Christmas-ing.

This year Kerry gets to do a little Christmas-ing Kindergarten style.  And let me tell you, it has be CA-ute!  She's brought home all sorts of adorable art projects and the cutest hand-print ornament.  I love, love, love hand-print artwork from my girl. 

 

Yesterday was the last day of school before Christmas break and the Kindergartners got to celebrate by wearing pajamas to school and having a Polar Express party and activities.  This meant we had to make a "box car" for Kerry to wear as they paraded through school like a train as music from the movie played over the loud-speaker. 

 

 

Look at that happy grin =).

Soon it was time for a visit from "Santa".  He read them the Polar Express story.

 



 

Then each child got a visit with the big guy in red.  They also enjoyed hot chocolate and popcorn while they watched the movie.  Kindergarten seems like so much more fun these days than I remember it, haha.

 

Kerry has also been coming home most days singing all of the new Christmas songs they've learned at school in preparation for the main event.

 

 

 

The Kindergarten and First Grade Christmas concert.  Oh.My.Word. I could just die from the cuteness.  Knowing how...exuberant...she's been on stage in past performances I could hardly wait to see this.  True to Kerry form she really belted out the songs.  Can you hear loud little voice?  The last "Ho-Ho-Ho" makes me laugh every time I watch it.  I'm almost certain I was born with stage-fright and I'm so happy that she has yet to be afflicted with it at all! 

 

Christmas card photo attempt.

Getting a photo for our Christmas card each year is always an "interesting" experience with my girl =).  She usually decides to be silly...or just a downright stinker. 

I just snap and snap and hope I get a few gems. 

But I always end up with some that are downright funny

 

 

This is her "can we be done yet" face.  

 

Last year we were able to get outdoor photos but this year the weather has NOT cooperated.  In the end I ended up using a photo from a completely different shoot, but I still love these.  And I love my silly little stinker of a girl =).

 

My girl has grown and matured, it seems, so much just since she started school.  I was expecting it, I was warned that it would happen...but wow.  Some of the things she's saying and the questions she's asking she would not have even just a few months ago.  Just check out what she wrote and drew recently.  I loved this so much I had to take a photo...it just makes me happy. 

 

As I already mentioned, this little "emotional growth spurt" has led to a couple of questions recently, too...regarding adoption, her beginnings...etc.  Up until recently, no matter how I've tried to gently and age appropriately bring up the topic she would never take the bait.  She usually just does not seem interested or curious in the least and will even change the subject.  Well, we were at a park recently and there was an obviously pregnant woman and her family who were getting outdoor portraits done and Kerry asked, "Mommy, why wasn't I in someone's belly?" and I assured her that she had been.  Then she said "But why don't I remember it?"  This nearly broke my heart...I so wish I could giver her back even part of what she's "lost" and have all of the information and answers that she's going to want/need.  I talked to her about this some more but before long she had "moved on" to do doing and talking about something else.  That's what she does.  I have noticed she's doing more role playing with her stuffies that include stories like "Penguin Puppet/Hootsie/ Baby Panda, etc. doesn't have a Mommy or Daddy" or "Hyenas killed his Mommy so he needs us to be his family".  That sort of thing she's done for a while now but times like this I see an increase in it.  And just this week she took it another level by pretending she has a "human" baby.  Usually it's animals only for my girl.  She says her baby's name is Abby and she was, of course, adopted from China.  And last night she said our night time prayer and she asked God to "help all the little babies who don't have Mommies and Daddies get adopted".  So wish me luck and say a little prayer for me that I have the right words (if there really are any) for the questions and discussions that it seems might become more frequent now. 

 

And I know it's a total change of subject but because I want to get it document it I will finish this post with a funny little conversation we had recently.  Kerry saw my maiden name on my FB page and asked me about it, so I had to explain that it was my last name before I married Daddy.  She then asked "Who am I going to marry?"  I assured her that she had a very, very long time before she needed to worry about that, but she just said "Maybe Nathaniel!".  You may remember him from her Mother's Day Out class...and now they're in Kindergarten together.  Oh boy.

 

It's been a while, and since this is our "scrapbook", I thought is was time to show a little bit of what Kerry's been up with in Gymnastics.

 

 

Once the leaves start covering the ground and are ready to be raked up into big piles certain members of our household get pretty excited.

                                         

                                                 But no one quite as much as Kerry.

 

                                And Mommy is just excited to catch that happy little face in picture.

I would love this photo so much more if that little leaf stem tip didn't make it look like she had a boogie in her nose.

 

The game goes like this; Daddy rakes up the leaves into a big pile and Kerry jumps in.  Repeat several times and convince Daddy to jump in at least once just for kicks. 

 

 



 

Kindergarten portrait.

 

 

This is my baby girl's first ever school portrait.  The first of many to come, I'm sure (I can almost envision them all in a large frame with the Graduation photo right in the middle).  There's something so sweet about the Kindergarten portrait isn't there?   The pigtails, the stiff, cheesy little grin,  so sweet.  And this is likely the last school photo with all of her baby teeth intact.  I love this photo, and I really love this girl of mine =).    

Halloween 2013

Due to some wet and wildly windy weather (say that three times fast) Trick-or Treating in our area was postponed for one day.  So we decided to have a little Halloween fun, anyway, by carving the little pumpkin Kerry picked on her field trip to Huber's farm. 

 

 

 

Kerry drew the face and helped scoop out the "guts".  She didn't much enjoy touching the slimy stuff, but she still thought the whole thing was tons of fun.  Fun little fact...there were just over three hundred seeds in that little pumpkin.  Can you believe that?!

 



Kinda cute, right?

 

 

 

Trick-or Treat!

 

This was the year of the Princess.  I knew it would probably happen at some point in time. 

 

She saw this "Sofia the First" dress at the store and was sold.  Let me tell you, she stayed very much "in character" all night.  It was getting pretty amusing =).

 

.  We didn't mind so much that the festivities were postponed since it means after all the excitement, we'll get to sleep in a bit tomorrow.

 

 

We always make Nana and Papaw's house our last stop.  They like to see her dressed up and snap a few photos.

 

 

The first thing she did when we got back home was to dump all of her loot out and organize it.  She has not eaten a single piece!  For my girl Halloween has always been all about dressing up and trick-or-treating, never about the candy itself.  Funny girl.




Bernheim Colorfest 2013

Last Sunday, on a whim, we decided to go to Colorfest at Bernheim Arboretum.  

 

Kerry enjoyed checking out the Alpacas.  Sweet animals...pretty cute, too.

They had THE softest hand-knitted goods made from the Alpaca hair for sale.

 

 

 

Silly girl.

 

Snack break.

Piggy-back break  =)

 

 

 

Mommy thought the raptors were pretty cool ( I kind of have a thing for owls, especially).

 



 

 

She had a blast in the huge corn maze.

 

Just looking pretty while waiting her turn on the rope bridge.  The Boy Scouts set one up each year.  This was Kerry's first time on it and she thought it was pretty awesome. 

 

 

 

But I think the highlight of the day for her was discovering just how much fun it is to roll as fast as possible down a huge grassy hill.  Check out that smile!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though we're nowhere near peak I did get a few shots of the emerging Fall colors.