Chewbacca Mystery Reader

Sonia's daddy came to Lakeside today to be the Mystery Reader....  dressed as Chewbacca!!  First, all three of the kindergarten classes gathered in an empty classroom.

Mrs. Keith quieted the kids down by saying "One, two, three, eyes on me!"  The kids obediently responded "One, two, eyes on you!"  Impressive.

"Wait, did you hear something?  Do you think our mystery reader is in the... bathroom?!?!"

"Maybe if we knock on the door, the mystery reader will come out."

"Chewbacca!  What are you doing here?"

"AARGHGHUUGHGHAAARRRAAGHGHRRAAHHGGRRR" (which means "Hi, kids!" in Wookiee, of course)

"My goodness!  So, kindergarten...  Whose mom or dad do you think is in this Chewbacca costume?"

A few kids ventured guesses.  Sonia wisely kept her mouth shut. She's kind of hidden behind the little girl in the red & white dress in the front row.

Reese, of course, had to stand up and yell out that she could tell it was a dad from the shoes.  The kids holding their hands over their ears were pretending that the Wookiee roar had hurt their ears.

Mrs. Keith told the kids to put their hand on their head if they thought their dad was the person in the Chewbacca costume.  Hilariously, a lot of kids thought it might be their dad!

Unmasked!!!

"There's my daughter!"  The look of unbridled glee on Sonia's face is awesome.

"All right, now Sonia's daddy is going to read us Dragons Love Tacos. Put on your listening ears!"

The kids listened with rapt attention.  Notice the one little boy doing the sign of the longhorn....  They puff out their cheeks, put one finger over their lips, and do the longhorn sign with their other hand when it's time to be quiet.  I think he forgot he was still doing the quiet signal because he was so into the story.  The kids laughed in all the appropriate places.  Mrs. Keith told me that she thinks Andrew is a fantastic reader!

"All right, now-- do you think this story is fiction or non-fiction?"  He reminded them what fiction and non-fiction are, and still about half of the kids yelled out "NON-FICTION"!  Kindergartners are hilarious.  After seeing how adorable Andrew was with all the kids, Mrs. Keith told him she'd hire him as a substitute teacher any day.

Andrew posed with just Sonia's class.  While getting into position, a bunch of the kids petted him and felt the furry costume.

BEST DADDY EVER!!!!

(So sorry that a few of the pictures were blurry!)

First day of kindergarten!

I can't believe how grown up The Great Sosini is!!  First day of kindergarten at Lakeside Elementary School in Coppell, Texas.

Isn't that pencil skirt hilarious?  As you can tell, our sweet baboo is really, really excited about kindergarten.

Daddy and his mini-me:

Sonia and her unshowered mommy.... I was just about to walk 6/10ths of a mile there and back (1.2 miles total) in nasty humidity.  Shortly after this picture was taken, I changed into shorts. It's not a good sign if you're sweating while just taking pictures.

As soon as we walked in the building, we ran into one of Sonia's favorite people in the whole world, our neighbor, Aidan.  She is in fourth grade but is SO sweet to her little kindergarten buddy.  She and her mom were handing apple-shaped cake pops out to teachers and administrators.  That is hardcore!

Once we got in the classroom, it was time to unpack her backpack.

Mrs. Keith is her teacher!  It's amazing to think that Sonia will graduate high school in 2027. Only 13 more years of hard work....

Backpacks get stashed in their cubbies.

Looks like she's about 45 inches right now (with shoes on, anyway).  I wonder how tall she'll be on the last day of school!

No tears were shed from either of us at drop off.  We're tough cookies.

I hope you have a wonderful year in kindergarten, Sonia!

Sonia versus Santa, round 5

Another successful year!  Sosini thinks lap-sitting is not for her, and I can't really blame her.  Once again, we went to Bass Pro Shops for our Santa picture, and once again, we loved the whole experience!

A walk down memory lane:

Preschool Pictures!

I kinda wish I had remembered to get Sonia's bangs cut before picture day, but oh well....

It almost looks like she's wearing lip gloss, but I think she had just been running around and playing right before the picture was taken.  I love that the picture background is the playground at the preschool!!  Adorable.

The teacher on the left is Sonia's beloved Mrs. O, and the teacher on the right is the aide, Mrs. Tomchek, whom Sonia also adores.  I seriously love this picture-- the kid to the left of Sonia is crossing his eyes, the little boy in the front row all the way on the left looks asleep, the boy second from the right in the front row apparently has a migraine, the boy standing on the far right is studying his toes....  Classic.  Fabulous.  Preschool.

First Day of 4's Preschool!

First day of school.... Sonia got all gussied up in her gorgeous first-day-of-school outfit (courtesy of Grandma JoJo-- thank you!!!) and happily posed by her daddy's crops (peppers, basil, and parsley).

Sonia, your sunglasses are upside-down!

She caught sight of a roly-poly and forgot all about preschool for a moment.

Ok, back to posing!

Now back to the roly-poly.

C'mon, Mom! It's time for school!

Meeting up with her buddy, Riley! Bummer that Riley is in the other MWF 4's class.

Found her cubby!

Mrs. O and Sonia.... Ready for learning!

Sonia marched right into class after I took this picture (I had to call her back to give me a smooch).... Such a difference from last year! She had a rough time at drop-off last year for the majority of the year. I hope this easy drop-off behavior lasts!!

Summer 2013

I haven't been all that great at updating this blog lately (all of my extra energy goes into crocheting and blogging has taken a serious backseat!), so here's a mega-post filled with snippets of activities Sonia has done this summer.

Palling around with BFF Sami (If you look closely, you can see the owie on Sonia's bottom lip-- she took a header into a nightstand while horsing around the night before.  OUCH!!):

Fishing at the Lakeview Nature Center with Emma and Ike while I was at work (This summer, I started a part-time job doing the books for a tiny architecture firm-- it's about 8 hours a month!):

Seriously, Emma is the coolest babysitter EVER!!

Destroying the basement with her BFF, Ike:

(Why was the coffee table upside-down?  WHY?!?)

Snuggling with her godfather, Gonzo (he and godmother Emily came to hang out with us over the 4th of July weekend):

Being a really brave girl and doing the zip line at Blackberry Farm about 100 times:

Having a complete blast at our third annual neighborhood picnic (well, 4-5 families in our neighborhood, anyway).... Here are the moms:

Here are the dads (and one kid who crashed the picture):

Here are some of the kids (there was no way we could get them all together for a group picture!):

Riding the carousel at Brookfield Zoo:

Being a complete nutter butter at Dragonfly Landing Park:

Loving her playgroup friends (holy cow, she has known some of them for almost 4 years now!!):

Having a lovely time with my Aunt Kim and cousins, Abbey & Cady Lane, when they came through town on their way to drop off Abbey for her junior year at Indiana University:

Going to her very first baseball game!  We saw the Kane County Cougars and she got this awesome foam cougar paw (which she calls a "monster claw"):

School starts in 4 days.... Goodbye summer, hello school year!  This year, Sonia will be taking gymnastics at the Downers Grove rec center and jazz dance at the Lisle Park District.  Stories and pictures to come.....