Opening Christmas Presents

 Here she is opening that present that was #1 on her list (mommy told grandma & grandpa M what that was).....

 Look how happy she is that she got the Password Journal that she had been asking for.

 And her second present from grandma and grandpa M was a homemade light blue sparkly dress. It is very pretty and Isabel loves it and is a handwash type of dress (until she get a stain on it, then all bets are off.)

 Starting to open her family presents on Christmas Eve.

Here she is holding the needle felted fairies that mommy made her. Can you tell how sick she is in this picture. She ended up puking 5 or 6 times (I lost count) over the course of the day & night. 

Of course, this picture she doesn't look sick at all because she is so happy that she got an mp3 player from mommy & daddy for Christmas.

 Checking out what is in her stocking from Santa. The big guys put some pretty nice stuff in there this year, but if you ask the kids there wasn't enough candy. LOL!

Here she is all excited because Santa gave her the DVD Baribe Princess and the Popstar which she had been wanting.

Madeline's Christmas

 A couple of picture of Isabel from when we took the kids to see Madeline's Christmas at Stages. Isabel also met one of the cast (playing Daphne) before the show started.

1st Grade Christmas Concert

 Here is Isabel in her new Christmas dress. This was her first occasion to wear it, so she was pretty happy. She loves the sequins on it. She'll be wearing it for more holiday occasions and then it can become an every day dress. My thought is since she loves it why not let her wear it whenever. Doesn't cost me any money to let her wear the dress and she is happy. So, she is often wearing holiday dresses thoughout the year. She has one that is very "Mrs.Claus" like and it cracks me up when she wear that and it is summer.

I got most of the first grade class in this picture, there are few on the edges that were cut out.

Here she is ready to sing. She is surrounded by her friends. She is a friendly little girl and gets along well with others. Someday she will look at this picture and remember she was with Tessa Kynnedie, Peyton & Ciarra in this picture.

3rd Lost Tooth

She was complaining to daddy that it hurt to chew her breakfast, so he felt it and it was extremely wiggly (just a day before it was just a little loose), so he pulled it out.

This is the third tooth she has lost. All of them have been on the bottom. She has a pretty wiggly one on the top and it is being pushed over the top of the the other top center one (that one is just a little loose) and there is a big space between the center and the next tooth. So big that she thought she already lost a tooth and when I went to volunteer in her classroom the teacher asked me to look at her mouth. Since I had noticed the gap was bigger earlier I wasn't surprised, but the gap looked even bigger that day so I can see how she made that mistake. But I had her open her mouth and counted her teeth. They were all there on top. I commented that her jaw was just growing to make way for her big adult teeth and then all the kids must have thought I was a tooth expert and keep telling me about their teeth and asking questions.

So, we are just waiting on another one (two or three) to come out. I would not be surprised if she lost that top one before the new year.

Gotta love her messy breakfast face from having nutella on her toast. I cleaned her face before she left the door, just not before the picture. #ParentingFail I guess. LOL!

Santa at Harley-Davidson

 With the last Santa she told him what she wanted for her big gift and he kept her list, so she wasn't sure what she was going to tell Santa this time because he already knew what she wants and has the list. I suggested she give him a couple of ideas of things to put in her stocking and she said  candy and anything from Justice.

Santa and His Reindeer

I suppose reading Santa & his reindeer is misleading because these pictures only show antlers, well be sure to check out my Wordless Wednesday on 12/5 and you can see some reindeer. :)

This top picture is showing the hardcover book that Santa gave her. We could have gone at 9pm on Friday night too see Santa arrive by helicopter, but she really wanted to see a real reindeer. She was really hoping that Rudolph would be there, but he wasn't.

Thanksgiving 2012

My little diva! She was all dressed up like a princess. She was certainly the most formally dressed at our family Thanksgiving.

Halloween TOTing

Yes, same picture that is on brother's blog, but I will say some different stuff.

Isabel wore her Alice in Wonderland costume. A few people knew who she was TOTing, but not as many as she had hoped. She has already told me that next year she wants to be Annie, which will be easy enough and I think she will be more recognizable (unless people think she's the Wendy's girl - LOL!)

We looked at the 70% off costumes at Target yesterday and couldn't find any she really liked a lot and she didn't want to be a costume that anyone else had. She likes to be original, so I told her that we have a whole year to decide and we will make a costume next year then instead of buying something. I think she will like being creative and coming up with her own costume better anyways.

Lil Monster's Ball

 Here is Isabel in her Alice in Wonderland Costume. All of these pictures (except the pumpkin one are from the Lil Monster's Ball at the Owatonna Art Center. It was such a fun Halloween Activity. I sure hope they do it again next year!

 Alice in Wonderland & Harry Potter

 Trying out the Mad Scientist's Magic Drink

Playing Mummy Ring Toss 

Playing in one of the sensory tables 

Conga line for the Ball 

These are their pumpkins that they carved with our (heavy) assistance.

Be sure to check out brother's blog for other pictures, as well as my Wordless Wednesday on Save Green Being Green on Halloween.

1st Grade Volleyball

Just some pictures from 1st (& 2nd grade) volleyball. In the picture, Isabel is in between 2 taller 2nd graders. She is so much better at volleyball this year than she was last year. She was pretty proud of her skills and that she could hit farther than some of the 2nd graders.

Playgroup Halloween Party

Just a few pictures of Isabel at the playgroup Halloween Party. We had 10 families there, so I think there was about 25 kids there then. 

I am making her an Alice in Wonderland costume, but the tulle I ordered did not come yet. So, she had to be the Pumpkin Princess costume she picked out after Halloween last year.

Great Start to 1st Grade

Ok, I may be getting ahead of myself here because conferences are not until next week, but I am going to do some bragging just because she came home from school today and was so proud of herself because:

• Her art teacher & classmates picked a picture of hers to go on the art cart that goes in to each classroom with the art teacher, so everyone gets to see it.
• She got a certificate from a 6th grader for being a "Hallway Hero" for walking nicely in the hallway (if you have ever been in a school hallway, you know that sometimes there is running & shoving & it's crowded).
• And the book she is holding is AR level 1.8. She will take her next test tomorrow. Up to this point she has taken & passed 5 1.6 levels with 100% and 5 1.7 levels with 100% and now has moved to 1.8. She is very excited to get that 2nd grade reading level in the next month. After tomorrow's test she will have taken 6 tests this month. The goal is 8, but at 10 she gets a prize. I bet you can guess how many she plans to do.

So, that was today, let's tell you about the last 5 weeks of school too:

• She has passed her weekly spelling tests with 100% each week (not without practice though, we do a run through of her reading the words, then a verbal test and 2 practice tests at home)
• She knows all her weekly sight words, no practice needed, she just knows them!
• She has gotten 100%, A+ & the desired "cowboy star" (basically all three mean the same thing, but they seem to appear each time on a big test) on all her math tests.
• She also received a ribbon at the elementary school assembly. It was for being a good classroom leader and friend (one person in a class gets one whenever they give them.) I wish I could have been there to see her face, a friend was there and said she was so surprised.
• She has gotten 8 tickets that are put in to a drawing (they stay in there until they are picked) for doing good/helpful things in the class and she did get her name drawn out once.
• And she was one of 3 kids in her class to turn in their summer reading sheets and go to the assembly and won a prize there

Let's hope the rest of the year continues to be so great for her. She is a very smart girl, but she also works very hard to keep improving. I am very proud of her.

1st Grade Field Trip to Trump's Apple Orchard

 The bus ride to the orchard. Isabel with her friends Ciarra & Netty.

 Group picture of the 1st graders (well, missed a few "yellow" ones) in this picture

 Ok, this is a better picture of all the 1st graders (minus a few that were absent) at her school

 Listening to them tell about how they sort apples

 Showing them the store. Isabel is already eyeing up which bag of apples she wants me to buy.

 Picking out their Honeycrisp apple that they get to snack on.

 Eating their apples

 I LOVE this picture! If you notice, she is biting into her apple from the side because she has wiggly front teeth.

 On the wagon ride, before she was stung by a wasp.

 On the wagon ride

Yelling "apples" with her classmates

First Day of First Grade

 Isabel on her first day of 1st grade.

 She wanted a picture of her by her fairy house.

 Waiting for the bus, she is on the far right.

 Walking over to the bus stop across the lawn, you can check out her new backpack.

 She is talking to one of the big girls at her stop.

 Daddy & brother are in their jammies with bed head watching Isabel get on the bus.

She was the first one on the bus, so you can't see her in the picture. But this is the bus & the kids at the stop getting on.