Friday, October 23, 2009

Lost in Translation

This weekend we leave for Mexico. Morgan hasn't been very excited about the whole thing even though we explained we would be at the beach and swimming pools most of the of the time. She loves the beach and she loves to swim so I was a little confused to why she wasn't more enthusiastic.

This morning, as we are on the way to school with snow on the ground, bundled up in winter jackets and hats, she makes a comment. I can't remember the specifics of the comment but it made me realize something. At that moment, I realized that she thought it was going to be snowy and cold in Mexico. And what fun is the beach going to be in the cold?

When I explained to her that it was still summer weather in Mexico, her level of enthusiasm shot straight up. She's now thrilled to be going and can't wait to hang out on the beach.


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Parent Teacher Conferences

We had our first Parent Teacher Conference for Morgan and it went much better then expected. The teacher does notice that she has issues sitting still and she is annoying her classmates during circle time by sitting too close, poking them and hugging them too tightly. But the good news is that, despite these issues, she's learning and thriving. She is proficient or advance in all areas, excelling in the reading and writing department.

Unfortunately, for her report card, she did receive partially proficient in her writing. Nowadays, report cards are based on an assessment (test) given on a specific day, not on their overall ability that the teacher observes through out the weeks. So... if you have a stubborn little girl like we do, who decides on this particular day that she doesn't want to complete the assessment, you wind up with a partially proficient score. When she was writing her story, she drew herself and a lion but didn't not add details to show that she was at the zoo despite her teacher's coaxing. Below the picture she wrote "I WEN TO THE ZOO AD SW A LN" (I went to the zoo and saw a lion). Her writing is considered advanced but because she did not include details of the "where" in her picture (even though it was in her writing), she was marked down. The teacher told us that she usually completes the who/where/what requirement but since this was the assessment, there was nothing else she could do about the the report card score.

Welcome to the Public School System!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Silence - Wordless Wednesday

Since things have been so chaotic in our household the last few weeks, I thought we could all use a few rare moments of silence.


Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Blue

Morgan is always picking out things that are blue because "it's my dad's favorite color". She goes to the doctor and gets to pick out a sticker, she picks the one that is blue. She picks a blue swim noodle at swim class and proudly announces to the teacher her dad's favoritism. Blue M&Ms are put to the side to save for dad.

Some day she's going to be crushed when she finds out his favorite color is really green.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Mills Lake

Now that's Morgan is in school, I got to do something with my parents that I haven't done in five years - take an adults only outing. We went up to Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked to Mills Lake. I read the trail wrong and thought it was only 2.5 miles long. Turns out it's really 2.5 miles one way, plus they don't start counting the miles until you get to Alberta Falls. The whole trail ended up being 6 miles long. Whoops! But my folks were troopers and attacked the mountain without any problems. The view of Longs Peak at the top was definitely worth it.









Now they are ready to do Longs Peak. Well, maybe not quite.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Houseguests

I haven't had a chance to post much this week because I've been enjoying my parents visit. Pictures to come soon. Until then, enjoy this picture Mark took on our doorstep.


That's a spider eating a praying mantis. I asked Mark what happened to the spider and he said that it he just let it be. Great. Now there's a killer spider somewhere in our front yard just waiting to attack. And can I just add that's one messed up looking spider!

Shudder!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Spirit Week

This week has been Spirit Week at Morgan's school. Monday was Sport's Team Day and Morgan was sporting an orange Bronco shirt. Tuesday was PJ Day and Mom and Dad were only too happy to be able to send her off to school in her PJs. No changing involved!

Yesterday was Cowpoke day and Morgan wore a cute plaid dress with her hair in two braids. I wanted to get some pictures of her in her outfit, but she had some demands. First, I had to take a picture of her holding Tonka's paw print looking all pitiful.


And then, she wouldn't stay still, but had to take twirling pictures.


Anyway, you get the gist of how she looked.

After school, they had their first school dance - a country hoedown. All week Morgan was telling us she didn't want to go so we were going to skip it. When I went to pick her up from school, the dance was already in full-force and she didn't want to leave. Morgan hung out mostly with the older girls she knows, but also stayed close to one little girl in her class named Nicole. We stayed all the way until it ended. I was exhausted just watching all the kids "dance" which was more like run around wild. She was all wound up, but I was ready for bed!