Another day, another fundraiser

Isabella's school is having a book sale this week. Annika and I went in on Monday morning to volunteer, and I told Bella that we'd come back today to pick out a book or two... Of course, it turned in to much more than one or two books, which I could have predicted, but it's a FUNDRAISER! We got a couple of books off her teacher's wish list for the classroom- "Duck at the Door" and "Big Chickens..something or other."
I kept trying to steer Isabella towards cute books like "Splat the Cat" or "Skippyjon Jones" but she was determined to get treacly easy-to-read books about fairies or horses or fairy horses, so I let her, because I want her to enjoy what she's reading. Her reading has really come a long way lately. She has half an hour reading time with a special tutor every day at school. Since she's from a different district, they wanted her to get acclimated to the New Mexico way. A side note- We're really lucky to have her in this school. We researched New Mexico schools and specifically chose to move to Rio Rancho and then to the Enchanted Hills district because they are so good...which is unusual here in New Mexico, which is 49th in the country in education and 80% of 4th graders can't read proficiently! This is a big change from Lawrence, that's for sure!

Annika found a compilation of Dora stories and we had to have that! She really loves books and will sit quietly and look at them for a long time! We've already worn it out some because of all the repeated readings! Bella's able to read to her a little out of it, so it's fun for the whole family!

I'm so glad that my children are learning to love reading!

6 months later, here we are!

A lot has changed since I posted here in April. The Vermooten family has packed up the babies and headed out west. Specifically, New Mexico! Which is a lot different from Kansas. We're adjusting...slowly. We have visited no less than 3 pumpkin patches already this year, and let me tell you, we miss Schaake's!

Yesterday, we drove a little over an hour to Moriarty, NM, which seems to have two attractions. One, the national DWI memorial, and two, McCall's Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza. http://mccallpumpkinpatch.com
Okay, Annika's trying to stick her bottle in the electrical socket. and her toes.

There was so much to do, and the girls had so much fun! It was definitely worth the $10 admission price. They had a jumpy pillow, a petting zoo, a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch, duck races, (although they weren't as cool as the ones at the Galloping Grace pumpkin patch) plus the giant slide, the pedal karts, and bunnyville!
Unfortunately, there's nothing to stop the wind out there, since there are no trees in New Mexico, so the wind got bad. They were clocked at over 70 mph, which I think is pretty strong anywhere, but made them particularly bad.
Isabella made a new best friend, Olivia, and it turns out her mom is Dutch, just like David, so that was pretty cool.