Raegan is reading!

Raegan has known all of the letter sounds for quite a few months now. She's been able to sound out three letter words, but hasn't been able to blend it into actual reading yet. On April 24th (recording this date for posterity!) we were reading a book and I was showing her how to sound out words in it. Afterwards, I wrote the word cat on a piece of paper and told her to sound it out. She sounded it out and blended it into a word. The look on her face was pure amazement. You could see it click with her - this is how you read. She had me write more words and tried to sound them out (she could do "it" but not a few others). Later when she was playing with her blocks she noticed they had words on them and started trying to sound them out too.

Currently we are working on the -at family, which she's pretty fluid at. She can also do "mom" which I threw in there to make Raegan actually have to read instead of just memorizing. Now we're starting on the -an family.

I love reading so much. I was such a reader when I was a child, and I'm so excited to see my daughter start on the same path.

Dance Performance

Raegan had a little mini performance today at one of the nursing homes in town. It was at 3:00, which is just a horrible time because of nap, but I figured we should go because her big recital is next month and she hasn't performed since right before Christmas. She was not loving her costume at all - she's grown since she was measured for it and it's too tight in the shoulders. That combined with a short nap, and she was not a happy camper.

Emo extrordinairre before the show

Very somber while lined up with the other girls

But as soon as she got out there, she got this huge grin on her face. I could tell that it was a super nervous grin, and she kept looking at me the majority of the time.

For the first dance she did about half of it, then completely froze up and just stood there until it ended. For the second dance, she froze about a minute it in, but then finished dancing the end of it. I told her afterwards I was so proud of her for dancing so well, and she said, "But I forgot to put my crayon down in the Elmo song." She can do every step of all of her songs, she just gets nervous. I'm so proud of her though - she's so much less shy than I was at that age.

Still super emo at the end.....

Until she remembered that I had promised her ice cream afterwards. Then Raegan was all smiles and sunshine! :)

First track meet

Zane is doing track again this year relay, sprint and long jump. His first meet was in Salina so we were able to watch a little of it. His long legs really help him out in this sport. :) 

Family

Just a few of the posed shots we took on Easter Sunday 

Easter

The Easter Bunny brought Raegan a doctor kit. She was so excited! 

All ready for church 

Sitting with Grandpapa waiting for lunch 

Raegan kept shaking the eggs to make sure thrre was stuff in there lol

Getting some help

Comparing their loot

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Didn't get a lot of pictures from the Easter egg hunt. Raegan wasn't feeling very good, so I spent more time prodding her along rather than taking pictures. :) 

This one makes me laugh because she looks like such a teenager :) 

Silly girls! 

Flint Hills Discovery Center

During Spring Break, Raegan and I took a trip to Manhattan to check out there semi-new science museum. A lot of the exhibits were a little old for Raegan, but we had a great time in the play area. Afterwards we ate at Panera Bread for lunch (or Banana Bread as she kept calling it!). Mommy even got to do a little shopping before we had to head home for a nap. It was a nice little trip!