First Parent-Teacher Conference

This week marked the end of the first nine weeks of the school year. Kindergarteners don't get grades yet, but instead parents get to meet with teachers to discuss their kids. Our conference was on Thursday. I am pleased to report that Payton is doing fine in kindergarten. Mrs. Chiang said that she has no behavioral or social concerns regarding Payton. We discussed where she stands academically - and she's doing just fine.

Scott said," 'What did you expect she would say....'Payton's brilliant. She should skip ahead to the next grade?'"

And NO I didn't expect that. I was pleased that Payton is right on target.

Mrs. Chiang did say that Payton's strengths are being observant and story comprehension. Evidently, Payton lets Mrs. Chiang know every morning what has changed in the classroom :)

It was kind of strange sitting at the kidney-shaped table, in little bitty chairs, across from Payton's teacher - very surreal. I remember sitting across from my elementary school teachers at a table just like that one. Of course, the chairs didn't feel so small :) Am I really old enough to have a kid in kindergarten?

Outing to the Park

While the family was visiting, they had an outing to Russel Creek Park. It has a large number of soccer fields and lots of room to run First they tried sending up a styrofoam airplane. Evidently that didn't work so well.

Ian was also trying out his new Dutch soccer uniform pajamas (which are super-cute!) Harry and Opa were trying to play soccer with the kids. Opa had to come home early because he pulled something in his leg :( which left Harry to fend for himself......

Texas State Fair

Well, I am recovering from entertaining all last week. We all really enjoyed the 'Holland people' - as the kids affectionately called our family visiting from the Netherlands. We had a houseful - Oma, Opa, Tanta (aunt) Jose', Oom (uncle) Hans, Tanta Toos, Oom Harry, and Jenine. I have some pics from the week and stories, but tonight I want to share what we did on Sunday.

We made a visit to the Texas State Fair. It is said that everything is bigger in Texas, and the State Fair is no exception. We only were there an afternoon, but we could go back a couple more times and we would probably still miss something. We saw Big Tex - the cowboy mascot of the fair. We rode the Skyway - which was pretty cool to see the fair from a bird's eye view. We saw a BMX bike show, a diving pirate show, climbed on tractors, fed some animals, and the kids pretended to be a farmers for a little while. I even got to sample this year's winner for best tasting fried food newcomer - fried frito pie. I wasn't disappointed.

Big Tex.

 Petting zoo.

Ford's interactive robot at the auto show.

 Skyway ride.

The kids got to do a couple of rides, but everything gets expensive after a while. After the BMX show, Ian gave up and decided to use Daddy's shoulder as a pillow. It was then that we decided to go home. We were all pretty tired after being at the fair for 4 hours.

Aloha Balloon Festival!

This weekend was fun for the kids and I. Questcare (Scott's employer) rented out a water park just for their employees and employee-families. Unfortunately Scott was working, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity to take the kids to Hawaiian Falls Waterpark. The kids got to experience a lazy river and a wave pool for the first time. There were also 3 water slides suitable for the kids, but Payton was the only one that did all of them. Ian liked the smallest one. The others were a little intimidating. Payton was very courageous in the wave pool. I had to stick close to her because she would get in over her head after she jumped one too many waves. Ian on the other hand was pretty content just sitting in an inner tube that Mommy held on to while riding the waves. We had complementary snow cones, drinks, ice cream and hot dogs! It was a great afternoon.

This weekend was also the Plano Balloon Festival. I REALLY wanted to go to this, but after Saturday's fun in the sun, I was a little too tired to go to the evening launch. Instead we woke up at 6 am! to get to the 7 am launch. It was well worth the sleepiness this afternoon. At first Payton was a little leery of the fire, but got used to it pretty quick. The balloons were beautiful and the kids really enjoyed watching the launch.

Their favorite balloon was the ladybug.

Orange People

We are in full preparation mode for 7 guests that arrive next Monday - 5 from Holland and Oma and Opa.  We are very excited about it, but have this and that that we want to get ready, especially because we are still getting settled in the new house.

This morning, I was talking to Ian about it and he said, 'Mama, the people from Holland are orange?' I grinned.

During the World Cup, Scott made the kids wear orange when Holland played. So, I asked Ian if he really thought 5 orange people were coming to visit. He smiled and said, 'Naaahh, Maaaammm. That's silly. People aren't orange.'

I love a 3 year olds ability/inability to express themselves sometimes. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times when I have to remind Ian to 'USE YOUR WORDS!' instead of hitting you sister, or throwing a temper tantrum. But when we are just having a conversation - it can be really cute.

(ps - We don't know these orange people. It was a random pic off the net.)

Labor Day Weekend

We had a very nice holiday weekend. Auntie Melissa was able to come for a visit and it was so nice to hang out with her.

We showed her Russel Creek Park (right across the street from us). We walked around the pond and brought bread to feed the ducks. Of course, Payton wanted some. She didn't care that it was for the ducks or that it was frozen. She ate it on the way over to the park and wouldn't even play on the playground equipment till she was done.

Unfortunately, Scott had to work Saturday, but we enjoyed going to the gym and hanging out with the kids.

Sunday, Scott and Melissa went to their Fantasy Football draft in San Antonio. And then Monday, Melissa and I got to wander around the Shops at the Legacy while the kids played in the pool at home.

Hermine

Well, we had some excitement this afternoon. Hermine has been bringing us rain for the last two days and today it got a little exciting with a tornado warning for Plano. It was about 5:45pm and Ian and I were coming inside from  playing in the rain when we heard the sirens. Scott had never heard them before, but on Wednesdays at noon they test them, so I knew what they meant. So we grab the kids and head to our 1/2 bath in the middle of the house. Scott grabs the computer so we can look at the radar. The kids are a little freaked out. Ian especially. He asked about 10 times 'What's a ortado?' We tried to calm them down while checking the radar. The activity looked like it was a little north of us, but we stayed in for about 15 minutes. Of course, to distract the kids, we perused the Lego website :)

Me, checking out the garden.