Pre-K Update

Wow. It's hard to believe that Hayden's PreK year is almost 3/4 over already! She has grown and changed so much since that first day back in August last year.  I am so thankful that she enjoys school, looks forward to it, and is bummed on the days that she doesn't get to go.

August 2014

First Day of School

The beginning of the year started off rough.  Drop offs were hard as she cried each day for nearly 2 months.  Yes, there were days that were easier than others but they were never easy.  Ethan had the hard job of dropping her off and picking her up each day. I doubted our decision nearly every day in the beginning...the decision to just have her go 2 days a week. Would it have been easier if it was every day? I'll never know but when the day finally came to where she would give him a kiss and head on in to the room, what a relief it was for everyone!

Day 1

She's made friends, although most days in the first half she only talked about playing with Tessa.  We always talk about who she played with, what activities Mrs Michelle had them do, what was her favorite thing at recess, and what they did in Art or Library that day. And just like any other kid, she never had much to say.  Some times it would be days later when she would remember something (like an assembly) and tell us about it.  She almost always tells us the out-of-the-ordinary things she did that day, like walk to the high school or a fire drill.

She's gotten to experience a Halloween costume parade, Christmas party, PJ day, ice cream party and Valentine's day as well as a few assemblies and several snow days, so far. Ethan has been able to go to the holiday parties thankfully. It's been good for Hayden and Ethan. And of course Abbie got to tag along.


Thankfully though she loves school now and drop offs are never a problem.  She has mastered writing her name, knows her letters, social/emotionally has matured enough to be okay in unfamiliar situations (HUGE achievement), better at following directions, and is a math wiz.  We still can't get her interested in reading - the mommy in me worries but the early childhood educator in me knows that she will be just fine. I truly have no worries about her and school at this point. She's a sponge with what she's interested in and I am amazed with what all she retains.  Lately she's been in a non-fiction kick with books...learning about the human body and animals.
 

 I'm excited to see where the rest of this year takes her!

February Photo Drop - Part 1

Here is part 1 of what's been going on in our little world during February 2014! 

• Valentines: This is the first year that Hayden got to create and build a Valentine's box.  Granted, she had no idea what exactly a Valentine's box was but she was all excited to build a princess castle. With Ethan's precision and my craftiness and Hayden's vision and direction...this is what we came up with! She was very excited once it started coming together. Ethan was in charge of following her directions and she was in charge of decorations. 

        

• CHEESE! The girls both love being silly and love the camera. This is nothing new but I love seeing how they've changed. 

 

Paintings from the kiddos.  My heart is full.

• Piggy Bank Busted: We decided it was time for Hayden to spend some of her own saved money. To say she was excited might be an understatement.  We cashed in her piggy bank, I believe she had been collecting random coins for about year.  We spent about one hour with her in Toys R Us. Hayden really knows how to shop and make decisions. She would ask how much something was and if she had enough monies for it. Then she would evaluate it against another toy she was debating on.  Sometimes she would have 2 or 3 choices in the cart while she was perusing the aisles.  You could really see the wheels turning as she was making internal decisions, rationalizing which item would be more valuable to her.   In the end she ended up with a plush Ariel doll (to go with her collection of plush princesses) and was thoughtful enough to also include a small mermaid for Abbie.  

• Meet Puffin: Hayden had been talking a LOT about wishing she had a kitten.  We eventually gave in and ended up with this crazy one.  Ethan took Hay on a surprise trip to Joplin Humane Society in search of a kitten. She called me when she got there and was BEYOND ecstatic once she realized what they were doing. It took her the entire day to come up with a fitting name, Puffin.  Where that came from, we have no idea but it is perfect.   She was about 3 months old and is so feisty. She's a perfect addition to our family. Hayden has fully accepted her "mommy" responsibility with the kitten and takes great care of her. 

That sure didn't seem like much for a post but that's all I've got for tonight :)  Part 2 will be up this weekend.

Rufenacht Annual Camping Weekend

First off, we survived. Whew! There were some points where I second guessed our choice in going but we survived.

Lemme back up and start at the beginning. Back in 1999 (2000?) we started teh Rufenacht family reunion.  Being as there are just a few "Rufenachts" and we all lived within a few miles of each other, the term reunion was kind of a predictive term for what we hoped it would become.  And it has.  You see, on the Rufenacht side, it's my dad, Uncle Dean and Uncle Frank.  Grandma used to come visit but it's been years since she last made it out to the reunion.

We used to all meet up at the family homestead farm in Wheatland and do real camping...think middle of nowhere.  The old house was there but actually pretty creepy with it not having anyone living in it for several several years and had been broken into a time or two.  Trust me, it was creepy. As much as dad and the uncles would go down to mow and debug and clean  up, it was still creepy.  Usually we'd camp out on Fri and Sat night...roughing it with just the camp fire and a water hydrant that came straight from a stream fed well (think ice cold). Saturday we'd take the boats, jet skis and kids (actually I'm not sure there were kids for a while...) to Pomme de Terre lake and spend the day there...hanging out at the beach and riding the boats.  We'd often head in town and go to the races as well on Saturday nights.  So hot. So dusty and dirty. After a few years, we moved the site closer to the Mt Zion area, at a nearby campsite.  One year we were even under tornado warning while we were out camping. Talk about scary.  Another year we were back in the fields between Uncle Dean's and dad's farm.

Eventually we moved the camping site onto the back field at mom and dad's farm. Dad had built an 11 acre lake with several fishing docks and a beach.
 It has proven to be a great move!  The kids love the beach and the fishing. It's close enough to the house that we can run to the house if necessary (think: Abbie naps) and mom can hang out there when it's too hot or her allergies are acting up. There were a few years though where we used the house as the campsite because it was raining too much too.

This year was probably the best yet. We got to the farm on Friday afternoon and set up our tent.  Dad had really made it beautiful down there. Heather and I decorated with some festive 4th of July flags and banner while the guys did guy things, as usual. Eventually more people showed up: Uncle Frank came in his RV, Uncle Dean stopped by, mom and dad rode down to visit and the Naylors set up camp.  That first night was pretty mellow.

Saturday brought the people: Cheri and her crew, Mindy and her pack, Heather's friends the Hankins, and Uncle Dean set up his camper.  Even with our campsite population almost tripled from Fri night we still had lots of room.

We spent the morning slowly waking up and then mom made breakfast, scrambled eggs.  The whole day had everyone just kinda hanging around, swimming, fishing, eating, and then doing more of it all.  Saturday night we had a fireworks show. Hayden actually sat and watched the whole time - Abbie slept in the tent and wasn't bothered at all.  Wait - have I mentioned that this was Hay's first time camping, successfully?  No? Let me back up a bit.

This was Hayden's first successful camping trip.  Oh we'd taken her to the reunion camping trip twice before but this was her first REAL camping trip.  The first year, she was almost one and refused to sleep in the tent...she and I ended up at the house for naps and bedtimes.  The second year I remember her being terrified of fireworks so we watched from inside the car and then she went went Grandma to sleep up at the farm.  Last year we didn't go but she and Ethan had set up camp in the backyard one day.  All was fine and dandy until it was bedtime and she realized that I wasn't going to sleep out there with them (someone had to stay inside with newborn Abbie, I got the lucky straw).  So the tent sat outside for probably a week (yes it even rained) and no one slept in it.

Fast forward to this year.  Abbie napped in the tent and slept like a champ!  We did nap at the house once, that was just because it was too hot though.  And Hayden? Wow, she just had a blast at the lake and loved sleeping in the tent.  She stayed up late and slept hard, woke the next morning all excited to do it again. She caught 2 fish.  The second one she did it all by herself! She was super proud, as she should be. The first night I made a little pallet next to our mattress (we need to buy another mattress...2 is plenty on the queen blow-up) but the 2nd night she made her way onto our mattress and  was quite snuggly.

Overall it was a great weekend, the best camping yet. After this trip we decided that we ought to take Hayden on a camping trip, just the 3 of us.  Thinking she would love it. Love that we can make these memories with our little family and hopefully continue the tradition, down at Grands' Lake.

Fourth of July Festivities

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I don't have many pictures from this year's 4th of July celebration.  That's soooo not like me! However,  I can confidently say its because I was kid wrangling (mainly Abbie) the whole time. 

          

We had been practicing our firework shooting skills all week (who are we kidding...we were convincing Hayden she likes fireworks AND we were successful). She has become quite the firework shopper, having befriended the firework man. He knows exactly which fireworks she would like and she would report back to him with her description of them.  Quite the social bug these days.

The day of the fourth the Muellers invited us to their place for their "Americafest".   It was another great night, as usual with Josh and Andrea and their families.  He grilled some amazing wings and burgers and Andrea put on a good kid party with the slip n slide and water balloons.   

Their view for the neighborhood fireworks was really beautiful too. We sat outside for over an hour watching everything. The fireworks were huge and constantly going! Definitely hoping we get the invite back for next year (hint, hint, Andrea). 

Somehow Abbie managed to stay awake the entire day and didn't fall asleep until 10:30pm when we got in the car. She was wide awake the next day at 7, but thankfully went back to a nap shortly which gave us time to get packed up for the Rufenacht Reunion.

Hay managed to play dress-up

and she LOVED the month old twins

 

Memorial Weekend

This was another beautiful weekend. It was Memorial Weekend and we spent it back home with family.

Saturday we trekked back to the farm. It will be nice when Hayden understands how far it actually is to Grandma Diddle's and not ask every ten minutes if we are closer. Although her sense of time and distance IS pretty good.  :-)

Flowers for Grandma Rufenacht and Aunt Lena

Heather, Chad and the kids were there and then Dana and Aliza a little later.  Hayden instantly took off to play with her buddy Talyn and Abbie had no choice but to be held by Grandpa, Aunt Heather and Grandma.  She's learning to be content with that...as long as you're moving she's fine with anyone  holding her ;-) . 

Late night campfire included bat chasing

We had a cookout with some of mom and dad's friends. Beautiful weather: windows open, shade, breeze, no swarms of flies, and good food. Then to finish off the night there was   a bonfire with banana s'mores (Pinterest recipe fail, although we have some good modifications in mind for next time).

Sunday we visited Nana and Papa John in Clinton.  Its always great to just be at their house and spend the day with them.  The girls of course passed out on the short trip to Clinton, which was a good thing.  Aunt Shirley stopped by for a bit as well and got to see the girls and we got to hear how cousins Haddie, Laine, and Morgan are doing.  

The girls were more than ready to head back home and fell asleep before we left Clinton.  

 

She LOVES the baby kittens

Playing some baseball