Fish Fun

While Emily was at Camp Invention, Lincoln & I headed to Cedar Bend State Park to participate in the weekly program put on by the Bremer County Naturalists.  This week's topic was fishing.  After a picnic lunch, we listened to a fishing storybook, played fish games, made a fish print, and pressed flowers.  Everyone also got a chance to go fishing in the Cedar River.  We didn't catch anything, but we saw someone else who did.  We also saw lots of cool wildlife like a baby painted turtle and a little leopard frog.

Big Emily & Little Emily

Emily has been blessed to have an awesome high school student, also named Emily, as a small group leader for the past two years in the Great Adventure Sunday School program at Orchard Hill.  They looked forward to hanging out together every week.  Next year our Emily will move up to the next room.  She is already talking about how she wants to be a small group leader like big Emily when she gets older. :)

Garden bloom

There are some beautiful flowers blooming around our house.

Unfortunately, the beans aren't doing so well.  It seems we have some very hungry bunnies in the neighborhood. :(

Modeling clay

Emily entertained herself with modeling clay today...
 

May 2014 videos

Dance recital

This weekend was Emily's year-end dance recital for Dance Wave studio.  There was class practice on Wednesday, dress rehearsal on Thursday and performances on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.  It all went smoothly, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a "dance mom."  Thankfully, Emily only had one dance, and it was at the beginning of the program.  We ordered the professional DVD of the performance, but I took a video at dress rehearsal of her dance and the finale.  It was actually very impressive considering it was Emily's first dance experience!




 The theme of the recital was "Kaleidoscope" and Emily's ballet class (grades 1-3) performed to "Colors of the Wind" from the movie Pocahontas. 

There were many other great performances!

One of the fun parts of a dance recital is getting flowers.  Andjelka enjoyed coming along!

 

Dance was fun, and it definitely did great things for her confidence, posture and general gracefulness, but Emily didn't love it enough to do it again.  She's going to try something new next year. :)

7 years + 7 months

This month Emily celebrated FINALLY losing her 3rd tooth.  She has a consistent track record of having a loose tooth for months before it finally comes out.  This one was hanging on by a string for days.  I finally told her the tooth fairy would pay double if she would pull it out herself that night.  She got a little over-eager and the tooth popped out and rolled right down the bathroom sink drain.  Luckily, she wasn't too upset.  Yes, the tooth fairy kept her promise.  This one actually left a hole on the bottom because the new tooth wasn't almost completely in like the others.  

Emily has really enjoyed two book series this month, both of which are oldies but goodies.  We found out we can get more Hank the Cow Dog books via inter-library loan from Cedar Falls.  Emily has also read a LOT of Boxcar Children books.  Who knew there are now 150 mystery chapter books, plus other spin-offs and formats?!?

There has been significant growth in Emily's desire and ability to write summaries of the books she reads.  At the beginning of the year she fought hard against the idea of writing down a one sentence summary of her daily baggie book from school just as proof that she actually read it.  By the end of the year she was writing more than a page worth of sentences in her daily school journal summarizing the latest book she had read even though it wasn't required.

Another thing Emily has been working hard on is snapping her fingers.  She couldn't quite get the concept of which fingers to move in what way to produce a noise.  Most of the time it just ended up being some sort of flicking movement.  This month she finally got the basic idea.  It's not loud, but she got it!

Here are some of Emily's art and writing projects from the beginning of first grade and Mother's Day:

Summer bucket lists

Summer officially began when school dismissed at 12:45pm.  The first order of business was to make our annual summer bucket list.  We decided to each make a separate list this year.  Lincoln's was dictated to me.  Note: "Thriller" is the name the kids gave the swings on the play set when they swing high enough to kick the bushes.  Hence, "trim bushes" on my list.  It looks like we'll be busy!

Last day of school

Today was Emily's last day of first grade.  It has been a fantastic year!  We loved her teacher, Mrs. Betts.  However, Emily is already looking forward to second grade. :)

Mission Monarch

While Emily had dress rehersal for her dance recital, Lincoln & I checked out the "Mission: Monarch" fair being held in the lobby of the high school.  In addition to getting some potted swamp milkweed plants for our garden, Lincoln got his face painted for the first time. :)