I had a list of things I wanted to write about before the kids got out of school for the summer and ran out of time.  This is a common theme for me right now.  Never enough hours in the day!  I can’t let this one slip through because it’s about the 50 states parade!  This is the infamous project for 4th graders at Manchester Park.  They spend their school year learning all about the U.S. states and the culmination is a research project and parade.  The state is randomly assigned to each student and Drew got Alaska!  I thought this was awesome, but he apparently was not thrilled with his draw.  I assured him that it was better than North Dakota (this was Jake’s unlucky draw in 4th grade – Sorry North Dakotan’s!)

This project always falls at the beginning of May – right smack in the middle of teacher appreciation week, Reece’s birthday, graduations, end of year banquets, and Mother’s day.  No doubt, many moms end up helping their kids with this project on Mother’s Day with a fake smile on their face.

Drew did all the research on Alaska and typed it into the computer all by himself but at the end of the day, most parents help with the final product – a float, created on a wagon, for the parade through the school.  Great job Drew!

Despite the fact that May is crazy and all of us are totally frazzled, I love this parade!  It’s exciting for the entire school, parents, grandparents, etc.  They come into the gym wearing red, white, and blue, singing patriotic songs and showing off their state.  It’s adorable!  Take a look at Drew’s shining moment in this YouTube clip.  He’s supposed to be wearing a beanie hat that had an Alaska patch on the front  but he said he “forgot it on his desk.”  This is totally on purpose, I’m sure of it!  It was only a hat! One girl dressed up head to toe in a prairie outfit pulling a covered wagon!  Now that’s what I call dressing the part!

I’ve heard rumblings that the 50 States Parade is changing going forward because too many of the floats look like they were done solely by adults and not enough work on the part of the students.  Maybe it’s because this guy decided to show off at the end with his Seattle space needle….clearly this was done by his parents!!  Check out the YouTube clip…

I know, it’s super cool and creative but this may have ruined it for the kiddos moving up to 4th grade in the future.  I hope they keep the parade!

Way to go Drew Boo!!  P.S. you would’ve looked adorable in the hat that mysteriously got left on your desk 😉XOXO, Mom

 

As of noon today, all 4 kiddos are checking off the box for the 2017-2018 school year – with straight A’s in the grade book.  Yeah baby!  This day always comes with a lot of excitement and also a little stress about how to handle all of the after school plans.  I’m only one person, I can’t be at 4 after school outings at once.  Thank goodness for all moms pooling this duty together.  Today I was in charge of handling my girls and my boys were off and running with other groups.  And we made it through!  Here are the highlights for today…

Reece

Came out of school bawling that she will miss her teacher.  Mrs. Anderson is amazing but this is definitely a first for me.  In all the years, I’ve never had a child cry on the last day of school.  What a bummer to start the summer out crying!  After grabbing lunch at Goodcents and making a craft at home with her friend Kenley, she was all smiles.

This is a cute video of her class in the last few minutes of the school day…

Drew

Gathered with 17 boys at the Coad’s brand new house behind the school for pizza and gatorade.  They started walking to the mini golf course nearby and he apparently got stung by a bee.  He powered through the afternoon but by the time I saw him, his leg was visibly swollen and he was limping.  This kid has the worst luck ever!

I love this pic on the ‘almost last day of school’ of the kids playing with shaving cream –  SO FUN!

Jake

Made his own plans to celebrate after school which included going to a house party with 3 friends.  However, it also included 5 girls!  What!?  I’m definitely not on board with this plan but he said they were just going to eat and play sports outside and it would be weird if he broke the plans.  I asked if I could bring anything to the party and he insisted that it was all taken care of.  When I finally got in touch with him by 3pm (I guess he lost track of time when I said call me when you get to the party), it seemed like the afternoon was a blast – they ate a ton of good food catered in by Buffalo Wild Wings in a very nice home and played soccer outside.  Then off to golf practice at Lake Quivira.  Sounds like a boys’ dream…wings, girls, soccer & golf!

 

Morgan

I picked up these adorable girls and dropped them off at Spin Pizza for lunch.  They are so cute (for now – until they trade in these cute outfits for Nike running shorts and cut up t-shirts for the summer)!  They were busy talking about their finals and their grades, and still ordering kids meals even though they are Sophomores in high school now!  Morgan pulled off straight A’s and had a range of emotions during final exams.  One minute she was doing a cartwheel in her History classroom and the next minute she was welling up with tears!

In the meantime, Reece has done it again…she’s created the most fabulous place to play in the corner of our family room.  Reece’s Art Center is in full working order.  She is watching YouTube videos on how to draw and coming up with some really great art pieces!!  Check back soon…I will have some awesome art to share!

Goodbye 9th, 6th, 4th, and 2nd Grade!  Happy Summer!

Somehow we’ve managed to get to the last week of school already.  My oldest child is about to put her first year of high school in the record books.  That’s a hard one to swallow!  I know I say this every year, but this literally IS the fastest school year ever!  She’s in the throws of final exams the next few days and will gracefully transition into swim team every morning, golf practices, soccer camp, and a week-long mission trip to West Virginia.  Trading in her awesome soccer sock tan for a swim team tan.  No doubt she will still make time for TV watching and friends!

Last night I attended the Olathe Northwest soccer banquet with Morgan.  I’m officially a professional banquet attender.  I might just hit a few more random ones just because I’m feeling so comfortable with it now!  It’s always the same food – salad, pasta, bread, and cake.  I could use a change in menu from time to time!  The other kids are left at home to fend for themselves.  This time I received no phone calls from home, so it’s a win!This banquet was pretty uneventful, no speeches filled with tears from seniors or coaches, just teary-eyed parents in the audience and a bunch of giggly soccer girls looking adorable all dressed up.To you, Morgan, thank you for never giving up on your love of soccer even though I know there were some very trying times this season.  You have this incredibly amazing way of rising above adversity.  For that, I could never be more proud.  There are a million other reasons why I’m proud, but we’d be here all night!Happy Summer Baby Girl!

Congrats to these Lady Ravens who finished the season strong with a 10-0 victory over Free State high school!  Sorry MoMo, we were a little obnoxious in the stands when you scored a goal – that’s what we’re supposed to do – embarrass you!

Being new to competitive gymnastics, I didn’t realize there was an end-of-season banquet.  But I’ve come to realize that team sports have a lot of banquets so I better get used to it!  The end of the gymnastics meet season means a sigh of relief for me.  I’m going to take a break from going all over the place to these meets and constantly having a nervous stomach ache.

As we walked into the banquet room, we didn’t really know anyone so I figured she would not leave my side.  Well, to my surprise, she dropped me quickly as soon as her Level 3 gymnast friends arrived.  Right then and there I could see that she is really growing up and maturing.  It was bittersweet.They recognize each and every gymnast,  Level 3 through Level 9, at KGDC with their accomplishments and personality traits, received gifts, signed yearbooks, took pictures, and ate a meal.  2 1/2 hours later, we were finally walking to our car.  Yikes, that’s a long banquet!!

For some reason I decided to not video what Miss Tracy had to say about Reece because I guess I was in a trance of some sort!  I’m totally kicking myself for that ‘mom fail’!  Let’s just say that Tracy had some wonderful things to say about Reece as she often does.  She is one of the hardest workers in the gym and she is always on task and following directions.  This is AWESOME!  Now, could we get a little of that at home, please!? 😉  She’s the same way at school and her teacher cannot gush anymore over her.

Her twister sister, Makayla Todd, is a very successful Level 8 gymnast and has spoiled her with awesome notes, gifts, and treats throughout the season.  Their personalities are so similar and Reece really looks up to her.  Aren’t they cute!?Job well done Reecie, you have amazed us with your perseverance and dedication to gymnastics.  You are going to do great things!!

Wow, I am so proud of this 6th grader for receiving all A’s this school year.  I’d say his transition into middle school has gone A-OK!  He monitors his grades online about every 30 minutes and I love that about him!

So if being in professional sports doesn’t pan out, you’ve always got your intelligence to fall back on, bud.  And you’re cute…so there’s that too 😉Seriously, keep up the great work, Jake, I promise you, those excellent grades will always serve you well.  You rock!!

Jake qualified for the Olathe All City Track Meet in the 400m dash.  Yay Jake!  We weren’t exactly sure how this was possible because he has missed quite a few practices due to baseball and soccer and according to Jake, they apparently don’t really practice that hard.  WHAT!?  Why is he staying after school until 4:45 everyday and why am I constantly stressing out how to get him home and also be 3 other places!?

This morning I sent him a text to make sure he had his track shoes and he responded quickly saying he did not have them and they were stolen.  WHAT!? This kid is going to throw me right over the edge!  After a trip to the office, the shoes miraculously appeared in his 1st hour class just before the bus left for the meet.  Whew!

I’m completely new to the world of track and I’ve discovered it’s a short season.  So here we are at the pinnacle of the season already!  He had a very successful first meet but also hurt his knee during his run.  So, every other meet since then has not been his favorite.  He wants to win of course, and when your body is not functioning at 100%, that is a difficult task.  Despite the setback, he qualified for the 400m dash and alternate for long jump.  Way to go Jake!

He was told that the best part about qualifying for All City is getting to be out of school for the day!  My advice was…don’t forget your shoes and run fast.  That’s all I could come up with!   When we arrived, he was just lounging around on the bleachers with his buddies playing games.  Finally it was his turn to line up and he admitted he was nervous!I think he’s looking around and thinking ‘Oh crap, that is a long way around the track’And they’re heading into the finish line!

crossing the finish line

Looks like a tie for 2nd place!  Brian clocked him at 1 min 12 seconds (his personal best is 1 min 11 seconds).  Awesome job Jakey!  We love your grit and determination and we are so proud of you!

 

It’s May 1st…May Day…Grammy D’s birthday!Isn’t she the cutest!?  Our Grammy D is so sweet, lovable, caring, funny, and all-around awesome!  We love her to bits and decided to surprise her on Sunday with a birthday party at her house.  While she sat on her front porch, we let ourselves in through the back door and set up party decorations.  Then we came around the front of the house and surprised her!  Check it out…

We enjoyed a beautiful day visiting with her, enjoying a meal and cake and she is now loaded with potted flowers for her porch.  It’s going to take her all day to water everything!  We all hope we are as sharp and awesome as she is at the age of 94!

Grammy, you are so loved!  Happy Birthday!

This Spring we have really had some ups and downs in the weather, mostly downs!  A few weeks ago I sat through he coldest soccer game of my life.  The wind was whipping through there like I was sitting on the summit of Mt. Everest.  I swear I could not feel my legs for hours.  I sat in front of a space heater the remainder of the day trying to thaw out.  I will never forget it!Jake, I think you may owe me a spa treatment for this one!

U13 Fusion Academy vs Sporting St. Louis NPL game

Just two days prior, Jake was playing golf…in shorts!

I think maybe we have finally turned the corner and heading into Spring.  Finally, I get to sit at a nice soccer game!  Hallelujah!

This U13 game resulted in 3 yellow cards for our team and a final score of 0-0.  Gosh, you would think we could at least pull out a win after all that fouling nonsense!

 

This year’s Fine Arts Night at Manchester Park Elementary was a little bit different because I had no children singing in special chorus or playing a musical instrument!  Somehow Drew has gotten away with not joining the chorus.  I think maybe he threw away the paper with the details or something because I surely would have encouraged him to do it!  Somehow it slipped through the cracks.  Oh well, there’s always next year!

I spent close to 3 hours hanging 2nd grade artwork and I was excited to see the 2nd grade community.  It’s pretty cool!  All the classes work together to build and create this city…The kids are assigned a group and a building…they all want to build the skyscraper!  Reece got the Silo–she wasn’t very happy with that but we think it turned out pretty good!

Reece always keeps us on our toes.  Just like recently when she saw these scary cat pillows and insisted we buy them and hide them in my sister’s house while she was away on a trip (we have a long-standing cat joke going between us).

I can only imagine the look on their faces when they spotted these!  Who’s guilty of hiding the cats…Reece or Drew?  It was Reece!