Newest Brownies

I know it has been a while since anything new has gone on here but things have been crazy. I did want to post some new pictures and update everyone on what has been going on with MacKenzie. One of her newest ventures is in to the world of Girl Scouts. MacKenzie is now officially a Brownie. This past Thursday the Brownies had their Brownie induction cerebration. While there they received their office Girl Scout pin and their first Try-its. Try-its are Brownie merit badges. During their regular meetings they do different activities to work towards earning new Try-its. This time they received three. MacKenzie was very excited. Now all we have to do is get them on her Brownie vest and I will post a few pictures. School is going well for MacKenzie. She is doing well. They have been working on adding and reading a lot lately. Today Rob and I were doing her homework with her. It involved reading parts of her reading book. We are amazed that our baby is reading in two different languages. It is neat to listen to her read. She knows to sound out the letters differently depending on what language she is reading in. If only it was that easy for us. MacKenzie is very anxiously awaiting Santa. We are given daily even hourly updates on how many days their are till Santa comes. The big thing on MacKenzie's wish list is books on the human body. Right now she is very interested in all the different systems of the body and what they do. She loves it when there is something new about the human body she can learn. We had a long talk about taste buds the other day after she came to me saying that she had a big bump on her tongue. Nothing grosses her out or scares her. She loves all the medical shows in TV that show real operations. The ones on the brain seems to be her favorite. As far as MacKenzie is concerned she is going to be a Rock Star when she grows up. But Rob and I feel that she is heading in another direction. We will see.

I know Halloween has come and gone. But I thought that I would post the picture of us. For Halloween this year MacKenzie chose to be a fairy princess. Halloween was very fun. Every year SOCEUR has a great children Halloween party. And this year was just as good. There was lots of great food, music, activities, a haunted house, and lots of games for the kids to win candy. Everyone had a great time. MacKenzie enjoyed playing with all of her friends. She even tried her hand or should I say bottom in a game of musical chairs. It didn't take her long to get the concept. Although she didn't win she did have fun and went pretty far. Rob took her trick 0r treating while I stayed home to help hand out candy. Lots of fun was had by all.

The toothfairy strikes

The toothfairy finally came to see MacKenzie. MacKenzie will proudly show off her first missing tooth to anyone that will listen. She also likes to tell everyone that the toothfairy left her $20 and that the ladies next door to my mom gave her another $20. That's 40 bucks!!! (what MacKenzie tells everyone). We have explained to her that it is only for the first tooth that you get that much money. The next one is only worth $2. The toothfairy would be broke if she kept paying out like that. If only the toothfairy paid out like that when we were kids!!!

School Pictures

First Day of School!!!!!

Today was MacKenzie's first day of school. She was so excited. Before school she had a special breakfast that she picked out of Berry Muffins. Then Mommy, Daddy, and MacKenzie headed to school. First stop was back at the kindergarten. All of the children that went to the kindergarten last year came before school and all the teachers and kids sang them a goodbye song as they walked out the gate from the kindergarten. Next was on to the church where they had a little service and blessed each one of the children before they started the parade. The Grunschule is about a block up from where the kindergarten and church are. The priests led the children and the parents to the school. Once at the school we went to the gym where all the other children in the school had gathered with the teachers. All of the new first graders sat in the front where one group of the older children sang them a song and another did a little skit. After that the principal gathered all the teachers and introduced them. Next was telling the kids what class they would be in. If any of you have either read the book or seen the first Harry Potter book it was very much like the scene with the sorting hat. The teacher and all of the second graders in that class stood up front while each of the children names were called. Then the teacher and the kids moved over so that the next class could get their new students. I guess I should tell you that they combine the classes 1st and 2nd grades together in one class and 3rd and 4th in one class. Once all the kids were with their class they took the kids to their class room. About twenty minutes later the kids started to come out of the class room. Their classroom is on the second floor so the teacher stopped at the top of the stairs and shook each of the kids hands before they left for the day. MacKenzie said that when they were in their classroom they found their desks and drew O's and colored them. She was so excited. She loved her first day at school. She can't wait for tomorrow.

Almost time!!!

Let the countdown begin!!!!

Slowly we are getting closer to MacKenzie's first day of school. Every day she asks at least twice "How many more days". We made her a calendar for her wall that she gets to mark off the days each night before she goes to bed. She is very excited. We went last weekend and finally bought all of her supplies for school. Thank you Alex for helping with that. Now all that is left is to pick out what she is going to wear. Check back Thursday night or Friday morning to see pictures and to hear about how her day went.

On to other news. MacKenzie is getting to big a big girl. Last week I had to take her in to have a check up. She now is 39 3/4 inches tall and weighs 37 pounds. Both big jumps from a year ago. We had to go in because we have been trying some medicines out with her and the doctor wanted to see how they were working. On the 27th of July I took MacKenzie in because for a while now a couple of times a month she was developing a cough. This cough would come out of no where and have no other symptoms. She would cough so hard and so long that she would make herself sick. With the family medical history that MacKenzie has Asthma was a concern. The doctor did determine that she has some mild kind of Asthma. Something that has the words cough something else and Asthma in the name. I will get that from her medical records later. But we have been very lucky. She takes a pill before she goes to bed everynight and has no problems. She also has an inhaler but that is only to be used when she has a coughing fit that will not stop. Since starting the pill she has only needed to use the inhaler 4 times and that was the first week after we started the meds. When we went last week the doctor listened to her lungs and was very happy about how clear and good they sounded. So now we are on a good path and she is back to being happy and healthy all the time.

MacKenzie's Birthday

Well I finally got the pictures from MacKenzie's birthday developed. This year we didn't have a birthday party. Instead we took her to Legoland for the day. She had a blast! We all had so much fun that we went ahead and bought year passes. I hope to take her back sometime next week before she starts school.

Speaking about school. Next week 15 September 2005, MacKenzie officially starts school. Because we decided to put her in the German school she will start school with 1st grade. She can't wait. A few weeks ago we went and bought her a new backpack and yesterday we took the list from the school and bought her all of the supplies that she will need. She had a lot of fun picking out what color folder, pencil sharpener, ruler and many other supplies she needed. As I am sure you all can guess most of her supplies were pink or purple. If you look at the margin on the right there is a link to MacKenzie's school. Yes I know that it is all in German but it will let you see where she is going to school. And I received a paper from the school that I have to sign so that they can post pictures of her on their website if they take any.

Thanks for checking things out and I am also posting a few pictures from our trip to Legoland. Also if you want to leave any comments just click the word comments below the post. Take Care.

Julie

Here we go.

Welcome to "Keeping up with the Swanson's"

My friend Dawn started a blog of her own and I thought it was a great idea so I decided that it would be a great way to keep in touch. So everyone say "Thank you to Dawn".

I hope to try and post as much as possible. So hang in there and keep checking in to see what we are up to. If there is anything that would would like to see posted let me know too.

Take care.

Love
Julie, Rob, & MacKenzie