I know it may be hard to believe, but Summer is just about over. In fact, there is a little over a week before school starts. That's right, this little boy starts Kindergarten this year! We're not sure how we feel about having two kids in school now, but nonetheless, Keaten is excited and has spent considerable amount of time this summer preparing for Kindergarten.
Keaten has been working on learning and writing all of his letters, both uppercase and lowercase. If that were not enough, he also has numbers 1-10 down as well. To put this all into perspective, when he went in for Kindergarten screening at the very end of the school year, he hardly knew a handful of letters and numbers. However, it seems that may not have been entirely his own fault or ours for that matter... as we also discovered he failed his eye exam. Fast forward a couple of weeks, we discovered he was near-sighted and thus needed glasses. The amount of progress he has made sense has been amazing. Who would have thought being able to see might help you learn things a bit easier and quicker? (I know right!)
Earlier in the year the kids had fun doing their usual Easter Egg Hunt around the house, this time though we invited Allison, our next door neighbors child. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it, we had a great time hiding their eggs and it continues to be more exciting each year as we get to increase the difficulty level in finding them.
Right around Easter was someone's fifth birthday, you read that right, Keaten turned five! It doesn't quite seem possible for someone my age to have a five year old, let alone a seven year old, but somehow it is indeed possible and without a grey hair in sight! This little boy was super excited this year over Legos, and thus, a Lego themed party was to be had. The excitement on his face for his Lego cake and the numerous lego blocks he received meant he would have stories to tell for weeks, and he did (believe me). As soon as we got home, we had to open at least one of his new sets and put it together, then tomorrow came and we had to do another, and another, and ... you get the idea. It was non-stop Legos for weeks, in fact, it wasn't until maybe 2-3 weeks ago that we put them away, and even more surprising, we didn't lose any pieces!
One thing the kids absolutely loved this summer were their kites. They each received kites from their Uncle Andrew and Aunt Melissa and their Papa Jim and Grandma Tam. The kites were a HUGE success and sadly we only had a few days of decent kite flying weather. Most of the other days were raining or the winds were too strong (40-50 MPH). Who knows, we might still be able to get another day or two in before fall/winter starts.
Keaten's summer was filled with numerous activities, from Fun Day at the school, where there were "carnival" games and bounce houses, a trip to the National Air Force Museum, getting a new bicycle, celebrating Aunt Cheryl's 60th birthday party while hanging out with their cousins, playing at the newly redesigned play area in the Tuttle mall and plenty of library visits to get books, play on their computers, and participate in the summer fun activities they hosted.
Of course, summer wouldn't have been summer without helping Papa Frank and Grandma Claudette plant their garden. Keaten had a blast helping dig the trenches for the seeds and was very excited to hang out with Judah and Wyatt (their cousins). Sadly we couldn't convince Keaten to go on a ride on Papa's tractor.
As with all of our posts, we've gone through and hand selected a wonderful set of photos for you to enjoy!
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne and Keaten