First Grade Brilliance

I've never done this before, so here it goes...  (if this works, I'll try to upload some more)

Last week, the first grade sang at the downtown Ogden's Christmas Village.  It is completely adorable and bitterly cold.  It was bittersweet, knowing this was our last 1st grade Christmas program...  Well, until we get to go to Peter's (and his coming sibling's!).  

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!

Grace's first award!

Grace with her adorable teacher, Ms. Cotter. 

Grace won the Community of Caring Award for her class this month; the quality this month was Respect.  Good job, Grace!  The Johnston girls are on fire these days!  :-)  We're very proud.  Here is what her teacher wrote about her:

"Grace is nominated for the Community of Caring Award, because she always acts respectfully towards her classmates, her classroom, and her teacher.  Grace remembers the rules of respectful listening and never speaks while someone else is talking.  She acts kindly and thoughtfully towards other students and always tries to help if someone is hurt or upset.  Grace is very generous and will share with anyone who asks.  She uses polite language and never says mean things to anyone.  She keeps her desk clean and respects classroom materials.  Grace models respectful behavior every day.  I'm so glad to have her in my class!"

We couldn't agree more.  

Now, the girls are FINALLY out of school.  Not until today at 1:00pm.  Crazy.  And it's been snowing tons around here, which has made the fact that the girls were still in school seem even crazier.  Hopefully, we'll still get to Oregon Christmas day.  Thankfully, we fly into Eugene, which doesn't seem to be getting hit quite as hard as Portland.  

I hope everyone out there is safe and warm!

Award Schm'Award

No, we really are very proud of our little award winner.  Anna won this month's Community of Caring Award for her class.  The quality this month was "Courage."  Mr. Cottle wrote that Anna is always willing to try new things, go the extra mile on assignments, and follow the rules even when others aren't.  But, really, she won the award, because she volunteered to sit by the biggest trouble-maker in the class when Mr. Cottle asked if someone would be willing to "sit by Tegan who won't talk to him."  I still can't believe Anna was the one and only volunteer--my little, quiet Anna!   But, I guess Mr. Cottle couldn't really write that on her award certificate.  :-)

Yeay, Anna!  We are very proud of our courageous little lamb.  

All I Want for Christmas...

Grace lost her tooth!  It's been loose for just about forever, but it FINALLY came out this morning--literally fell right out of her mouth onto her tongue.  Very, very exciting indeed.  :-)  

The other front one is loose, too, so it looks like Grace just may be singing the song for Christmas!

Science Fair

So, this is a week over-due, but I still wanted to post about Anna being in the Science Fair last week.  Ironically, even though Adam dedicates two days of his time to do a really cool "Science Show" for each grade at the girls' school, neither one of us was really wedded to our girls doing a science fair project.  We figured that when they are really interested, they'll do one.  Well, or until 4th grade when it's required...  Even though Anna has wanted to be in the Science Fair for the past three years, she didn't really have the lasting interest it took to get the project done, and Adam and I don't believe in being the driving force in making it happen (or we're just too lazy...).  But, this year, Anna did it.  What was it that held her attention and inspired an eight year old's best work?  Peas.  Yep.  Anna stacked peas.  And she did a marvelous job.  (Almost) All by herself.   

In addition to sharing a picture of the proud girl in front of her poster, I wanted to include Anna's brainstorm list for her project (exactly as written):

Sience fair progets

paper airplanes.
stacking peas.
How does the World spin?
How big do pe[n]cils get? [in reference to a giant pencil she saw in Adam's office that day, a cherished gift]
How big is space?
How long has the Earth been Earth?
How does balencing bird balence so well?
How are stars made?
Why do cars need gas?
Why do people litter?
How are mountains formed?
How do trees and plants grow?
How long will it take me to sing my ABC's?
How do circles (gears) work? 
How do people grow?
Why does when mentos and coke mixed together it blows up?
Why did france give us the statue of Libertey?
How does electresety work.
Who was the first person on earth, and how were they born?
How many pieces of bacon are in a pig?

Brilliant.  If only we all continued asking such questions our whole lives.  

Hello Again

Okay.  So it's been awhile.  

I admit that I've been a bit paralyzed by the whole idea of blogging.  I want my blog to be more thoughtful and not just a string of images, but upon thinking of doing so, I end up stopping blogging altogether.  So, I'm back to posting images of my children.  That's what I feel comfortable doing right now.  I just want people to realize that I recognize that that is all I do on this blog.  

I absolutely love reading some blogs that are deeply personal; I find them engaging and brave.  I know mine is not that.  Perhaps that is for another blog.  Or a diary.  I don't know.  

I do know there are a few out there who enjoy seeing pictures of my kids--and I do like taking pictures of them--so this is the place for that right now.  If you want to see the other pictures I've taken lately, check out:  www.kjohnstonphoto.smugmug.com .  I'm really proud of the work I'm doing right now; it is fun, exciting, and fulfilling.  I want to make it into something more.  

So, with that said, here is a new string of images of my daughters:  

Enjoy!

Carving Pumpkins

After a flurry of dinner, dance, and martial arts, we finally made time to carve a couple of pumpkins the night before Halloween: