All About the Alfords

Friday, March 2, 2012

Valentine's Day 2012

Better late than never right!? We had a great day filled with parties, candy, valentine cards, and lots of hugs and kisses! I was able to get off work to go to Brooklyn's Valentine party because it was at the end of the day. Unfortunately, Colson's was in the middle of the day, so I couldn't go! I was sad! We all came home and spread everything on the floor to compare and show off our goodies! So fun...I miss the days of being excited about a paper valentine card! When I went to Brooklyn's school, there were a lot of parents there celebrating. When the kids got time to open their valentine cards, Brooklyn told me she didn't want to. She was going to wait until we got home so that they wouldn't get mixed up with anyone else's at their table. She pulled out her journal and started showing me her writing and started a new story...wow! This girl can write!

Ryan, Mary Ann, Christin, and Brooklyn getting hand sanitizer!

Klein ISD provides all treats for parties...nothing can be brought in because of allergies...Love it!

The class wrote a poem for the parents...every kid got to create a part of it!

All of her goodies...notice they are untouched...journal out and ready!

Breaking opened the journal to read me her stories

Brooklyn LOVES kindergarten thank you to Mrs. Hutson

Brooklyn and her close friend Karianne...she is a Daisy with her and goes to AWANA with us!

All valentined out!

The stash!

The Artist

Yes, The Artist is the name of the movie that one for best picture at the Academy Awards last week but that is not the artist I am referring to. Brooklyn is our artist! She has always had a love and deep appreciation for art. About a month and a half ago, we took the kids to see the rodeo art they had displayed at the Spring ISD administration building. While it was hard for Colson to take his time and really admire the beauty of the art, Brooklyn couldn't believe her eyes...she was in hog heaven! On the way home, I told Curt that we really needed to look into getting her into some art lessons. She could care less about sports or sweating but truly loves art and music! Curt suggested I call our friend Judi! I have known Judi for MANY years, went to middle and high school with her son where we were great friends, and then worked with her until she retired at Smith. She was a fabulous art teacher and is a wonderful person who has always had an affection for my kiddos! I emailed her and VOILA...we have ourselves the best art teacher ever!!!!!!
She comes out to the house on Thursdays after school and I will tell you...BROOKLYN LOVES HER! She loves Judi but most of all loves learning all about the art. She has learned about color, shape, form, lines, and then started doing work with painting this week! I truly feel blessed that Judi is doing this for Brooklyn....have I mentioned that she is the best ever!

Brooklyn learned how to make low reliefs and then made her valentine cards like this!

Mrs. Judi brought clay to teach form

Watercolor is Mrs. Judi's favorite type of paint!

Friday, February 17, 2012

In January, Brooklyn Liked to....

Brooklyn had a great January with several different celebrations: birthdays, Chinese new year at school, career week at school, the 100th day of school, and cookie time for Daisies! School has been filled with reading, writing, science labs, and math! She is loving it! Here are pictures from all of the above places! Love the pure joy you can see in her eyes in some of these!

It's the Year of the Dragon

All ready for our parade!

Hutson's Hearts and Heroes!

Funny face!!!

They got to use chop sticks!

One of the moms came in and taught them some Chinese also!

Ricky's party!

Best friends for life!

Brooklyn's 100th day of school project...it is a gumball machine

She wants to be a doctor in a hospital when she grows up!

193 cookies!!!

Brooklyn and Madeline hung out at Superbowl and they just LOVE each other!

Winter time celebration at school!

In January, Colson Liked To...

We had a fun-filled, birthday partying, friend and family time kind of January! Colson got to go to several birthday parties including Ricky, Zeke, and Cody (I only have pictures from two of them)! Colson enjoyed putting on plays with stuffed animals and puppets for us with the help of his sister and listening to her read to him. Colson also got to party with some friends for the Super Bowl at our house...a real kid-friendly low-key kind of night!

Happy Birthday Ricky!!!

My sister is a good reader!

Old MacDonald Farm for Zeke's Birthday!

Ruby Shayne and I were petting the deer!

My two girls! Rheagan and Ruby Shayne

First time on a pony!

Colson is all about the party hats!

Our very own play!

Loves to dress up!

The super bowl party crowd!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Growing and Changing...

Just a quick blog update to tell about how the kids are both growing and changing....

Brooklyn: Brooklyn is so proud to be a Daisy. She is taking selling Girl Scout cookies so seriously! When I was a child, I would have never approached anyone to ask them to buy anything. Brooklyn walks up to them and has prepared what she will say to everyone! I am so proud of her tackling this project with appropriate words and behaviors! She sold 183 cookies and still selling!!
Brooklyn received all Es and and E + in math on her report card. I have had 2 emails from her teacher bragging on her good choices, caring heart, and amazing writing!
Brooklyn learned to ride a bike without training wheels! She practiced 2 different days and was shaky. Then she tried a third time and took off! She has it under control!

Colson: Colson is full of energy. He is coming home talking about hibernation of bears and nocturnal animals and totally knows what that means! We are working on his writing skills and he has become a pretty good colorer in the process. He doesn't do it long, but likes to do it now!
Colson has had his training wheels raised on his bike. We are going to tackle him riding without them now that Brooklyn has mastered it! He is so excited to try...as long as he has elbow and knee pads!
Colson is amazingly quick at learning his Cubbie verse for AWANA! It is so cool to see him singing his verses when I put them to song. He sings them in the car, while playing with his cars, and just laying in his bed!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

WELCOME TO 2012

From our family to yours....HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Years Eve 2011

We were not able to get together to let the Kuhn boys and our kids exchange presents earlier in the break because of family in town and illnesses, so there is no better time than New Years Eve! We had a great time letting the kids open presents! Brooklyn was thrilled with her crafts and would not let them go! She has already started her first weaving project! Colson loves his train track and has started building it already! We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends that are as close as family! We then went across the street to their neighbor's house. Katie and Cody had a few friends over who all had kids and there was tons of food, drinks, fireworks, sparklers, poppers, and yawns as the night went on! The kids had a great time playing with all of the kid friendly fireworks but Colson was beat! He did not take a nap during the day so he was hanging out just watching most of the night. We ended up leaving about 9:45 and the kids were in bed and asleep by 10:15! Early night for New Years but it is not easy when the kids are young! Thank you for inviting us! We had a great time!