All About the Alfords

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Go Texan Day!

One of the many wonderful things about being a Texan is the extreme pride that Texans have. You will not meet many people that are as proud as us! When people outside of the state hear that we pledge the American flag and Texas flag every morning in school, they are floored! They also cannot believe that we can get a whole year of curriculum with just Texas history! Well, along with the pride of Texas comes this time of year, Go Texan Day! It is always around the time of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and all of the boots, hats, and country clothes come out! Brooklyn had a Go Texan day at Lemm and will soon have her Kindergarten round up day (pics to come on that one!). Colson had his also where they learned to play horseshoes and had a cowboy feast!

Well Colson did have the cutest boots! They were going to be perfect for this day! He just happened to kick his friends one too many times, SO the boots ended up in the trash can. He was devestated but I hope that we made our point clear! It was plenty painful for us also!!!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Lemm Elementary Culture Fair

Instead of doing a traditional Spring Open House, Lemm decided to do a culture fair. Brooklyn's class was in charge of Sweeden. They became Sweedish experts, made a poster with information, learned famous people and authors from Sweeden, and what life is like for Sweedish kids. They had been playing games from different countries in PE and learning songs from different countries in music. There was music, playing, food from around the world, and even a fashion show displaying the different styles of dress. Colson was sick that night with strep, so Curt took Brooklyn and he said it was a great night!

Very beautiful and dashing costumes!

The little girl on the far left is modelling for Sweeden...Go Madi!

Playing with Dillon!

Chinese jumprope with Teagan and Dillon.

Botchi ball!

Brooklyn's friend Midah and her older sister came out in their authentic Pakistanian clothes...BEAUTIFUL!

Writing

We are diligently working with Colson on writing his name. He has trouble with pen control but is getting so much better! We have a page that we are working on each letter in his name and then putting the letters together to form his name. Colson knows all letters, letter sounds, numbers to 20, his first, middle and last names...it is time to learn to write!

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!