I have a thing for drama

Collin's first performance of the year at Edmond Fine Arts Institute! Here he plays the part of the fat, green bug in the play "The Ugly Green Bug"! He was an awesome fat, green bug!
Collin playing the role of the lamp in the "There's a Nightmare in My Closet". Did you know one could have a part as a lamp?

Collin is a shark that turns to a guppy in a friend's "pretend box" play. All the kids in class get a chance to look through the pretend box and then write or help write their own play. These are often the most funny plays. You really get to step inside the mind of a 5 and 6 year old.

Collin's pretend box play was about a magician with some bad hands. Apparently a potion this magician had made years ago had gone terribly wrong and turned his hands into monster hands.

One of his potions students tried to help him get rid of the horrible hands but instead he melted.

Collin and I are reading Harry Potter #2 right now...thus the wizard teaching potions, although he said he was not playing Snape, he was a completely different potions teacher. And one of his favorite movies is the Wizard of Oz, so of course he had to melt.

We SO enjoy seeing Collin's productions. He is definitely in his element.

Soccer Monster

Katie has called herself a "soccer monster" since Halloween of 2008. Have you seen the Halloween Backyardigans movie? Well, I know you will want to check it out. There is a very fine episode about soccer in that movie. Here is our Kate, the soccer monster.
Her first soccer game.

Today (not this picture) Katie kicked the ball from half-court (or whatever you call it in soccer) and scored her first goal!!! We are so proud!


Having fun at half-time. Katie and her friend on her right have to be split up during the games because they tend to distract each other OR you might say they have fun and forget they are playing soccer.



Katie likes to taunt the ref by trying to kick the ball away from him.

You will often see our sweet Coach Lesley redirecting our little Kate.

Matt thinks Katie would rather play golf instead of soccer. She tends to gravitate toward the out of bounds flags...just to make sure they are firmly planted.

Run this way Kate.

Coach Lesley and the Sassy Sisters: A, C, A, Katie, M, M, C, R...just in case other mommies don't want their kid's names or pictures broadcast on my blog. It's only read by my family, a few friends AND an anonymous member of the community who has yet to come forward. But maybe that person only liked to read my blogs about Europe. Yep, those were their favorite.

"Oplahoma" State Fair

Katie and Collin had a great time at the "Oplahoma" (as Miss Kate says) State Fair. They loved petting all the animals.
They also rode every kid ride in Lil' Pardner Land. Well, some of the rides Katie wasn't tall enough for but she did NOT throw any fits tonight! It was great! I was so proud of her!

Katie is in car 3 and Collin is in the last car - with his hands up! At Europa Park (a fun and funny copy of Euro Disney in Rust, Germany), he vowed to NEVER ride another roller coaster again. But here he is on the kid coaster and was the only one with his hands up!

We also saw a magic show at the fair. Collin was called up on stage to assist. He did great!

Daddy was also called up on stage to assist. He did great too!

We also saw a lumberjack show. Collin and Katie got a small chair cut out of a hunk of wood and it is now signed by the 9 time world champion of log rolling! Yea! We also went to a hypnotist show. Matt tried to be hypnotized and it did not work on him. I was ready with the video camera just in case. But the rest of the show was hilarious and honestly I was a little glad he was not up there doing those crazy things. He does enough crazy things when he is awake.

Bowling with the Boss

Katie really enjoyed the bowling this year. She was very excited about her pink bowling ball.

Collin also loved the bowling tonight. He did quite well this year...

but since Katie SOMEHOW got a strike and 3 spares in a row, she won!

We bowl with the boss (the president of OC) every year before all the faculty and staff return to OC. It's a fun evening. The kids like the bowling, pizza and especially the M&M cookies.

Jarre - your friend Jane Neece was there tonight and we enjoyed visiting with Art and her. She told Katie about you two growing up together and being little girls at the same time. Katie said, "Jarre is not a little girl. She's now a big sister like me." We think that meant that Katie thinks she is a grown up like you because she will be a big sister soon. Really not completely sure though.

First Day...6 days late

Here is Collin sitting in his line waiting to go to his classroom.
Tuesday was a VERY rainy morning so we took our outside photo on Wednesday.

Katie was not as frustrated that she was not going to school with Collin this year. There has been no stomping of feet and declaring that "Katie goes to Kindergarden!" But she misses Collin so much and this makes me miss him more too. This year she says, "Collin is gone a wary, wary long time."

Collin LOVES first grade. His favorite thing to do is math! He likes it when it is time to get out the math workbook. He loves PE and music and health and eating lunch at school. He likes having recess on a "big kid" playground. He likes having his friend Nathan in his class. He also said he made a new friend named Lily, but he calls her Lily the Second because he already has a friend named Lily at his old school (and church). Today he told me that he told the teacher that in Mrs. Bigelow's class last year he learned that the answer to an addition problem is called a sum and the answer to a subtraction problem is called a difference. And because he told Mrs. Johnston this, he got to put some "honey in his honey pot." (I'm not quite sure what this means, but I do know it's not real honey and it's only paper.) But putting honey in your honey pot is a good thing.

I'd like to take a moment to blame our 8 year old home computer for the lack of blogs. When I click onto my blog, the computer turns off and then back on EVERY TIME!! I'm annoyed, I'm frustrated, I'm really mad. But I have taken a few deep breaths since the last time I decided to try it again, so now I am using the Sonshine School laptop to help feed my blog frenzy. (And if you have seen the Sonshine School laptop, it is probably older, but it's not going crazy on me.)

Seahorse and Goldfish

Collin, the seahorse, has passed swimming lessons this year. He had to repeat the seahorse level this year because he cried almost every day last year. Collin told us it was because his teacher had a tatoo on his back and that scared him. Well, he didn't cry any this year and did all his skills to pass to the next level! Yea Collin!
Katie and Collin having fun after their swim test.

Katie, the goldfish, would jump off the high dive and then wonder what to do next if we would let her. She is a daredevil. But she was the best swimmer in the goldfish class. She swam (with assistance from the teacher) the entire length of the lazy river at Pelican Bay. Yea Katie!

She opted for the 0 foot sprayground after going through the river.

We are fortunate to have a neighborhood pool now so we can practice our skills more frequently than we did last year. Yea to my seahorse and goldfish!

I'M BA-ACK!

Hello blogging friends and family,
The blog virus has now been diagnosed and taken care of...hopefully. Since the last post you see is in May, let me catch you up on the last 2 months.
Traveled to...
London, England
Vienna, Austria
Cologne, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Vittenburg, Germany
Rust, Germany
Rothenburg, Germany
Rome, Italy
Florence, Italy
Venice, Italy
Normandy, France
Paris, France
Interlocken, Switzerland
I have 1000+ pictures to go with all these places, but since I am already behind in blogging...well, it's best to just make a list at this point.


We came home on July 16. Moved to a new house on July 17-29. Closed on old and new house on July 20. Slept, slept, slept until Thursday and my parents brought our kiddos back from Texas. My mom laid shelf paper and unpacked a few boxes. I watched and/or slept. Then my best friend since youth group, Laura, and her 2 kiddos came up and unpacked the rest of my house. If you ever need anything cleaned out or organized...she's your girl. I called her a work horse, a task master, a slave driver...and she still kept unpacking us. Thank you dear friend! And did you notice you are on the blog roll now? Yip!

Since then, we have tried to get into a semi-routine of daily swimming lessons, Matt WALKING to work (yea!! that is so exciting to both of us!), and me getting organized around the new place.

Whew! Two months in a nutshell and there are no pictures. If you are still reading...you are a great friend or one of our parents. Thank you! Now that the blog virus has been eliminated...prepare yourselves for more adventures from the McCooks. And I may even post some of our Europe trip...beware I have many, too many.

It's nice to be back. I have much to say.