Report Card

I took off work on Thursday so that I could go to Izabel's parent-teacher conference and try to get some errands run and the house back in order since I have been spending every afternoon in the hospital. It ended up being a very productive day and even the kids closets got cleaned out!

The conference was really cute. I was worried that Izabel's behavior had gone downhill because of all the stresses at home, but it is just the opposite. She is doing great and even though she still has some timeouts the number has drastically decreased. Her teacher, Ms. Michelle, made a little report card for each student along with pictures of Izzy in class. The report card had Izzy's hand prints on the front. They asked her for her address which she could tell them and her phone number which she could not.

Izzy was Princess for a day on her birthday!

For gross motor skills she has mastered running, hopping and the balance beam. She hasn't really gotten skipping yet but that is a tough one! For fine motor skills she is right handed :( and has mastered cutting, pasting, and writing straight and diagonal lines. Her speech was measured a few weeks ago and that is all age-appropriate.

For social development she got some of the time for cooperates with teachers and shares equipment with peers which of course we expected. She got most of the time for responds positively to correction (an improvement), follows simple directions and participates in group activities.

For academic development she is doing really well. She recognizes every color, shape and upper case letter on the list. She also identified quite a few lower case letters, numbers, and consonant sounds. She can identify and continue patterns with shapes, colors, and sizes and can understand every preposition except for below and beside. She can complete 2 scene sequences and some rhyming words and has good listening skills.

When asked who her favorite friends were she named off everyone in the class. On a fun note, every other kid in the class named Izabel when they were asked that question! Her favorite activites were playdough and playing with dolls. It makes her happy when she is the time keeper and line leader. When she grows up she wants to be a cow and we are going to make so much fun of her for this when she gets older! She likes to go on the farm and on hayrides with her family.

Her teachers said "Izabel is a very happy and friendly child. She is always happy to be at school and has many friends. Izabel enjoys doing individual work and being a helper in class. She has made significant progress with sharing and listening. Izabel is a joy to have in class!" Of course this is all great to hear and the school has been amazingly helpful and understanding with our present circumstances. We are very happy that Izabel is able to go to school here and we are so proud of her!!

Halloween Festivities!

Halloween this year was a crazy time since my mom was not around for the festivities. We tried our best to celebrate anyway because we didn't want the kids to miss out. We started on Friday of Halloween weekend with Izabel's pumpkin patch parade and party at school. My Dad and Aunts went to watch but Noah and I had to work. my Dad video taped it with the camcorder instead of the camera so if I can figure out how to get that up here I will. That night we took a trip to the aquarium for their Halloween event. Candace, Matt and Drew came with us and even though Noah and I were way to exhausted we ended up having a great time! They had lots of activities along with mascots, radio disney, and a puppet show. The kids had a blast and everyone commented on Captain Hook's cute costume!

On Saturday I took the kids to Trevor's house for a Halloween party. She did a great job planning the party and we had a blast hanging out with some of Izzy and Tanner's little friends. They had snacks, a craft, spooky bowling and lots of fun! That evening me and the kids hung out at home while Noah took my Dad to a hockey game. it was a great distraction for both of them.

Halloween was the first time either of my kids had every really trick-or-treated. We have always done the event at the church, but they didn't have it this year so we just went around the neighborhood. Izabel had been practicing saying "trick-or-treat" all week and she knew exactly what to do. Tanner really didn't know what was going on but it only took him a couple houses to figure it out! Once they knew we could go to any houses with a light on they wouldn't let us skip a single one. We were ready to call it a night long before they were. I'm a bad mommy for not getting a picture of all the candy but we had a blast and got way more candy than we needed (don't worry Mom we are saving some of your favorites for you!)

I'm glad the kids were able to have a good time even though life has been hard. We're trying to keep their lives as normal as possible but of course that isn't easy. I hope everyone else had an awesome Halloween in whatever way you decided to celebrate!

P.S. Sorry for all the crappy pictures...I can't find my camera cord so I only have the ones from my phone :(