Matthew's Trip to Africa

Ok, you've probably guessed that Matt didn't really get on a plane and goto Africa. This was something fun that happened in Sunday School a couple weeks ago. They were learning about how God always with us eerywhere we go. Well Matt decided that God would be with us in Africa. So he lined up chairs in a row, with each chair facing the one in front of it, like a train. He sat in the front seat as the conductor and anounced they were going to take the train to Africa. Well all his classmates loved it and piled on the chairs behind him. After a couple minutes their teacher asked where else they could go that God would be with them. Matt gave each child a turn to drive the train and off they went (with God!) to places like the zoo, the carnival and grandma's house. And while he wasn't the conductor, Matt sat on his teacher's lap. She was really touched by this because she said he hasn't been willing to do that before. He is improving so much!

Also did I mention that I officially registered Matthew for kindergarten? Yep I turned in all his paperwork and got him schedule for his screening in August. Our district brings in each new kindergartener to see what they know already so they can make up classes that are balanced rather than having one class full of kids that are having trouble learning the alphabet and one class full of kids that are reading already. It's so hard to believe that my baby is going to school in the fall!! The kids are growing up just so fast!! Matthew does drive me crazy fairly frequently but I have loved having time alone with him this year while the other kids are in school. I love how creative he is becoming. He enjoys playing pretend and will gather action figures and ask me to play pretend with him. It's fun hearing what he comes up with.

He and David are also starting to play together nicely. Poor David has been sortof left out the past couple years. The girls share a room and play together really well (usually) and David tended to be the odd man out. But now I am loving watching he and Matthew wrestle, sword fight and play chase together. I think Dave (he likes to be called Dave, not David these days) likes having a chance to be in charge. When all the kids play together, Rose is always in charge; she thinks up the games and directs how things go. So playing with Matthew is a great chance for Dave to be creative and do what he wants.

In other news, the kids got report cards kindof recently. I can't remember if I mentioned this or not. Rose came home with all A's again. Yeah!!! She is very creative and imaginative and enjoys art class and math.

David came home with very positive comments on his report card. He doesn't get letter grades yet so it's kindof hard to really tell you how he's doing. His teacher commented that he is very creative and very sweet. She enjoys reading what he writes about because he has a great imagination.

Rachel also had a great report card. Her teacher said that Rachel likes to write poetry and read books but has trouble sitting still for at-her-desk work. For anyone who knows Rachel at all, you won't be surprised to read that. She has more energy than almost anyone I know and is continually bouncing and jumping around at home. If I had a dime for every time I've told her to stop jumping on the couch I'd be a rich woman!

As you can tell (if you're still reading this anyway) I LOVE MY KIDS and am tremendously proud of them!!!!