14

So Henry is 14 now.  To celebrate he invited a couple of friends to go to the Aquatic Center and hang out for the day.  We (my friend Nicole and I) provided pizza and drinks and snacks.  Kids played and swam.  I was tired at the end of the day.  Henry, however, came home, had a quick dinner and a piece of cake, went to a friends house to help on his Eagle project, then played night games at another friends house until 11 pm.

Must be nice to have all that energy!

14 year old boys don't generally enjoy having their moms take pictures -  this one is from the top of the Space Needle when Henry recorded our families visit on their electronic guest book.

Henry is a great kid!  We love him and are happy to see what his high school years bring.

Summertime!

We have had such a fun summer this year.  Some of our summer activities include:

*baseball for both Henry and William

*scout camp for Henry

*Youth Conference for Henry

*swimming at the Logan Aquatic Center 

*a day trip to Downatta Hot Springs in Idaho

*swim lessons for William (although he passed the BSA swim test so he is done with his lessons) and Tessa

*lots of trips to Pinks Shaved Ice

*hanging out with friends

I was worried that the summer would seem long since we took our summer vacation so early this year, but it has flown by.  I can't believe that school starts three weeks from tomorrow!

I was released as Primary President last Sunday (*sob*) but got to enjoy one more Hyde Park Parade.  Unfortunately it was a cool, rainy day so we all got a little wet.  Or a lot wet.  It was weird because our unofficial theme was "Surf's Up", so we played summer fun songs and had leis and balloons.  The poor kids were all bundled up under blankets and umbrellas and jackets.  Oh well.  It was still fun.

Henry's 14th birthday is coming up in a few days and we bought him concert tickets to see Imagine Dragons.  He really likes their music and had never been to a concert before.  Last night was the big night and it was so fun!  They put on a really good show.  It took us two hours to get home due to road construction and an unexpected freeway closure so we pulled into Hyde Park at 1:40 am.  But we had a blast!

I don't know why I look like my eye is swollen shut.  Probably because although the show started at 7:30, Imagine Dragons didn't actually take the stage until 9:30.  Usually by 9:30 I am well on my way to bed, so this was waaaayyy past my bedtime.  Still, a great time and I'm so glad we went.

Up next - Henry's 14th birthday!  

PNW

This year's Wrights of Hyde Park Family Vacation came the week after school ended for the year.  I normally like to wait until further into the summer to go somewhere for lots of reasons - I like a little downtime to recover from the craziness that is the end of school, it gives us something to look forward to, baseball is over for the boys later in July so they don't miss any games.  As our vacation was a road trip to Seattle and the Yankees were playing in Seattle June 1st - 3rd, the decision was out of my hands.

We relied on the hospitality of Scott and Amanda and, with their home as a base, explored Seattle:

We made a stop at the American Girl store to load up on accessories for Tessa and Grace:

We rode to the top of the Space Needle:

We watched the Yankees beat the Mariners:

We visited the Pacific Science Center so William could lay in a dinosaur footprint:

We went to a planetarium show:

We saw Statue Guy:

We visited Snoqualmie Falls:

It was a quick trip but we had a lot of fun.

Just don't ask me about William licking the Gum Wall.  Yuck.

5th Grade Awards Day

Every year the 5th grade has an awards assembly.  They recognize kids for academic excellence, perfect attendance, leadership, prolific reading and a US history project called  the Great American Award.  William received awards for 4/5 of these things.  He missed out on the perfect attendance award because I let him stay home on the 5th grade ski day.  Oh well.

He received the Great American Award, which requires students to memorize the Gettysburg Address, the preamble to the Constitution, the Star Spangled Banner and the presidents of the United States, among other things.

He received the Eagles Nest award, which his school gives to students who earn 1000 AR points over the course of their elementary school career.  You read books and take quizzes on them to earn points.  The longer and higher the reading level, the more AR points you can earn.  For example, the 5th Harry Potter book is worth 48 points but a Magic Treehouse (early grade chapter book) might be worth 1.  You have to read a alot and take a lot of quizzes to earn Eagle's Nest.

He received an Academic Excellence award for scoring a 4 (Highly Proficient) on two of his three SAGE tests at the end of this year.  He scored a 4 in Science and Language Arts and a 3 in Math.  He was disappointed but a 3 is good - it means Proficient which means you learned what you were supposed to learn.

He also received a Kiwani's Club Award called the Hope of America.  He was one of six kids in his grade to earn it.  It is teacher-recommended and is based on scholarship and leadership.

William has had a great 5th grade year.  I wasn't too sure how it was going to go at first - he was bummed that he didn't have too many of his buddies in his class.  But he made new friends along the way and benefited from a great teacher!

Congratulations, William!

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.