Veterans Day at Twin Lakes Elementary

The girls' school does a big celebration every year on Veteran's Day.  The kids make posters to fill the school, and have refreshments in the morning.  Then everyone goes outside to the flag, and the honor guard from the police department come and play Taps, raise the flag and have a bagpipe being played as well.  Then everyone went into the gym, and the kids wore shirts in red, white and blue.  K-1 wore red, 2-3rd grade wore white, and 4-5th grade wore blue.  They all sat in the gym in this way.  The rest of us sat all around the gym and EVERY SINGLE PERSON who served or is serving in the armed forces got up and announced their name, rank, what they did and for how long.  The kids then all sang a couple songs as well.  It was really a wonderful tribute and we've never seen anything like that.  Grandpa Steve was in Vietnam, so the girls' asked him to come.  Random people would come up to hm and shake his hand and say "thank you", or "thanks for your service".  It was really touching and a great thing to be a part of. 

Taylor, Grandpa Steve and Allie

Bagpipe

Girls were way over to the other side, so didn't get a good picture of them

Taylor's Teeth

Taylor lost "2" teeth one in July, one in December, and she was so excited.  Allie had lost two of hers and got money and of course, Taylor wanted money too...which would only happen if she lost teeth.  She wiggled and wiggled those teeth.  She came in from outside and told me she had a loose tooth.  It was wiggly, but wasn't coming out yet.  So, we started eating supper and she laughed at something, and I noticed a big hole.  She lost the tooth!  She didn't even realize it.  Bummer was she swallowed the tooth:(  She just started sobbing, poor thing.  She wanted that tooth so bad.  She asked if when she went to the bathroom if I would look for it.  Ummm...nope!  There are some things you just have to let go, and that is one.  I will NOT be digging through "stuff" to look for a tooth.  In December, she lost another one.  THIS one we got!  And, because the tooth fairy is so nice, she left money for both teeth...even one we didn't have!  (I have pictures of the 1st lost tooth, but they are on my phone and haven't figured out how to get the pics off of it.)

Taylor's "big" space of missing teeth!


 





Holding the tooth we saved



Missy & Kyle's Wedding - July 10, 2010

My cousin Missy and Kyle asked the girls to be flower girls in their wedding in July.  What an honor!  They girls were so excited, even though I'm not quite sure they really understood what it was they would be doing.  They were just excited to wear a "pretty dress" like Missy and look like princesses.  It was a wonderful day and the girls did really well.  They got to go have their hair done with all the other girls and get pampered a little.  They loved it!  Taylor got a little gun shy about 30 seconds before she had to walk down the aisle.  They came and got me and she was crying.  We got her all calmed down and away they went!  They were somewhat stoic walking down the aisle, but did really well.  Even threw the rose petals on the way OUT of the church!  Thank you Kyle and Missy for asking them to be a part of your sepcial day.  It's one they will never forget, me either:)

My ladies all dressed up!

The girls "smoochin" on the bride

Girlies "smoochin" on the groom!

Kindergarten Open House!!

Ms. Arntson Mrs. Kohl

Well, we had the girls open house tonight at school which was awesome! Lots to take in and kind of a "whirl wind", but went great. It was hard to take good pictures and be in two places at once. It was kind of a bummer having girls in seperate classes because Chad and I didn't get to hear what both classes were doing and see much in each class. When we got home and compared notes, both were pretty similar so that's good. We had from 6:30-7:00 to check out the rooms and do all the "little projects" they had set up, and then the teachers had us for an hour. The kids went with parent volunteers on the bus, the office, nurse's office, media center, music room, gym, cafeteria and playground. The girls "highlight" was their lockers. Who would have thought?? The year sounds awesome and I LOVE all the educational things they do and how technologically advanced the school is. They are starting this research based program called "Fast Start". It's a reading program parents do w/their kids 15-20 minutes a night and they are finding a definiate advance in the kids reading. It will be interesting to see how it goes. It's also a "green school" so there isn't much that goes home via paper - majority is email or through their website. The teachers have websites through the schools website and I can see everything they do daily. (Here is the school website, which I think is great!!)

http://tles.elkriver.k12.mn.us/twinLakes.cfm

The field trips so far are Deer Lake Apple Orchard, ER Fire Dept, Como Zoo in the spring, watch a play (last year was in St. Cloud) and the Midwest Ranch. I'm hoping to go on all, and "HOPE" Chad will make the majority OR if anyone else would like to come that would be great:)

Fun with Sports

We signed the girls up for an "All About Sports" course. Not really what we had in mind. Unfortunately, it was for ages 3-5. Well, there's a big difference between those ages. The girls were kind of bored and the instructors spent a lot of time chasing after the younger ones. The class was only 45 minutes and they did 3 water breaks! The kids weren't running that hard so it wasted a lot of time. Oh well. They liked it. There wasn't anything else for them to sign up for so we did it. Nice to just be outside and play something!

Sleepover!

A little swimming silliness! Owen the "Super Hero"

Making pizza's!!! Two little princesses

Movie and popcorn time!!

I'm starting this from WAY back in June...been a little behind so I will try and catch up. NEED to get better at this!

Owen and Ashley came to spend the night, and as always we had a great time! The kids swam even though it wasn't super warm. They are troopers! Ashley was not up for the big pool so she sat on the ladder and was fine with it. We made pizza's for supper and they did a little "dress up". Unfortunately for poor Owen, we don't have much for boys. They found a black little jacket for him so he put that on and was a "Super Hero". Great imaginations! The kids, including big kid Chad, played some Wii and then they had popcorn and watched a movie for some downtime. Then off to bed!

Motorcycle!!!

Uncle Phil has a motorcycle, which the girls love to sit on and gawk at when we go over there. Last weekend it was a beautiful day and we were over there having Phil look at our computer. Well, he offered to take the girlies for a ride and they jumped at it! Taylor went first and put Aunt Jodi's helmut on, which fit! Ha! She got on and Phil started it up, and it was kinda loud. Here eyes got huge! But she sat there and away they went. Allie was next and got right on and they took off. Both the girls absolutely LOVED it and wanted to go more!!! Aunt Jodi took pictures so I'll post them on here from her. Too fun!!