Fifth Grade

The notebooks just keep getting thicker and the boy keeps getting taller! Jensen is almost as tall as me now, yet I can still beat him at arm wrestling. He's gonna need to eat some meat and pump a little iron to beat his "mumma"! I love that he still calls me that. :) Even though he's a smart kid, he did need some help with his homework today. Unfortunately, I had to pull out my teaching manual that I'm using for McKenna to look up how to mark spelling errors when proofreading. Apparently he didn't HEAR the instructions in class and it was very unclear on the worksheet. So now, he seems to think he'll make a 100 in Language Arts! Having a mom that's a teacher does have its advantages.

Happy Monday!

Finally! This is NOT a Manic Monday! As a matter of fact I am now and forever more going to try and prevent manic Mondays! First of all, I am no longer working on Mondays. That in itself helps tremendously prevent the mania in the first place. We are also trying out some new house cleaning tactics thanks to a blog link from my friend Kristin. I've tried several different methods for house cleaning and this has been the best. It's very simple and so far it's working over here! You can check out the Totally Together blog here and see the Daily 7. I swear if you have a problem, like I do, keeping the house "clean" then this will change your life!

So, this morning I woke up to freshly brewed coffee and a fairly clean house. I say "fairly" because with 2 kids and 2 pets a house is never "really" clean! It's amazing how a clean house and a fresh cup of coffee can make a mom so happy!

Now, on to more interesting things!

Jensen went with a friend to a 50's dance (part of a cotillion program) and learned how to Swing Dance. He taught me his new dance moves and danced with me for a while! I was really impressed! He's such a sweetheart! :)

Jensen got 2nd place at the RISD Digital Art Media Fair for his original digital art piece. This was among all 3rd-4th graders in RISD!

GRAN-MOMMY'S LAKE HOUSE ROCKS!

Canoing with daddy

KK with her biggest catch of the day

Fishing with Gran-mommy

"Driving" the Gator

Kodi...still to chicken to actually take a swim.

KK finally got plugged in and is now addicted to the electric guitar. Even better news...she wants a drum set for her birthday. The news gets even better...her dad has always wanted a drum set, so now he has an excuse to get one. Looks like I'll be getting some ear plugs!

So that's what we've been up to this month...plus celebrating a ton of birthdays. BTW, Happy Birthday Nana and Wendy and Steve and Betty Ann and Aunt Margaret! Oh, and ME! Love you guys! :) Now, on to my next chore - meal planning for the week! Maybe one of these days I'll get brave enough to post my menu. Menu planning is another thing that has made life easier and me a lot happier! I've gotten really good ideas and recipes from HERE and HERE. Gotta have a plan! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

K's last basketball game was today...Valentine's Day! They played their best game yet...to bad it was their last! K scored 7 or 8 goals and played great D.

J playing Valentine Bingo with his classmates!

K's class had cupcakes, cookies and more cupcakes during their party. They also played pin the arrow on the heart.

K with her teacher.

Happy Birthday Jensen!

All right, I'm a little behind on my posts so here's what's been going on.

Jensen turned 10...yikes...double digits!


We celebrated his birthday by taking him and 4 of his friends to LP's Fall Festival. His favorite ride was the Viper. They rode almost all of the rides, had CC's pizza, lots of candy, and soda. KK had fun at the festival playing with her friends. She got her face painted and somehow talked her friends into riding the "big" rides. You know...the ones that make you want to hurl your CC's pizza. Hey, it happens. I heard all about the pile of puke they saw while in line for one of the rides. That's KK for ya, she's very observant and easily entertained.
KK's favorite ride was the Storm!

Around 8:30pm we took the gang back to our house for more sugar! We had cake and Jensen opened his presents. The kids played chase with Kodi the dog, wrestled in the living room and finally settled down in Jensen's room to build Bionicles. Everyone cleared out around 10pm which felt extremely late to me because I was coming down with a horrible cold!

Then we had Halloween. I'll have to post pictures later.
Jensen was a Ninja and KK was Spiderman. We went trick or treating with friends then drove to Gran-mommy's lake house. We had another family with us so the kids woke up at the crack of dawn, even though they went to bed at 1am! We fished, drove the gator, and took a boat ride. It started out cool but turned into a beautiful day.

Last night Jensen had his annual Awana Grand Prix. Jarrod and Jensen (mainly Jarrod) worked weeks on designing and building the car. Last year Jensen won the Commander's Choice Award for the sweetest looking car. This year he didn't receive an award. He did have one of the faster cars. He finished in about the same place as last year...somewhere in the top eight. There were around 50 cars entered into the race. There's apparently a lot of science behind making a fast car and Jarrod's figured it out but isn't willing to make a wedge or flat plank car just to win a race.

Here's last year's car:


Here's this year's masterpiece!


Next year, Jarrod will have his hands full! J and K will both be making cars to enter into the Grand Prix! KK already has a design in mind. She wants to make an Underdog car. We'll see how that goes with the boss!

Karate

We've been very fortunate to find a FREE Karate class for the kids. A friend from church, Darren, teaches Karate in his backyard as a ministry. He's a great teacher and has a cool website HERE. A few weeks ago he had his teacher and a few other guys come out to give demonstrations to the kids. The kids have really learned a lot in a short amount of time. There are 30 or 40 kids that show up every week. It's an awesome group of kids and we're glad J & K are having a blast.

Darren working with J & K on their first day of Karate.

By the end of their second lesson, J & K almost have their Kata down. We ordered their gi on-line and they turned out A LOT larger than expected. It looks like they'll be wearing them for a long time! :)

Jensen working on a defense move with a friend.

Third Grade Luau

Best Friends!

Jensen & Ms. Born

Ms. Born gives an emotional farewell to her first class at CLP

We had a fun last day of school luau.
The students played the limbo and ate fruit kabobs.

We've had awesome teachers at CLP.
Now for summer break, then off to the 4th grade!
Wow how time flies.

Yearbook Signing Party & Picnic

Jensen and friends

Kenna and friends

Kenna gets her yearbook signed by Mrs. Schmucker

Living Museum

Jensen as George Washington in the Living Museum at CLP.

Jensen and Ethan - George and Daniel
Great job guys!

Jensen and Ms. Born

KK and Jensen in front of the school.

Awana Awards

Congratulations Jensen on completing your first year in TNT!

Good job KK! Thank you Robin for helping McKenna complete her book!

Spring Break

We've had a pretty relaxing spring break. The kids were with Nana and Bob-bob Monday and Tuesday visiting Aunt Sandy, cousins Addie & Carson. They also got to see their great-grandmother "Mamaw" and cousins Jozeph & Jazmin. When they returned cousin Lauren spent the night and stayed with the kids while I went to work. J & K had a blast and especially enjoyed "coloring the house". Thankfully it was "colored" with chalk and it was the outside of the house. See pictures below for their lovely artwork!

Spring Break = Staying up late and having lots of PJ days!

Lauren & Kenna

"The Colored House" by Lauren, Jensen & McKenna

Chick Magnet

Even in Kindergarten the girls loved him!

Jensen's Lego Creation

AWANA Derby

Jensen's (and Jarrod's) car was in the top 10 of the fastest cars. He got the Commander's Choice Award for the "sweetest paint job". I wonder who did most of the work?