We are so proud!

My kindergartner has been participating in her school's accelerated reading program called "Read Up". This week she got her Cardinal Pin (school mascot is a cardinal), which is the first level of achievement in Read Up. The gist of the Read Up program is that the kids read books and then take comprehension tests about the stories to earn points. Once they reach a certain number of points, they get a Cardinal Pin. There are more prizes as the program goes along but this pin is the first milestone. We are so proud of her! Her teacher was proud too, explaining that in her 14 years of teaching kindergarten, Gracie was her first student to get a Cardinal Pin.

Here she is at the Science Expo with her teacher. The Science Expo just happened to be on the same night that she received her pin.

This post is also the blog debut of my new "diaper bag camera". After my point-and-shot bit the dust in Florida, I wanted another little pocket sized camera for everyday snaps so that I didn't have to carry my big pro camera everywhere. I recently bought the Olympus Stylus 1030W, and so far it's been great. It's no SLR, but it's a handy little gadget indeed. Since my last point-and-shoot suffered humidity damage, the fact that this little Olympus is waterproof to 33 feet was a big selling point for me. I will keep you posted on how well it really works underwater.