Elton Is 5 Years Old!

Elton is a 5 year old! This past Saturday we had his party with a few friends from school. Seems like Elton is a ladies' man as 4 out of the 5 kids that came were girls! The little girl with her arm around Elton is "Miss" Savannah. Elton and her have known each other since they were about 18 months old.

The top picture shows the gift we got Elton. It is his "gadget" bag and was stocked with items like a measuring tape, flashlight, diary (or diarrhea as he refers to it), lock & keys, carabiner watch and some other neat gadgets. He absolutely loves it and hates to leave it home. There was also a bible inside as he has been wanting his own. We got him an Adventure bible since he is our little adventurer.

He is starting to read in Pre-K and it is hard to believe he is registered for Kindergarten in the fall. Right now he is gone with Dan to Fred Meyer's to find himself a new slingshot with birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma Bonnes. Between his gadgets and weapons he is a busy little boy, but tells me on a daily basis how much he loves me and always has hugs and kisses for me. Whenever he goes to school he tells me he is going to make a surprise for me and his teacher says when he is making or doing something that his mom is going to be so proud of him!

Oliver & Friends

Here is Oliver with his friends Woody & Buzz Lightyear. He likes taking them all around town and to bed with him. Here he was watching Toy Story with them.

These days I call him my "little lion" because he likes to roar. He knows I think it is cute when he does it, so he roars whenever he wants some attention from me.

This Is What I Am Talking About

Here is my little bookworm. Caleb is reading his third "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Book" in less than 2 weeks. He brought one home from the library at school on Wednesday and finished it last night so he could start reading this one this morning. He was lying on the kitchen floor reading this morning when I told him he could find somewhere a little more comfortable to sit and read.

Miss Mom Speak

That is what I am calling myself these days as I continue my journey writing the "Mom Speak" blog for the Twin Falls Times News. Some of you may have noticed in the fall that the site went down. The newspaper was in the process of re-doing the website and the blogs were down for about 2 months. When they came back up, they have new links and the posts I had done originally are gone. I just realized that some of you may not have the new link for checking it out, so here it is: http://momspeak.magicvalleysites.com/ . My doing this blog is just one of many things that has contributed to me being busy and not updating on here so often so I hope you will check it out too!

Caleb's Mid-Year Update

Actually, almost a month ago, Caleb reached the half-way point through first grade and his class just celebrated the 100 day mark this past Friday. I can't believe how fast the school year goes! Caleb is doing wonderful at school this year and is really maturing. On his report card last month he received a grade of advanced on everything. However, it seems he is really excelling in reading. His reading scores put him at where most kids are 6 months into 2nd grade. I can't remember if I mentioned it on here, but a month into first grade, Caleb announced to me that he was done with "story" books and would be focusing on "chapter books". He has since read a few Goosebumps books and many other chapter books. A week and a half ago he brought home a "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" book from the school library. He explained to me that this was a book off of the 5th grade shelf and that the librarian told him that if he read the whole book that week, she would let him continue to check out books off of this shelf. He was so excited that he read over 3/4 of the book on the weekend and finished it on Tuesday to take back to the library. The next day I got an e-mail that he had taken a reading test online and had only scored 70%. I was surprised so when I picked him up from school I asked him about it. He explained to me that he had taken the test on the "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" book and that after he chose it and completed it the teacher told him he wasn't supposed to take tests on 5th grade books. Putting it into perspective, I think he did pretty good scoring 70% on a 5th grade book! When I have talked to Caleb's teacher to see how he is doing, she says sometimes he hurries a little too quick through his work papers so he can read and says that if this is the worst problem a teacher has with a student, that it is a good one.

Last week Caleb won the award for having turned in the most box tops at the school for the second quarter and was awarded the $25 Walmart gift card you see above. If you follow the blog I am doing for The Times News, "Mom Speak" , I talk a little about my couponing journey. This is how I got Caleb all of his Box Tops as there was a big promotion in early January where I earned $40 in box top catalinas for him to turn in. Dan took him to Walmart that night and one of his purchases was his own "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" diary. He is very proud of his first diary and has made it clear that no one else is to read it. He has been working on it and gives it to me during the day to put up so his little brothers can't get it. He makes me promise not to read it and trusts me to keep it safe! When he gets home he even checks with me to see if I peeked. I have told him that I will not read it unless he wants to show something in it. It's so funny watching him grow up!