First Day of School

It seems like such a long time ago that school started but I'm posting this anyway.  It was already hot and sunny on the day we took these pictures even though it was 7:30 in the morning so I couldn't get a single picture of Taylor not squinting at the sun.  We decided to put the kids in a charter school here in Yuma and so far it has been great for both of them. It's a small school so everyone knows everyone and the teachers seem good.  The kids have made lots of friends and seem to be fitting in great.  

I have to brag about Taylor for a minute.  She was so prepared for kindergarten, thanks for an amazing preschool teacher, that we were worried she would be bored in kindergarten.  We were happy that this charter school was willing to test her at the beginning of kindergarten and she aced the test.  The principal warned us that it might be hard for her to skip a grade since she won't be at the top of the class any more but Taylor couldn't wait to get out of kindergarten so we put her into first grade.  Although she was pretty nervous about a new class and new friends and new rules she has done great.  She still sees her kindergarten friends in the morning and at recess so she came home the first week and said that all her kindergarten friends missed her reading to them during center time.  She is an amazing reader so she was sorely missed.  Her first grade teacher said she is already being an example of good behavior to her new classmates and is rocking first grade as well!  She came home very excited a few weeks ago that her new classmates were starting to ask her for help in class and she LOVES being a helper.  After enthusiastically telling me about helping her classmates she said quietly "But I learned that you shouldn't help them on a test...yep I learned that one the hard way." It didn't occur to me that she didn't have any test in kindergarten so it was a little bit of a new concept.

I am so proud of these cute kids.  They are just amazing!

And we have a new member of the Fish family

I am so far behind on the blog because of the craziness of life.  But here goes on some catching up...

Abe has been wanted a dog for a long time so we decided it was a good time to get one (it wasn't a good time but its too late now.)  So now we have Zoey, an adorable German Shepherd puppy.  It has been a big adjustment adding her into our normal craziness but she is doing pretty good for being a puppy.

Both the kids thought it would be fun to sleep with the little puppy.  Boy she has grown.



She has figured out how to ring a bell on the outside door to let us know when she needs to go outside and lately she has done it consistently.  She still thinks the kids are playmates and likes to nip more than they would like but she is good at being gentle with Brooklyn, even though Brooklyn doesn't always repay the favor.

She is now about 5 months old and isn't nearly as little as she used to be. She is a handful but hopefully the obedience classes she just started will help her to be a little less crazy.  But according to everyone at the class she is just a typical puppy that has more excitement than we would like and gets a little jealous of the attention the other puppies (i.e. children) in the house get.  She will be chilling and the minute I get on the floor to play with Brooklyn she wants my full attention and isn't happy until she has it.

All the kids love playing in her kennel, even if Ethan pretends not to.

Brooklyn wants to be best friends with Zoey.  But Zoey is getting a lot bigger and is right at eye level with Brooklyn.  It makes me have to run interference often.

Reading is always more fun with a friend.

Enjoying the cool floor on a hot day.

They both love the astroturf and the rocks.

Neither one is good at sharing the big rocks with each other.

Someone is getting so much bigger!