First Day of 1st Grade

Monroe is now a first grader!  Her first day of school was Thursday, August 17th.  

One of my best friends, Asia, and I switched daughters for the school year.  She is Monroe's teacher, and I am Ady's teacher!

 Newell teacher kids

Monroe absolutely LOVED her first day of school! It's going to be a great year!

My class

This is my 12th year of teaching

I can already tell this is a great group!  Here we go!

Back to School Assembly

A month ago I got an email from an administrator in our district asking if Monroe would like to participate in a singing group.  The group would include students from kindergarten to 12th grade and some teachers, and they would perform at the back-to-school assembly for GIPS staff. She was nominated by her music teacher, which I thought was so cool!

The first rehearsal was very overwhelming.  She was one of the youngest ones.  They started by warming up the choir with scales.  Thankfully, we had listened to the two songs a lot leading up to the practice, so she knew them.  The choreography was another story.  The songs were choreographed by high schoolers, who said it was really easy.  It wasn't easy for a six-year-old.  We learned just one song that first night, and we practiced every day that week.  The second song was a ballad, so I was hoping they'd just stand and sing it.  Nope.  This choreography was harder.  We spent our practice time at home working on it for the next two weeks.  Being one of the youngest, I knew she'd be in the front row, so she had to know it.

Monroe rocked the performance, and she loved every minute of it!  She asked the director when she got to do it again.  

Monroe and her music teacher

15 Months

Graham and Pierce are 15 months old!

Nana can get them to smile for the camera at the same time.  I rarely can.

The first day they figured out how to get on the coffee table.

We never "baby proofed" with Monroe.  We've had to with these two.

I can't count how many times those yogurt raisins have been dumped.

a very rare nap in the car

Peekaboo

Pierce and Graham are running now and climbing on everything.  We've had many bumps and bruises.  They love to dance.  We got an Alexa, which means music is playing regularly.  The boys love it!  They also love dumping toys, and then walking away :)  They like to doggy pile us but haven't started wrestling with each other yet.  Outside, they love to play with balls in the driveway and everything in the backyard.  

They are obsessed with remotes and phones.  Graham usually wants what Pierce has, and Pierce willingly gives it up.  That is, unless he has a remote or phone.  Then, Pierce holds on tight, and Graham throws a fit.

They eat very well.  Fruit is their favorite, but I can't think of much they refuse to eat.  

We weighed them at HyVee the other day.  Graham weighed 23lbs 11oz (67th percentile) and Pierce weighed 23lbs (56th percentile).

They are very loud at home, but are more of observers around other people.  This is different from Monroe.  Their words: Mama, Dada, Papa, Nana, Roe, puppy, ball, hi, bye, more, baby

We are still on a strict sleeping schedule, which has worked well for us all summer.  We have a new nanny this year whom we love.  We're thankful that the boys can stay home for another year and be on their own schedule.  

These boys are the best!

VBS

Monroe had VBS at our church the first week of August.  One of the parents is a photographer and he took some excellent pictures!

We had a fun week!

July Fun

 Cousin Dedrick's party

Monroe's first time fishing

Monroe and I went to the Lochland firework show in Hastings

Swimming (in our clothes) with cousins

We have a park pass from staying at Mahoney, so we went out to Mormon Island one evening. 

Playing at the park during a morning bike ride

You can't tell from the pictures, but the boys loved their first train ride.