Lauren J :: End of Kindergarten interview

Who was your teacher? Miss Ringgenberg, Miss R for short

What did you like about Miss Ringgenberg? When she makes a mistake on words she says, "help me sound it out! Like c-a-t." If you don't know how to spell a word and it isn't on the board she writes it on a post it note and gives it to you. She has all the colors of the rainbow post-its. She lets us have bonus recesses if everyone is on purple or pink (a behavior chart that shows they are all behaving really well) and if everyone is on pink (best behavior) we get a prize from the prize jar. The prizes are candy, gumballs, McDonald Happy meal toys, etc.

What did you like about specials? I like gym and I like art and I like library because we get to watch movies sometimes. There are tiny animals in the forest and their parents died because of the gas and so did this little girl except they got this special medicine to help her be alive. That was one of the movies. We played a fun game in gym called running test line. Basically there are two lines on the gym floor and you run from one red line to the other red line and if you don't get there in time you have to stop. Whoever gets to 100 your whole class gets gatorade. If you don't make it you have to sit down and watch. The person who usually won was Addilyn, Owen H, Brandt, Easton or Mason because they were the fastest in the class. Once I won. but it was very hard because you have to run so many times to get to 80 (if you get to 80 the individual gets a gatorade). In art I enjoyed playing with clay. We made lollipops out of the clay. I made a heart out of clay and when it dried up I painted it and gave it to Ms. Phillips (art teacher). At music I am always the first one to raise my hand and we did London Bridge is falling down and I got to make a tunnel and everyone else went through my tunnel. Mr. Klemm (music teacher) will call your seat number and give you a command like move one arm or move one leg to the ti-ta rhythm.

What did you do for lunch? At the beginning of the  year we had to sit down on a chair in the cafeteria and we are supposed to talk to the person across from us not next to us. We couldn't turn our feet or faces to talk to the person next to us because it would get too loud. When the rules changed it was better. (There were some weird rules in the cafeteria this year that parents complained about and then changes were made). I would like to buy lunch on corn dog day, or when they would let you choose yogurt and crackers, and also on days with chicken nuggets but never on stuffed crust pizza days. When I packed a lunch I would usually have an orange, squeezy applesauce, starbursts, sometimes grapes, pretzels or goldfish, and banana muffins or bread when my mom would make them.

Who were your best friends? Daphne, Stella (off and on), Caroline, Saffi, Chloe, kind of Charlotte, and all the boys in the class. I sat at the BLUE table at the beginning of the year with Mason, Kaely, Quinn and Jaxon. Then I sat at the ORANGE table with Brandt, Owen C., and Chloe. Then I sat at the ORANGE table again with Owen H., Easton and Addilyn.

What did  you enjoy learning about in kindergarten? I enjoyed learning about animals. We got to make crafts about them. I enjoyed a lot learning about doctors because then one day we had a special guest come in and he showed us x-rays and we got to touch an actual bone from a dead animal. We had to wash our hands after. I like to read books with pictures and use my imagination. I liked to illustrate stories too.

What were some of your favorite books that you read this year? Tuesday (wordless picture books), Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon and a book about flowers and bugs called The Grouchy Ladybug.

What did you like to do at recess? I liked to play tag and this game called four square. I liked to play gymnastics or the talent show with Daphne. Sometimes Daphne would chase me and call me mommy. Sometimes Stella would make me be the hamster when she was mad at me so I couldn't talk. Some of the girls in Mrs. Warner's class would tell Easton to kiss me but that was very embarrassing! (Easton has a twin sister who was in the other class and her friends would chase and tease him about Lauren).

Tell me about your field trips. The first field trip was to the pumpkin patch. My mom didn't get to come to that one but on the rest of the field trips she did. On the last one to the farmstead she brought my baby brother too. At the pumpkin patch we got to ride on a carriage because we couldn't pick the pumpkins at the patch because it had rained the night before and it was very muddy. (They picked pre-picked pumpkins). When I came home I painted the pumpkin. It was getting close to my birthday and my mom bought a lot of pumpkins to paint for my birthday party. The next field trip was to high school Environmental Science Lab. We got to touch a lot of animals.  I held a tarantula and a snake and it was so big and fat that Mason and I held it together so we wouldn't drop it. When someone else was holding it it got stuck in the bench hole and the high school kids had to pull it out. When we went to Wonderscope my mom got to ride the bus with me and there was a ginormous rock climbing thing and I beated my friend Jacob J and I got to ring the bell twice because I won a lot of times. The last field trip was to Deanna Rose Farm. When we went to the bird area the peacock showed it feathers and made a loud sound and it got everyone's attention!

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a teacher when I grow up and a lego person (a person who builds with legos a lot of the time). Maybe I can be a person who teaches legos. I don't know, maybe you could decide! I want to have a studio downstairs (in the basement) for all my lego stuff.

What is your favorite song? At school we learned "What a Wonderful World," and I like it because it is beautiful and I learned the hand motions and sign language. It was hard but I still did it. We sang it for our parents for Parent Appreciation Day. In music my favorite song goes like this, "My parents took me to the party and they all walked around with fancy cups of tea..."

What are you looking forward to doing this summer? I'm looking forward to going to the pool and I want to have some playdates with my friends.

What will you remember most about kindergarten? All the things that I just said. :)

Will J :: End of 2nd Grade Interview

Who was your teacher? Mrs. Martin
What did you like about Mrs. Martin? That she was funny and nice. She used puns a lot. When she makes a mistake she blows a raspberry.

What did you like about "specials?" Tell me something about each one. P.E. and music were my favorites, but I also liked art. Library was meh. In library we did projects and read books and a little bit of coding, which was really fun. I liked using my energy in P.E. The games we played were fun, like Zookeeper and Sharks. In Zookeeper there are four hula hoops and Mr. Stanley divides the kids into three groups of animals. There is usually one empty hoop and the kids run to the empty hoop. The zookeeper stands in the middle and calls one group of kids (animals) to the empty hoop and tries to tag them as they pass. If you get tagged you become a zookeeper too.  In Sharks he puts a parachute out and kids hold it like they are sleeping (just their head is sticking out. Two kids are sharks and they go under the parachute and try to grab the feet of the sleeping kids. If the shark gets you the kid yells, "help!" and then two lifeguards pull you back from the sharks trying to grab their feet. If the sharks successfully pulls you under you become a shark and the original shark becomes a sleeping child. In music we sang songs and we had music books where there were songs in them and sometimes we would listen to CDs. We would practice ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ta and sometimes Mr. Klem would make them funny. At art we would paint paintings and sometimes we could do free draw. We had these journals where you could draw whatever you wanted in them.

What did you do for lunch? I would buy a hot lunch one time a week and the rest of the week pack a lunch. Corn Dogs, Chicken and Waffles were my favorite days to buy. Sometimes they had fun desserts like brownies, rice krispy treats and banana bread. I also really liked the smiley face shaped fries. They were good. Kinda like McDonald's fries but without the salt. When I brought a lunch from home I usually had oranges, starbursts (or sometimes oreos), granola bar, squeezy apple sauce, Belvitas, pretzels, and roll-ups (meat and cheese wrapped in a tortilla).
Who were your best buddies? Porter was #1. Trevor, Walker, Colin, David, Jason, Ben, Liam, Eli, Barami, sometimes Gunnar, and Alex but he moved. Lotus, Delany, Emily, Madeline, Olivia, Aurora, Maleena, Nina, and Sarah were friends too.

What was your favorite subject? Math and P.E. In Math we started multiplication. I held the class record in Sprints. There are 44 problems and you get a prize if you can get all of them in one minute. I got 41--so close! Mrs. Martin used puns when teaching us math.

What were some books you read this year? Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Long Haul, Dogman, Wonder, Double Fudge (one of the funniest books ever!), many Magic Tree House books.
What did you like to do at recess? Swings with Porter, kickball, I survived (pretend it's cold and you are surviving a blizzard by finding shelter). Monkey bars was very memorable, lots of calluses and blisters on my hands.

Tell me about your field trips? We went on two field trips. My first field trip was to the zoo and my mom and my friends' moms came too. Our group was me, Mom and Elliott, Porter, Porter's mom (Melanie), Walker and Walker's mom (Laura). It was the start of my friendship with Porter and Walker. There was a sign that said "This caracal is injured," which is why this caracal was at the zoo. It made me sad that it was injured, but I was happy to see one in real life. I learned about caracals on Wild Kratts. Our second field trip was to the KU Museum of Natural History. Porter was my partner and my mom was our parent (chaperone). We ate lunch in a KU classroom and at the museum there was a lion that someone carved out of a rock and the thing I liked about it was that it said "Royals" on the bottom of it. Also, at the museum we went to another classroom and there was a KU student who talked about mammals. A mammal is a kind of animal that doesn't lay eggs, drinks milk and has hair or fur.

Did you win any awards? I received the Kindness Counts award for being nice to all my classmates. I got vanilla ice cream in the cafeteria. (His teacher also chose him to be a peer model where every Wednesday he and a few kids from his class would go to an extra class about learning to be kind)

What do you want to be when you grow up? Baseball or basketball player, scientist, maybe a zookeeper or piano player
What is your favorite song? Can I just say a bunch of Imagine Dragons songs? "It's Time," "Demons," and "Thunder."

What are you looking forward to doing this summer? Mini-Musicals (Summer School Class), my art class with Landon, Idaho, playing with friends at the pool, riding my bike.
What will you remember most about SECOND GRADE? My teacher, my friends and it was my best year yet! Especially in math.

2018 :: week 22

May 20

With the rising temperatures I haven't been going for quite as many walks. Sunday morning I was able to fit in a quick one in a quick one before Tony left. He will be performing in a octet in church next Sunday and the group has been practicing on Saturday and Sunday mornings, which means he has been leaving an hour earlier than normal. I am looking forward to it being over. 😐

May 21

My dad came to Will's baseball game Monday night. It is great living close to my parents and having them get to see the kids as they participate in their various activities.

May 22

We took advantage of a gift card and Joe's KC 99 cent kid meals (on Tuesdays) and went out to dinner.

May 23

I have loved getting to spend my days with Elliott this school year. We've had a fun year together. He is such a sweet and loving little boy. He is so inquisitive and always on the go. I love the feeling of his little arms around my neck when he gives me hugs.

May 24

Elliott has fallen in love with Paw Patrol recently. When we were at the Dollar Tree I decided to get him six "pups." He knows all their names and catchphrases, with Rubble and Chase being his favorite. We already have too much stuff, so I rarely buy new things for Elliott, but it was fun to see how pleased these silly toys made him.

May 25

Anthony and I went on a date to see the new Solo movie. My birthday is on Sunday and Matt's birthday is on Thursday, so we traded babysitting with the Wilsons so we could each go out on a birthday date. We went to an early movie, then ate some Pizzeria Locale.

May 26

Saturday was hot! We watched the Wilsons in the evening. 

2018 :: week 21

May 13

Mother's Day! At 11am Anthony asked me if I wanted to speak in church because one of the scheduled speakers was sick. The perks of being married to a bishop never end. He told me I could speak about whatever I wanted related to mothers or Mother's Day. I decided to speak about lessons I learned from my mother that apply to everyone. One--The Lord wants us to remember other people, to seek out the lonely and forgotten. "Every unselfish act of kindness and service increases your spirituality. God would use you to bless others. Your continued spiritual growth and eternal progress are very much wrapped up in how you treat others. Do you indeed love others and become a blessing in their lives? Isn't the measure of the level of your conversion how you treat others? Service to others is what the gospel and exalted life are all about" (Elder Robert J. Whetton, General Conference April 2005). Two--There is power in consistent personal prayer. You don't have to pray with flowery language, but you can cultivate a strong relationship with the Savior through regular prayer. Three--Seek after beauty and find small ways to add it to you life. The 13th Article of Faith says, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." A vase of fresh flowers or tidy room can foster a sense of peace in a chaotic world.

May 14

This is our neighbor and Elliott's buddy Blasie. He lives a few houses down the street and is two weeks older than Elliott. When we went outside to go for a walk after dinner Elliott was delighted to see him motoring down the sidewalk on his "truck." We delayed our walk and let the boys play together.

May 15

On Wednesday Will came home with an invitation to the Kindness Counts Ice Cream party. Every teacher gets to pick one or two kids from their class to go to the party. The students that are chosen are those who do an exemplary job of modeling kindness in the classroom. Will does a lot of things to make us proud, but this might be what makes us feel the proudest.

May 16

Elliott and I joined the OPC kindergartners for a morning at Deanna Rose. Elliott finally got over his fear of feeding goats and had a great time. Lauren enjoyed playing with the goats as well. I supervised Lauren and her friend Brianna who were very easy to manage. A lot of parents went on this field trip, and I enjoyed seeing some who I don't get to see very often. As soon as the field trip was over Elliott and I headed home to watch the Wilson boys while Emily went to a primary presidency meeting.

May 17

Elliott is getting more involved in the bathing process, insisting that he wash his own hair. He does a pretty good job of rubbing the soap in, but I have to help him wet and rinse his hair. It is so thick and seems to repel water.

May 18

I ordered a new chair for our front room. Anthony sits on it to read his scriptures most mornings.

May 19

The youth went paint balling Saturday. All of the youth, youth leaders and several parents attended.

2018 :: week 20

May 6

The kids were looking cute and the flowers were out in full bloom so I had to try to get a picture. Of course, our 1pm start time doesn't really lend itself to good lighting so the picture was subpar.

May 7

My dad came over Monday night and we planted our garden for FHE. Afterwards we treated ourselves to fudgsicles and Pepaw let the kids and I ride around the neighborhood in the back of his truck. This year we are planting tomatoes, zucchini, squash, basil, cucumbers and peppers.

May 8

Will's friend Trevor came over after school and the kids had fun playing outside.

May 9

Elliott takes his job as helper very seriously. It doesn't matter what he is helping with, zI am trying to nurse our rosebush back to life. We over pruned it last year and it did not recover well. We cut off the dead parts and I've been soaking it a few times a week and it seems to be helping.

May 10

I went to the school and helped in Will and Lauren's classrooms for an hour each. I couldn't help but snap a picture of Will working on a math lesson. I love seeing the kids in their classrooms. They both like it when I come, but they get so shy and will hardly look at me.

May 11

Lauren's class had a Parent Appreciation Program Friday afternoon. We watched a slideshow of the year's highlights, the kids sang "What a Wonderful World," with some sign language, then we ate light refreshments and went through a binder of what they accomplished throughout the year. It was sweet and fun to see how much the kids had grown.

May 12

We worked very hard in the fall to get new grass growing under the west side of our yard. The huge tree in our front yard provides a lot of shade and makes it hard for the grass to thrive. We verticut the lawn and then put out new seed and watered it twice a day for about 2 months. It is so rewarding to see that it actually worked. Now that the weather is nicer I am spending a lot of time working in our yard, and I am finding that I like it. Also in this picture, Elliott is walking towards our neighbor's cat. He loves that cat and will wander off whenever he sees him.

2018 :: week 19

April 29

We are experiencing that approximately the elusive two weeks of perfect spring weather right now and are doing our best to take full advantage. The sun is setting later and we are able to comfortably go for family walks after dinner a few times a week. Sunday Elliott and I stayed home from church because he threw up the night before (he was fine at home all day, but did take a longer nap than usual) and I was feeling stir crazy. That evening we walked or rode scooters around the neighborhood and tried to savor the gorgeous night.

April 30

When Lauren told me she was having a hard time sleeping because he tooth hurt, I initially shrugged it off as a delay tactic to avoid going to sleep. Upon further investigation I saw that her tooth was indeed extremely loose and I was able to pull it out for her. It's fun to watch her grow up and see the young lady she is becoming, but I genuinely felt a little sad knowing that her perfectly-straight-baby-teeth-smile days are over.

May 1

This ended up being a rough week for me. The greenery in the area seems to have exploded and my allergies were in full force, complete with sinus pain and pressure. I got up early Tuesday morning and took a walk around the neighborhood with Will, but after that I stayed inside as much as possible, which was harder than I expected.

May 2

My dad is a saint and came over Wednesday evening after soccer practice to help us get our garden plot ready. He dug out an additional 12 square feet, in the hopes that this year things won't be so crowded. Right as he was finishing up it started to rain. Within half an hour the tornado sirens were going off and we were debating whether or not to go to our basement! It was the first major storm of the year. Side note: Lauren wore a scooter (skirt with shorts underneath) to her soccer practice and it got a lot of attention. Lauren is into very feminine things, but is also very active and loves to be doing things. I love that she is comfortable enough in her own skin to do things her way.

May 3

Elliott's favorite time of day is the thirty to sixty minutes we've been playing at the park after the older kids get out of school. He plays with his buddies Nicolas and Ian (younger brothers of Lauren's classmates Daphne and Breanna) and gets as dirty as possible. Thursday the kids had an early dismissal and Will's friend Porter came over to play for a few hours.

May 4

The older kids had the day off from school due to a teacher work day. Lauren spent much of the day creating little cards and flowers for her friends, teachers and neighbors. Lauren loves to create and her teacher has told me she spends any free time in the classroom at the "art cart" making cards for her classmates. She made flowers and taped Starbursts onto them and wrote cheerful notes that she then put into snack-sized ziploc bags. Because the ones we are currently using happen to have Star Wars characters on them (I got them for 50% off at Target) she told the neighbors she delivered to they were "May the Force (4th)" treats.

May 5

Another busy Saturday. Will's baseball game started 30 minutes before Lauren's soccer game, so it was a divide and conquer morning. As I was loading up the van with post-game snacks--it was our week to provide--I noticed that our right back tire was totally flat. Luckily my mom was planning on coming to Lauren's game and she was able to give Lauren, Elliott and me a ride. After the games Stevie helped us pump up the tire enough to get it to the shop and it was patched in under an hour. Will decided he wanted to start riding a bike again. He had a rough time with his bike last year and had decided he was going to stick to the scooter. The more we pushed him to try the more he dug in his heels. He finally decided the time was right--he was ready to ride a bike again--and he spent hours riding up and down the street and around the block.