April 2013 videos

6 years + 6 months

Emily has reached the halfway point of being six and is already looking forward to seven.  We measured on her growth chart and discoverd Emily has grown 2" since her birthday!

At the beginning of the month, Emily suddenly decided that she was old enough to start taking showers instead of baths.  Even though I've been suggesting it for months, she made up her mind when she found out showers take less water than baths, and she wanted to save the Earth or something.  I guess we'll take it.

Emily still has a loose tooth on the bottom, and the permanent tooth is already poking through behind it.  She has a deadline of May 14th when her dental check-up is scheduled to get it out.  I feel like she is 6 months old and teething again.  I have caught her chewing on all kinds of things like coat collars, dirty gloves, her fingers and most maddening--her hair.  I can't stand it and have come dangerously close to chopping it off myself with a kitchen scissors.  She won't keep it in a ponytail or wear a headband.  She often comes home from school with it wet and matted from the twisting and chewing.  I'm at a complete loss.  She knows it bothers me, too, because I found this note in the bottom of her backpack.

One new thing Emily started this month is a keyboarding program I got from Amazon called Typing Instructor for Kids Platinum.  She got through the home row and part of the top row before getting frustrated.   The problem is she tries to rush through the lessons without taking time to repeat and practice.  She also is obsessed with perfection and WPM numbers and gets freaked out by timed exercises and games.  After sparring over it for a week or two, it has been set aside to try again another time.

Below is her April artwork from school.  I love the picture of her teacher dream.  Is that really how she thinks it is?!?

Phelps Youth Pavilion

Emily had Tuesday off, too.  Lincoln had preschool in the morning, but after lunch we returned to Waterloo to the Phelps Youth Pavilion as I had promised the day before.  There was a school group there, but we rotated around to the areas they weren't and basically had the place to ourselves.

Digging for artifacts

Electronic painting

Driving virtually through a Grant Wood painting

Building walls

Cave explorers

The wheels on the bus...

Future farmers?

Play pinata

Making a Nepalese book

Taking the stage

Below is a video of Emily performing her own interpretations of international dances using the costumes and music from the country displays with a cameo by Lincoln.

Picnic and a bike ride

Emily had the day off for Kindergarten Round-up and the weather was beautiful.  After making my weekly stops in Waterloo, the kids & were going to go to the Phelps Youth Pavilion.  Unfortunately, we discovered it isn't open on Monday. :o(  We made the best of it, though, and still enjoyed our picnic lunch by the river. 

While spreading out our lunch, we discovered the remains of quarter-sized hail that had fallen just before we got to town.

Then we played on the equipment by the new splash pad.  Sometime we'll have to come back when it's actually warm enough to enjoy the water part!

After returning home we decided to venture out on a bike ride.  I loaded up all the bikes in the van and drove to the Waverly Rail Trail.  This was the first time each of us were on our own bike.  We made a very slow trek a mile down the trail to the first tunnel.  We stopped for a granola bar break and then headed back to the van.  Lincoln got going a little too fast on the hill down from the tunnel and bailed off his bike when he got scared.  This resulted in a scraped up back and face, but he was tough and got right back on his bike.  I hope we can do this many more times in the future!

When we got home from the bike ride, Emily decided she was going to write a book titled Iowa Discoveries: The Cedar River.  She made an impressive cover and then wrote a page of facts gleaned from a Wikipedia article on the Cedar River.

Planting seeds

Despite the weather forecast, I decided to plant the potatoes and seeds in the garden on the only nice day available.  I had two eager helpers!

New deck furniture

In preparation for living without a kitchen this summer, we recently purchased some new deck furniture.  Lincoln & I broke it in at lunch time.  The whole family enjoyed supper on the deck.

Park pics

It was a rare warm day that we could enjoy the park with no coats. 

Chasing ducks

Every spring a few wood ducks show up in our neighborhood for a few days.  Emily wanted to see how close she could get to them...

Wedding Photography Pictures

One of Chelsea's family members did the professional pictures.  Here are my favorites...