Last Day of School 2016-We have another Graduate!

Yes it's true!  One more has graduated from elementary school!  Micah is officially a Middle Schooler, not sure how that happened.  He is really excited to be done with elementary school and onto bigger and better things.  He is such a hard worker and loves to learn. 

 Mrs. Bentson was a great transition teacher for Micah.  Moving after school started is always hard on everyone, but we were fortunate to have some awesome teachers help with the transition and she was one of them.

Malia loved Mr. Eckoff.  He was great and really knew how to keep her on task.  She is our little social butterfly that gets easily distracted by her friends.  He always seemed to be able to reign her back in. Thanks for a great 4th grade year!

 Micah will miss Parkview, at least we still have Malia there for a couple more years.  It has been great!

I couldn't forget these two.  They are always by my side relishing in their siblings accomplishments!

Unfortunately I didn't take last day pics of the older girls, but they didn't mind, lol.

End of School Overload

So much happened and I've been avoiding posting this because. . . let's be honest, I'm lazy.  Seriously though, the end of school has come and gone and when it was over, I just couldn't bring myself to even look at these pictures and videos for a while because it was like I said in the title and "overload."  But it is over, and I've kind of recovered from it and it is finally time to just do it.  So to begin, here are the teacher gifts I made for the kids' teachers this year.  Each of the kids had an aide so I made one for them as well.

Morgan had her 4th grade program.

and sang and danced to the good `ol "Old Man Tucker" our family's favorite (HA).

Here's another video for your viewing pleasure.  I won't post all of them cuz frankly that would take forever to watch and I'm tired.

6th grade has a world fair in which they study about a country and do a ginormous project about it.  So glad that is over.  McKenzie chose Ukraine because her uncle Billy served there and had a lot of things she could use to display.  Here she is with France and Peru.

The 4th graders also had an innovations day (the SAME DAY) where they had to come up with something they wanted to learn more about and on the day of the fair they researched, created and displayed their innovation.  This really isn't an innovation but she wanted to learn more about landscape art so this is what she did.

There was also the annual dance festival.  I love this.  It's so much fun for everyone. This year they got smart and did it in front of the school where there is more shade.  Too bad it was was barely 70 that day.  It was still great.

The 6th graders also had their NOVA graduation.  It's like the DARE program we had as kids.  They learn about life skills and how to stay safe.  

McKenzie won a couple of extra awards for working hard.  One was the Constitution Award and the NOVA Pack Award.

There was also field day.

Filled with lots of running and sweating.  It was a great day for it.  Pleasant weather and it sprinkled for about 2 minutes.  It was awesome.

Malia made it to the finals this year.  Here is her 1st race.  She decided she wanted to run holding on to her sweatshirt.

And the final race in which she decided she needed to hold her friend's hand while running.  What a goof.

Then there was the awards assembly 

I usually don't go to because my kids only get the reading award, but this year I was called and asked to come.  Mak and Morg were both receiving the Hawk award.  Two kids from each class are chosen by their teacher to receive this award.  It's usually someone who stands out to the teacher for whatever reason they choose.  Morgan was chose for her class. . .

And McKenzie was chosen for hers.  This was pretty impressive since there were no other siblings that won this award.  For as much as I feel I'm failing as a parent, it was nice to see that I do have good kids and their teachers are noticing this as well.

The same day as the Assembly,  they also had 6th grade graduation.  I swear I feel like I lived at school the last month.  Anyway, this year they decided to bring things up a notch and give the kids an actual graduation.  I remember being in 6th grade in Virginia and what a big deal they made out of graduating from elementary school so I was very glad they decided to do this, this year.  She got to "walk"

And receive a certificate and medal.

They are moving on to bigger and better things.

I decided it would be nice to get her some flowers.  I loved the colors of this bouquet.  It looks like a flower face don't ya think?

It was a great afternoon.

It's hard to believe that these girls have gotten so big.  I started taking pics of her and Emme in 2nd grade.  See the difference

Then there was the last day of school and all of the traditions that came with that.  Gotta love our walking group.

The boys (Micah is finally starting to grow, love it.  We know he will never get as tall as KC but hey look, he's like up to his ear, lol)

The girls.

The teachers

And aides

An our neighborhood with our awesome new Principal Mr. Eager (or Geoffrey the Giraffe as I like to call him)  He is the nicest, most friendly, happiest person I have ever met.  He leaves voice mails when he needs to make important announcements to the parents and every time he calls it sounds like the Toys R Us Birthday phone calls that we get.  I don't mean for that to sound like an insult, he is seriously the happiest person alive.  We are so glad he decided to come to our school this year.

Here's to another year.  Bring on the summer (or what's left of it since we are almost a month into it now).  Oh and btw I HAVE A JUNIOR HIGH-er AHHHHHHHHHH!

Swimming Lessons 2012

We made it through another session of swim lessons (with minimal complaining even).  Mak passed level 6 and is officially ready for swim team.  I was going to put her in this year but with the unknown if we were going to be here all summer and having to shuttle her back and forth after the baby comes I decided to hold off another year.  At the beginning she didn't want to do swim team, but now she does, of course. 

 Morg passed level 4 (which shocked me a little)  She did really good and I see a lot of improvement from last year. 

 I put Micah in a level 4 as well because. . . well I'm a bad mom.  I was having a hard time scheduling all of them at the same time and he was so far ahead of everyone last year I fiugred he could skip a level.  In the past (at least for us) they've held level 4 in the shallower part of the pool and I thought he'd be fine.  Well, not so much.  They did it in the 13 foot dive well and it wasn't so fine.  He struggled keeping up with everyone and so they had him swim next to the wall so he could stop when he needed.  I felt bad for the teachers cuz I knew how much I hated teaching kids who were not placed correctly.  You'd think I'd know better, lol.  Oh well, he managed and although he didn't pass (surprise surprise) he improved and loves it.

 This was his favorite part.

 I didn't get a good close up of Eah cuz by the time I got over to her class they were playing a game of Alligator Alligator, what time is it?  She's the one the front with the goggles on.  She passed level 2 as well and actually kind of surprised me on how well she did.    She's become a little fish.

 Mak's group and few others played sharks and minnows and she along with the teachers were the last one's standing, so the teachers huddled around her and carried her across the pool so she wouldn't get tagged.  It was pretty hilarious.

 Here are my swimmers.  So proud of them.  Glad they love the water as much as I do.  I think with a little encouragement, they will all do swim team next year.  Ok let's be realistic, they are doing swim team weather they like it or not, lol.  

Last Day of School 2012

The inevitable day has come and gone.  Yeah for the kids, sad for me.  I wouldn't mind just a couple of more weeks kid less.  Regardless, the kids had a fun last week.  There was the awards assembly and the dance festival and of course the joyous last day of 1 1/2 hours (don't even ask).    Here are the kids after the dance festival.  I'll post their videos at the end.

Walking to school the last day.  I thought it was a cute shot.

Morg and her besties commiserating on how the last day will go.

One last shot of the kids with their teachers.  Mak had such a great year with this man.  He had nothing but the nicest things to say about her.  She's sad to move on because she says "I want Mr. C to be my teacher forever."  He really is awesome.

2 of my kids have had Mrs. G.  She is just hands down awesome.

Also 2 of my kids have had Mrs. W.  These teachers just know how to reach my kids on a level I can't.  I miss them already.

Then there's Eah.  Miss Lynn has had the youngest 3 kids and all of my them have done amazing with her.  They all grow so much during preschool.  On the last day, they did a little program for the parents, it's always cute to watch them sing and dance.

This is the first year we've had Miss Nicole (or "Miss Cole" as Eah says it) as the preschool aid.  Can I just tell you how much I love this woman.

I was a able to get a cute shot of Morg and her friend McKenna coming out to say bye to Mrs. G.

HUGS!!!!

Oh and Malia loves all of her siblings teachers and hugs them each time she sees them.

The usual girl shot with one extra, Savannah.  She moved in close by and plays with the girls a lot.

Mak and Lauren.  At this point it is useless to ever think my children will ever be tall.  These 2 are only 6 months apart in age.

Mak and her bestie Emme.  These 2 are inseparable.  When/if we move, this will probably be the hardest goodbye.

McKenzie's dance.  She's the one in the back with the blue sweatshirt and red hat, all gansta and all.

Morgan's dance.  She's wearing a pink shirt and plaid shorts, third row back.

Micah's dance.  He's kinda hard to see, but he's wearing gray and black pants with a green shirt holding a panda pillow pet, 3 rows back behind the girls with the red pants.

Malia's dance, she's pretty easy to spot.

Now it's over and I can't believe I have a 6th grader, where has the time gone.  The kids learned so much this year and I loved all of their teachers.  Hopefully this next year will bring on some new adventures for our family.  Here's to a fun, hot, exciting summer.   Next on the agenda, getting this baby out.  Only 5 weeks to go WOOT!!!!