Summer Fun

Sprinkler dancing

Long car trips with a best friend

Sand castles

Water sliding with Daddy

Picnic in the park. Cigars optional.

Glow sticks and fireworks

Beach walks at sunset

Late nights watching the stars

Friends

Last summer, we were the new kids on the block. I had a very lonely little girl moping around the house. What a difference a year makes! This summer, hardly a day goes by without at least one or two extra children hanging out at my house, and sometimes, the entire neighborhood gang. I've had to come up with a "secret code" to let them know when I'm teaching piano and they shouldn't come and knock on the door to see if Mary Beth can play. I hang out a special door hanger to let them know I have a student!

Kindergarten Graduation

That's my baby - front and center in the green gingham dress with the ribbon tie. She lost another front tooth, learned to ride her bike without training wheels, and graduated from kindergarten all in the space of about 2 weeks. Suddenly, she's changing from a little girl into a big one - all at once.

At the graduation ceremony, they sang songs for us and presented a video of photos the teacher had taken during the year. We were very happy that Kevin got to come - he managed to leave work a little early that day and surprised Mary Beth. The night before, she had begged him to come and told him he should "sneak away from work." She was so excited when she saw him walk in!

Missing Tooth No. 3

Easter

Easter morning started bright and early for the Lowe family since mommy and Mary Beth needed to be at church by 8:00. The Easter bunny had left some candy and a single egg in Mary Beth's basket. Inside the egg was a message to tell her where to find the next egg. After a pre-dawn hunt through the yard, it led her inside to a basket in the closet...

where she found the tennis racket she's been wanting! Wow, the Easter Bunny knows everything!

Take a good look at the dress. She won't be wearing it again. At Sunday School, she somehow stepped on the overlay skirt and pulled it right out of the waistband. I don't think it's fixable. It sure was pretty.

Mary Beth's Winning Story

Mary Beth's story "My Dog Bella" was selected out of all of the kindergarten students at her elementary school to compete in a district writing contest. Here it is, with all of her spelling and punctuation intact. The teacher encourages them to express themselves naturally, spelling the best they can. Of course, she'll eventually learn to spell all of these words!

My Dog Bella

I have a dog named Bella and she is a fun dog. She is a gold dog and she is a orange dog. She can sit and she can laye down. Wenevr I get the lesh, I put it on Bella she gose crasee. The wethr is gedenge warmr and Bella is sdardng to shed. My name is Mary Beth and that is my dog Bella.

Update in March of 2010: In light of our new experiences at a new school, I am so sorry I did not protest the fact that they let these and other spelling errors stand in the munchkin's writing. Even though my common sense warning bells were ringing, I allowed myself to believe that the experts at the school knew what was best. I think it was a great idea to allow her to write the story initially without for concern for spelling - but only as a rough draft. There should have been a revision process to correct the spelling and encourage the habit of always presenting your best work. Because the teacher allowed this "phonetic spelling," I didn't correct it at home either when she wrote in her journal for fun. All of that constant reinforcement of spelling words like "weather" as "wethr" and "whenever" as "whenevr" meant that in first grade she had to unlearn a bad habit and then relearn how to spell words that end in "-er," among other things. How inefficient. Why allow this spelling in kindergarten and then suddenly do a 180-degree turn in first grade and put a red mark on every misspelled word? It was very confusing to the munchkin when she got those red marks in first grade after having been praised for her writing in kindergarten. Chalk this up as another reason we're happy to be out of public school.