Sunday, May 5, 2013

Slow down Spring!

This Spring seems to have flown by right before my very eyes!  We have been super busy trying to keep up to everyone and everything!  I'm honestly glad I missed the soccer sign ups for Nash.  I'd be pulling my hair out right now if I had managed to register him to play.  I did promise to sign him up for Fall soccer though so we'll see how that turns out for me!

Samantha competed in Clearfield on April 19th.  She competed down there last year as well.  She really likes to do competitions.  She likes seeing all the other costumes, hair, makeup, dances, etc.  I even managed to get her to participate in the free style competition they do at the end.  She got the medallion for participating in the free style/dance off competition and she got the trophy for participating in the competition.  Their dances took second and third in their division.  The dance that took second there were only competing against one other team.  The dance that took third they were only competing against two other teams.  Not fantastic, but not bad :)


I took the kids to church last weekend.  I had them all looking really cute.  We managed to be ready before we had to go so we ran down to my mom's to drop something off.  My dad happened to be out mowing the lawn when we showed up.  All the kids had to climb on the mower and help.

Brookelyn promptly took her place in the blue Jeep.  I was impressed she let her brother drive her around instead of just screaming at him to get out!


After mowing my dad got the tractor out to till up the garden.  Caleb HAD to get on the tractor.

And then Brookelyn wanted to join the boys up on the tractor.

But once the tractor started moving....

Brookelyn wanted off and she wanted off NOW!

I sort of managed to get a nice picture of us all together :)

And then we got one that showed our true personalities!

This week while Travis was home he took Caleb up to the church & took the training wheels off his bike.  Travis said he took to it like a fish to water!  Wondering how long it will be before a major wreck?

This past week I also held my big Evening of Excellence for work.  I had all four schools & 99 students come to one school at the same time and on the same day to present their final projects to parents.  Samantha did an Images of Greatness project.  She had to choose someone who had made a positive, significant contribution to society.  She chose Samantha Reed Smith - a 10 yr old girl that wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov in 1982.  She died at the age of 13 in a plane accident.  She was the youngest goodwill ambassador & helped relieve tensions between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  When she started this project we went to the city library to see if we could find any books on her.  The librarian didn't even know who she was!  I ended up having to purchase 3 out of print books on her through Amazon!  She did a lot of work for this project & I'm really proud of how she presented.  It was set up similar to a biography fair but she had to actually "be" her person.






Yesterday Samantha participated in the America On Stage Nationals dance competition down at Lagoon.  They did their Jazz & Hip Hop numbers.  Her Jazz dance took 2nd!  We didn't figure out where they were hanging the postings so we won't know how her Hip Hop placed until she goes to dance class on Tuesday.  They did really well though and I was proud of her!  I was happy her dad was home to go.  He won't be here for her final dance review on May 18.
Sam's Jazz routine



We left Brookelyn with Travis's parents on Friday night because we had to be at Lagoon at 10 am.  We took both the boys with us.  We were going to go to this competition last year but things got messed up and her team didn't get to go.  We had told Nash last year we'd consider it as a trip for his birthday.  He was super bummed we didn't go last year.  So, we told him this year we WOULD go and it would be for his birthday.  He was stoked!  I didn't think there would be many rides Caleb could go on - the kid is a measly 42" (only a head taller than his sister who is 3 years younger than him).  There were enough he could go on that were big kid rides that he was content.  When we found the kiddie section though, he was in heaven!  He LOVED the Tilt a Whirl!  We had to go on it two times in a row! 


Sam's Hip Hop routine




Nash was fearless when it came to going on rides.  He went on the re entry ride twice & the blast off once.  He went on Colasses, the Spider, Wicked - anything his dad wanted to go on, he was right there next to him!  He will make a good amusement park buddy for Uncle Zack!




Travis & Caleb both took a shot of water from a dolphin to the head on this ride!

I don't know what it was about this whale ride, but Caleb loved it!  It reminded me of the Dumbo ride at Disney but on a much smaller scale because it only got about 3 feet off the ground and the whales were tiny!

I let Caleb get his face painted.  I was not at all surprised when he said he wanted Spider boy!  After he got his face painted everywhere we went I heard, "Look!  It's Spiderman!"  Caleb just grinned ear to ear.  He didn't want to wash it all off this morning and was quite bent out of shape that I made him!


I hope time slows down a bit!  We still have 19 days of school left (13 work days for me).  In those 19 days Sam has her first Wellsville Mile!  She is SO excited!  I'm excited to go watch her!  I will get to watch a bunch of my students run too.  It's going to be lots of fun!  Before we know it summer vacation will be here!  Which reminds me, it's May & I need to do swimming lesson sign ups soon!