Eve Starts Challenger

Challenger, for those who don't know, is a chain of private schools that offers a great preschool curriculum at a very reasonable price. Eve has been dying to attend since the day she saw big sister Laine head off to the great big school building three years ago. Today, she finally got her wish. Amazingly enough, three years later and at a different campus, she ended up with the same teacher that Laine had. Here are Eve and James heading into the Challenger building.

Once inside, she showed off her very best "I'm a good girl" face for the teachers.

The girls took James by the hand and gave him a tour of the classroom, then sat him down and started teaching him how to count.

He ended up liking the elephant more than the arithmetic lessons.

Once Eve found her cubby and hung up her jacket and school bag, the girls performed an acrobatic spin-hug with a twist. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Finally Eve settled down just before the other students arrived so I could get a quick shot of her with her teachers.

I'm not sure if they believed me when I told them that Eve knew her numbers up to 100 (she claims she can count to a million, I'm not so sure), and that she reads chapter books on her own. I think the other kids in her class are just starting to work on how to open the box of crayons so they can chew on them. She's a bright one, that Evey.

Anyway, here's the discussion of the school day after everyone came home.

Grandma's Church

Today the kids and I went to church with Grandma and Grandpa. The girls have a tradition of drawing pictures and writing little letters during the boring parts (whenever any grownups are up at the pulpit talking). Today they did some really nice ones that I wanted to share.



Here's Laine's picture of her and James.





This was Laine's letter to me. I'd like to submit this as exhibit #1 in my case to prove that I am in fact the best dad ever.

Eve just hoped you will have a good day.

She also loves you. I think this one was for Grandma.

This one was for Grandma and Granpa, she loves them a lot, as you can see from the size of the lettering.

After church we had some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I tried to get James to do the "More Cookies!" chant that he was doing most of the day yesterday, but he didn't go for it. They're still pretty cute though, so enjoy the little show.

As a bonus today, James pronounced his first ever coherent three syllable word during the sacrament service at church: "Sack-err-mint!"

Laine's Journal

Before I show you how brilliant Laine's journal is, I'll show you a few recent photos that I didn't get a chance to put up. For Thanksgiving, Laine was asked to "disguise" a turkey. Don't you love Mom homework? Well, since I forgot about the assignment until the night before, Laine's turkey got to dress up as the easiest thing I could put together: a surgical tech. Laine thought it was great. Here's a picture of Laine and David. Her 'special friend' from her class at Centreville Elementary. "rosa parks got on the Bus evin tho she hab dark skin. she got in truble and got arestide."

"I Liket iT Wen they mad a snowman."

"for cristmste I got a wii."

"I Am swining on the swing." Note: insects not drawn to scale.

"geronhog's hibernad in the winter. they sleeq oL Winter Long. they Wake uq in sqring." I need to work on capitalization with her as well as the difference between lowercase 'p's and 'q's. Other than that, I thought this was great.

I think Laine might have drawn this on Groundhog's Day. No words, but what a great depiction of a shadow.

Fun at the School Playground

Just pics this time, enjoy.

School Is Now In Session (Again)

So today Laine started at her new school. She was very excited because she got to be a kindergartner at Daddy's old school. She's even in the very same classroom where I learned my abc's and 123's. Her teacher was Mrs. Baer, who seemed very nice and said that Laine did great on her first day of school. Laine's favorite parts of the day were recess and snack, so that was about the same as at her old school.

Here she is at the entrance to my grade school alma mater.

And here she is with Mrs. Baer at the end of her first school day.

She also thought the school here is more fun because she only has half day kindergarten, so she doesn't have time to get bored during her school day.

Eve is also gearing up for school, she and I went to the local Challenger School and talked to the teachers there about getting her into their preschool program. She'll be starting there on Monday, but she was so excited to go visit the school that she got all dressed up in her new back-to-school dress.

The Road Trip

So, we left Virginia on Friday morning, James brought along his two best "goggies" to keep him company on the ride.

There was a lot of reading.

There were some movies.



There were some naps.




And lots of drawing.



There was some laughing.



And some smiling.




And some silly faces.



And they took turns being grumpy.



I drove a long long long time. Uncle James did too.


We even got to eat free breakfast at the Super 8 Motel.



After a million years on the road we got to Grandma's house, where bunkbeds awaited the girls.

They were pretty glad to be there.

Bad News

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last month or so, but it hasn't been just because we're lazy. For those who haven't heard the news yet, Christine and I are separating. If you need to hear the details, give either of us a call and we'll fill you in. I'm heading out in the morning with the kids for Salt Lake City, where we'll be living with my parents for a few months. The children still don't know what's going on, they are just very excited for a fun long vacation at Grandma's house. We don't really know what's going on either in terms of long term plans, so don't bother asking about that. I'll be maintaining the blog from now on with regular cute pictures of the best kids ever.