Snyder Times

Welcome Fall

My goal is to post on Sundays, but they are rare family time lately, so Monday it is. Another full week of smiles, chaos, firsts, and hints of autumn are all around. We broke out the fall decorations, because if any season is welcome at our house it's fall! Cooler days (which Sadie notices most), changing leaves, soup for dinner...it doesn't get any better than that.

Sadie's first day at her ESL class was Tuesday and we knew it was time well spent when she was ask her name the next morning and knew how to respond. She came home from school later that day and proudly wrote her name for us all. For all our children that have gone to kindergarten already it was a simple time for them, although they still enjoyed it greatly. Sadie on the other hand, works so hard each day, and I'm sure we can't fully appreciate the great strides she makes almost by the hour. I used to think kindergarten homework was easy, until I attempted it with a child who doesn't speak English. Even charades doesn't work for "Draw a bird over the hippo" or "Say the days of the week and clap on the day that is your show and tell day." I'm grateful for sweet and loving school teachers and friendship that extends beyond language.

(Savoring the end of summer eating ice cream with some of the Sweeten family.)

We don't know Sadie's education experiences before we met her, but it's easy to see she is enjoying kindergarten. She a typical six year old...repeating the days of the week, singing the abc's, and anxious to show us her school work when she gets home. Her language is so similar to a toddler in it's development, only in fast forward. She learned names of family members and pets, now is moving on to phrases such as "sorry, ok, me too, one more." Her favorite seems to be "ok", although I don't know if she understands what she's approving all of the time.

Sadie and Carson's biggest first (we are assuming for her) was a trip to the dentist. Fortunately their siblings LOVE the dentist and set a good example. They both sat through cleanings like old pros, and you'd have thought the toothbrush and toy car reward were priceless treasures.

The whole family went and cheered runners on at the Top of Utah Marathon. Two of Todd's nephews were running this year. If you ever need inspiration, go and hang out at the finish line of a marathon. Amazing people come in all shapes and sizes, but with five children, we already knew that!