Awards Day

Today was 5th Grade Awards Day at Summit Elementary.  Henry received two awards - the Great American Award and the President's Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence.  Here he is with his Great American Award:

 It's a nice plaster award with his name engraved on it.  He was pretty excited to finally receive his award.  You may remember me posting about his memorization of the Gettysburg Address back in the fall - that was for this award.  In addition, he had to memorize all the US States and capitals, recite the Preamble to the Constitution, recite all of the US Presidents in order, write the Pledge of Allegience with correct spelling and punctuation, write a short report about the meaning of the Oath of Allegience and correctly answer all 100 questions on the Citizenship Test.  He worked really hard all last fall and finished the requirements right before Christmas.  Only six 5th graders (out of 70 or so) received this award because it does take a lot of work to do, but he did it!  And we are so proud of him.

The President's Award was for scoring over 90% on each of his core tests.  Actually quite a few kids won this award, which is so great!  As a matter of fact, the whole 5th grade did so well that they have earned a late night at school tomorrow night - they play dodgeball and capture the flag and eat treats.  Sounds like just the thing to finish out your elementary school career.  After Friday, Henry will be in middle school.  Wow! 

Tomorrow is Tessa's last day of school.  She is so excited to go to school in the morning on the bus with William and Henry!  All the kindergarten kids go in the morning to meet the their 1st grade teachers for next year.  Then they get to have a field day and ice cream before ending their school year with the AR Carnival.  The boys get to go to the AR Carnival as well.  Today they both got to leave school for a fun lunch with their teachers since they earned enough AR points (for reading books and taking comprehension tests on said books) during the school year.

I don't remember the end of school being quite so much fun when I was in school. 

End of Year Scramble

This is always a crazy time of year.  It seems like there is always something going on at the kid's school.  They have field trips and end of year programs and field days and fairs.  This week we have had a little of everything.  Henry and Tessa went on field trips with their classes.  William's class did their end of year parent's program, entitled Friends.  They sang some songs, did a Reader's Theater and recited poetry.  We had bad seats so I couldn't get a good pictures but here is one of William with his class:

Today was Henry's 5th Grade History Fair. He had to do a report on a significant historical figure, make a poster, dress up as the person and prepare a short presentation. He and his classmates did so great!   Here is Henry with his teacher, Mrs. Olsen.  She is wonderful!  I'm just sad that she's retiring after this year:

Henry did his report on Jackie Robinson.  He was excited to find a historically significant baseball player and we were able to get his a Brooklyn Dodgers/Jackie Robinson tshirt:

Next week seems pretty laid back.  William and Tessa will get to meet their teachers for next year and Henry says goodbye to 5th grade and elementary school.  Then we are done!  Hooray!

But first is Award's Day.  Another opportunity for Henry to complain about having his picture taken.  Sigh.  Can't wait!

Dancing Girl

Tessa's 2nd dance recital was yesterday.  She was so excited, she could hardly sleep!  It was quite a day - we had dress rehearsal from 9-11 a.m. and then the actual recital was from 3-5 p.m.  Her cute little class did two numbers, including one from Aladdin - Never Had a Friend Like Me.  We call it the Genie song and the girls wore little genie hats with their costumes and had to pick some genie poses (as you can see in the picture).  Anyway, she did great and enjoyed dance this year.  The boys are glad it's over, mainly because I thought I was being smart by scheduling dance on Friday afternoons since it is an early out day from school and all I really did was ruin everyone's best chance to play with friends.  Sigh.  Next year we'll schedule dance earlier in the week and not around dinnertime.    That will cut down on our fast food dinners (since we were always driving home from dance right around dinner on Friday and everyone was tired and grumpy and it was just easier) and overall complaining, I think.

Thanks to La Shars for a great dance year for Tessa!

Round Up

Hey, look at that.  It's already mid-May.  Lots has happened since my last post.

Tessa lost her first tooth.  I wish I had a picture but I'm the worst mother in the world and I hate running for the camera every time something happens.  I think Jay took one with his nifty new iPhone but I don't have one so just imagine sweet Tessa with a bottom tooth missing and the one next to it dangling dangerously by a thread.

Henry finished core testing at school - you know, the year-end kind - and did so great!  He got 97 in Science, a 98 in Language Arts and a 100 in Math.  Yes, 100!  That's my boy.  He will be receiving two awards at Awards Day later this month - the Great American Award (that he earned before Christmas and involved stuff like knowing all the states and capitals and memorizing the Gettysburg Address) and the Presidential Award (for getting 90% or above on all of his core tests).  We are so proud of him.  As a side note, it kind of surprised me when he came home with his scores just days after taking the tests.  Back in the day (*cough*1970's*cough*) you took core tests with paper and pencil and filled in all the bubbles on the paper.  It took months to get your scores back.  Not in 2012, though.  Which is kind of fun.

William is ready to be out of school.  There are only 2 1/2 weeks left in school and he is constantly devising ways to stay home.  Last week he complained that he had "buckled" his knee during recess.  Unfortunately he forgot which knee was injured and tried limping around on the wrong one.  Today he wanted to stay home because Henry had a field trip.  Say what?  I finally told him that there were only a few days left of school and he was going and to quit the monkey business.  I mean, I get it.  I'm ready for school to be out too.  I'm just as sick of the whole homework routine as he is - maybe more, because I'm the resident Homework Enforcer around here.  I am also getting sick of his complaints however.  At this rate June 1st can't come soon enough.

And then we'll begin the countdown for August 23rd.  Not quite in June, but by August 1st we'll all be ready for school to start.  But before then we have baseball and Yellowstone and all kinds of summer fun to entertain us. 

Only 17 more days!

Sale Day

Every other year or so my friend Melissa and I organize a garage sale.  We use it as an opportunity to purge and organize our houses while making a little extra money.  We price things low - because really, the whole point of the sale is to get rid of stuff.  We try to get some friends to participate but I'm lame and usually forget to ask people until the week before and then it's too late.  So - if you are my friend and want to do a garage sale in two years - ask me!  It will take me that long to accumulate enough stuff to really do it but I'm all in for 2014.

We have a great location - Melissa has connections so we set up in the parking lot of a local business.   We make fun of each others stuff and what we are selling.  We laugh.  Alot.  This year the big joke was muffins.  Nicole and her husband both brought us muffins to snack on.  We left the container in my mini-van where people were coming to pay for their purchases and people kept asking me how much I was charging for the muffins.  They weren't really for sale but I charged 50 cents and probably sold 10 or so.  I gave all the money to Nicole, since she provided the muffins, but it was just so funny to have people wanting to buy our snacks.  One poor grandma had just bought a bunch of stuff and only had a quarter left so I just gave her one.  Bless her heart.

I didn't make as much money as I have in past years but that's OK.  My house is cleaner and more clutter free.  I can walk around my basement without turning sideways.   I earned enough money to pay for my upcoming haircut and color and a tank of gas.  Can't complain.

See you in 2014!

Happy Birthday, Tessa

How is my baby girl six years old? 

How did she go from this:

to this:

Today before school (she has afternoon kindergarten) we went and got her a haircut - which she loves because they know how to do cute things that I can't do - and out to lunch.  Now her cake is cooling so it will be all ready to decorate when she gets home from school.  We'll have cake and ice cream tonight, in between Cub Scouts and baseball practice.

Happy Birthday, Tessa!  We love you!