Shout out to Teachers!

No pictures for this one, but if you can, imagine two awesome teachers at Cactus Ranch Elementary School, Mrs. Vernon and Mrs. Nevin, Collin's and Abby's teachers, respectively.  We went to their end of school year parent/teacher conferences, and could not be more pleased with our kids' growth.

Nine months ago we could barely get Collin to sit still when we read books at night, and he didn't really have an interest in reading himself.  Now we can barely get him to stop reading!  He loves it!  Mrs. Vernon did a great job of making reading fun and exciting for him, and he's in a great position to start first grade.

His end of year book looks like it might be just a little plagiarized, but I hope Dr. Suess would be proud of his efforts.  He typed this out and it was illustrated by his classmates:

Green Pancakes and Syrup (by Collin S., Nate S. Kaitlyn W, Faiz A.)

Do you like green pancakes and syrup?

I do not like them!

Would you like them with ketchup and syrup?

I do not like them with ketchup and syrup.

Would you in a box?

Would you with a fox?

Do you want them in a chair?

Do you want them with a bear?

I do not like them with a fox!

I do not like them in a box!

Would you like them with a cake from cake baker Nate?

Yes, I say I want it!

I will eat them anywhere!

Abby's reading level jumped 21 reading levels in one year.  She completely surpassed what she needed to get, and we owe this in large part to Abby's hard work and Mrs. Nevin.  Abby's writing skills also jumped significantly over the last year.  For posterity's sake, here's her writing samples from the first day of school and the last grading period:

First Day Jitters (given title of assignment)

Abby's writing:

I git The Jibrss Win. To The An Pont tat.The Ar Plan wubCb[??] (I couldn't make out the last to letters, and neither can Abby.)

End of Year Writing sample (prepare yourself - get ready to see how awesomely funny Abby is)
Abby's writing:

The Magic key

Onece apan a time, thair lived a King. He lived in a pretty kingdoom.  His wife past on sevrl years befor.  She had her self bairied in a graveyard.  Do you want me to tell you how she past on?  Is it scary? No! it is not. So the King's past on by a war.  Will y please stop saeing past on.  Ok! I wil stop.  Ok! Back to the story.  A big storm cam and put fire on a tree with a wich under the tree.  I do not know what happend to her. But do know thing was she was vary old.  And so slow too!  One day the king found a "magic" key and so shining and so gold it was so pretty too.  He tuc it to his wife. His wife wasn't ded she was stil alive and they lived haply ever after.

Yeah there's a couple of spelling errors, but that's from a very creative first grader.

Train-tastic!

We have more pictures that we could post, but this is the best one from my iPod of Evan's birthday party this past Saturday.  Evan and everyone else I think enjoyed themselves, just like you should at a train party.  :)