Just Random

this girl loves a good book!

love these pictures of my sweet Erin

Elaina was given an award at school for Integrity.  She didn't know what this word meant, so I had to explain it to her.  Basically, I told her it describes her character as a whole, and that she stands up for, and represents good values all the time.  What a great compliment to her to be recognized as someone who has integrity!  I am so proud of the person that she is.  Earlier in the year she received an award for Respect, and at the end of the year she received a "Dynamic Drew Dolphin" award for "always following the golden rule - every day."

At Christmas time we had a visitor come stay with us - Santa sent us an Elf named Cliff, so would watch us every day to make sure we were being nice, not naughty.  He would appear each morning in a silly spot and return to Santa to report on our behavior.  Thank goodness for Clif - we must have been good this year because our stockings were full on Christmas morning

Some of the silly places Clif would hide.  The girls had fun trying to search for him each morning

The girls go to an "arts integrated" school, which basically means they try to incorporate art (music, dance, drawing, etc) in all the work they do.  I like this because I feel like it fosters creativity and imagination in learning.  They had an "arts open house" where we could see the kids apply art in their school work.  Erin was learning about shapes, so they created cubes, prisms, and spheres with toothpicks and marshmallows.  Erin combined these shapes to make a cool house

A lady in our ward has knit a sweater or vest for every single Primary/Nursery child in the ward.  One Sunday we decided to get a picture of all the kids together in their sweaters.  Nearly all the kids remembered to wear their sweaters that day, or hold them up if they've outgrown them. 

Erin and the other kindergarteners performed a Chinese dance at a school open house one night this spring