Friday, April 24, 2009

McKenzie and the Sheep Farm

Kenzie in front of the stinky cows-seriously.
Whitney, tagging along on Kenzie's preschool field trip to the sheep farm.

The nice Farmer who let us come to his farm . . . and Kenzie's preschool class!
Love ya sis!

Kenzie getting to bottle feed a lamb.
Still feeding the lamb.

Whit and Kenz on the fence watching the lambs and their moms.
Baby Lambs.
Just this week McKenzie's Preschool class got to go to a Sheep Farm to see all the baby lambs! She was so excited to go! She got to see lambs that were only one day old! She also got to help feed a lamb. She was very interested in the sheep, but thought that the farm smelled bad. That was probably her biggest comment about the whole experience. She is funny. A few weeks ago Kenzie went in for her "Pre-Kindergarten" screening. She sat down with the teacher's aide and went through a little questionnaire to just see where she is at . . . she breezed through the whole thing! She got a perfect score, without any hesitations! I was so proud of her! The smart little thing! She is very ready for Kindergarten! She will be one of the oldest in her grade and I am very glad that we waited to send her. She was not ready last year. But she is now wanting to write her letters and her name and sound out other words. She is very into coloring and art projects. I am so happy that she will start Kindergarten right on target or possibly a little ahead, both of which are better than being behind. I honestly think she would have struggled through Kindergarten, had we sent her last year. I think that being the middle child is difficult for McKenzie. When things get busy, I know she feels lost in the shuffle. She has been throwing tantrums lately. She is 5 1/2 far too old for this kind-of behavior. I know that it is mostly a dramatic show-- complete with kicking, wailing, and lots of forced tears-- which all dissolve as quickly as they came . . . fake, but still there is something behind it all . . . I know she is craving more attention. Bad. Good. Or otherwise. Scott and I both try to spend good time with her, especially Scott. He has taken her out to breakfast for a Daddy-Daughter-Date and he is very good to work her through her tantrums. I still feel that Kenzie's self esteem is fragile. I try to build her up so much with lots of specific praise and attention, but it seems that the moment things do not go her way, she dissolves . . . I am just going to have to keep praying for her. If anyone has any advice on self esteem and little girls or tantrums and 5 year-olds, I would love to hear it. I feel like I don't have the answers or maybe that my answers are not being as effective as I want them to be.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

West Yellowstone for Spring Break

Sam and Kenz in the pool!
Whit getting ready to get in.

Sam's muscles. Scott's man chest.

Kenz coming down the slide and me (yelling at Scott to get Whit before she jumps in . . .) getting ready to catch Kenz.

Me and the girls at the top of the slide.

Doughnut holes on toothpicks. They were pretending to eat them like suckers.

Whitney.

In the morning playing with their McDonald's toys.



So when we asked our girls what they wanted to do for Spring Break, they all said that they wanted to go swimming! Well there is still snow on the ground in April and not many places for swimming. My brother told us about a hotel in West that has an indoor water slide and pool! So that is where we headed for Spring Break! It is truly the "off season" up there. The Park does not open until May or June and snowmobile season is ending/over. MOST everything was closed. There were 2 souvenir shops open and we got the girls cute T-shirts and some polished rocks. There were about 3 restaurants open, one of which was McDonald's (it cost us 3x as much to eat there as it does in Rexburg . . .oh well). We seriously had the place to ourselves which was pretty cool! Everyone working there really catered to us! The pool was a blast! It was only 3 feet deep for most of the length and only got to be 4 feet right where the slide came out. So it was perfect for our girls . . . they could touch nearly everywhere. There were also 2 hot tubs and that was nice! The hotel is not the fanciest, but it was clean and nice! We would totally go back again.

The 3 Piggy Opera!

Sammy as the "Mother Pig" singing to her 3 little pigs
Sam with her pig nose and "Mother Apron"

Sam singing with part of her class.
Whitney, Samantha, and McKenzie

So about a month ago Samantha's 1st grade class put on a play called "The 3 Piggy Opera." It was the cutest ever! Sam played the "Mother Pig" (which is right up her alley) and she even got to sing a solo! She made a very cute pig!