for that long of a day. She only got in trouble a couple of times for playing too rough. She's so impulsive and can't control where her energy goes sometimes, so I was worried about her behavior. She has really come a long way since this time last year. I know we will always struggle with her impulsive side, but I hope as she matures, she will out-grow it more and more. We went backwards with thumb sucking. She had conquered that last year, but during the year, she started again, and we have been dipping her thumb in a no-thumb suck solution every night still. Kindergarten is such a huge year for changes in kiddos. Again, we watched as another one of our littles learned how to read and write, add and subtract. Such huge steps. Wasn't it yesterday we were working on potty trainning? Natalie already had friends before she was in school and they ended up being in her class, so she felt confident and happy day one. She loved recess and lunch:) I kept getting luch boxes back home that had almost no food gone. My girls aren't very good eaters, but with only 15 or 20 minutes for lunch, they weren't eating at all! Hopefully that doesn't continue to be a problem. We lucked out with wonderful teachers for the girls again. I got to volunteer at their parties and field trip since I did day care for my friend. I appreciated the flexability to be able to still be a part of my kids lives at school. I'm still working on stained glass. I had to take a break the last couple of months after having stomach surgery and recovered nicely. Aaron was gone after the first couple of weeks, so taking care of the girls while recovering was pretty rough. I had lots of help from friends and had lots of company so I didn't get too lonely. The girls got to go on lots of play dates and sleep overs. Every day they had someone to play with or were swimming at the neighbor's house. We have done the beach a few times this summer in Grand Haven and the parks a bit too. Bella had a wonderful time at Pine Ridge Bible Camp last week and Natalie is going to camp at Gymnastics this week. We still have another month left of summer but I'm already trying to figure out what they will need for fourth and first grade.