It's not your birthday!

The girls got to pick out cupcakes at Mariano's for dessert and Morgan picked the "birthday" cupcake that came with a candle in it. When we got home and ready to eat them, she insisted we light the candle and sing Happy Birthday to her. Ha! Even funnier was that she didn't get it blown out the first try... she cracked up at that!

Summer Camp

We have a lot of camps set up for this summer. I wasn't sure what the girls would like to do best, so I just signed the girls up for a variety of different camps. We shall see what their favorites are at the end of summer!

 First day of summer camp at the YMCA

First day of animal adventure camp at the Double J Horse Ranch

At the animal adventure camp, each day was a different animal theme. One day was all about goats and they made treats for a goat. Then there was chicken day, and the girls said they had to clean out the chicken coop and it was gross. Ha! Here they are feeding a tortoise.

The girls also did an adventure camp through the park district. They got to go to Medieval Times for lunch one day and to the Sea Lion Aquatic Park for a field trip another day. They really liked all the field trips! This was the hottest week yet this summer and they spent the whole day outside. I'm pretty sure Morgan had fun... she was so sweaty, dirty and tired when I picked her up each day!

After a particularly hot day, we walked up to 7-11 and got push pops for a cold treat!

And just like that, Kindergarten is over

We had a few extra days of school due to all the cold weather and snow days we had during the year. So, it seemed like the end of the school year dragged on. But, in general, kindergarten went by fast!

The girls really enjoyed kindergarten and loved their teacher, Miss Boehm. It's been interesting seeing how they learned and grew over the year. They are looking forward to being first graders at the end of summer. :)

Morgan started out the school year with not a lot of interest in paying attention and sitting still, which was really no surprise to me at all. She is very active and likes to be playing more than sitting if given a choice. Unfortunately, you don't always get a choice in kindergarten. Her favorite subjects in school are recess and Free Choice time. And also no surprise, she knows everyone at school from the teachers to the kids to the janitor. She's always saying hi and addressing people by their names. I ask her how she knows that person and she says "I just do". On one of the last days of school, a 6th grade boy said hi to her and gave her a hug. After we walked by him, she says to me "that's Ethan,  I'm going to marry him". Ha! She's the kind of kid that has lots of different friends and will play with whoever wants to do the same thing she wants to do at the time. She and Avery have some of the same friends, but generally do not play together at school. I think they get enough of each other at home!

Avery is very studious and pays attention and does her work and rarely gets in trouble. She likes to be the best and is competitive. When school started, I was worried she'd be shy and reserved. But, during our first parent-teacher conferences, the teacher told us Avery was not like that at school. And throughout the year, Avery's confidence grew and you could tell how much more outgoing she was becoming. She seems to have a group of friends that she plays with regularly. She even had an admirer, a boy in her class whose Mom told me that he wanted to marry Avery. Ha! Who knew the girls would find love in kindergarten! ;) Avery is great at telling me all the details of her school day. She tells us about her schoolwork, her friends, who she sat by at lunch, etc.

The girls are definitely each their own person with very different personalities. It was good to have them in the same class for kindergarten with this being our first year and figuring everything out. But, I do think the girls would do well with some independence and being in separate classes for 1st grade. I actually asked them each what they thought of being split up and they had no problems with it. I think in general, the school likes to split up twins unless they are really dependent on each other and it would be bad to do so. I don't see that as a problem with our girls. :)

After school on the last day, there was a party outside with glitter tattoos, balloon animals, etc. Then, we took the girls out for lunch to Steak-n-Shake to kick-off the summer!

Painting party

One of the girls' friends from school had a painting party for her birthday. The girls loved the painting and also loved that they got cupcakes. Morgan tried to touch her painting to see if it was dry and of course, it was not. So hers got a little smudged. She has a problem with patience! ;)

My little catcher

After completely hating the idea of being the catcher in the first game, Morgan has really started liking it!

Annual Picnic at Mama Ruth's

The community that Ruth lives in hosts an annual picnic for the families and we went to that today. There were some games, pony rides, a balloon artist and a caricaturist. The weather could not have been better! The girls had a blast! Since there weren't too many kids, the girls got to ride the ponies quite a few times, which made Morgan's day. :)

Field Day

The girls had Field Day at school on Friday. They spent the morning outside playing games and then had a pizza lunch and popsicles. Sounds like a fun day of school!