Kindergarten Stardom

Caleb has had some exciting Kindergarten adventures lately! 

He was just selected as the Super Citizen of the Quarter for his class.  We are so proud of him and he was so excited to be featured on the special board for the entire school.  He also received a special certificate.

Kindergarten also had Cowboy Day this month to celebrate Texas History.  All the Kindergartners got to dress up as cowboys and then decorate and put together a stick horse for the big Tri-Kindergarten Horse race.

Pretty darn handsome cowboy!

Check out his awesome horse.  I was really proud of how much time he put into it.  Art isn't usually his favorite thing to do (particularly structured art).  The feathers were fun to add and the class dubbed it the Indian horse.

Getting ready for the big race on Race Day!

Lining up to begin.

The event was featured on the news and so Caleb has now had a few seconds of fame.  His entire class race was actually featured in the clip as well has a cute shot of him.  The race is pretty funny.  You can actually watch him take off and then half way through the race his hat blows off.  He then goes back to get it and pretty much finishes last.  He was sad he didn't do as well as he had hoped but really wanted to save his hat.  You can actually watch his good friend Brynn as well.  Her horse's head pops off right after his hat blows off.  Man it is tough to be 5 sometimes!

All Smiles Though!!

Caleb also had a unit on Outer Space.  He has loved teaching us all about the sun and stars and planets.  He even got to make a fun astronaut suit.  Every once in a while he has to be an astronaut when he gets home.

These were really creative suits made out of a garbage and a cereal box wrapped in tin foil for a backpack.  It does make me a little sad though to think that you can no longer grow up to be an astronaut.

I have to admit that all this Kindergarten fun has made me miss the classroom a little.  I sure do love 5 year olds and Kindergarten is such a blast.  We sure are proud of our little

Kindergarten Star!

February Caleb-isms

On the way to church, Caleb all of a sudden says, "I think it would be great if Jesus had a different plan!"
Me:  "Oh really.  What is that?"
Caleb:  "I think Jesus' plan should be that we eat dessert before we eat our dinner.  Or that we could eat chocolate cake all the time.  Well....that may not be very healthy but I would like to eat dessert first."
(Hmmm....who knew that was part of Jesus' plan.  But it does sound like fun idea.)

One night we had a late night at our friend's house, so we just put all the kids to bed together.  Later Caleb comes out of the room and we ask why he isn't asleep. 
His reply:  "Because we have hair in our mouths! (we laugh) I really do!"
Sure enough, after looking in his mouth we found a hair from a giant stuffed gorilla.  I guess he had been challenged to bite the gorilla and he did.

While out shopping, Caleb and Brydon were horsing around.  Caleb was crawling up dad.  All of a sudden, Brydon said "Ouch" and put Caleb down quickly.  He was rubbing his stomach and asked Caleb why he had bit him.
Caleb said, "I didn't bite you.  I just had my mouth open and then closed it!!"
Brydon, "That is the essense of biting."
Apparently Caleb had opened his mouth and then closed it pretty hard on his dad.  The sore bothered Brydon for quite a while. 

One afternoon while getting the after school snack, I had given Caleb a list of healthy snack options.  We had discussed how carrots were good for the brain.  He choose carrots and while eating his snack, he began making up math problems for me to solve.  He asked me if I knew what 9 + 1 was.  When I said 10, Caleb said, "No mom, it's 91.  You must not have eaten a lot of carrots when you were young, because I am way smarter than you!"
What do you say to that?!?  I just ended up laughing! :)

Caleb was getting his jammies on one evening.  While he was getting dressed, I went and put toothpaste on his toothbrush.  He came into the bathroom and saw his toothbrush waiting for him.  He looked at me and said, "Mom!  You have to just accept that I am a big boy now and don't need your help."
Yeah well I don't know if Moms ever believe that!!!  At least I am sure not!

Hope your February was filled with love and fun! And make sure you eat plenty of carrots so you can be smarter than a 5 year old!

I want to swim as fast as Michael Phelps!

In the beginning of the year, Caleb decided to start swimming lessons again. He has grown so much since last year, and it has been amazing to see how much he has learned. He is now quite the strong swimmer. He can swim alone without a life vest. I had to capture a few videos to show off to the grandparents. They aren't great but you can at least see a little of how awesome he is!

The other day we saw a picture of Michael Phelps and Caleb asked who he was. We explained that he was one of the fastest swimmers in the world and was a Gold Medalist. Caleb was so excited and asked many questions about him. We eventually ended up finding a video of Phelps swimming online so Caleb could watch see him in action. He now wants to learn out to swim in races and think he wants to be as fast as Michael Phelps someday. Never thought my 5 year old son would know who Michael Phelps was. Not a bad hero, I guess. It was be interesting to see what the future holds for swimming in Caleb's life. But for now, swimming is most definitely a favorite!

STOMP

This week, Brydon and I had our late Valentine's date.  We went to see STOMP!!  It was a great night out with friends which included dinner and then an amazing show.  We had never seen STOMP before and it is spectacular.  The show only has 8 performers and for 1 hour and 40 minutes (with no intermission) these performers are making music with brooms, trash cans, their feet and hands, coffee cans, trash, pipes, kitchen sinks with rubber gloves, and barrels.  It is fast paced and exhausting to watch.  They even threw in some great humor.  The performers never talk but the actions and music speak loudly.  I found myself tapping my foot the whole time.  They are superbly talented musicians and it is Street Music at its best.

The flash was totally blinding but we got at least an OK picture!

I highly recommend STOMP if you ever get the chance to see it.  So grateful for friends who invited us to get tickets with them and see a show for the first time in a long, long time. 
We love the theater!

Feeling the Love at the Manning House

Caleb had a lot of fun making his Valentine's for school this year. We had gotten a large bag of broken and left over crayons from the church Nursery, so we decided to recycle them. One of my kindergarten partners from Utah does this and I thought it was a great idea. So we found all the pink, red, purple, and white crayons and put them in heart shape molds. Caleb really enjoyed designing heart crayons and loved to see them all melted. This is a really fun project and we hope to do it again with some different shapes and colors.  The hardest part was getting the paper off the crayons, but it was very kid friendly and Caleb was really into the recycling idea. 

I had to use my new Cricut to cut out some heart shapes.  I think they turned out pretty cute. 

The best part of Valentine's Day was our secret ambush on Dad's office.  We decided to Heart Attack Daddy's office.  Caleb was so much fun.  He kept giggling and telling me how much fun he was having.  We secretly cut out a bunch of hearts and then snuck in to Daddy's office after school.  We covered the office in hearts and put chocolate candies all over.  Caleb couldn't wait to see Dad's reaction but we snuck away before we saw him.  Brydon was very surprised and actually got his first glimpse of the office as he was escorting his Squadron Commander in to have a chat.  Luckily he has a great Commander who didn't even make a comment about it.  We had to let Daddy and everyone at the office know how much we loved our #1 Airman!!

Check out Caleb's awesome Valentine's sweater.  Yep it is a Christmas sweater with Reindeer.  The kiddo most definitely has his own sense of style and confidence :)

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!!  Lots of love from the Manning Clan in Texas!!

Sometimes You Just Find True Love at Two

When we moved to Philadelphia, it was like moving to a foreign country. We were so far away from family, surrounded by many different cultures, and lived in a city that was set up so differently than any other we had ever lived in. It was a whole new world. The one thing that helped us adjust to our new way of life was the people that we met at church. We were surrounded by the most amazing people who instantly became our family. Everyone supported everyone, everyone served and gave so much to help others, and we were all in very similar situations. For the most part we were all families struggling to put our husbands through graduate programs with young children far from home. We were amazed as we watched our friends serve as Bishops and Relief Society Presidents as well as other busy callings at church. The women would send husbands off to early morning church meetings and then get the children ready for church before driving to the ghetto to pick up Liberian refuges to bring them to church. Everyone gave so much. There were no excuses not to serve or help others.  They were amazing examples to us and we learned so much from everyone around us.  We were so grateful for our friends.  The friendships we made in Philadelphia were the kind you cherish forever.

In Philadelphia, Caleb also found his true love.  When we first moved to the area, we met a family that had a little girl named Reese that is Caleb's age.  The two year olds quickly became friends and loved to play together.  Every Sunday they would hold hands, and Caleb would take Reese to Primary.  Eventually they began talking about getting married.  Reese even had a wedding dress picked out and Caleb would talk about what temple he was going to marry Reese in.  It was a sweet little romance and they were the best of friends.  We were sad when Reese's family moved away. 

Caleb and Reese in March 2010 a couple months before her family moved away.  The sweet 3 year old friends.

We were so excited when Reese's family let us know that they would be visiting some other Philly friends in Dallas and suggested we should all get together.  We were so excited to have a little Philly reunion!  We had not had the chance to visit our friends in Dallas yet and it was going to be so fun so see our friends. 

Caleb was particularly excited!  Although we hadn't seen Reese in almost 2 years, Caleb was still determined to marry her.  He regularly talked about her and talked about when they would get married.  If any other girl mentioned they wanted to marry Caleb, he would tell them that he was only going to marry Reese.  Other girls were just out of luck.  Reese was also just as devoted to Caleb.  She would also talk about him and about marrying him someday.  The two were so excited to get to see each other again.  Caleb told everyone he could that he was going to see his girlfriend.

Last Saturday as we were beginning to prepare to leave for Dallas, Caleb walked into my room in a suit and red shirt and announced he was almost ready to leave.  I was told that he only needed a church hat and a flower.  When I asked him why, he said he needed to look nice to see Reese.  When he found out that we probably wouldn't be able to find a church hat, he decided he wanted to get 2 red flowers.  One to give to Reese and one to go on his suit pocket.  Unfortunately we were not leaving for a few hours and the trip would be 3 hours long.  So we convinced Caleb that it would be ok to change back into his suit when we arrived in Dallas and that we would buy a flower there.   Being 5, when we got to Dallas, he just wanted to get to our friend's house and no longer cared about flowers and his suit.  But he sure was cute that morning!

Caleb and Reese were a bit shy at first but quickly warmed up to each other again.  They play so well together and really are great friends.  On Sunday, Caleb again escorted Reese to Primary and he has informed us that he still wants to marry her.  His parents can't deny he has pretty great taste.  She is really cute and her family is as good as they come.

Brinley, McKenna, Caleb, & Reese

Old Philly Friends! 

It was so fun to see the kids play together and become friends again so easily.  Philly was truly a bonding time for all of us.  We have 8 kids all together.  I missed getting a photo before the little ones were in bed and tired.  

Obviously the kids enjoyed being together!

Murray's, Christensen's, & Manning's

It was quite a full household but was a great trip.  The adults even got a night out together and we all just enjoyed sitting around talking.  It was nice to catch up and see where our new careers had taken us.  We are so grateful to know such wonderful people and that we can call them our friends. 

Thank you Murray's for putting up with us all and letting us all crash at your house!

32--Ain't Too Bad

Last week I turned 32!! I figure I am still young enough that I don't need to lie yet. I also have a 5 year old that announced to the world that is was my birthday and that I am 32, so we have no secrets around here.  I must admit that the 30's have been pretty great.  I love being in my 30's and this year was by far one of the best birthday's ever.  It was the birthday that just kept on giving.

The Birthday Celebration started the day before my birthday, when one of my friends held a small Ladies' Luncheon for me.  It was a wonderful, fancy lunch that included her grandmother's china.  I had never had a fancy lunch like this before and it was extra special.  The meal was perfect, the Strawberry Cake fit me perfectly, and the friends were the best.  I can't remember the last time I had a party where a bunch of friends organized a party for me and brought gifts.  I felt very special and loved.

We figured "5" would work just as well as "32"!

On my birthday, I received many wonderful Facebook messages, phone calls, and spent the evening with my family.  During the day, I substituted at Caleb's school and even got to share my birthday with a bunch of great third graders who were very kind and thought I was turning 21.  Way nicer than kindergartners who usually thought I was turning 100.  That evening my boys took me out to try Texas Roadhouse for the first time.  We had a lot of fun there.  Caleb loved telling everyone it was my birthday.  He is just so much fun to be around!  Having a birthday with a 5 year old is the best. 

I got to sit in the Birthday Saddle as the wait staff sang to me.  Caleb loved it!!  It was pretty neat.

Couldn't ask for a better birthday gift than hanging out with this handsome guy and his amazing dad.

The next night, we invited some friends over to hang out with us.  Another friend made me one of my traditional birthday cakes. I switch between two particular cakes every other year.  Last year we had my Grandmother's strawberry shortcake so this year I had my unique no-bake cheesecake with strawberry topping.  (Yep I love strawberries! And when your birthday is close to Valentine's you get a lot of pink and red and hearts.)  It was a loud, crazy evening but we love being around them all.  The guys did get a bit strange on us though and decided to try out a new water filter.  So they walked over to the marsh close to our house and drank the water.  Apparently it tasted like pond scum, but no one got sick so I guess the filter worked.  The things men do together!

Over the weekend, we went to Dallas to meet up with some of our great friends from Philadelphia.  They had remembered it was my birthday and before we left we had cake and ice cream to celebrate.  It was so fun to get to celebrate with so many people.

There is no doubt that I have the best friends and family ever.  I was totally spoiled rotten and felt so loved!  It was an amazing birthday and I am so grateful for every one's love and friendship. 

Yep...32 ain't too bad at all!