No More Pencils, No More Books.....

School is out for summer in the Davidson household! Porter finished up last week and Stella had her last day today. I thought I'd share their first and last day of school photos to see how much they have changed/grown since last August.

Stella on her first day of 1st grade.

Stella on her last day of first grade. I had her wear the same outfit just for photo purposes! (Yes, I'm a nerd!!!) :)

Porter on his first day of preschool.

Porter on his last day of preschool. (Okay to be fair, I forgot to take a photo of him on his last day! This was actually taken yesterday, 6 days after his last day! LOL! Don't think he's changed too much in the past 6 days, tho!!) :)

The two wild ones on Stella's first day of school.

Still just as wild and crazy on the last day of 1st grade.

And what are they playing now that school is out for summer?!?!? School, of course!! :) (And yes, Stella is sitting in a baby doll stroller....don't ask!) We hope you all have a fantastic, fun-filled, sun-filled, healthy and safe summer!!!

Field Trips

It's field trip season and both kids took fun field trips this past month.  Porter's class visited Living History Farms this past Monday. They loved riding on the trailer pulled behind a tractor and going through a tunnel!

Here he is with his besties, Porter, Brant, and Sam.

Petting a horse.

Watching a mama pig and her piglets.

Stella had two field trips this month. One was to Blank Park Zoo (I didn't take any pics) and one was to Reiman Gardens in Ames. There is a large butterfly house there and the 1st graders had just finished up a unit all about butterflies. I only took two photos!  Here she is with a butterfly on her finger.

She and her friend, Isabel.

Parks and Rec programs

The kids have been in a few park and rec programs this spring.  In late April Stella took an afternoon cheerleading clinic. She loved it! She's on the end in the turquoise tank and pinks shorts.  She also took a 4 week long volleyball clinic and really enjoyed that a lot! I didn't get any pics of that.

Porter was in flag football again this spring. His team was the Hawkeyes! He scored a few touch downs and had a lot of fun playing this year.

(He's in the green shorts running the ball).

He was also in Little Ninja's this spring. He LOVED it and listened really well to the instructors and did a good job with his skills. Monday was their last day and testing to see if they passed to the next level. Porter passed and now is yellow and he also won a medal and placed 1st in his group. We are proud of him! I think he'll continue to take it this summer.  Stella was in Karate last fall, but we stopped due to it conflicting with Daisies. She's going to start up again this summer and hopefully we can get the two of them in the same class! (less running aound!!) :)
His karate outfit was HUGE on him!! He's standing next to the kid in the blue superman shirt.

Stella striking a pose.

Stella was in Daisies this year and next year she will be a Brownie. She had so much fun with her Daisy troop, they met once a month and always had super fun/cute crafts to do. They even made blankets for the Animal Rescue League dogs, which she loved! She had her bridging ceremony on Sunday and moved from Daisy to Brownie. (I must admit I'm pretty clueless about all this!).

So long Preschool....Kindergarten here I come!!!

Porter had his preschool graduation last night. It was a fabulous program with songs and a slide show.  Before had he opened a few gifts from us and Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa.

With Nana at the program. Papa wasn't able to make it due to family members visiting them from out of state.

With Grandma and Grandpa

Family photo (I have wedges on, I'm not really as tall as Mike!)

At the preschool program, Stella found a couple of her friends from when she was in preschool at Olivet! Both of these girls had siblings that were in Porter's class.

Walking in

One of the songs they performed they got to use instruments.

This is the morning class and the afternoon class combined.

Receiving his "diploma"! :)

Today was his actual last day of preschool. *sniff, sniff* I was fine until I was hugging the teachers good-bye. They have been a part of our lives since Stella was in preschool and they are wonderful people and have a great program. We will really miss them next fall, but we will stop in every now and then to say hello!! :)
Swinging on the swings with his best buddy.

The 3 amigos! These are his best pals. They've been together for 2 years now and next year they will all be at different schools. I see lots of play dates in our future with these boys! They are great kids. :)

Porter's 5th Birthday!

Porter turned 5 on May 11th!! He had a great day and enjoyed all the attention he received at school and from us! Having a birthday is loads of fun!! :)  These photos uploaded in reverse order!!

He picked Red Robin to eat at for his birthday dinner. Here he is receiving his birthday ice cream sundae, he was also serenaded to by the staff! :)

With the 5 balloons that were in his room the morning he turned 5.

Aren't they cute!?!?! :)

Opening the bird house that he painted and then assembled (with help from Daddy!), it is now hanging from one of our trees waiting for a bird to make a home there! :)

With his birthday breakfast "air" donut!

Happy 5th Birthday, Porter! We love you to the moon and back!!!!!

Gymnastics

The kids have been taking gymnastics for almost a year now and they've had a great time. I love that although they are in different levels, they have class at the same time.....less running around for me! :) Porter is kind of over gymnastics tho and has been asking to quit for a couple of months, so next week is his last week. I thought I should finally take some photos today, although they are all with my phone so not that great of quality.

Stella working on the bars, she told me that the bars are her favorite part. She is in the organe leotard.

 Swinging around the bars.

 Porter is in the blue shirt and black shorts swining from the rings.

Here is P doing a cartwheel on red mat.

Stella doing a round-off dismount off the beam.

Porter jumping down the long trampoline.

Stella doing split jumps on the trampoline.

Another one of Stella's favorite parts is climbing the rope to the very top! It freaks me out seeing her all the way up there!

Porter concentrating on the balance beam.

Dismount!

Stella turning cartwheels on the long trampoline.

School Mass

Stella's Catholic School has a school Mass every Wednesday morning for the students and anyone else who would like to attend.  Each week a class at St. Francis is responsible for putting on Mass (minus the Kindergarten classes). Her school is K-8, they start with the 8th graders and work their way down. There are 3 sections of each grade and today was Stella's 1st grade classes turn to put on Mass, the 1st of the 1st grade classes. Stella had a speaking part, she read the Prayers of the Faithful and also lead the outgoing song. She was VERY excited and we practiced a lot at home and they also practiced at school.  Photos were not allowed during Mass, but I did manage to snap this one as her class was entering the church, luckily she was the one who is not so blurry! That is her associate teacher in the background.

I had recess duty at her school today and luckily that directly followed Mass. Well they were a little late getting out for recess as her teacher brought them all donuts for a job well done during Mass! They kids were excited!!
Here she is with some of her friends at recess.

Porter won't be lacking for friends next year when he starts his school career at SFS.  Here are Nicole and Ally swinging him around!

Stella actually paying attention to Porter at recess! Usually when we are there she's too busy socializing and playing! :)

The kids are HUGE into Harry Potter right now! They play Harry Potter at recess almost daily! Stella's grandma, Linda, bought her the first Harry Potter book last weekend and Stella and I started reading it on Sunday night.