Tessa's 9th Birthday

This girl is 9 today!  She wanted a new bike for her birthday so that was her big present - she went with Jay on Saturday to pick it out and she loves it.  She never wants to have a party - she just wants to go out to dinner and this year she picked Sizzler.  After Jay gets home from church we are having Mongolian beef for dinner with cake and cupcakes for dessert.

Tessa is sweet and funny and loves to sing, dance, read and cook.  We love her so much!

The Great Debate

William's 5th grade SEM class focused on debate this year.  The topic that was chosen for them to debate was a fictional law requiring all children 16 and younger to wear a bicycle helmet.  They spent time learning to to construct responses and rebuttals.  They researched and wrote.  Last Tuesday night, they came together with SEM students from three other schools to debate the issue.

I'm still not sure who won any of the debates.  William's team did well on their initial speeches, I thought, but struggled with the rebuttal.  Still, it was a good experience for William to learn to research and articulate positions on an issue like this.

Everyone received a medal for their participation:

 William and his good friend Tanner:

William has enjoyed participating in SEM at Summit.  It has given him a chance to research and write and pursue interests that he might not otherwise have had a chance to pursue.  It has been good for him to stretch himself and work on extra projects on topics that he enjoys.  

April Showers

Yesterday it was 70 degrees.

Sigh.

Super Spellers

Today was the Summit Elementary Spelling Bee.  Both William and Tessa got through their class spelling bees and were able to participate against other 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders from Summit.

It was a good experience for Tessa.  She missed her first word - deerstalker (she spelled it as deerstocker) but she wasn't too upset.  It's always disappointing when that happens but she was OK.  It is hard to get up in front of a few hundred kids and spell out loud but she handled it well.  It reminded me of both William's and Henry's first go round in the spelling bee - they missed one of their first words but learned a lot from the experience.  

When Henry was in 5th grade he came in third.  William surprised himself and did him one better - he came in 2nd!  He studied some but didn't seem too worried about it leading up to the big event.  We went over words this morning before school and he was confident but didn't expect to win, so for him to make it to the final round was wonderful.  

He was a really good sport as well.  When the other kid spelled his final word to win, William clapped him on the back and shook his hand to congratulate him.  He told me later that the other kid was a better speller and deserved to win.  We are so proud of him not only for doing well in the spelling bee but for being gracious when he didn't win!  

Stop the Presses

Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows I'm not crafty.  I won't say I'm not creative because there are lots of different ways to be creative, but I'm not creative in an artistic, cute, fun, crafty kind of way.  Don't feel sorry for me, though.  I'm OK with it.  I kind of embrace it.  I can solve a quadratic equation and help Henry find the surface area of a cylinder so I figure we all have our set of talents and skills.

Sometimes you have to step outside your comfort zone, though, and I did it this week.  Tessa's 3rd grade class performed an opera - they came up with the costumes, the lyrics, the story and the sets.  She tried out for different parts in the opera and was cast as a pig.  Which meant she needed a pig costume.  

I can buy pink, so I did.  Someone else had a curly pig tail so they loaned it to her.  Great.  But she needed a pig nose.  Sigh.

I googled.  Pinterest beckoned me but then I saw all the ideas and, as I always do when confronted with Pinterest, I curled up in a fetal position on the floor.  However, there were images that seemed doable.  I had an empty toilet paper roll and a glue gun.  My friend Nicole, who is crafty and sews and stuff, had pink felt (! - really - pink felt!) and elastic. 

So, I present, my version of a pig nose:

And don't ask me to make anything else for a very, very long time.  I'm exhausted.  I can, however, help you find the volume of a pyramid.  Or use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the missing side of a right triangle.  That I can do!

SLC

5:30 am came awfully early one day last week.  Chaperoning the 5th Grade Field Trip to Salt Lake City requires you to be at the school at the ridiculously early time of 6:45.  Me, William and 95 of his closest friends boarded buses for the trip to SLC.

We went to Discovery Gateway in SLC for some fun play and a science lesson.  Next stop was the Utah State Capitol Building, where we watched part of the legislative session (a scintillating debate about regulations for car dealerships) and met with our legislators.  After lunch we headed up to Ogden and went to the Treehouse Museum, where the kids put together a tall tale and printed their own copy of the Declaration of Independence.

A few pictures from our day:

William in a committee room at the State Capitol:

 The Summit Elementary 5th Grade on the steps of the Capitol:

 One of William's friends took this picture.  We tried a selfie but I just looked stupid.  Not that this is much better, but still:

 The Treehouse Museum has a replica of the Oval Office:

 William played Davy Crockett in the tall tale:

 And proposed to Sally!

All in all it was a long but fun day.

B-Ball

Basketball season has come and gone for the Wrights of Hyde Park.  Both Henry and William play in a Hyde Park Jr. Jazz rec league.  All the games are on Saturdays during January and February.  It works well for us because it give the kid something to do on a cold, winter Saturday.  Not that this winter has been cold or even that wintry, but you know what I mean.

Henry's league is for 7th and 8th graders and they had their play off game today.  Unfortunately they lost so they are done for the year.  Oh well.  They had a good season - I think they went 4-3 (or maybe 5-2) leading up to today.  This rec league ends at 8th grade so I'm not sure what he'll do next year.  I know they have rec leagues for older kids so I'm hoping some of his friends get together and play in a league like that.  As fun as it would be for him to play high school ball, it probably won't happen, which he knows.  He isn't big enough or athletic enough.  He loves to play, however, so maybe we can figure something out.

William's league is for 5th and 6th graders.  He had a good team this year - they went undefeated.  William scored a little (maybe 4 points a game) and hustled on defense, which was good.  His league doesn't have a playoff but this last game today seemed a bit like one.  It was tied with 10 seconds to play and a kid on William's team got fouled.  I was expecting overtime since kids this age don't make too many foul shots but this kid made one of his foul shots so they won 31-30.  Go Raptors!

Next up - baseball!  Can't wait!