Zongker Family Blog

It’s official, Katrina is no longer a Kindergartener!  Her last day of school for this season was yesterday & she had a great one!  While there, her class had a pizza party.  Her best friend’s parents also brought some cupcakes to celebrate her Birthday at snack time.  She brought home sooo many little things she had made throughout the school year that we haven’t even been able to go through all of them, just yet!  But, she sure is proud!  We all walked to the school to pick her up at the end of the day, since the weather was beautiful, and because her school is only a couple of blocks away from our house, in our neighborhood, which makes a nice little outing…  Once we got her, we all went to Braum’s, which is an ice cream shop that is also in our neighborhood, just a couple of blocks from our house, in the opposite direction, to celebrate.  It was a great day!  We love our big Fist Grader! 

Katrina was insistent – I just haaad to come to the assembly at her school on Monday, because her class was singing.  What was strange was the fact that her teacher hadn’t sent home a paper about it, or anything…  It was difficult to get any information about it from Kat, either, except that they were singing, and that she wanted me to be there, specifically, because it was “really important”.  Of course, we all know that what’s “really important” to a Kindergartener may not actually be, to us grown-ups, but since she’s my kiddo, I had to at least figure out more.  Luckily, one of the homeroom moms for her class happens to be Katrina’s best friend’s Mom, so we’ve befriended her, over the past couple of years, ourselves.  I called her up, to see if she had any more details, but she said that her daughter had just told her about it, too & that she was getting the same persistent begging to come.  So, on Monday morning, she asked their teacher & gave me a call.  Turns out, the teacher had just found out, herself, since she was out on Friday & the class had a sub.  It was an assembly for the 4th and 5th graders, but the Kindergarteners were singing in the beginning, so I went.  It was really cute!  They sang 3 songs & one was about Moms, since Mother’s Day was the day before.  I’m really glad we were able to figure it out & I was able to go & see my “little, big girl” perform.  I took several pictures on my phone (it has a built-in camera) & she even saw me & waved & smiled, beforehand.  As they lined up & headed out of the room, I caught up to her & told her what a great job she’d done.  I just hope that for future events like that, we get some more advanced notice! 

This Sunday afternoon, Katrina got to play by herself for a bit, which is not completely unusual.  However, her Dad let her play in the backyard, which we haven’t been able to do in a while, because of the tree damage & things from the ice storm this winter.  It was a beautiful, sunny day & unfortunately, I was sick, so I missed a lot of it.  But, Jeremy wanted to enjoy it with Kat for a bit, so while Alyssa & I napped, the Big Girl & her Daddy played in the backyard.  They kicked a ball around & played with Katrina’s hover disc (a large, inflated, Frisbee-type toy).  Once he was worn out, Jeremy came inside, opened up the blinds & watched Kat continue to play from the windows in our living room.  When I woke up, the sunlight was beaming in & Katrina’s face matched it, as she told me all about the fun she’d had!

Katrina had a really big, exciting week, this time around!  Wednesday was her 6th Birthday!  So, of course, we had lots of festivities planned!  We took cupcakes to her Kindergarten class for snack time that day, which was fun.  After school, she got her “big present” from us: a 3-story Barbie Dreamhouse!  That evening, we took her to our local Chick-Fil-A (one of her favorite restaurants).  After eating their dinner, the girls got to play & as an added “bonus” while there, they gave us each free milkshake samples & the girls got to take home free balloons!  Good stuff!  Thursday night, we took leftover cupcakes to Kat’s Girl Scout troop for *their* snack time, then Friday night, we had her party at Chuck-E-Cheese!  She had invited her entire class from school, as well as her Girl Scout troop (so, about 25 kids besides her), plus a few friends from other avenues & all of our local family.  About half of those we invited came, which still made for a large shindig, but it was fun!  She made out like a bandit, when it comes to presents, too!  We’re just happy all the kiddos seemed to have a nice time.  Kat is excited & happy to be our “big 6 year old” & we continue to be proud of her, too. 

Katrina went on her first fishing trip this week!  She & her Daddy got up early on Saturday morning & took part in the “Me & My Guy” Fishing Event sponsored by Girl Scouts & Bass Pro Shops.  They got to have breakfast & had their picture taken together, then proceeded to fish in the pond outside the shop.  There were about 30 pairs of “father/daughter” types, in all.  The most they caught was some seaweed (or algae, perhaps), that Kat got hooked on her line, when her sinker plopped down too far in the water, though…  She got a special, “Spongebob Squarepants” fishing pole, that had what we originally thought was a bobber shaped like the “Plankton” character from the cartoon.  Turns out, it was actually a sinker & a heavy one, at that!  Once Jeremy took that off, it made it a bit easier for her to fish.  They used raw hot dogs as bait, this time around.  Out of all the participants, only 4 fish were caught the entire time, but everyone had fun, at least!  Katrina even brought home a “grab bag prize” of a new hairbrush, mirror & ponytail holders set, and also all the girls got visors with fish on them.  She & her Daddy had a great outing together & that was the best part! 

Katrina had another memory project this past week. It’s actually something she was given a while back & we just got to working on it with her. She memorized the beatitudes from the Bible, for the most part. She didn’t have to repeat “blessed are” each time, but she started with that & listed out the different characteristics. The toughest parts were “hunger and thirst for righteousness” and “persecuted”, because of the long words that she hadn’t heard/understood before. We tried our best to explain, in a way that she could get it & that seemed to help. She recited them to her Journey Group for Kids leader at our church & is now moving on to learning more names of the books of the Bible. It’s so cool to us how well she retains this stuff, and the fact that she really loves learning, too! We’re so proud of our little scholar!

There’s no denying that Katrina’s getting bigger. We have been planning her 6th Birthday party this week. We are going to hold it at our local Chuck-E-Cheese’s this year & we are also inviting her entire Kindergarten class, per her request (yes, you may call us crazy, ha-ha)! She has been getting really excited & has enjoyed being “in on” the preparations, so far. She even got to pick out her own cake & matching cupcakes, which we ordered from our local Sam’s Club bakery. She also invited her entire Daisy Girl Scout troop, which besides her is only 6 girls, so not too bad, there… It’s going to be a fun time for her, no matter how many kids show up, but we are of course hoping that the saying rings true about only half of the number of guests you invite actually attending your event…

During Spring Break, Katrina got new shoes (so did her sister), which is not really that big a deal, but for someone who is in her Kindergarten class, it is! A few days ago, she got to bring home a work in progress that all the kids there have been contributing to, throughout the school year. It’s the “new shoe book”! Basically, anyone in her class who gets new shoes gets to take the book home & add a page to it. The instructions were to draw a picture of the shoe(s) & write a sentence or two describing them, or the experience of purchasing them. So, Kat had me hold one of her shoes on a piece of paper, so she could trace around it. She then drew the Disney princesses that were on it, to the best of her ability & had me help her spell the words to write the sentence she came up with, “I like my princess shoes as much as you like this world”. Yes it’s kind of a funny thing to say, but at least she was creative & it was her own words!

Other than that, it’s also been exciting to watch her reading skills flourish this week! She is reading *actual words*! I can’t remember all of them, or how many she knows, but she’s got a set of “early reader/easy reader/ready to read”-type books & she’s been impressing us each night, as we read one before bed & she stops us to tell us the words, herself! She is showing so much willingness to learn & even trying to sound out & ask us when she needs help with bigger words. It’s so much fun to help her & to watch this skill as it develops, too! I think we’ll be making a lot of library trips this summer!

Katrina just keeps learning & growing & making us proud. Up to this past week, there is something I never did with her though, because I was worried she was too young, and/or it would be too messy… but, I finally gave in & decided to paint her fingernails. She has some pretty, light purple, “sparkly” (as she likes to call it), kids’ polish anyway, we just hadn’t used it yet. But, I figured school was going to be out for a while, so if it didn’t turn out that great, who would really notice, ya’ know? Well, it actually turned out really pretty, although extremely light & almost non-existent. We put it on (she let me use some on myself, too) Wednesday night. After it had dried (and had been dry for at least an hour), she had gone to the bathroom & washed her hands. She came out of there, telling me that her nail polish was gone, but since I could still see some, I told her it was still there & that everything was ok. I explained that nail polish has to be removed with a special kind of liquid (fingernail polish remover) & that it wouldn’t just wash off with soap and water… However, by the next day, I’d washed my hands enough that mine actually was *completely* gone! Upon further inspection of hers, it had been cleaned off of her nails, too. So, I guess it’s a “live & learn” thing – the polish they make for kids these days actually *does* wash off! I promised her we’d do them again, sometime soon, with one of *my* colors. She’s pretty excited about that, already…

She is getting to be such a big reader, as well! Although she is just beginning to learn, she knows quite a few small words, just upon seeing them (her Kindergarten teacher refers to these as “sight words”) – things like “a”, “the”, “it”, etc. I bought her a Dora the Explorer book at her school book fair that has some of the words with pictures of the object above them. Every time we got to one of those, I would ask her to “read” that word for me & she got them all! I know that’s not *really* reading, but she actually *is* learning the words by looking at the letters under the pictures. The “Easter Bunny” also left a book like this in her basket. She likes them both & even took the first one to her Grandparents’ house for her sleepover days. Just last night, we were at Pizza Hut for dinner & she read the words, “for your” out of a sentence on her placemat that said something about, “…quality pizza for your family.” She asked us what the other words were & before we could tell her it, she had figured out the word “pizza” on her own, just by looking at the Pizza Hut logo, right above there. We had to help with “quality” and “family”, but then she kept pointing & reading all those words aloud, so she’s on the right track. We’re probably going to check out some more “easy reader”/”learn to read”-type books from the library this summer. It’s so exciting, seeing her skills develop!

Katrina had some different experiences this week – a couple were good, the other, not so much… On Wednesday, her Kindergarten class went to the residential park in our neighborhood & had an Easter egg hunt. They also had a little “Spring Party” (yes, of course, they are not *allowed* to call it what it truly is, *sigh*) & eat snack cakes & have juice at the picnic tables, while there. That evening, her Journey Group for Kids did practically the same, except it was fully on the church grounds, and they called it their “Easter Party”! It was a fun, great day for her, all in all. She was sooo excited to get to begin celebrating Easter a bit early, this year…

The other thing that happened was that she got one of the lenses in her glasses all scratched up. We’re not exactly sure when it happened & she couldn’t remember dropping them, or doing anything to cause it, but luckily we had bought them under warranty. So, we took them to our local Eyemart Express & they had it replaced, for free, in just over an hour. Hopefully, she won’t have that happen again, but ya’ know, she *is* a kid…