End Of The Year Blur

The end of the school year always comes with some crazy, busy days. May 24th was one such day. There were 3 kids that had something happening at 3 different times. Thankfully they were at different times and I was able to make it to each event.

We started our day at a picnic lunch with Ailey. Her kindergarten class had the opportunity to walk to a park near us and the families were welcome to join them at the given time. It was super important to Ailey that I showed up, so I packed her and Jace a lunch and we went and met up with her.

Ailey had the option to come home with me or go back to school to finish out her day. For some reason, she decided to go back to school. It worked out well though, because my next stop was the Jr. High to see Shaylyn get an award.

We didn't know what the award was going to be and I was thankful I found a seat next to some friends, who gladly held Zach so that I could get pictures of Shaylyn. They still ended up blurry and the award was for Honor Roll.

Shaylyn did want to come home after the award ceremony and because I was in need of a babysitter in order to attend Nate's activity, I let her.

I was only home for a few minutes before I had to leave, so I got the little boys situated and made sure Shaylyn was good to go, then I headed out.

Nate had a sort of read-a-thon thing, but where the parents could come and the kids could either read to the parent or the parent to the child. The teacher also provided some snacks. Nate was so excited to see me and we both read to each other. I kind of let Nate decide who read what.

While it was a busy day, it was very fulfilling as a mom. It was nice to have the chance to support 3 of my kids when they had something important happening in their lives.

What Happens Next...

Let The Competitions Begin...

October brought about the Cheer Competition Season.

Because I was never in Dance or Cheer myself, I had no idea what a competition all entailed. We quickly learned at the first one.

Because of our Cheer Mom, I knew that the day would be longish - so Eric and I had decided ahead of time that I would just take Shaylyn and he'd stay home with the other kids. It also helped that Eric's cousin was having a baby shower the same afternoon.

So the morning of the first competition came. Shaylyn had to be there by like 9:30 in the morning, so it was a fairly early morning. We had to get her all dolled up and travel about a half hour or so to the venue.

We arrived and she found her group, while I found a seat on bleachers. Before long, Shaylyn's best friend Mikayla and her mom, Jessica arrived. I was thankful for Jessica being there. We sat and visited while we waited for our girls to perform. 

It took quite awhile. There were 3 or 4 teams competing and then you have some soloists and duos competing as well. There's also 4 or so grades from each school area competing. So Shaylyn was part of Westlake's 7th grade team, but one of the little teams, 6th graders, 8th graders and 9th graders were also a part of it.

Our 7th graders went and did an awesome job. And yes, I was just a little nervous about my little girl being the flyer (especially since she's had no gymanastic experience)...

Then we sat and waited for results. Our girls couldn't leave until results and it would've been pointless anyway as they were doing team pictures afterwards.

So the results came in and our girls got 1st place!!! Yay girls. In this particular competition the coach got the trophy and the girls got a medallion.

After the competition we headed around the block where they were taking the team pics. While there Jessica and I decided we should have Makayla and Shaylyn get a picture together. Yes, we had to pay extra - but I think when Shaylyn is older she'll like to have this photo.

My baby girl is growing up way too fast... 

What Happens Next...

Pinewood Derby 2014

The Pinewood Derby couldn't have come at a worse time for our family. Eric is still battling his dizziness and his world is almost always still spinning. He has to be careful what he does or he loses his balance quickly or gets sick.

Cutting a car out for Lex wasn't going to be an easy task. Eric decided the easiest thing he could do was a wedge shape. I was extra nervous watching Eric cut it out as he really wasn't feeling that great, but he did it and Lex had his wedge shape that he could race.

Lex went about sanding it and painting it. He decided he was going to do a Minecraft car and he wanted a creeper on it. Now Shaylyn probably could've painted a good looking creeper on it, but Lex wanted one from his book printed out to put on his car.

I told him to paint it and I'd take care of putting the creeper on it. I scanned the picture in, printed it off, mod podged it onto the painted car and then I sprayed the whole car with my sealer that I do all my projects in. It ended up looking pretty good and from far away you couldn't tell it was a picture.

The race had each car race in 3 heats, one time in each lane. I took a video of each race and complied it to the below video. I also disabled the audio of the boys cheering each other on, it was kind of loud.



For the record, the Batmobile was a car one of the leader's made. I think he purposely made it so that it was slow and I don't know if he followed the 'rules' or not, but it was awesome that he made a car to race so that the boys didn't feel so bad and none of the boys would be the biggest loser.

Lex was okay that he didn't win, he was just happy his car seemed to do better than last year. He was also extra happy that Grandma Shirley happened to be at our house that night and was able to come see him race.

He ended up getting the award for the CREEPIEST CAR.

What Happens Next...

My Little Hero

I got another note from the school telling me that Lex was going to presented an award at the month's award assembly. He wasn't exactly sure what it was for, but he thought it might be the 'Hero Award.'

Our elementary school has teachers and peers nominate a student each month who is a 'hero.' These are the kids who do things to show they are anything but a bully. It's a way to get kids to focus on being kind to each other instead of being mean. I am totally for it.

So we go to the assembly and sit through the Student Of The Month awards and nope, that wasn't Lex's award. But when it came time for the Hero awards, I had the camera ready to go.

He was so happy to win the award.

What Happens Next...

Student Of The Month

I love moments that can make you happy as a parent.

Shaylyn gave me a note the weekend before the 28th that invited us to an awards ceremony. I asked if it meant she was Student of the Month and she said, "Yes." Just when I was so happy for her, she said her class votes. WHAT?!?!?! Isn't the teacher supposed to choose? Ah well, I guess her teacher gives the students a topic of sorts on who to vote for. The topic for October's SOM was BRAVE. Apparently the class thinks Shaylyn is brave and tries lots of new things or else she's just popular in her class. I guess it helps when you vote for yourself too. HAHAHA!

So early this morning, Jace, Ailey and I headed over to the school. Ailey was still so tired that I took her in her pj's. They have parents sit in the very back of the gym and everything takes place in the front of the gym, so I didn't get great pictures...but we got what we got.

What Happens Next...

100% Attendance

With all the crap that went around this winter, I'm surprised none of my kids really got that sick. I was also quite surprised to hear that Shaylyn got 100% attendance for the 2nd term. More like I was floored by it. It occurred to me that had Shaylyn not gone to school for the hour or two she went to school the day of my sister's wedding, she wouldn't have. So kudos for her for going for that small window of time - it earned her an attendance award. YAY!!! I don't think I EVER earned one of those in my entire school career.

Congrats Shaylynnie!

What Happens Next...

Racing Day

One of Eric's least favorite things is the Pinewood Derby. He gets frustrated that he doesn't have the right tools to make the cars easily, so it's something he kind of dreads...

This year he got the pleasant surprise that not only was Lex doing the Pinewood Derby, the Activity Day girls were ALSO going to be doing it. So that meant Eric had to carve out 2 cars, instead of the usual 1. He did his fatherly duty and then had Lex and Shaylyn both sand theirs down. Shaylyn really stuck with it and got hers sanded quite well, Lex did the best he could do.

We then let them paint their own. I was amazed at what Shaylyn came up with, though I shouldn't have been. She is a true artist and I loved how it came out. I also liked the fact that she wanted a little bit of glitter on her car. (The girls didn't have to follow the rules) Lex's car looked like a big mess to me, but he knew what he was doing.

Shaylyn themed her car after Minecraft (surprise, surprise) and Lex's was themed for Ninjago.

On March 16th, at about 10 to 9 in the freaking AM - we all headed over to the church. Kind of forgetting that the Derby was this morning, we had let Shaylyn sleep over at a friends house and forgot to remind her that the Derby was in the morning. So we had to go pick her up and she was a bit surprised.

The girls went first and they called theirs the Powder Puff Pinewood Derby.

After the girls we done we had wonderful refreshments in the form of Costco muffins and Orange Juice. Seeing as how none of us really had breakfast, it was the perfect treat. We then got to sit around for a half hour or so waiting for the boys to start.

Then the boys races started. It was interesting to see how many boys there are in this area that are 8-11 as opposed to the girls. We have a lot of girls, but there are so many more boys. It was kind of insane.

Neither of our kids won, but that's okay. They both had lots of fun making their cars and racing anyway. We also got away tear free this year, that's always a bonus!

After the Derby I had a major headache and came home and slept. Then later that night I convinced Eric to take me out to dinner. HAHAHA! I think we deserved it after spending all morning at the church with the kids. 

What Happens Next...