Last Day of School!

I always like to compare pictures from the first day and the last day of school. See how much the kids have grown (or not!). Riley doesn't feel like he's grown much, but I got his physical form from the beginning of the year, and he's grown 4 inches and gained 20 pounds! He's not a little boy anymore, that's for sure!

Regan's school has a "5th Grade Walk" where they line up all the kids and teachers and then have the 5th graders walk through the school for one last time and everyone waves and high fives them. They played the song "The Best Day of our Lives" and there wasn't many dry eyes in the place. I was surprised at all the little girls bawling their eyes out, but I was almost one of them when I saw my baby walk through that curtain. Of course, she wasn't crying, she and her BFF Piper were calmly walking through (last ones too) and laughing at all the people who were crying!

Anyway, another year in the books. Next year is the beginning of middle school for Regan and Riley will be a sophomore.  Oh, and Regan won a reader award and A and B honor roll for the year! So proud of my girl!!

Icepocalypse

Well, the kids had ONE full week of school between Christmas and Spring Break this year! Crazy!! We had a delay every week or a snow day. A couple of times, it was because of the threat of ice, but we never got any ice. I can tell you, I'm over the cold. I know it's worse up north, but I was made for Texas summers!! So, here's the latest ice day. Got a nice 2 hour delay, but our power went out for a few hours so our clocks didn't go off, so we were running crazy all morning anyway!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Regan told me the other day, "Mom, no more homemade Valentine's, okay?" Ugh, shot to the heart! It was bad enough that this was my very last school Valentine party to go to, now I can't even make fun Valentine's!? So, I bought her some Fun Dip and called it a day. She signed up to bring Ranch Dip (the good kind, she said) and David had the day off work, so I figured we would both go.

First, David made surprise lunch reservations for us at Fogo de Chau! The kids have separate things tonight (Riley and David are off to Ft. Hood, Regan and I have a cookie booth) so we figured we would celebrate early. It was nice! After lunch, we ran to the store to get the good dip, then went to Regan's school, where David surprised her with flowers.

I think she liked having her daddy come and bring them to her too! Then we came home and took a nap before we had to run pick up kids, get cookies, and go our separate directions. Ah, true love. It's not all hearts and flowers, it's the day to day commitment of being there for each other through thick and thin and still being able to have a conversation over the lunch table (that's not about the kids!)

Middle School Band

What what?? Hard to believe my BABY is going into middle school! Today was band try outs. Back in my day (that makes me sound old) but you just picked an instrument, bought it, and you were in. Today, Regan had to go try all the instruments and they tell you which one you would be good at. Which was neat, because she has a "tear drop" shaped upper lip which made flute kind of hard for her to play, so they really discouraged her from that. She was wanting flute or oboe (and being a flute player of 7 years, I was trying not to sway her one way or the other, even though flute is better). But she tried the clarinet and really liked it! She had the perfect lips for it (big bottom lip) and then she tried the trumpet and that was a resounding NO. She (nor I) can make the right lip sound for that. So, then she went to the oboe. She did really well on it! And the funny thing is, her BFF across the street was in front of us and she fell in love with the bassoon. So, they could end up right next to each other! The only thing is, they will only be able to have 2 or 3 bassoonists and 2 oboists. The band director said she did well, but they have to wait and see who all tried out, and who did the best. So, fingers crossed (and prayers said) that she gets the oboe and Piper gets the bassoon!

One Big Update!

It's been busy lately, haven't had much chance to update things.

Riley's been doing PT for his knee injury. We got the all-clear this week so he's really enjoying being back on full workouts at school. He can run and lift weights again, so he's happy.  He got an invitation to a Naval Academy Admissions Forum in Houston last weekend, so he and David went for Friday night, spent the night with David's cousin Jimmy, and did the admissions forum on Saturday. It sounded like they got a lot of good information, and Riley came home with a renewed determination to keep those grades up!!

For Regan and I, cookie season is on in full force. I have done the big cookie lottery, the cookie mega-drop, and we've completed our first week of cookie sales. I think we've sold around 300 boxes so far, but I need to do a good count.  Her science fair is over, and I couldn't be happier. I hate science fairs almost as much as I hate spiders. There's no need for either, really.

Today we had a SNOW DAY! Really, an ice day. It's been hilarious watching everyone on Facebook make fun of us wussy Austinites, but really, there were over 250 car accidents in the last 2 days with all the ice on the roads. So, we've just stayed home, eaten soup, and slept in. Can't complain! (Well, I can, because David keeps the house so cold, I have taken to wearing my jacket and scarf, and ear wrap, and gloves, INSIDE!) I'm a true Texan. I am ready for summer!

Tonight, David is at a men's conference at church, Riley is at Sea Cadets, Regan has 2 friends over, I have people coming to pick up cookies, Hunter ate a bag of powdered sugar, and it looks like a cocaine bust gone bad in my living room!!

Christmas Concert

Regan's Winterfest Christmas Concert was tonight, as well as an annual Christmas party at a friend's house that we always go to! So it was double duty. We went to the concert and left early to head to the party. Regan stayed to see the dancers and went home with her BFF to spend the night. The choir did a great job, they sang a ton of songs, and I did record a couple, so I will put them on YouTube soon, and post here. It hit me while we were sitting there, this is our last elementary Christmas event! More than likely, our last elementary event ever. My babies are growing up!!

The party was fun, it's a White Elephant gift exchange, and I brought the funny gold Yoga frogs I got there last year! We also brought a Potty Golf set that Riley REALLY wanted, and he ended up with it! He loves it.

Came home, watched some TV with the boy, and was awoken early the next morning by a sick girlie. I have been having major allergy issues, so she and I laid around all weekend taking care of each other.

And just because I think this is the absolute cutest thing ever, here is a before and after picture of Elise, and her first time meeting Santa. Trista said she stood there talking to Santa and Elise loved him, she was all smiles until Trista put her on his lap and backed away. So funny!! I so love that baby girl!

Mystery Meat Lunch and Progress Report

Regan's school was having a special "Thanksgiving" lunch for parents, so I went and met her, but "forgot" to order a lunch from the school! It didn't look like I missed out on too much either! But it was fun to sit there and talk with her and hear about her day.

The next day, I had a 504 meeting with her teachers and the school staff and it was a very good report. They re-evaluated her dyslexia and dysgraphia and she has shown so much improvement! They look for an 80 point increase in one program over a years time and Regan made over 180 point increase! They were all very nice and had wonderful things to say about Regan and her dedication to her education. She's doing so well in math and has really been getting into reading, and is on book 5 of a chapter book series, which is a big deal for her! She and I have been reading Harry Potter together in the evenings too, because she's been wanting to read them but I think the size of them has been a bit daunting. But I don't mind, it's probably my 5th time reading the books, I love to read and gladly read them to her!!

I'm just proud of her for sticking to it, and not getting discouraged, and making such huge improvements. She wants to be a vet so bad, loving reading and math will make that so much easier for her in the long run!

Regan's Veteran's Day Ceremony

Regan's school has a special Veteran's Day Ceremony every year. She's in the choir so they sing a special song, "To Those Who Serve" (it's very good and always makes me tear up!) And then being a Girl Scout, she and the other Girl Scouts in her school present a wreath to the Veterans. It's a nice ceremony, and they invite the veterans to a reception afterward. Regan really wanted to invite her family veterans, but we have none that live close by! Riley's school ROTC Color Guard presented the colors (they had the girl's team this year!) so it was neat to see them there.

So here is Regan in choir (she's second from the left on the back row, hard to see her), and helping present the wreath.

Destination America!

Regan's 5th grade had a special musical program, it was called Destination America. She was in a group that did a little song and dance, and it was cute. She has officially declared herself free of "stage fright." (I refused to believe that she ever had it). But, it was cute, Mimi and Papa came and then we went to dinner at Jason's Deli afterward. I'm trying to enjoy every little detail because it's really hitting me that this is my baby's last year in elementary school. Soon she will be in high school like Riley!

She's in the center, in a black v-neck with orange glasses on her head:

First Day of School

Can you believe we have a High Schooler?! I can't, that's for sure. Riley is starting his freshman year at Hendrickson High School, and he's pretty excited about it. He has a block schedule, meaning he has 4 classes each day. ROTC, football, French and Algebra, then English Pre-AP, football again, World Geography Pre-AP, and Biology Pre-AP. Some days he has to be at school early (7:30am) for football or ROTC, and most days he has football after school too, till 6:00pm, making for some very long days! He's excited about the new school, new schedule, and new opportunities. He will be starting math tutoring soon also. I found a math tutor that used to teach physics at Brentwood Christian School, which is the school I graduated from!

Regan started her last year of elementary school! She also has a new teacher, she's new to the school also, so we had no idea about her, but Regan was excited. She said she made the first day go by super fast, so that's a good thing! Regan is on Safety Patrol this year, and she will join choir again, and I think her friends have finally convinced her to join the dance club, and I'm working on her to join the photography club! She will also be getting math tutoring this year, we want to make sure that STAAR test in the spring is not going to be an issue for either of the kids!

So here are the obligatory first day of school pictures!

School's Out Pool Party

We had a fun pool party to celebrate school being out. We got together with all our neighbors and met at the pool. I picked up pizza and watermelon and we had leftover drinks from Regan's party and another mom brought a cookie cake, yum! We had a good time, we were there for like, 5 hours. Elise had fun swimming in her bee, and she sucked on some watermelon, and I brought a blanket and she just laid around after we got her good and worn out! She went to bed early! But I forgot to take pictures until we were walking out the door.

School's OUT!!

I, for one, am very happy school is out! I have two baby helpers, so that's nice, and no getting up super early and getting kids off to school, and bedtimes, and all that. I know, it won't be long before we will be craving the routines again, but for now, I just want to sleep in and enjoy it! Here's pictures of the kids from the first and last day of school, to see how much they've changed in one short year. Riley for one, looks so grown up now!

Awards Ceremony

Today was Regan's award ceremony. She got an award for A/B Honor Roll for the whole year! So proud of that girl for overcoming her challenges to excel this year! She passed her reading and writing STAAR with flying colors, but did not pass the math STAAR by 2 questions! So, that means she will have some extra help next year since it will be critical for her to pass to move on to the next grade. BUT, all of the math questions were word problems, and she wasn't given accommodations for math, only reading and writing. So I think she did pretty great.

Here she is with her award, and her teacher, Mrs. Templeton.

And Elise was so tired after the award ceremony, but she had a great nap! She's standing great in her crib, we had to lower the mattress a level already!

Regan's Choir Concert

Regan had her (almost) final concert of the year! They did great, it was "fine arts" night, so the book fair was in full swing (we all know how much I *love* book fair!) and they had art lining the walls from the art club, and the dance club had several performances, and then the choir sang about 6 songs. They did great, and Regan loves it! She signed up to do safety patrol next year, so she's also been having practices for that after school. She gets to help the little kids to their cars when their name is called at the car pool line in the afternoons. She loves it already.

(She's on the far right, light gray shirt, with a white feather in her hair!)

Weekend Update

Well, we had a busy weekend! On Friday I had to get everything together for Regan's Girl Scout bridging/camping trip. She's bridging to Cadette now! I'm so proud of her for being so involved in Girl Scouts. I think they are such a great organization and she is learning so much. We found out today, the girls might get a Senate Resolution drafted to acknowledge their Bronze Award! How cool is that?!

Anyway, got her ready for camp, had to take Riley to what might be (we are praying) his new high school next year. He is supposed to go to Pflugerville, and we want him to go to Hendrickson. They have an award winning JROTC program, and if he sticks with it, he can get into the Naval Academy without a letter of recommendation from a Senator (but I know we can get that too). So, I took him up to the school to turn in paperwork to do a JROTC summer camp, and the guy in charge (I can't remember if he was a Sgt., Lt, or what. All those initials confuse me) anyway, he wanted to give us a tour of the ROTC wing of the school and show us everything. He was very nice and said if we needed any help with any of the transfer paperwork, he would do whatever he could to help us out! This is a HUGE answer to prayer because we have been praying for Riley to be able to go to Hendrickson for a long time now, and we've been told at every step of the way that there was just NO WAY it was going to happen. They are a closed campus and not taking any transfers. Well, they just so happened to hire another ROTC instructor and that made an opening for more students! Thank God for our answer to prayer!!

So, after our tour (and me freaking out about how big this school is, 1/4 mile from one end to the other, and how big the kids are that go there, and that my baby bird will be going to HIGH SCHOOL next year) I had to rush home and get Regan to her GS leader's house to head off on her trip.  Then Riley had to meet one of his friends that is about to go to the Naval Academy for movie night, and David and I decided to drop in on Danny and Shari D. for a while. Hadn't seen them in forever so it was nice to catch up and see them!

Then on Saturday morning, the boys volunteered at our church's annual Single Mom's and Military Wives Oil Change. I am usually there to help with the kids but I figured I would just stay home this time and deal with my own! But they were there most of the day and I think they said over 300 mom's came out! They got their oil changed, hair and nails, waxing, free childcare, massages, etc. I love this event, and hated missing it this year. But David has served at all of them! Proud of my man!!

Then after the boys came home and rested some, David and I took Little Bit to the pool for the first time. I wanted to see her swim so bad! I had gotten her the cutest little bathing suit and floaty, and David really didn't want to swim, but I knew I couldn't handle it all by myself, so he got his bathing suit on and came with us! And guess what, she LOVED it! It was so cute. She got in her little bee floaty and sat there for a bit, chewing on the bee antenna, but once she realized she was sitting in water, she started splashing around like crazy. David would swim around her and come up and it would freak her out how he was doing that. It was cute. Then we headed home to get her ready for bed cause all that swimming tired her out!

On Sunday, she looked so cute for church. She got a little upset after a while, she's really having some separation anxiety lately, not wanting to be far from me at all. But she got to ride in the big 6-seater stroller and get pushed around the halls, so she really liked that! I was on the schedule to do check in for the 2nd service so we were there a little longer than normal. Then I took Riley to the brand new opened Torchy's Tacos (one of my favorite taco places, and they just opened in Round Rock!) and then had to rush to get Regan from her camping trip. She said it was fun, but they didn't get to swim afterall so she was pretty upset about that.

Then, I bought a sewing machine and had to go pick that up, and came home to try to take a nap with Elise, but it was a very short lived nap. She was up a lot the night before with a stuffy nose, so we were all pretty tired and cranky.   Well, that was more like a novel, but it was a long, busy weekend. And now that school is almost out, we will probably be getting more and more busy! I will be glad to be able to sleep in though. I really miss sleep.

School Dance

Regan's first school dance! She bugged me forever to take her dress shopping. And then, the night of the dance, we got so busy, and she went with her friends, I didn't get any pictures of her all dressed up, but I do have pictures of her trying on her dress and trying to figure out what shoes to wear. She went with the stripes, I liked the cowboy boots! But, she looked cute either way. She had me braid her hair too so it was nice and wavy. Can't believe she had her first dance! She came home doing the cupid shuffle, and there were no girls/boys dancing together, not yet anyway, have a few more years before I have to worry about that, thank God!

Girl's Book Club

Today was "Girl's Book Club" at Regan's school. They had moms or grandmas come and sit in the library and read books together. So we had a good time. For an hour just sitting there taking turns each reading a page. She's really getting much better about reading, and will read anything about animals or monsters (as evidenced in the picture!) She's really enjoying her school this year, and I'm so happy. She's still making all A's and B's!

I "mustache" you to be my valentine!

Regan was home sick the day before Valentine's day, so I wasn't sure she would make it to school, but thankfully, she ran a low fever for a little bit, and then was fine, so she was able to make it to the party! That also meant I stayed up late cutting out 22 mustaches. Nothing like last minute, right? But, she said they were a huge hit, and they are super cute. There is just something I love about homemade valentine's!

Christmas Break!

This is the teacher gifts we made this year. It's a cute bag with a bag of microwave popcorn inside, and a box of candy, and a note with a free Redbox movie rental code. I thought it was a cute idea that a friend of mine did, so I stole the idea! Apparently it was a hit, as Riley got this sweet thank you note from one of his teachers. He also got a really nice note about being a great example for the entire 8th grade! I'm so proud of him. Regan is at a neighbor's house making Christmas cookies, David and Riley are about to go get a father/son head shave for boot camp! And I have been working on my holiday baking list. Still have a few things to get for boot camp, but have to go to San Antonio for those. But can I just say, I am so excited that it's Christmas break! I love Christmas, I love break, I love being with my kids, and I'm going to miss Riley SO much while he's gone!

Christmas Choir Concert

Regan has enjoyed choir so much this year. I think it helps that 2 of her friends from the neighborhood are in it with her, but she really loves to sing. They have been practicing a lot for the Christmas concert and they did a great job! (Click here to see the video). They sang several songs, and ended with a sing-a-long of Christmas Carols. It was fun, and they looked so cute up there!