Trick or Treat

Morgan had three Halloween treats...

First was her Group Suzuki lesson on Tuesday night.

In kindergarten they had a party and the kids could dress up for the party - Morgan wore a pumpkin dress to school then put on the pumpkin hat at party time and went as a jack-o-lantern.

For Trick or Treating we went round with her best friend Elsa. I got to walk the dogs!

It ended up being chilly enough that the dogs needed their doggie vests!

Happy Halloween 2013!

Hello...Tooth Fairy?

Well it's happened...she lost her first tooth.

Because it happened after bedtime we think the tooth fairy is already in her rounds. Morgan will write a note to her tomorrow and hopefully she will add us to her route.

Violin progress

We are a Suzuki family.

Last winter I started the parent course with an area teacher to start Suzuki violin. It was a 12 week class in which I read theory and started to learn to play the violin. Morgan started officially mid-May. We tried to continue through the summer when we could. The beginning lessons in Suzuki are all variations on Twinkle Twinkle so students can start to learn variations on rhythm. The first video is her doing her face washes to learn bow holding as well as her starting to play Goody Goody Stop Stop which is 4 eights notes and 2 quarter notes



In August we received a letter from Morgan's teacher saying she was taking a hiatus until January. We scrambled to find anyone who would take a Suzuki kid and try to follow the program. Amazingly enough the NDSU Music Conservatory hired a new Suzuki teacher, Miss Sarah, (Sarah Lang, who happens to be our new minister at 1st Pres's wife!) She is AMAZING! Morgan adores her but is also a little bowled over by her exuberance. She is wanting to practice and now so it's not such a fight as it was with our old teacher. The second video is from just the past Sunday, she is now working on Dino(rest)saur with is quarter, quarter, rest,quarter.

Practicing Gymnastics

Morgan has been in gymnastics on and off since she was two. She is in the Kindergym program for 5-6 year olds and has to pass different skill levels. She loves the bar work and she's really strong at holding herself up against the bar. She is also really developing skill on the high beam. The school does a really god job of helping kids get used to a skill by putting HUGE matts under the beam so it LOOKS lower. Then they slowly reduce the number of matts until the kids are working at the 'real' height.

Here are some clips of what she's working on




This is the first day of somersault of the high beam, notice how high the mats are


A week later she gets spotted and helped once - notice the mats have changed


Second time and the teacher just spots her


Then the next week she is on her own and the high mats are back

Planning for her birthday party...3 months in advance!

Morgan is already planning for her birthday...even though we have to get through Auntie Laura's, Dad's, Mom's, Uncle Dan's, Grandpa's, Kat's, Grandma's, and Stella's first...oh and Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Tub Art

After a sweaty gymnastics class and bouncing around the house she took a long bath and came up with this...

Our house monkey

With a little help, she was able to climb the door frame! We love gymnastics!

We are in SO much trouble in 10 years...

Snippet of our conversation today...just some quick background information - Friday the high was 52 degree and two hours west of hear was getting snow. Today was a glorious, sunny but cool fall day.

Morgan (in a whiny voice), "When can I run in the sprinkler again???"
Me, laughing out loud, "Not until next summer, now!"
Morgan, "But Lily got to play in the sprinkler today!" which she does not know since her best bud Elsa was over all day. and of course Lily did not run in the sprinkler since it's only 65 degrees!
Me, exasperated, "No she didn't"
Morgan (holier than thou), "Yes she did, cuz Lily gets to do anything she WANTS at her house!"
Me, and my mom is laughing SO hard now, "Well, if life looks better at Lily's then pack your bags, you try living at their house for a while then if it's so much better than here!"

Loose Front Teeth

Well...the last vestiges of babyhood are starting to leave Morgan. She has 2 loose front teeth!

She is thrilled

I am not ready.

My Best Pal Pooh

For the las few weeks Morgan's 'go-to' stuffed friend has been her giant Pooh-Bear. This series of pictures are the adventures of Winnie-ther-Pooh and Morgan.

Days 3,4 & 5? Too Hot!

That's right; school cancelled due to excessive heat. Her building has no air conditioning so she stays home.

Day 2...wasn't so hot

Well, Day 1 of kindergarten was a success and I anticipated day 2 would be even better with her ready to jump into the routine.

WOW, was I wrong - I left her in tears and picked her up in tears!

So I don't start school at my new job until next week so I have had some freedom to work on the morning routine. I wanted to start practicing what the morning 'drop-off' would be like. I got her out of the car, walked her to the playground and told her to go play. She lost it! It was just to overwhelming for her to jump into the busy playground even with Elsa in sight. Fortunately Amy (Elsa's mom) came to the rescue again, took Morgan's hand and led her to Elsa. Later Amy filled me in on the other details, like she needed help getting to her locker and wouldn't go into class. She said that Morgan appeared to be waiting to say good morning to her teacher, but was completely overlooked and over-shadowed by another classmate in complete histrionics, so she stood and cowered in the hall until Amy gave her a push on the back.

When I came to pick her up I found her in the basement hall - an area about 8'x8' in-between two classrooms and the gym, tears coursing down her cheeks. When she saw me coming down the stairs she fell apart, and crumpled into my arms sobbing when I reached her. She is supposed to go into the YMCA after-school program (one of the classrooms), but when one of the staff approached her she[Morgan] would not talk to her[staff]. Morgan NEVER talks to new people! So the staff person left her standing there. Apparently that staff person had been calling her name in the classroom, but no one knew who Morgan was. Hopefully we have got the plan figured out for Monday...and I will have one last day to practice the schedule before she is 'ON'.

Once we got home I did get to hear the tales of the day. She was thrilled once she went into class in the morning because they were playing with play-dough at their tables AND she got pink play-dough! She went on to tell me that she spent her day 'below-the-line'!  WHAT????

The school district's behavior plan in above the line' and 'below the line'. Morgan felt she spent the day below the line. I don't know that she ever really got in trouble?? I think she was doing things that other kids were doing and they were called on their behavior. So she equated herself as below the line. The behavior she was able to describe was slapping (pretending to catch) the butterfly decals on the girls bathroom walls.

Well, at least she's learning something at that school of hers :)

And She Started Kindergarten Today!

We haven't hit a major milestone in a while - but today was a Biggie! Morgan started Kindergarten. We have been prepping her, talking and planning for months. She had her dress and shoes picked out days ago, she got to take her new backpack and lunch box, and all three of us got to walk to school. Yeah for small neighborhood schools!

She was great going to school, but in the last minutes of saying goodbye Inthink the enormity you what was expected struck...and the tears came. Fortunately her teacher was able to help me (physically) disengage and they walked throu the door together. I held it together, though.

Morgan's best friend Elsa, is in another class and her mom Amy was in the hall crying. Elsa, it seems had no qualms of walking away from mom and dad into this new adventure.  Amy needed some distraction so she went into Morgan's class for me to check that she had settled and indeed she had. She was at her table reading books -whew!

When I picked her up at the end of the day she was all smiles!

We have a Kindergartener!

Ready to go with her new, big-as-she-is, backpack

Proud Daddy

Proud Mama

and we all got to walk together

Beautiful old building

 

we have a new growth 'stick'!

Back to School Night

We walked over to our neighborhood elementary school, Horace Mann, tonight for the beginning of Morgan's public education - Back to School Night! She was quiet, but not shy, interested and determined...and really not even a bit scared.  She even took it in stride that her best friend Elsa is not in her class. Her teacher is Ms. Vetch and is pretty hip, but also quite structured. I think she will be a great fit for Morgan!

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Morgan and I got our back to school haircuts, she even got pink hair chalk!

We then had to go to Horace Mann, her neighborhood school, to drop off more paper work and who was manning the front desk? Mr. C the Principal! He had Morgan go pick a prize from his Treasure Chest..hence the silly glasses she's got on.

Our trip from Minocqua to Duluth

We left Papa's this morning heading for Duluth. We had to stop at our annual places to get pictures. Paul Bunyan and Babe were first, then off to the cows.

The cows are just a Minocqua oddity, we had taken pictures with them yearly, then last summer they were gone. To our great joy they appeared again this summer with new looks. I decided we should stop in the shop and let them know how excited we are about having the cows back. It turns out the third cow was in the back, drying with her new coat of paint. We were lucky enough to go back and see her!

Then we stopped at the Lake Superior visitor center, just outside of Ashland, Wi and did some hiking around.

we finally arrived in Duluth had a great dinner with Mick and Melinda then got to go for a convertible ride in the new Mercedes!

by 10 p.m. Mick, Melinda and I were either already sound asleep or heading that way quickly. Morgan, however, was raring to go!

Minneapolis 2013

Morgan and I spent a week in Minneapolis with the Roslansky's and Ahlberg's. Morgan and Kjerstin went to Zoo Camp together, they participate d in the Where The Wild Things Live, learning about animal habitat. It was a great time at camp and a great time spent being dilly with family!