Tag Archives: Berkeley

October 11, 2013 · 9:14 pm

Brooker Creek Preserve Field Trip

It’s Field Trip Day to Brooker Creek Preserve!!!

At approximately 8700 acres, Brooker Creek Preserve is the largest natural area in Pinellas County. It consists primarily of forested wetlands and pine flatwoods. The Preserve provides both a unique refuge for native flora and fauna as well as an opportunity for citizens to explore the natural beauty of wild Florida.

The Preserve also serves to protect a significant portion of the Brooker Creek Watershed. A complex of hiking and equestrian trails provide visitors an opportunity to explore the Preserve’s many ecosystems.

There were three different activities for the children. They went into the museum where they watched a film and got to have a hands on experience with different furs, bones, bugs, etc. They each got to net the swamp and see if they could find any critters. Davy was the first to find one of two Crawfish, there was a tadpole, and they saw a Water Moccasin swim by. And lastly, they got to go on a hike which went through 4 different ecosystems: Pinewood Flats, Cypress Swamps, Oak Hammock, Sand Hill.

The kids loved it!

Getting ready to load the bus… Davy, Liam, Pierce

Davy’s sweet teacher Mrs. Paggio…

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Filed under 2nd Grade, Berkeley Prep, Project Life 2013

Tagged as Berkeley, Davy, Hiking, Outdoor fun

March 13, 2013 · 10:16 pm

Matty’s Acceptance Letter

After months and months of the admissions process, the wait is over…. Matty received his acceptance letter today. We are so proud of him and thrilled that both of our boys are officially Berkeley Prep boys… 🙂

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Filed under Berkeley Prep, Project Life 2013

Tagged as Berkeley, Matty

December 14, 2012 · 2:38 am

Winter Concert 2012

This year the theme for the Winter Concert was “Twinkle and Shine”. Andy, Mom, Brandie, and myself all went to cheer Davy on. The show was beautiful and Davy did a great job on his speaking part. “The true meaning of Christmas is celebrating the birth of baby Jesus!” The audience laughed, we were so proud of him.

I know he is blinking, he had just looked down to give Andy a high-five, but you can’t fake that smile so I had to include this one…

Tyler Woods…

Mikey Mezack…

Danica Muroff…

Davy’s dancing partner is Devon Elder…

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Filed under 1st Grade, Berkeley Prep, Christmas Traditions

Tagged as Berkeley, Christmas, Davy

October 31, 2012 · 12:53 am

BPS Halloween Parade 2012

Happy Halloween Berkeley Students. This morning was the annual Lower Division Halloween Parade, followed by the classroom party. Davy looks so good being a soldier along with all of his friends. Such a spooky fun morning…

Gabrielle

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Filed under 1st Grade, Berkeley Prep, Halloween

Tagged as Berkeley, Davy

August 24, 2012 · 5:26 pm

The First Week of 1st Grade and EP3

It was the first day of school and our boys were ready to go! The night before we laid out their clothes, packed their bags, and went to bed early because we all knew that 6:30am was going to be here before we knew it. Most of the summer the boys were getting up between 7-7:30, so this transition wouldn’t be too hard on them. For breakfast they gobbled down some pancakes with syrup and whipped cream and a big glass of OJ. With their bellies full, they got dressed, and we headed outside for our traditional in front of the house photo. Although I laid the camera out early hoping that the lens would adjust to the August humidity, it didn’t so a few of them are cloudy. Oh well, I’d rather have cloudy pictures instead of no pictures. 🙂

Davy is now officially a first grader. His teacher is Mrs. McElroy. Matty is in a Preschool 3 class called EP3 and his teacher is Ms. Adkins. Neither one of them seemed nervous, sad, nor anxious…just excited! We loaded into the car and off we went for drop off!

This year instead of walking Davy in, we let him jump out of the car from the car line just like the other older kids. He was happy.

We walked Matty into his new class. He too did a really good job. I expected him to be a little clingy, instead I think that he was just excited. We kissed him good bye and we were off!

Davy’s teacher shared some photos from throughout the week… Looks like everyone is have a wonderful time.

First grade boys on Friday’s officially have to dress in a blazer and tie, doesn’t Davy look so handsome…

Here’s to a wonderful year!

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Filed under 1st Grade, Berkeley Prep, Preschool

Tagged as Berkeley, Davy, Matty, Preschool

December 15, 2011 · 1:15 am

Davys Kindergarten Christmas Party

Tyler

Wren

Emily

Gabriella and Colton

Kylie

Sophia

Mikey

Mrs. Lewis

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Filed under Berkeley Prep, Christmas Traditions, Holiday's

Tagged as Berkeley, Christmas, Davy, Holiday

October 28, 2011 · 7:54 am

Kindergarten Halloween Parade

Every year the lower division at Berkeley hosts an annual Halloween Costume Parade. The children line up in their classes by grade and parade around the mound to fun spooky music. After all of the grades have entered, each one is presented to the parents for photo opportunities and then they parade out. How cute is Mrs. Lewis dressed up like an MnM… Afterwards, the children get to have a special party in their room…. This year I was on the volunteer list and got to help assist the mummy wrapping center.

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Filed under Berkeley Prep, Halloween, Kindergarten

Tagged as Berkeley, Davy, Halloween

October 22, 2011 · 10:19 pm

Davy’s First Swim Mini-Meet

Davy’s first mini-meet. Well, it was definitely an experience for all of us. As I was loading the pictures for this post he says to me, “Mom, I just thought that it was going to be easier.” I kindly and very parentally reminded him that it was only the first one. The first one’s are always the hardest, and going forward they just get easier. He said ok, and then ran off. He does like to swim and the coaches say that he is good.

He was the youngest and the only 5 year old, next year he will be in this same group and will be an entire year older. It will make a difference.

Before the meet, the kids dressed in their Halloween costumes for a contest. Who knew there would be three spys??? :O)

All participating kids get into the pool for a warm-up.

The meet is offically under way. First up is the girls and boys 6 and under group, and this heat is the free style. A little confusion occurred here. There were girls in lanes 1-4 and boys in 5-8, Davy was in lane 5 next to the girls. Davy thought that everyone was going, but actually it was just the girls. The horn blew and out of the corner of his eye he sees the girls hit the water, he jumps in. In front of everyone, the coach yells through the Bull Horn, “Davy Zahn get out of the pool!” He turns around, climbs out, and now the boys are setting. The horn blows and he isn’t ready. His goggles are crooked and he jumps in late. He crosses the pool, gets out, and cries. He was embarrassed. Andy and I tried to calm him down, nothing helped. They go through all age groups and it is time to line up again…he is still crying… 😦 Next up, the back stroke.

Davy is in the last lane for the back stroke, he comes in third.

The third heat comes up and Davy has finally calmed down. He is not happy, but he isn’t a quitter. The boys set, horn blows, Breast stroke. Davy comes in second place.

The fourth heat is the butterfly and we tell Davy that he doesn’t have to do it. His coach said that since he has only been in swim since last spring, that he really wasn’t ready for this one. All done…. Way to go Davy!!!

When the kids earned a ribbon, they got to pick out one pumpkin.

Davy sitting with little Emily McDermott.

Davy getting his ribbons. :O)

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Filed under Berkeley Prep, Berkeley Swim

Tagged as Berkeley, Davy, Sports, Swimming

August 22, 2011 · 5:45 pm

Davy’s First Day of Kindergarten

The big day is finally here! It’s one of those moments that you talk about for years, and before you know it…. wow it’s here! Davy is starting Kindergarten. It wasn’t as overwhelming to us as we had anticipated; after all, last year really was his starting year at Berkeley. As we climbed out of bed, ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed out the door…it was just like any other school day…

Except… what was easily forgotten about… the 6:40 wake up. Ugh… Rise and Shine babies. To start off the school year, we all sat down for a big chocolate chip pancake breakfast.

After breakfast, we took Davy outside to stand on the front porch for the annual “First Day of School Photos.”

This year Davy gets to bring his own backpack. So, over the summer I tore out all the backpack pictures that I could find in the different catalogues that come in the mail, laid them out on the table, and let him pick which one he wanted. He decided on a lime green Lands End Kids backpack with two logos: his name and a pirate patch.

Usually, the morning drop off routine is to go through the car line, but there was no way that we were going to let him go off to Kindergarten without us :O). We parked the car and as we walked onto the campus we were greeted with the sound of bagpipes…

The first car sitting in the car line was Sophia’s, so we invited her to walk in with us…the children were so excited.

Each child has a designated hook outside of the classroom to hang their backpack, here’s Davy’s…

Good Morning Mrs. Lewis!!!

The Friday before school started, the last day of summer, the school opened the Spirit Shop and invited the children to come in and see their classrooms. We already had plans to spend the day with Caiden at the beach so we missed coming in and participating in an activity. Mrs. Lewis was kind enough to let us into the classroom a little early this morning so Davy could find his desk and run through a scavenger hunt with Sophia.

Davy was completely at ease and so excited to see his friends… so with heavy hearts full of love and pride we kissed him goodbye and left. Our baby is a Kindergartener.

Mrs. Lewis send out a “First Day of School” digital scrapbook and here are a few of fun things that Davy did on his first day:

Fine Arts with Ms. Ansinelli

Spanish with Senora Calladrino

Dance Party with Mrs. Lewis

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Filed under Berkeley Prep, Kindergarten

Tagged as Berkeley, Davy

June 1, 2011 · 1:50 am

Honor’s Night 2011

Tonight was Honor’s Night for the Lower Division. Everyday we see the children and most of the time they seem so big to us…but tonight I was completely surprised when I saw them all together with the other children and they were so little. Now, I know that he is little…I mean he is five after all; but the children just looked so small! My heart-strings squeezed.

Each class walked in starting with Pre-K and ending with the 5th grade. They walked around the gymnasium and took their seats with their class. Andy and I got there a little early so we were able to get an aisle seat. When Davy walked by, he saw us and started jumping. So cute.

First, they introduced Ms. Depew’s class and then they brought up Ms. Fruit’s class. They lined them up in two rows, of course Davy was in the back. They announced the class and before they could walk off of the stage Davy jumps up from the back row and starts waving as hard as he could at us. I was so proud of him. I waved back as quick as I could and then they ushered them off of the stage. He was the only one to wave. I love him so he makes my heart swell….