First Day of School

We all knew this day would come. Sarah attended her first day of preschool today (sniff, sniff). We enrolled her at our church preschool (or as Sarah calls it "pretty school") for one day a week. As you can see from the first photo, Sarah was pretty excited about being a big girl and getting to go to school.

This is the photo as we are getting out of the car. I felt a little silly taking photos of her in the parking lot until I saw other "first-timers" doing the same.

We are all ready to enter the school. Look at the cute UK bag I found for her. We had difficulty finding anything that little 26 pound Sarah could carry. This bag is short enough, but was still too heavy for her to carry lunch, a change of clothes and her binder. We may have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

Here is Sarah's classroom. She was assigned to the three year old room, but I think she can handle it. She already knows some of the kids from church and the little girl at the corner of the table (Allie) is her friend from day care. You can also see Noah or "baby NoNo" as Sarah likes to call him, to the right of the screen. He is Allie's little brother. Sarah is just crazy about him. She has recently taken to answering our questions in baby talk and trying to put diapers on over her clothes. I think her fondness of Noah is the reason for this...

Sarah and Allie in deep conversation.

Sarah also knows Emma from Bible class as well. I think she will have a great year with all of her friends.

I took a quick (yet crooked) photo of the class roster. Notice that there are two Sarah's in class. This will be a first for our girl. She is used to being an original (and then some).

After a quick bathroom break (in which Sarah became a little clingy), I quickly ushered her back to class. Luckily, she becomes lost in coloring her letter A page. I sense it is time for me to go.

I took some quick photos of the two year old class.

And the four year old class (the two girls on the end go to day care with Sarah as well).

I take one final photo through the glass (hoping Sarah would not notice me, but I think she did)

I actually took one hour to buy some birthday presents at Kohl's and pick up a few groceries (I didn't know what to do with myself without a toddler in tow). I even graded a few papers and did the dishes! Many days, I will be at work while she is at school, but I plan to take advantage of these precious hours of quiet on occassion.

All in all, it was a great day. Her note home said she learned the letter A and Number 0, she made friendship crunchies in the kitchen, she had music, PE, Science, Art, and a Bible lesson on making friends like Jonathon and David. She flipped her binder all the way home talking about what she had learned. Our girl is growning up!

Salato Wildlife Center

Hello again,
The Coleman family tried to find something fun and cheap to do on a beautiful 82 degree day this weekend. We decided to visit the Salato Wildlife Center in Frankfort. It is close to home and free (you can't beat this combination) .

As soon as we got out and saw some folks who work for Fish and Wildlife out mingling with an Owl and a Snake! They were discussing the animals lifestyle, abilities, and habits. Sarah was quite taken with the owl (she said it was looking at her while he talked). She has always had quite a love affair with owls. "Hoot" was one of her first sounds as a baby. Chris and I even touched the snake! (Sarah was terrified and buried her head in Chris's chest.) I hope to add some photos later of the snake (taken with a throw away camera found in the trunk of our car...cross your fingers and hope that it is not ruined by the heat, but I am not holding my breath...)
We visited the indoor part of the museum where we looked at fish, frogs, snakes, and lots of stuffed wild animals like owls, turkeys, deer, ducks, etc.
Watch out!

Next, we moved to the outdoor exhibits.

The first outdoor exhibit we visited was the bald eagle. Sarah was instantly interested. Her favorite show (Little Einstiens) has an episode in which the Bald Eagle snatches Leo's baton and they must rescue it. We recreate this episode quite often in the Coleman household. Seeing a real bald eagle was pretty cool for this little girl! We even heard him talk! The ladies around us said they had never heard them make a sound before!
We watched the black bears groom one another and play for a while. Then we moved on to the water features.

The waterfall and pond exhibits were fun.

In the streams, we saw some fish native to Kentucky.

As usual, Sarah was drawn to water. She must take rocks and throw them at all costs. When she found a waterfall and small stream, she sat right down and spent quite a while playing happily. That is, until we made her move along.

Chris decided to jump rocks to cross the stream. I think he is reverting back to his childhood in the mountains.

Then we moved on to the deer and the wildcats.

We rounded out our visit to Salato with the Dragonfly marsh. I didn't see many dragonflies, but it was nice to sit on the bench and listen to nature. It was a great visit. We plan to go back before the end of the season. They have cool things going on every weekend in September and some Halloween events in October. This will probably not be the last you will see of Salato.

Bye for now.

Lazy Days (and other miscellaneous happenings)

I know it has been a while since my last official post. School work is picking up and as a result, my hobby must take a backseat at times. I have been working on a school blog for my students to get the daily agenda of class and post comments or questions. If you would like to see it, go to http://www.colemanushistory.blogspot.com/.

We have spent our last weeks cleaning house and goofing around. As a result, there is no central theme to this post, just lots of cute memories.

This is our next door neighbor Shelley. She is Sarah's first official hero in this world. Shelley began babysitting on occassion last May and since then, I have heard "Guess what, Shelley babysat me" at least three thousand times since then. She is now going to college in Bowling Green, but takes time to visit when she is home. Here are Shelley and Sarah "crafting" at the kitchen table.

Shelley is saying goodbye to Sarah. We love her and the rest of the family so much. We feel blessed to have them as neighbors.
This is the Cardome center in Georgetown. It is a great place to go during festivals, but it is also nice to visit when no one else is around. It is attached to a Japanese style garden. (I will take photos of that on another day). Chris, Sarah, and I went to play frisbee, kickball, and just hang out together as a family.

Sarah showing off her sports moves (she definitely gets this from her father)

Fun in the grass.

We found a great tree to introduce Sarah to tree climbing. She was so excited about the tree, we could barely get her to take a good photo.

This is the money shot!

She is thrilled to be in the trees. Can't you tell?

Chris had to have his turn as well.

Sarah is checking out an old fountain on the grounds.

The Cardome center has a kite festival in this field every spring. I happen to think it is even more beautiful at this time of year. Don't you agree?

This is apparently an old General Store on the grounds of the Cardome center. It is not in use now.
No family outing would be complete without Daddy hoisting Sarah on his shoulders. I wonder how much longer she will be small enough for this.

We also had a chance to visit the grandparents before bedtime. Mamaw is giving Sarah a ride on her feet!

We are glad they now live close enough to visit on a regular basis.


Sarah is living dangerously. She is on a scooter her aunt bought for her. Chris is to worried about her riding it on the sidewalk (since she is still so little). She rides it all around Mamaw and Papaw's house. (She seems quite content with this).

I will leave you with a little serenade from our little girl.

Bye for now.

Memories

Click the speaker button in the top left hand corner (next to the word "slide) for sound.

Tap Dance Sensation

About a month ago, I bought Sarah some tap shoes from a local consignment sale. It has taken her a while to get used to wearing them (she slid around a lot). Now she has found her inspiration. She got to see a real tap dancer on television and she was hooked.


Notice the socks. She insisted on one pink and one purple to go with the outfit.



This is such a fun age!

Family gathering in the mountains

The Coleman trio spent this weekend in Pike County visiting the grandparents. We chose this weekend to help out with a "family workday" at my cousin Melody's house that is currently under construction.



The day started off with a bang when Sarah and Mamaw broke out their best dance moves before breakfast was even ready!

Melody's dad JB is giving her a wonderful gift. He comes up weekly and works little by little on a home for her and her husband Shannon and daughters Jessie and Tasha. Here are some photos of the outside of the house. He has done a fantastic job (don't you think?)

This is my cousin Melody in her current home just behind the construction site. She is able to oversee the action from her front porch.

This is her daughter Jesse on the right and her friend Nikki or "Noodle" as they like to call her. I had a great time catching up with Melody and the girls. I miss getting to see them more often.
This is Melody's dad, JB (or at least, his back). He is the builder/foreman for the project.

The men of the family primarily did the bulk of the work, and the women discussed paint colors and made lunch for the crew. We decided to keep Sarah home with Mamaw and Papaw until lunchtime. This allowed Daddy and the others a little more concentration time. They primarily put flooring down in the living room. They also did some painting.

Melody chose a sage green in the great room. It looks really great with the flooring. My brother Jason also took a little time out to help with the effort.

My cousin Matt brought his oldest son Gabe to help in the work effort. He did a great job.

Matt opted to keep his three year old, Drake at the grandparents for the same reason we kept Sarah off site. Toddlers and power tools don't mix! Drake did come to join in the fun just in time for lunch.

Mamaw and Papaw also brought Sarah up at around lunchtime to see the family again. She really doesn't remember the last time she saw her cousins. They live in northern Kentucky and it isn't often we both make the trip home at the same time. It has been almost a year! We tried to get the threesome to take a photo but, as usual, we just couldn't get all the kids to focus on the camera at the same time. (Ugh!!!) *Note* Drake (the little guy in orange) is 4 months older than Sarah. Can you believe the difference in size?

This is my father's sister, Nancy. She came over and provided a lot of the lunch for the hungry workers.

Sarah managed to make fast friends with Jesse. She loves older girls (especially those who will play jumping games!)
The gang managed to finish painting the kitchen and great room and flooring 90 percent of these two rooms by around 3:00 pm before calling it a day. Melody hopes to get into the house in time for Thanksgiving. We hope to be able to come in again and give her some more manpower/womanpower" to help this become a reality.Afterward, Mom and I drove home for Sarah's nap (this was futile due to the fact that she slept for ten minutes in the car and never settled back to sleep once I transferred her to her bed.)

After her "nap" Sarah Mom and I went to the Open Fork Playground (this is at the mouth of the hollow where Chris lived during high school). Sarah loved tow of the seesaw rides (she made a friend there pretty quickly).

She also loved the swinging gate. I think this is the first time she has ever seen one of these.

I was very proud of Sarah for conquering the biggest slide at the playground. This is out of character for her.


As if all the daytime action weren't enough, we came home to Papaw and Jason filthy from fourwheeling for most of the afternoon. She just had to take one spin around the house before they parked them for the night. As usual, we have many great memories from this weekend in the mountains.