Isn't She Lovely!?

 

This is Addison trying to be Juliet from "Gnomeo and Juliet" She put a pair of her old leggings on her head. Cracks us up! She came up with this on her own.

She has a beard like her dad!

Much Love,

The Reynolds

Back to School

We all had a great first week back to school.
I started on Monday with only 5 boys. Compared to 11 last year, this is a GREAT start. Of course we still have our ups and downs with the boys, but I will take it any day of the week knowing that I can really handle these situations so much easier!
Thomas had his first class on Thursday that he is a TA for. It went well and he starts all of his other classes on Tuesday and Wednesday.
As for our girlie girl, she started her first day in 3 year old preschool at All Saints Episcopal School on Wednesday. Her teacher is Mrs. Easton and her assistant is Ms. Carol, she has about 10 kids as a whole in the class. I took off in the morning so that I could go with Thomas to take her. She has been so ready all summer to go to her new school and that day her excitement was just as strong. She looked more than adorable in her uniform and she had her bag, napmat, and lunchbox to add to the mix! She was able to go to all of her special classes in the three days she was there: music, library, spanish, and gross motor (PE) in which she called the teacher the "Comfy pants lady", cracks me up! At the end of the day when I pick her up she is definitely sleepy but very happy and eager to head back the next morning!
We are feeling so happy about this school and it is going to be very hard to not want to keep her there for years to come. Much to consider in the later months before a new school year begins.
I think this year is going to be a very busy year for all three of us with our school experiences, but I feel it is going to be a very positive one! YAY!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

The Dance Catastrophe

This summer, we signed Addison up in a starter ballet class at our community center for $30 for the entire summer. The first day we were able to watch and meet the teacher, who was a young girl from Tech, and then the rest of the summer we had to sit out in the hall sitting area in expectations of seeing our little dancers the last day of the summer! I was so excited that she was able to show me a few little beginner dance moves and that every Wednesday night she was so happy when she arrived and left the class. This last Wednesday was her last class and I was eager and video camera ready! To my surprise, I was about to scream the entire time I was in there watching this train wreck of a class. I was very very proud of my daughter for being so well behaved and avoiding bad behavior temptations the entire class. I will simply list the issues I had with this class and I refuse to show the video because I do not wish to be reminded!!

1. There were little girls in this class that are allowed to do whatever they want and the parents sat and laughed and had no problems with the fact that their child wes not following the minimal directions given and not participating in the activites.
2. There was no class room management going on at all!! The teacher in me was ready to go crazy on this situation.
3. Where was the dancing? I saw a teacher read a story about a ballet dancer, I saw 2 dance moves, freeze "dancing" or running, and jumping over a piece of material.

I was really really expecting so much more from this and I have learned my lesson on signing her up for community center activities and expecting a great program to come out of it. Here are a few pictures of Addison in her super cute ballet leotard. The photos do not really show the chaos.

We have signed Addison up for a REAL dance class...I hope.  She will be at the Dance Gallery every Tuesday evening to learn tap and ballet.  We will get to have a class viewing the first class of every month so that I can see what is going on and they also have cameras in the classrooms so that we can watch out in the sitting area on all other classes. We will have a big recital at the end of the year, as well! My mom made Addison a dance bag while she was here this week! It is perfect! I really really hope this is better experience for me, Addison will be fine in whatever we do as long as she is having a fun time.

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Go Speed Racer

This girl of ours has grown leaps and bounds this summer. We have gone from a size 8 shoe at the start of the summer to a size 9 as the new year of school starts and she has jumped through the roof with her height. We can not believe what a change we have seen with Addison with her growth and her personality. Our little girl is getting too too big for us. Something else that she is getting too too big for is her tricycle! She got her trike for Christmas this year and she is now too tall for it. When she rides her bike her knees are touching the handle bars and she was struggling to petal and move and a "normal" pace.
So for a surprise this weekend, she was able to get a big girl bike with training wheels. She is in love with it! She wants to ride her bike every 10 minutes and WOW! is she fast! Before we were needing to push her along and tell her keep going and now she is about 3 yards in front of us and we are needing to speed walk to keep up with her. She just loves it! She also likes to go ride down the way to our neighbors house 3 houses down to say hi to her every night. She is an elderly lady and Addison and her I think are both enjoying the attention that they are giving to one another! HA! It is too cute.

Much Love,
The Reynolds

The Nelms Visit

Two weekends ago, we had a wonderful visit with our friends, John and Katie! They flew in Saturday night and we took them to Spanky's for a burger and then we headed downtown for a walk around the depot and to check out First Friday Art Trail. Although we did not stay long, it was nice to walk around a little and begin some catching up!
Saturday we got up and went out to Apple Country to do some apple picking. We were able to pick out some Gala apples to bring home and enjoy! They were little apples, but very good. They reminded me of the apples that we used to get off of our backyard tree in Canada. We ended our morning with some lunch at Angela's. Great pizza and sandwiches. In the afternoon, Addison and Katie needed some sun and water excitement in the backyard. Let's just say Addison was in heaven!!! That night, the four adults had a great night with some Wallaby Darns and dominoes! I had a blast!
Sunday we headed over to Home Cafe for a delicious brunch. I think all of us were so happily stuffed! We ended our great weekend with a little education at the Silent Wings Museum. Addison was loving the great big airplanes and real equipment that they had to look at.
John and Katie, thank you so much for a wonderful visit! We miss you all so much and we love seeing you all.

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Summer Performace

Here is Addison's summer singing performance from last week. We went to two senior facilities and then we performed at the mall. The kids did so good! At the first place, Addison, as usual, has to look around and see if all of the other kids are singing. In the second performance, Addison was determined to have her scarf laying as straight and flat as it could be that she did not get to jump with the other kids. On the third performance, after a little talk with Mommy about how the scarf does not have to be perfect, she did an awesome job! We just love watching her perform and seeing all of the cute songs that she learns in her class. This is a video of her first performance! Enjoy!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Schlitterbahn

A couple of weeks ago, we were able to take a trip down to New Braunfels to hang out at Schlitterbahn for the weekend. We were able to get a house in the park for Tosha, Justin, and the boys, Lonetta, Kirk, Reba, and Micheal, both sets of parents, and ourselves! We had such a great time enjoying the water and playing with Addison. Thomas was able to do a couple of the rides with the boys and we ended it with a great ride on the raging river! We were so happy to spend such a great summer activity with the whole family and we can't wait to do it again (praying that rain is in our future and the water issues do not get worse!).

Much Love,
The Reynolds