How Do Balleen Whales Eat?

How Do Baleen Whales Eat, wait...what the heck is a Baleen Whale?  Yep it is time for Kadence's first Science Fair.  It brought back lots of memories for me and Charlie including all of the cool ones we remembered, as well as the ones we did in our school days.

Charlie decided to take the task on to help Kadee.  He told her about one he did as a kid and she immediately fell in love with the idea!  They did the research together and really put together a pretty cool experiment!

Apparently some whales (Baleen Whale, i.e. Humpback Whales) don't have teeth, instead they have Baleen.  So the experiment was to determine which more resembled a whale's baleen, a comb or a brush.  We each took turns dragging a comb and a brush through a tub of water filled with pepper.  The pepper was meant to resemble the krill (shrimp-like creatures) the whales eat.  Kadee documented all of our results and laid out her research and findings.

She was so proud of her project and she really did a great job! She had read the research they dug up on it over and over and could tell you more details than you could ever imagine about Baleen Whales! I was so proud of her and Daddy for helping out. 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

One of the PTA fundraising events at Kadee's school is a UNLV Baseball game. We weren't able to make it last year but we're looking forward to this year's game. Pete, Julie, Dani and Kevin joined us. Chance stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.

It was the perfect night for a ball game. The weather was beautiful. The school choir sang the National Anthem and the teachers used a sling shot to pass out T-Shirts. The kids had all kinds of signs made up and were chanting cheers all through the game.

Kadee loved seeing all of her friends. I loved seeing the small community of parents, teachers and students who make up and support her school. It was a good time had by all and I am already looking forward to next year!

We Are So Proud!

The other night Charlie was checking Kadee's homework folder to make sure she had everything done for the night. He found a letter addressed to: The Parents of Kadence. Uh-oh I thought, what now? Inside the envelope was an invitation to Kadence's assembly. The invitation also noted that she would be receiving a character award and to keep it as a surprise.

So Friday morning we attended her assembly. The first grade classes put on a Valentine's day show and sang songs and read poems. So Cute!
Then after the performance each teacher got up and presented awards to four of their students in their classes. Kadee was so excited to receive one. We are so proud of her!
On our way out to the parking lot me and Charlie had a conversation about how anytime we are at an event of hers how overcome we get and get butterflies in our stomachs because, there she is, our baby girl turning into such a wonderful big girl.

Kadence's 1st Grade Progress Report

We had Kadee's 1st, 1st grade teacher conference today. I know my daughter pretty well, I know she is a great kiddo and typically very well behaved but before every teacher conference I get a little nervous. I always anticipate the teacher dropping a bomb on me and telling me something I would never imagine Kadence doing. This time I was more nervous than usual because the night before her conference she told us that the teacher said she didn't have to go and she really didn't want to go. Immediately we bombarded her with 100 questions..."why don't you want to go, what'd you do, did you do something bad, are you in trouble?" She assured us everything was okay, there was only one small little problem, she had lost her math workbook...AGAIN! She lost it a couple weeks earlier, the teacher gave her a new one and now she lost it again...Not the end of the world by any means but we would have to have a talk with her and explain responsibility a little bit better.

At the teacher conference everything went great. She got all A's and one B (which was a 89.8%) what in the heck happened to rounding up! Her teacher is very pleased with her and claimed that she is only one of the few in her class that got all excellents in the behavior category! Good job Kadee Bug!

Family Game Night

The PTA hosted a "Family Game Night" at school for the students and their families. It was a really cute event. The GATE teacher set up about 20 games in the cafeteria and then about another 12 more challenging games in her classroom. My sister watched the boys so Charlie could come and enjoy the night with Kadence. I of course being the volunteer coordinator had volunteered to help with the games. I was so glad Charlie got to come because Kadence wasn't stuck staying "where I could see her" all night.

This was not a highly attended event like the Soc Hop or Carnival but it was actually nice because everyone got an opportunity to play the games they wanted without having to wait to long for a turn. Upon arrival every student received a raffle ticket and at the end of the evening all of the games were raffled off. I was keeping my fingers crossed for Kadee to win one of the games and sure enough her ticket was the second to the last one picked. She chose the checkers game. It was a fun night and reminded me just how fun it is to sit down and play a good board game once in a while!

Soc Hop - 2009

I went ahead and signed up for the PTA this year, now that I am not pregnant and Kadee is in first grade, I felt like I could take on one more commitment...what the heck right! Our first big function of the year was the Soc-Hop. A fifties inspired dance for the kids. I am the volunteer coordinator so I was calling my list of parents (about 75 of them) all week to try and get enough helpers to scoop ice cream for the root beer floats and sundae table. It actually was a very cute event and very well attended by the kids and parents. It was great to see all the girls in their poodle skirts and the boys in their jeans and white t-shirts with their hair slicked back. Several of the parents even joined in the fun and dressed-up. I got Kadee a Pink Ladies costume and she looked absolutely adorable. I don't think she got the whole Pink Ladies though, she kept looking at me VERY confused as I tried to explain. I guess it's time to sit her down and make her watch Grease with me. I wonder if she will like it as much as I do?

The kids had an absolute blast and danced their little hearts out. By no means was this the classic boys sit on one side and girls sit on the other and nobody dances. Every kid there was dancing and several of them even took over the stage, including Kadence (it's a blurry picture but she is the one in the pink on the end on the left hand side)

Everybody jamming out to YMCA! We also had a HUGE twister game set up outside that was also a huge hit.

KadeeBug enjoying a root beer float with her friend Morgan.

Kadee's 1st, 1st Grade School Project

Kadee only had one homework assignment her first week of school. Ms. Summers sent home a person cut-out and Kadee had to decorate it. After Open House on Wednesday we took her to Michael's to get some stuff to decorate it. She decided she wanted to decorate it like a NY Giants Cheerleader. We had lots of fun shopping, we got ribbon, foam for the clothes, fuzzy pipe cleaners for the hair, pipe cleaners for the pom-poms and googly eyes. Thursday night we started the project right when we got home. We had a ton of fun with this. The pom-poms were kind of tricky so I had to help her with those and cutting the pipe cleaners for the hair. Other than that it was pretty much all Kadence. She traced everything out, cut and glued and decorated. It turned out super cute and she was pretty proud of her project.

Open House

Tonight we headed to Kadee's Open House at school. Dani was ever so gracious to keep the boys so we could focus just on Kadence. The principal and the president of the PTA spoke to the parents. I signed back up for the PTA and volunteered for all of the school functions in the fall, the Sock Hop, Fall Carnival, Ice Cream Social and Bingo. I wasn't as involved last year as I had wanted to be, with the surprise pregnancy I had to save all of my time off for when the baby came and I was soooo tired at night it was all I could do to get the kids fed, bathed and to bed...extra-curricular activities were slim to none. This year I feel a little more ambitious.

From there we were off to Kadence's class to hear the teacher's presentation. Ms. Summers told us what we could expect for the school year. After visiting her class we got to go to some other cool places like the library and the music room.

Kadee's 1st Day of School - 1st Grade

Kadee started 1st grade! Boy were we nervous. New class, new teacher, new friends, full day, lunch at school...there was so much change coming our way. On Friday we went to "Meet the Teacher", Ms. Summers who seemed very nice. We got to see the classroom and Kadee's new desk and meet some of her new classmates. We were very surprised to see that there was another Cadence (with a "C") in her class. Kadee didn't say much at all to her teacher or even to us, we could tell "nervousness" was definitely setting in. Naturally, this sent my nerves into overdrive and the questions just started overwhelming my brain, will she be okay, will she make new friends, will she get to lunch okay, etc, etc, etc....

Saturday we went shopping with Aunt Julie, Dani, Cody and Grandma for school clothes. We found just the right outfit for the first day.

Sunday we went shopping for school supplies. (Note to self: Do NOT wait until the day before school to buy supplies...there are none!) After hitting Target and Walgreens we had the necessities she needed to get started. I would have to scour the city however to find a pencil box. That night I made her lunch, she wanted to buy lunch in the cafeteria but me being the nervous parent thought I would send a packed lunch and money, that way she was covered!

Monday we got the kids up a little earlier than normal because we knew we needed plenty of time to get ready for school. I made Kadee our "Special Day" breakfast...pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles, of course Cole got some too! Then we were on our way. We walked Kadee up to find her line. There she saw some friends from her kindergarten class in line, Daisy and Jaden. It was like a wave of relief came over her and her nervous smile was replaced with an excited smile...thank goodness! When the bell rang we walked her to her class, dropped off her school supplies and gave her a big hug and kiss! She was on her own now.

I took the afternoon off to pick her up from school. When the bell rang her class came out and the teacher kept them all in line like a bunch of baby birds while she dismissed one at a time to their parents. I found Kadee in line, she was gabbing away with two other girls...my little social butterfly! It was finally her turn to be dismissed and she ran over and gave me a big hug and reassured me that she had a great day.

I treated her to an after school treat. She decided she wanted a treat from Applebee's. So we headed to the restaurant and ordered the Chocolate Chip Sundae...yummy! We got to sit and chat, just us girls and I heard all about her day. After Applebees we walked over to the pet store, one of her favorite things to do. We both fell in love with a little Miniature Pinscher...he was so cute.

All in all, she had a great start to what will hopefully be a great school year.

Kadee's School Snack

Kadence has been asking me for the last couple weeks to buy circle crackers, spaghetti sauce and white cheese so she could make us her secret snack she learned in school. This last week I finally remembered and after school she suggested she make it for us. She placed the crackers on the pan, spooned some spaghetti sauce on each and covered each one with white cheese, otherwise known as mozzarella. We put them in the oven for a couple minutes and then voila! They were so easy to make and very yummy. Good job Kadee Bug!

Valentine's Brownies

I stayed home with Cole on Thursday, we found out he had severe Bronchitis and a double ear infection...lovely and lots of fun :) I was starting to get a sore throat and wasn't feeling all that great either. We took Kadee to school and picked her up at the end of the day where I was given a wonderful report from her teacher. Kadence has recently has some problems socializing in class and not paying attention to the teacher. We have had several long conversations with her and the teacher thanked me very much for our efforts because whatever we were doing was working. What a relief. On top of that, she has been given a list of words to learn every week. On Thursdays, the teacher tests each kid and those who have learned their words get to move on. This week she struggled a little bit so I thought she might have a hard time with her test, but she didn't she passed with flying colors.

I thought she deserved some quality mommy and me time so I put Cole down for a nap (that's a whole other story...for two hours he laid in his bed with the occasional "MOMMY!" screamed at the top of his lungs! I wasn't going to cave in, he needed his sleep. I kept peeking in on him to make sure he was okay and on my last peek saw that he pulled his TV/DVD combo into his bed and pulled out the DVD player that is on the side of the TV! No more DVD's for Cole!)

Anyways, me and Kadee decided we would bake brownies...yum. We spent the afternoon chatting it up, mixing brownies which Kadence did all by herself and just enjoying time together. We had a blast and best of all got to have some delicious brownies to top off our afternoon.

What Should I Teach Kadence Today???

Kadee's homework tonight included cutting out words and pasting them to the appropriate picture on the worksheet. I was juggling between getting dinner cooked and helping her with her homework. I got her started and she cut out her first word and started putting glue on it to paste to the worksheet. She got a little too much on the picture and immediately asked for help with her mess.

I initially reached for a paper towel to wipe up the mess and then thought, wait a second...I am missing a golden opportunity to teach my daughter an old trick! I took the gooey piece of paper out of her hand, turned it upside down and wiped the excess glue all over the palm of her hand. The look on her face was priceless! It was a look of shock and disgust all rolled into one. I assured her what I was doing was super cool, so she quickly smiled and went along with mommy's directions to blow on the glue until it dried.


Soon enough the glue was dry and I showed her how to peel the layer of glue off of her hand which she thought was pretty darn cool. Oh the wonderful things we teach our young!

Not My Daughter...

Friday night I picked up the kids from the babysitter as usual and was headed up to my parents for a visit. Charlie was out of town, he went to visit some friends in Colorado Springs and spend Superbowl Sunday with them. So it was just me and the kiddos for the weekend.

I loaded the kids and backpacks into the car and began departing the babysitters neighborhood. I asked Kadence how school was and got the surprise of my life! "Well mom, not so good, I almost got sent to the Principal's office." As I lost my breath in that split second, I managed to utter the words, "come again?" She explained to me that she didn't have to go to the Principal's office, she almost had to go. Oh I am sorry, is there a difference. I immediately pulled over to the side of the road to get to the bottom of this. This had to be one of her imaginative stories and I was already coming up with reasons of why she should not make up stories like this because she would give her mom a heart attack!

I asked her what happened and she explained that she threw a dice at one of the boys in her class after he threw one at her. Okay, that's not so bad...that's almost self defense right. I reached back into the backseat and dug through her backpack for any notes from the teacher. Sure enough I found her behavior report. Every Friday the teacher sends home a behavior report that has the days of the week and Kadence has gotten a smiley face every day of every week until this day! I looked at it and there was a BIG BLACK STRAIGHT LINE where a smiley face should go. I immediately started hyperventilating! I read the note that explained that Kadence had been a little talkative during class this week and extremely loud during centers on Friday. After a long talk on the side of the road I called her dad who had a long talk with her also. She lost her privileges for the weekend which included a much anticipated overnight stay at Grandma's.

On Sunday night she wrote a note to the teacher apologizing for her behavior. I too wrote a note to the teacher to make sure she knew we were aware of the situation and had addressed it with Kadence. Now that it is done and over with all I can think about is that I might have overreacted...a little. Oh well, at least I addressed it and stood firm in her punishment. I love that little girl to death, but God help her, she is doomed...if I act this way with her first bad behavior report, what in the world am I going to do when she does something really bad???

Kadee's School Project

Kadee brought home a fun school project this week. There were three paper plates attached together with brads and she was to make a snowman out of it. Immediately my mind started racing with ideas, we could use this and we could do this...and then I took a breath and realized I needed to gain control of myself. This was Kadence's project, not Kristi's. Although I do think it would be so much fun to be back in Kindergarten again, my noodle necklaces would probably look so much better then the ones I made in Kindergarten. I could already see the bling I would add to them with rhinestones and colors.

I get a little OCD when I work on projects so I knew I would only have to help her with ideas and she would have to do the rest. So we hit Michael's on Tuesday night to pick up some supplies. She decided she wanted to cover her snowman with cotton balls because that would look like snow. I agreed...and then suggested that maybe she pick out some glitter to make it sparkle which she immediately agreed to, she looooves glitter! Her snowman was going to be a girl so she wanted a bow for her hair. And then we picked out supplies for her eyes, nose, mouth, arms, a scarf and some buttons.

On Wednesday night we got home and dug right into making her snowman (snow-woman). I think we both had a blast. I found myself wanting to do everything for her because it was so much fun, and then I would catch myself and make her do all of the work. She did a great job!

Cole even wanted part of the action so I passed him some glue and scrap fabric so he could make his very own.