Awards Banquet

Jason started the 7th grade this year and this means that he started high school. This has been a big change for everyone. I'll be the first to acknowledge and admit that I "harp" quite a bit for him to do all his homework and to get good grades, and so on and so on.

Well, I guess my "harping" paid off. All three of the quarters so far, Jason has been on the High Honor Roll with him getting a 4.0 in the third quarter. We received a special letter in the mail saying that he and his parents were invited to an Awards Banquet complete with dinner. Since Jason is the first of the kids to attend high school, we weren't sure what to expect.

The Awards Banquet served a great meal and each of the teachers got up and gave awards to a few of their students. Jason received two awards tonight!

The first award was for the Outstanding 7th Grade Math Student.

The second award was for the Outstanding 7th Grade Language Arts Student.

(Check out the award! It absolutely cracked me up! It's definitely a keeper!)

We are so proud of you Jason!

It's Official (for Jason)!

After taking the Hunter's Safety Course, Jason was able to put into the "lottery" for a deer tag for our area.

Well, today he found out that he drew out! He will be on his first official hunting trip this fall! (I'm pretty sure you can tell from the picture that he is really excited!) Here starts the countdown of days until the start of the hunt....

One Day of Spring...Literally!

I always enjoy Spring. I like the weather when it's not too hot and not too cold. I love it when the kids start catching ladybugs and plucking flowers (dandelions) from the yard to give me. But, spring in our little town is one extreme weather day to another extreme weather day. So when we have beautiful days, the kids head outside afterschool to play and run until I finally drag them in for dinner, showers, and bed.


So, last week we actually had a beautiful spring day (well, maybe two days) and I had to get just a couple of pictures of Kari with her ladybugs and flowers.



P.S. - The day after these were taken, it snowed!

Our Little Cowgirl

Kari learned all about "Cowboys & Western things" this week in Kindergarten. Today, they got to dress up like cowboys and cowgirls. Kari had looked forward to this day for quite a while! She looked darling in her pink cowgirl hat, boots, and bandana!

Orange...really?!?

Now, most of my friends know that I don't like orange. In fact, I pretty much despise it! No doubt it's due to the fact that I'm a Texas A&M graduate and Aggie Maroon is definitely one of my favorite colors! (There are no "Longhorns" here!) We don't have anything in our home that's orange and the kids (and Gary and I) never wear orange either. Orange is only allowed at Halloween and at the deer hunt (I want to make sure they're seen when we go hunting with Gary!)

So.....it's close to Mother's Day and the local paper has a contest. Kids draw a picture of their mom and submit it to the paper. They judge them and pick a few winners. Our elememtary school classes passed out the papers and my three little girls drew pictures of me.

Here's Emily's:

Here's Kate's:

And here's Kari's:

Do you think I have a rebel on my hands??? The teachers at the school just couldn't wait to show this to me!

I definitely love my little Kari -

even if she does color me orange!

School Projects

Of course, this is the time of year for all the end-of-year school projects. So, I thought that I would include just a couple of pictures of Jason & Emily's projects.


This is Jason's "egg" project. His science teacher wanted the kids to make a container to protect an egg from breaking while it is thrown from the top of the school. Jason took a clorox wipe container, filled it with oil and sealed it with duct tape. (Thanks, Grandpa Phil!) We didn't leave enough of an air space and we didn't duct tape it enough. The lid fell open and the egg barely cracked. Pretty good!!

In 4th Grade, Emily is learning about Utah and all about its counties. Each child was assigned a county and Emily was given Wasatch County. She had to make a trifold poster all about the county. It was SO hard for me to let her do it on her own. I helped print the pictures, but Emily picked the colors, the pictures and the placement of everything.

Each of them did well with their projects. Good job, kids!!

2010 Spelling Bee (and yes...we are still alive!)

Okay, YES we are still alive!! I have been more than terrible in updating my blog. It seems that I got so far behind that to catch up seemed undaunting. SO....I'm going to start today and perhaps work forward and backwards...well...at least forward! So, here's the post for today:

Today was the 2010 Circleville Elementary Spelling Bee. Jason took 1st last year and placed in the years before so Emily really wanted to do the same. Since Jason moved to the high school, Emily felt that this was her chance. She placed 5th last year and wanted a trophy so bad this time. We kept telling her that it was okay if she misspelled a word - at least she would've tried.

Well the words came and went, came and went, and came and went. When there were 4 students left, she was given the word "velocity." She spelled it with an "o" instead of an "e". But, she placed 4th place and received a trophy, certificate, and money! We are SO proud of her! We love her so much and we are thrilled that she worked hard learning her words. After all the pictures were taken, she said "Mom, I can't believe I said "o" instead of "e". I will never forget that word again!"

We love you, Emily! Here are a few pictures of the Spelling Bee:

Emily as participant #45

Emily spelling one of her words.

Emily and the other winners of the Spelling Bee. (Mason, Anthony, Riter, and Emily)

Emily and her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Dalton

Our little 4th place Spelling Bee winner!!