Chess Club

My girls have decided to participate in Chess Club this year. They have never played Chess before. They have never shown ANY interest in Chess before. The paper came home for Chess club sign-ups and they both asked, "Please, please, please, can we do chess club?!"
REALLY??
CHESS CLUB??
Have you ever played chess before? Do you know what it is?
Nope, never played. Nope, not really sure what it is. Maybe like checkers?
Alright, then. We dug out our chess board, found somebody that knew what they were doing (Richard and Jay both know how to play) and they started to play.
Every Thursday morning before school (at 8:20) they meet at the school with about 25 other 2nd-6th graders and play chess. They have not played in a tournament because they are usually on Sat and I work (and they cost $$, which I don't want to pay until they love chess and are better at it!) but they do have fun.

Cleaning....

I am rearranging my living room. I was given a tv and entertainment center by a friend. In order to make it fit in my livingroom, I have had to move things around and get rid of some things. BIG job! I only have limited time to work on such a huge project and I am very proud of the progress I have made. I will be able to have daycare tomorrow even! Not a lot of room to play, but that should be better by the weekend.

This is the computer part of the living room. This is the most done part. My work table under the window is still a work in progress!

This is over in the daycare area. TOO much stuff, but I don't have time to go through it all right now. I will continue during naptime and later in the evenings.

That's it for now! I am off to get a couple of hours sleep so that I can be up and ready for daycare in the morning!

I hope you enjoyed your Presidents Day!

Enjoy your Tuesday!!

Math Olympiad

Alexandra and Emma and Leksi studying all the ribbons before Math Olympiad starts. So many colors!

When the Math Olympiad started, they called each school up and had them shake hands with all the "important" people there. The kids were pretty excited to do that because they were handing out FREE BIG MAC coupons from McDonalds! :) When it was Alexandra's turn, they handed out the last one to the person in front of her. Her face was totally funny! I could see her saying "Are you kidding me?! Where is my FREE BIG MAC?!?" They did have more and she did get hers, but it was a close call!

Here is Alexandra accepting her award for 2nd place in Individual! Yeah Alexandra!


The Math Olympiad was pretty exciting for Alexandra. She is not fond of math. She likes reading much better. When she was asked to participate in the Math Olympiad, she said sure she would try it. (I was very proud of her for trying something she felt she was not good at.) They meet before school every Friday morning. (School starts at 9:25 and they meet at 8:15!) She came home after the first day saying, "It is sooo hard!" I asked her how she liked it and she said "It was ok, but really, really hard!"
A few week later....they are getting ready for their first competition. She is really nervous. They will be competing against 5 other Ferndale schools.
They day arrives....Wednesday....February 3, 2010.....all the kids meet in the gym....there are over 200 kids! over 51 teams!....all competing for the same ribbons! They only go to 10th place! It finally starts....first they get there McDonalds coupons (most important for some of the kids!) Then they split up into their groups and off they went to start their tests......
OVER TWO HOURS LATER!!! They kids are finally done! They were treated to pizza and pop for a job well done! After they were assembled back in the gym....the awards started. You could feel the tension and nervouseness in the gym. They started with 10th place in the individual awards. As they started awarding the ribbons, you could see everybody hoping for 10th, then 9th, then 8th......and as they climbed higher, you could see some kids not as excited because they didn't get a ribbon. Some of her friends won ribbons. (Emma won 3rd, Marcos won 5th) As they climbed higher...4th...3rd.....you could see Alexandra thinking....well I didn't place (she was sorta ok with that because she thought she wasn't very good at math) AND THEN.......they announced there was a tie for second place! It was Alexandra and Ashlyn from Skyline !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!! Her face was SO EXCITED!!! She just beemed! Then they anounced first place, and it was Danny! Her, Emma, and Ashlyn were standing up front with their ribbons waiting for them to announce first place and they all agreed ...it would be DANNY! They were right! (Danny is one of Alexandra's good friends. Everybody agrees that he is the smartest oby in fourth grade!) After the individuals, they did team awards. Alexandra was hoping to place pretty high in team because her team placed pretty high in the individuals (Marcos -5th, Alexandra & Ashlyn tied for 2nd, and Danny - 1st) They were pretty excited to hear their name when they announced 1st place!!!!
After it was over...I asked her how the test was. Was it really hard? Did she have fun? She said it was fun and that it was a lot easier than she thought it would be. :)
They have to right in journals each week in class and bring them home for parents to read and sign. Her entry that week was:
Mom, I don't mean to brag or anything, but I am soo excited that I got a red and blue ribbon in Math Olympiad! I am better in math than I thought!
I let her know that I was very proud of all the hard work she put into it. Trying out for something she didn't think she was very good at. And having a good attitude about it! Being very happy and proud of herself! and also being a good sport about winning!
A very exciting day!!!
Next up....February 27, (Saturday) they will be back at it at the college this time. Competing against Whatcom county schools.......

Math Olympiad

Alexandra won (she actually tied with Ashlynn (behind her in the red)) 2nd Place Individual in the Math Olympiad for 4th graders.

Her team (on the bottom row) won 1st place Team for 4th graders. The second place team (standing) was from Skyline also. Overall, Skyline place very well in the Math Olympiad. YEAH SKYLINE!!
Her team is: Danny, Marcos, Alexandra, and Ashlynn.

Thank you to Mr. Diffley for coaching these kids each week before school!

Baby Jake Kinsfather!

Alex and baby Jake

Yeah!! Teresa had her baby this morning! Jake Alexander Kinsfather arrived this morning at 9:54am weighing 7lbs 9oz and was 20 in long! He is adorable. I can't wait for him to come home so I can get some baby snuggles in! :)

Baby Jake - only a couple hours old

The girls are so excited! Mia said, "I am the coolest because I am a little sister AND a big sister!" They are so proud of him already! He will be very well loved and very well taken care of! McKenzie is also very excited! She can't wait to see him. She will get the best of both worlds....a little brother to take care of and play with when she wants, and then she can come home! Although in a couple more weeks, she will be coming home to a nephew! She is totally excited to be an aunt!

Baby Jake getting checked out by the nurse

Her and Emily are so funny! They are best friends, dress alike, talk alike, plan their outfits, meals, everything! So when Emily found out she was going to have a brother, McKenzie was a little bummed. Emily had a little sister and brother, and McKenzie was the baby of the family. THEN.....we found out Alyssa was going to have a baby. Not only was she having a baby, she was having a BOY! Just like Emily......now they both get to have baby boys in their house! The only difference is that Alyssa and Aiden will be moving out in the next year or so......Baby Jake won't be moving out for about 18 years!!!

Congratulations to the Kinsfathers!!!!

Martin Luther King Jr Day

Yesterday was a school holiday and I didn't have to work. Soooo........we took a vacation day!! We had so much fun!!! We went to Mt. Vernon with the only agenda was to watch the Alvin & the Chimpmunks movie and to shop! We did both :)

First stop was McDonald's. The girls were collecting all of the Chipmunk charater's at McDonald's and we had all of them except for Brittany. We had checked in Bellingham and they didn't have any and were not getting anymore, so I thought while we were down in Mt. Vernon anyway, we would check. They had her! The girls were so excited to complete their collection. Emily and Mia had asked us to get a Brittany for Emily and Mia just needed the A man :) (that is what she calls Alvin). So we were able to get them and now we have 4 very happy girls!
Next stop was the Super Walmart. It is big. It reminds me of a Costco, because it has a cement floor and very high ceilings. They don't have a huge selection of some things, but the building is certainly bigger and they do have a food section.

Here is McKenzie before we went in to the Walmart with her new favorite hat that her Grandma Kaye made for her! :) She loves this hat. Alyssa was able to exchange a diaperbag for a different one that she liked a little better. She also found a super cute winter coat in the boys section for only $15!!! She was so excited....and it came with a hat :) It is a double coat, so the liner zips out and can be used as a lighter coat or she can wear them together in colder weather or she can......you get the idea! Lots of options.

Then we went to the Cascade Mall to their movie theaters and watched the movie. It was pretty cute. The girls loved it! After the movie we walked around the mall and stopped at Payless Shoe Source. McKenzie only had a pair of tennis shoes that fit her. No church shoes. So she got some nice black church shoes that she is wearing to school today :) Alexandra saw these shoe-boots and fell in love with them. Since it was BOGO, I let her get them. Let me tell you, Super Excited doesn't even describe her face when I said yes. She knew there was no way I would let her get these. :) It is the little things like that, that make me so happy. I bought her some crazy shoes and she was super happy :)

After the mall we wandered over to the Outlet Center and looked around there for a bit before coming home and getting ready for school and work today! A fabulous day was had by all!!! :)

Enjoy your Tuesday!

I am still here....

It has been a crazy two week vacation! I had a couple days off :) I worked quite a bit, the girls were busy, McKenzie had a birthday, Alyssa had two baby showers and another one for this Friday night. Crazy!! This is day two of trying to get back to our regular schedule. Sorta working....
I will catch up later today....We are off to school.

Enjoy your Tuesday!