Traveling Incognito

June 19, 2009
Who are those masked men?

Ian's Kindergarten Graduation

A big event has occurred at our house!

June 6, 2009
Ian transformed (in minutes, I might add!) into a big 1st grader!

Ian sang his A-Z verses for us, received his "diploma" and prize, and finished the evening with some celebratory neapolitan sundaes! :)
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I just loved this year with Ian. He completely blossomed in the learning process. What an enthusiastic learner! It was fun to go through some papers from last fall and remember how completely THRILLED he was to learn how to write the number '2'. He wrote 2's on EVERYTHING... art projects, Bible projects, blackboards, whiteboards, math papers, letter papers, pictures he'd drawn, etc...hill, slide, walk...hill, slide, walk...hill, slide, walk!!




Exhibit A
and
Exhibit B

:)

One of our kindergarten projects is an A-Z verse memorization. That is, one verse for each letter of the alphabet. Here is a snippet... actually I can't get it to load, so I'll maybe try later! :(
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Some of the things Ian especially enjoyed this year were:

A) Reading together- (The Ergermeier Bible Story book, The Apple and The Arrow, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Little House in the Big Woods, Dolphin Adventure and Dolphin Treasure, The Boxcar Children, My Father's Dragon, Capyboppy...to name a few!)

B) Reading to me- He especially loved all of the Hooked on Phonics Stories- thought they were all just hilarious! :)

September 19, 2009
Giggling over some antics of the H.O.P. characters.

C) Science- his absolute favorite was learning about ocean mammals- namely dolphins! (It just so happened that we were able to coincide learning about fish and ocean mammals with our trip to Florida, where we were able to feed and touch dolphins.) But, his other favorite science topics were learning about refrigerators, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, fish and insects.

February 5, 2009
Ian still talks about this particular event daily! He loves remembering how they felt- "Like a rubber ball, mommy!"

May 28, 2009
Colby and Ian right before we took down our "Wall of Art" (dubbed by Isaac and Ian).

D) Art- This year, Ian discovered a new love of all things drawn, colored and/or painted and spent a good part of his free time...:

like this...

and this...

and this...

Lastly, I always love seeing the dramatic beginning and ending results. At the beginning of the year, Ian had difficulty even holding a pencil. I love how confidently he wrote his letters and numbers on our last day! Fun!


Ian's alphabet at the end of September and on the last day of kindergarten

We're proud of you, Ian!

Down on the Farm- part 2

So, the Future Farmers of America farm was wonderful. The boys were just thrilled to be there! All of them...but maybe especially Ian! He was just one big beaming smile touching all of those animals. Isaac, Colby and Zane of course loved it, too! But Ian just has a little sweet spot in his heart for all of those creatures! Fun!


...Going for a quick little walk!


...a true ranch-hand! The boys loved this! Thought of course, of Sheila and the McCalmont crew!


Ian, lassoing!


Isaac, getting into the act!


Awww...two month old baby bunnies. Cute! One of the High School leaders asked the kids in my group how old they thought these bunnies were. One little girl guessed 100 years old... :) This leader also asked if anyone knew what a baby rabbit was called (I thought bunny...turns out it is kit). One in our group guessed "colt?" Ha, ha! They were getting so confused because apparantly a male rabbit is a buck and a female is a doe... a doe, a buck and a kit rabbit?!


It was just about all Ian could do to force himself not to pick up that bunny...kind of like the wind not blowing, the snow not being cold, the water not being wet... ok, you get the idea! :)


Isaac and a friendly goat!


Zane fell asleep at our last stop...the goats!


Colby was too tired to even make it up the stairs!

What a delightful afternoon! A little chilly for the end of May, but at least it wasn't snowing! :)

Down on the Farm- part 1

Yeah...it's been a while! Somehow a spammer or someone got onto my site here and made it virtually impossible to edit my posts...I couldn't see any of the pictures that I'd download, so I couldn't place my text, etc. etc. THUS, it hasn't been very much fun to post! Maybe the problem has fixed itself over this past month!? We'll see! :) Ok, I just tried to post a picture and no, it hasn't fixed itself. AARGH!!

So, today was a field trip to the FFA farm here (Happened to be about 1 mile from our house! How handy!). What a great experience. It was very organized and the high schoolers running it were excellent with the kids (K-6) and for those of you who know me well, I just don't throw that compliment out to just anyone we meet!! I was SUPER pleased!


Sorrels and Bays


Pretend you're at Frontier Days!


On to the Pigs!


Curious!

Spring Blizzard

And after all of that snow on Saturday... it's almost gone now! I love spring!

Days to Remember

Zane is now 13 months old and quite the inquisitive little mover and shaker! He's also definitely fast approaching that hilarious/not hilarious toddler stage of:

If it's open...close it.
If it's closed...open it.
Take it...toss it.
Want it...don't want it.
Don't want it...want it.
Start to laugh...start to cry.
Start to cry...can't keep from laughing.
Want up...but want down.
Want down...but want up, too.
If it's on...take it off.
If it's off...try to put it on.
etc.

A 13 month old's constantly revolving emotional door can be somewhat trying, but at the same time, we are just loving the mustering up of cheesy grins on command, the clapping hands with proficient zest, and the thrill of the always surprising peek-a-boo!

My all time favorite, though...the best ever...is the "hug-me-hold-me, tuck-the-hands-in, I'm-tired-and-soooo-content, snuggle" at the end of every wild and woolly day...These are days that I never want to forget!

Who Needs Some Make-up?!

I am now the proud owner of a Mary Kay cosmetics business!

So... when you need your cleansers, lotions, foundations, eye and lip colors and more re-stocked (we also have a line of men's skincare), come and visit my little shop:

www.marykay.com/erikabalyo

And/or, if you would like to receive free product, email me or talk to me about hosting a Mary Kay party either in person, or online!

Yay...everybody loves make-up! It's fun!