Growing up too quickly!

Wow, where has the time gone. My babies turned 5 a couple of weeks ago and tomorrow is their last day in reception!
I can't believe how far they have come and how much they have learnt since starting school. They went into school aged just 4 years and 2 months, could write a D and H, could recognise their name and the letter s (that was their letter sound in speech therapy) and could count to 10! Now they can write at the expected level for the end of reception, with Douglas writing at beyond the expected level, they are both reading at exceeding the expected level and their maths is also at the expected level. Douglas is also exceeding the expected level for moving and handling. Harry's speech has also come on leaps and bounds, although there are still times that he is difficult to understand. He also still sees his speech therapist.
I'd also like to know what I was being taught in reception and year 1 given that I only started school after Easter, so only did a term of reception!
The boys targets are also amazing - Harry for literacy is 'confidently and consistently use capital letters and full stops' and for mathematics 'know the addition and subtraction facts to 20' and Douglas for literacy 'use connectives such as because/so/when/while' and mathematics 'solve number problems using addition and subtraction including missing numbers'. Now I'm sure I was in middle school before I had to deal with missing numbers!
I am looking forward to having all their books home from school so I can see all their work.
Out of school the boys are also doing well. They have both received their 5 meter badges for swimming and are both doing well at gym.
They will always be my babies though, even if they are now proper little boys with big attitudes! I will always treasure my letter from Harry 'dir mummy I love you bcus you gif me cisis and cudools love Harry'. I doubt I'll get them in another few years!

I've knitted Harry a jumper

Having been set the challenge of learning to knit I've finally done something half way decent. Harry found a knitting pattern of a jumper that he wanted. OK I said, so both boys chose some wool that they wanted. I've just finished Harry's jumper and I am actually quite pleased with it.

Now to start on Douglas's........

Snow!

Back in January we woke up one Saturday to a small covering of snow. We told the boys that if they got dressed quickly they could go out in it before breakfast and have a quick play before it melted. Harry got dressed very quickly and had great fun throwing snowballs and making a little (tiny) snowman.

Making Santa bags

We are having a Christmas craft day today. We have started off by making Santa bags! I must say that I do like craft packs that come with everything you need already cut out! The boys both enjoyed making the bags and all I needed to find was the PVA.
The boys were very careful with the glue, making sure that they only glued the outside of each of the shapes.
Sorry, but the pics have come out in a funny order!

Using our Christmas baking leftovers!

Being the boys first Christmas at school, I had to come up with something for the teachers Christmas presents. We decided to do some baking for them. We made rolo melts, mince pies, gingerbread biscuits and white chocolate and cranberry fudge. Having made all that I then had to come up with something to do with the leftover pastry and mincemeat. Unfortunately I didn't have enough mincemeat left for making mince pies for us! I decided to just spread the mincemeat onto the last pastry sheet and roll it up, then cut into smaller rounds. I then baked these for about 20 mins. They were yummy and meant that I didn't have to bin anything!

Douglas's day with Billy Bear

On Thursday Douglas came home with Billy bear. His day was very different from Harry's. The boys had a couple of friends come round to play, so it was an extra exciting evening. After their friends had gone they played on their little computer for a bit before they decided to use it to practise writing their tricky words. (Tricky words are words that cannot be sounded out e.g. the, no, he etc). I was very impressed with their writing.
Here is a picture of Douglas showing his writing in Billy Bear's book. He drew a picture of their little computer and then wrote 'little computer' using his sounds all by himself

Harry's day with Billy Bear

The other day Harry came home with the class teddy, Billy bear. I asked Harry what he would like to do at home. He chose to make apple muffins!
Here are some pics of our day.

Harry was really sweet and held Billy's hand to the whisk so that he was able to help with the mixing! The following morning Harry asked if he could take some of the cakes into school for his teachers. Harry really enjoyed bringing Billy Bear home from school.