It's no secret that while I've been getting attached to Jake, Brooke, Tracy and Craig for the past 3 years Kris has been getting attached to many of his students. After he told his students that he wasn't coming back next year they gave him such a sweet send-off by covering his board with "I miss you messages". Kris made sure to take pictures of each and every one. I know he will always remember those kids and there's quite a few he plans to always stay in touch with!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
First Week of Summer
Phew Summer is just flying by! My weeks with the kids have been so action packed I've decided to just do each week as it's own post otherwise each week will end up with 4-5 separate posts, so here goes week 1!
On our first official day of summer Brooke and I had to take Jake to the "new" park (ie Blandair Park in Columbia, MD). It is pretty cool although when we first got there I felt bad for Jake as there was noone his age. Never fear though because after we had been there about 30 min one of Jake's classmates showed up! The kids ended up having an absolute blast especially once Olivia and her brothers showed up.
As always my budding photographer (Brooke) stole my camera for some shots....
Day 2 started with a karaoke performance by Brooke with backup dancing from Jake....
Then we moved onto the Swing Park where we very quickly accomplished one of our goals for the summer.....teaching Jake to pump himself on the swing!!! I was *soooo* proud. It was so neat to see both of the kids finally pumping themselves....
While at the swing park we took a walk to "Rockstone Heaven"...a name we came up with to describe essentially a stream surrounded by a bed of small rocks. The kids always have a blast wading in the water and seeing how big of a splash the different rocks can make. Today ended up being a little special since there was actually a class party going on at a nearby pavilion and they had a D.J that we ended up being able to hear from the stream. It was so cool to have a music in the background while they were playing.
Day 3's adventure took us to the sandbox park where everything was going fine until it was almost time to leave....I was reading a book on the bench as Jake and Brooke were playing together. I heard Jake say "Okay Brooke it's ready" and I didn't think much of it until Brooke started complaining about not being able to find her flip-flops. At this point Jake explained that he made her a scavenger hunt in the sandbox for her flip flops, his monster truck and a little plastic cup we had brought with us. I told Jake that he had to help his sister find all that since the sandbox was big and she was getting frustrated. In return he gave me a blank stare and said he didn't remember where he had buried each thing. We found the flip-flops fairly quickly however it took us a while to find his monster truck. We were eventually successful although we had to give up on the plastic cup. By the time we were done here is what the sandbox looked like.....
In exchange for the cup we did find a few other "treasures" to take with us....
After that outing at the park I needed a drink....okay in reality all the Moms from Jake's Kindergarden class had already planned an outing that they kindly invited me to! It was the first time Tracy and I had gone out drinking together (that took way too long to happen) and since Wednesday night happens to be half-priced bottle of wine night Tracy and I split a bottle.
We had such a fun time out, hopefully we can do another one before I move!!
Thursday of that week found us at our usual spot...the mall for Miss Julie's storytime. Overall Jake decided he was "too cool" for most of it however I eventually got him to participate at least a little!
We had an awesome first week of summer! It was a perfect way to start off what is sure to be an amazing summer.
On our first official day of summer Brooke and I had to take Jake to the "new" park (ie Blandair Park in Columbia, MD). It is pretty cool although when we first got there I felt bad for Jake as there was noone his age. Never fear though because after we had been there about 30 min one of Jake's classmates showed up! The kids ended up having an absolute blast especially once Olivia and her brothers showed up.
| Olivia with her twin brothers and Jake and Brooke all crammed on! |
| Brooke and one her friends from Pre-School! |
| Relaxing in the shade! |
Day 2 started with a karaoke performance by Brooke with backup dancing from Jake....
Then we moved onto the Swing Park where we very quickly accomplished one of our goals for the summer.....teaching Jake to pump himself on the swing!!! I was *soooo* proud. It was so neat to see both of the kids finally pumping themselves....
While at the swing park we took a walk to "Rockstone Heaven"...a name we came up with to describe essentially a stream surrounded by a bed of small rocks. The kids always have a blast wading in the water and seeing how big of a splash the different rocks can make. Today ended up being a little special since there was actually a class party going on at a nearby pavilion and they had a D.J that we ended up being able to hear from the stream. It was so cool to have a music in the background while they were playing.
| Ker-splash!!!! |
| Doesn't she look like a little ballerina? |
| She is intentionally trying to dip her hair in the water |
In exchange for the cup we did find a few other "treasures" to take with us....
| Cup..where are you???? |
We had such a fun time out, hopefully we can do another one before I move!!
Thursday of that week found us at our usual spot...the mall for Miss Julie's storytime. Overall Jake decided he was "too cool" for most of it however I eventually got him to participate at least a little!
| Jake's "I'm too cool for this" look |
| Okay I guess this isn't so bad after all! |
We had an awesome first week of summer! It was a perfect way to start off what is sure to be an amazing summer.
Newark Performing Arts Spring Concert
For the past few years Kris has been teaching for the Newark Performing Arts located at the Life Community Church in Newark, DE. He has taught a variety of classes from percussion to orchestra to chamber music. For this concert he had a percussion class performance as well as a chamber music group. His percussion class performed a super cool piece called "Clappercussion". It was a combination of body sounds (claps, stomps etc...) and drumming on toms.
For his chamber music group I had the honor of being a guest artist. This worked out great except during the concert I started on the wrong piece! Oops!!! Luckily it was in the same key as the real piece so there were only a few funky chords before I got myself straightened out. It was still very embarrassing. In addition to the groups Kris coached they also had a violin class, guitar class, vocal class and a few dance classes perform as well. All the kids did really well and while Kris is going to miss the NPA I know he won't miss the drive all the way up to Delaware once a week!
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