Parent-Teacher Conference

I had Carter's Parent-Teacher Conference with Ms. Denise today.  It was a lot like his conference last year with Ms. Anne.

Ms. Denise has no hesitation with Carter staring kindergarten next year.  She thinks he's very mature and is academically prepared.  We have no question about him going either.  He is excited about starting kindergarten and talks about it all the time.

Ms. Denise filled out an evaluation form based on an assessment she gave to each child in the class.  Carter was perfect in social and emotional development.  He got marked down for "speaks clearly" in language development (which we obviously are working on with his speech therapy) but otherwise was perfect in that category.  With number concept development, Carter struggled a little with arranging two-dimensional drawings into size order.  Ms. Denise said that almost all the kids actually struggled with this and she was surprised.  They are going to work on it more in class :)

Carter's physical and concept development are great too.  As for letters, when Ms. Denise showed him letters at random, he recognized them all except the little n.  I asked him before the conference how his assessment test went and he told me that he messed that one up.  I'm guessing he's got it down now :)

Carter had to draw himself and write his name on this page.  Ms. Denise said she was impressed by all the details (hands, fingers, even muscles???).  Also, he's doing well with this name - he's consistently using lower case letters now and is also writing smaller all the time :)

Scissor skills are great too - I don't cut too much neater than this :)

Ms. Denise had many, many great things to say about Carter.  The only thing she could think of that he could work on is not rushing through his work.  She said that sometimes when he's supposed to color something, he just scribbles across it quickly so he can be done.  But she also felt that was partly just being a boy (and he doesn't do that all the time).  I know he needs to slow down though too.  Even at baseball yesterday, he would put a ball on the tee, and at the same time, he was taking his backswing.  He needs to remember to take his time and set up so that he can hit the ball better.

Ms. Denise said that Carter is a super sweet boy and we totally agree!

Valentine's Day

A few highlights from our Valentine's Day this year ...

Brian and I left the boys gifts on the kitchen table for when they woke up (there is also a card from my mom there).

They each got 2 Imaginext toys and a couple of Valentine's things I got last year at Target after Valentine's Day for 90% off.

My mom gave the boys $10 Target gift cards so we took the boys to Target on Sunday to pick something out.

I also had cut out hearts with the alphabet on them.

And I hid the hearts all over the house.

When the boys got up, they got to find all the hearts and then put them in order.  They wanted to do this even before opening their presents!

The boys and I made Brian a Valentine's Day card.  I had the boys tell me all the reasons they love Brian and wrote down exactly what they said.  Some were simple like "he builds Legos with me" and others were funnier like "he gets money for us at work for us to go places, like Pump It Up and Monkey Joes' and to get ice cream and to parties."

We also sent all the grandparents these cute cards.

Goofballs

Suzy and I bought a Groupon to a local kids entertainment place called Goofballs.  It has an arcade, mini-bowling lanes, bumper cars, a laser game, an inflatable, and playground area.  It sounded like a good deal when we bought the Groupon :)

We took the boys there on Friday.  The place was okay but felt really grimy.  Plus the manager was very rude to us and his employees.  I doubt we'll be going back anytime soon.  And we couldn't really use all the Groupon items because there was a height restriction on the bumper cars and the kids were scared of the laser game.  But the kids all had fun so it was good.

Friday was Valentine's Day and all the boys were wearing red shirts.  As Suzy and I were checking in, the boys had all found the driving games and were too cute lined up in their matching shirts.

The kids played one game each of a 5-frame mini bowling game.

Carter and Chase were tall enough to ride the bumper cars (they were too young but the guy running the ride didn't care).  Thank goodness because they had a BLAST on them!!!

Huge smile ...

Carter was laughing the whole time ...

The driving games were a favorite of the boys ...

Carter and I played a game of air hockey.  He only got his fingers crushed once :)

When it was almost time to go, I finally convinced Carter to try the laser game.  The goal is to get to the end without being hit by any laser beams.  Carter did good but I was gagging a little as he dragged himself across the nasty floor.

The Lego Movie

Even though they had no idea what the movie was about, the boys were so excited that there was a Lego movie coming out.  I've been hanging on to a Fandango gift card for about a year now and had thought I'd take the boys to see Frozen one weekend since Brian's been working so much.  But they told me they didn't want to see it - they only really wanted to see The Lego Movie.

Brian didn't have much interest in seeing Frozen but he did want to see The Lego Movie.  He didn't have time last weekend but finally had a little free time today so we took the boys to the theater.  When we told them we were going, they were ridiculously excited.

We got to the theater really early but the boys did awesome waiting for the movie to start.  A huge bag of popcorn helped.  The movie was pretty long for the boys too (1 hour, 40 minutes) but they did great.

It's been over a year since we'd been to the theater so the kids were excited to be there!  The movie was pretty good too!

School Valentines

The boys had their Valentine's Day parties at school yesterday.  I usually do something crafty for the boys' Valentines but this year I decided to let them pick out cards at Target.  I thought they'd enjoy that more (plus it's less work for me!).  I assumed they would pick Angry Birds or superheroes but they both picked the Target dinosaurs.

The cards "pop" out of the envelopes (they don't come out all the way).

They came with stickers to put on the cards to write a message.

Then I attached a little packet of M&Ms to the back of the envelope.

For the teachers I put together these little "Bee Mine" cards with a tube of Burt's Bees lip balm.

The kids usually make a mailbox in school to collect their Valentines in.  But Ms. Denise asked Carter's class to make their own at home this year.  We looked online for some ideas and Carter decided he wanted a pirate ship.  Brian has been working all weekend the last few weeks so the boys and I are always looking for something to keep us busy.  That led to Carter and I spending an entire Sunday morning making this pirate ship.

The pirate steering wheel pulls open a door so the Valentines could be put in the ship.  Carter did all the design work and helped a lot with gluing and the stickers, of course.

Since I'm one of the room moms for Carter's class, I got to do is party.  We had the kids exchange their Valentines and then had them decorate cookies.

I made giant heart sugar cookies and had the other parents bring in frosting and sprinkles.  It was surprisingly less messy than I had anticipated.

Carter got lots of cool Valentines from his friends.

In addition to the regular Valentines he handed out, Hunt gave Carter this personal note (he was the only one to get one).  So sweet!

Evan handed out these robots.

I love this little card Ms. Denise attached the the activity set she gave each kid.  I may have to steal this idea for next year!

I think Carter also made something in class for Brian and me but in the rush to leave the party and school early to get to speech on time, we forgot his folder.

Rylan's teachers didn't invite the parents to his party but I believe they had ice cream and toppings for a special snack, decorated bags for collecting their Valentines, and then exchanged Valentines.

Here is Rylan's bag he decorated and all his Valentines.

Rylan made these cute Valentines for Brian and me.