Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Break from the heat

Nothing really special about today. We did school, we worked on crafty stuff and we cooked. But in other news, it was cool today! No record breaking heat, it was actually in the 80's and just lovely.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Official 1st Day

We considered today, our 1st day of school and 1st grade. So what did we do? Well we spent the entire day in our pajamas. To be honest, it was so hot, it was actually cooler to stay in our pajamas. We did a full day of school today. We worked on math, french, science, geography, history and language. 
So what is Keree doing in our homeschool right now:
Math - right now we are working on two and three digit adding, we will be moving on shortly to greater, lesser, equal.
Language - we are working on learning the parts of a sentence (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, etc). She also has to write everyday a complete and proper paragraph in her notebook. Along with other activites.
Reading - she just started reading Chapter books. Before now, she would get upset that there was so many pages, so she would refuse to read them. But something just clicked a few weeks ago and she likes that she can mark her pages and then continue the story later.
Spelling - I will be using the spelling list from her old school, she will be learning the 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade list every week and then I test her on it at the end of the week. I looked at all three lists and couldn't help but laugh because they are so easy and honestly don't think they will be too much of a challenge for her.
Geography - we are learning about the 50 states
Science - we are learning about the solar system, space and space travel
History - we are learning about important symbols in the United States and their history
French - we are working on basic greeting, animals, colors and days of the week.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Last day of the County Fair

Today was the last day of the County Fair. Which it always makes me a little sad because we really enjoy our County Fair. We had to go in the morning and pick up Keere's premium's, ribbons and the money she had won. We started a tradition last year of having Keree get her picture taken with the premium she won Best of Show with. So here is her Dream, Believe, Love sign made out of recycled newspapers and magazines. 

Saturday, August 11, 2012

1st Time Bowling

Keree was invited to a birthday party for her friend, Alicia (from kindergarten and scouts). We were quite excited because it was a bowling party and Keree had never been bowling. For everything we have done with Keree, it honestly surprises me that we haven't been bowling. Keree had so much fun, she used the smallest bowling ball there and it was still way to heavy. I had to help her carry the ball to the line and then she would roll it down the lane. 

Some of her technique was quite funny. It also was amazing her ball actually reached the end of the lane. The ball moved so slowly down the lane that her turn would last almost 3-4 minutes. There was also a time or two that it stopped mid-lane. I would then have to throw a ball down there to get it moving again. 
 Keree was so proud of herself here. Can you see that, she left only one pin standing! This was her best roll of the day.
 Keree and the Birthday girl, Alicia. 


Friday, August 10, 2012

Official Withdrawal

This morning, we had to get some errands ran and more importantly....we had to send off the official withdrawal paperwork to the school district. It's so silly, I mean they were the ones screwing around with us. But I wanted to follow the procedure to the letter, so there is no mistake and hopefully will prevent any questions in why we were chosing to homeschool this year. So here is Keree holding the official withdrawal paperwork before I went into the post office and sent it off. 
Otherwise, the rest of our day was spent doing school, working on craft stuff and just trying to stay cool.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

County Fair Talent Show

This evening, was the County Fair Talent Show. This is Keree's 3rd year participating (she missed last year because we were out of town), she is also on the record books as being the youngest to ever compete at the age of 3. There was over 30 acts this year competing and Keree drew the #11 spot. We were also thrilled that my Aunt P was able to join us for the evening. Keree was so cute when she got on stage, she sang "I make my own sunshine" and even had a few dance moves to it. There was so much applause when Keree came off stage. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good still pictures because their lighting in there is so wonky that all of them indeed up either blurred or super dark. I did take a video also, so we at least have that. 
 It was after 9pm, when they finally announced the winners. We honestly was shocked by who the winner was, actually the entire crowd was shocked. But I had seen her Mom greet one of the judges before the competition started and they were old friends. Keree's scores were amazing except from the one judge. From Keree's scores and talking with the others that competed about their scores, she was either in 4th or 5th place this year. Honestly, it doesn't matter except for those who the audience really thought deserved to get something. A couple of people asked me if Keree was sad because she didn't win. I told them, she doesn't care, she got a ribbon and she knows she did a good job. I mean look at that smile, she's so proud of her accomplishment.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Opening Night of the County Fair

After doing a little bit of school this morning, we spent the rest of our day waiting for it to be 5 pm, so we could head out to the County Fair. Keree was so excited and couldn't wait to see how her premiums did. My Mom and I was curious to see how our Scouts did with their entries. We were so thankfully to see that all of them at least won a ribbon.Now Keree had over 70 entries, she got mostly 1st place awards and she 
also won Best of Show in the 18 & under Arts category. We were so proud of her. Her Bandanna dress got 1st place. Here seams are a little wonky but it just proved she really used the sewing machine and sewed it herself.
 Both of these t-shirts are hers, the brown one was a decorated t-shirt, which she added beads too the bottom of it. The other t-shirt was her tye-died one, she used the sharpie marker and rubbing alcohol technique so she was able to create some really awesome hearts all over it.
 This is her Crossstitch entry. I had gotten the idea off another blog (wish I could remember where I saw this because I would love to give credit to them). They had used checked dish towels for their Scouts to do crossstitch with. This way it created larger x's for them to stitch. Keree made this towel for her Great-Grandma's birthday in October.
 We are currently learning about the solar system and this is a mobile we created. It was a perfect entry into the Fair.
We had such a nice time walking around afterwards. Keree kept telling me that she would go on the boat ride this year, along with a few others. I had to laugh because I know Keree, I knew there was no way she was going to do it. When we got closer, she started to panic. Finally, she stopped dead in her tracks and goes "no, that doesn't look safe to go on." I chuckled because she also isn't tall enough to ride this anyway. We left the fair without riding any rides or playing any games.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

4 years ago....

today, I held my baby girl for the first time. She was so little, just a little over 5 mos old and 0-3 mos clothes was big on her. She was so sick the day my Mom and I meet her. Who would of known, that she had Polio and was fighting for her life. For how long had she been fighting it? We will never know exactly, other than I do know she contracted it between 3 1/2 - 4 mos old. I will never forgot how she just stared at us, we had to stop talking so she would take her bottle. She was so aware of her world and everything in it. 
We don't really celebrate today, since today isn't our Family day. My Mom and I sat down with Keree and we told her about us meeting her for the first time. About how Grandma forgot to take any pictures until after Keree was already in Mommy's arms. We told her about how little she was, how at first I didn't think the Nannies had the right baby until I saw her face. Then we went about our normal day. Today with school, I have started setting a timer. Keree knows that she has to do a certain subject for X number of minutes and then we can move onto the next activity. Plus, I have to say, it helps me stay on track also. Since the timer went so well, we did a art project to end our day. Keree made a paper Perry the platypus.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Crafty pictures

Well today, originally was going to just be a work day. But soon we realized that we needed some updated pictures of our products. So, we headed out to capture some. Even though it was super hot and humid, there was an ok breeze. Plus we were able to find quite a few shady spots. I was surprised by how quickly we got our photos done. Once home, I did a few crops, softened a few borders, then sent them to be printed.


Thursday, August 2, 2012

Fair Entries Turn-In Day

This morning, we got up bright and early. We wanted to be at the County Fair office within the first hour to turn in Keree's entires. We also let our Daisy Scouts enter a few items, so we also had all there stuff to be tagged also. Keree had a total of 75 premiums to enter, which sort of amazed us also when we started counting. Once all the paperwork was done at the Fair office, it was then time to start the tagging. Tagging amazingly only took us about 2 hrs.  Here is Keree with a few of her premiums after we were finished tagging. 
As we do every year, we took Keree's picture by the Fair Entries sign. I swear she hadn't grown at all since last year.
 On our drive home, we stopped and picked up some lunch because we were starving. When we got home, we were walking up our sidewalk and spotted this DREADED CREATURE!! Thankfully it seems we caught this Tobacco Hornworm early on and it hadn't done too much damage to our tomato plant. It's amazing to think that in all my years growing tomatoes, it isn't until I move here that I discover this damaging creature. So, I used two pieces of paper and scooped him off our tomato plant and threw him in the road. I just can't bring myself to killing them, so the road seemed like the best place....far away from my tomato plant and he may just get run over by a car or a bird will eat him.
 I spent my afternoon and evening working on some crafty stuff, my Mom spent her's sewing and Keree spent her's building. She was so proud of her tower that she just had to take a picture of it.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

6 month visit and almost 1 year post-op

Today we got up bright and early (before 4am), so we could get on the road for Keree's 6 mos. visit and almost 1 year post-op appointment at Shriner's. I was a little on the disappointed side at this appointment. We never even saw Keree's primary doctor and our usual Nurse Practitioner saw us for maybe 3 minutes. Our appointment consisted mostly of meeting with the Physical Therapist. Which I'm happy to say, it was one of our favorite Gals. Instead of the Last One, who said that Keree was just lazy and that's why she wasn't getting around. It was figured that Keree's leg difference is increasing about 1/4 of an inch every 6 months. They say there's nothing they can do about it now, except continue to watch it. They are also arranging for Keree to get a fitted wheelchair. They told me that in reality Keree's condition isn't going to be getting any better, the wheelchair will help her live a fuller life and help us with not having to carry her so often. I'm not going to let Keree depend on the wheelchair but for trips to places like the mall or zoo, it will help since she doesn't fit in a stroller anymore. More than anything, I really just wish we could wave a magic wand and Keree's Polio be gone forever. 
So after our PT visit and a few notes from the Doctor. They released us until next year, it was weird walking out of there knowing we aren't suppose to come back until August 2013. In Keree's entire life, it has either been every 3 or 6 months. What makes me sad about it, it's not because they think she's cured, it's because in their words "there's nothing else we can do for her." How sad to hear those words uttered about your child. It's feels like a death sentence they have given you.
Our finally stop of the day was the SHOP. They had to make some adjustments to her brace because it was causing open wounds in 3 spots. Keree also got two new pairs of tennis shoes because her good foot had actually grown and they needed lifts put on them.
Our final stop before starting the long drive home, was our traditional picture of Keree beside the koi pond in front of the hospital. Also for being such a good patient, she got a singing Hannah Montana Christmas doll. She got to press the music button twice before we got on the road and then it had to be quite until we got home.
 By the time we got on the road to head home, it was blistering hot (105). Since the van doesn't have a/c, we were sweating to death. I had heard that a Disney store had recently opened at a mall that is on our way home. So we decided to make a short stop to cool down. Plus, this was only Keree's second time in a Disney store and the first time she would be able to remember. The store is on the 2nd level and so as we came up the escalator, she suddenly saw the giant Disney on the outside of the store. She literally fell into a fit of giddiness, she just couldn't help herself. The store lady showed her the magic mirror and she got to see Rapunzel. Or as Keree keeps telling everyone, "it wasn't a fake Rapunzel, it was the real, real Rapunzel in the mirror."
We ended up spending almost 2 hours in the store, we just looked at everything slowly. Keree held up Merida's dress and Rapunzel's wedding dress to see how she would look in it. But otherwise, we just looked at everything. We walked out of the Disney store not buying a single thing. Keree saw a few cool things that may go on her Christmas list but other than that, it was more about the experience of just being there. Life really is just about the simple things, like window shopping.
By the time we hit the highway, Keree was passed out and stayed that way until we pulled into the driveway. We stopped to grab a drink and I just had to snap this picture, her doll stayed balanced like this the entire ride home.