The many faces of Grace

Grace is a girl of many faces.

Her happy face...
I'm not quite sure what this face is.
Her funny face...
Her pouty face...
Her confused face...
Her sad face...
Her surprised face...
This face she said "the face that Ella makes."
She has such a funny personality!

Now that's fresh!

I love getting our eggs from the local market. For some reason they just taste better than the ones from the commissary. You know they are fresh when you find chicken feathers still on the eggs!

Check out that feather. I love it!

Spring!

The weather has been nothing but gorgeous these past few days. I have officially packed away the winter shoes, hats, gloves and scarves and brought up the spring/summer shoes. Yes, the kids are in flip flops! I miss the days of wearing flip flops everyday when we lived in Okinawa, but now I just appreciate them even more. I am so excited for this change of weather!

Grace's Little Ponies

Grace has been playing with her My Little Ponies quite a lot lately. She carries them around in a bag just about everywhere she goes. We take them in the car, to bed, and she even tries to talk me into taking them into the store. I let her take two of her favorite instead of the whole bag. It's just about too heavy for her to carry. It's fun to see her playing something new instead of her babies. She still loves to dress up her baby dolls, but doesn't play with them as much as she used to. We had some cardboard left over from a big box and we made a barn for her ponies. She loves to put them in there and gets a little upset if I put them in the wrong stall. She'll say, "No, Mommy...they have to go in this one!"

Funny story... (It seems we have a little comedian on our hands lately!)

She was up early this morning (oh, wait...that's every morning! ;-) and she was laying in bed with us until we decided to get up. She asked for her ponies and I told her that she had to stay here because her ponies were still sleeping. She told me, "Mommy, their eyes are open...they are not real!" Why, yes... Miss smarty pants...they are not real... Jason and I just started to laugh at her reply!!

She really turning into such a little girl lately. Hard to believe she will be 3 next month...

AJ learned to tie his shoe!

Jackson has been bound and determined to learn how to tie his shoe. He made a goal for himself (which I think is so cute) to learn by Grace's birthday because that is the day of his first t-ball game. A friend of mine let me borrow a book that has laces on it to help him learn. The book is called "The Zoo's Shoes" by Lynn Brunelle and Emilie Chollat. It is a great book to teach kids how to do it. I especially like that the laces are different colors. I think it helps him differentiate between the two bunny ears.

He was so proud of himself when he did it! He still has a little more practice to make perfect but at least he has figured it out for the most part.

Heart Craft

Jackson brought home yet another unique craft from school on Tuesday. This heart is made from vines all twisted around and weaved in and out with different colors of vines. He was so proud of it! We had to make a special trip back to the kindergarten to make sure he had it. Each day of the week they have special activities or assignments to do. On Tuesday and Thursday the preschool teacher comes and does things with the older kids from stories, to crafts to just exploring the forest and learning more about "earth." He tells me some of the most interesting stories on those days. Melanie tells Jackson (and the two other American boys) the stories in german first to see how much they understand. According to his teacher he really does understand a lot of german, but does't speak it. That is great and one of the reasons why we wanted him to go there. It's a great opportunity for him to learn the language. He came home yesterday and told me a new word that he learned. But I can't quite remember...I'm still on the first cup of coffee. ;-) On Fridays Jutta's (the founders) daughter comes and teaches the kids french. He brought home a paper last week that was all labeled with things he colored in french.

The work he brings home will be treasured for years to come. What a great way to be able to look back and remember the great opportunity he had at the waldkindergarten.