September Little Things

September is over and we are gearing up for a very busy holiday season.  Here are a few of this month's little things:

Hawaiian Falls opened their water park to the City of Mansfield employees and their families one Friday night.  For the second year in a row, Emily asked us to join them.  Heavy storms were moving into the area that night, so we weren't sure we were going to get to ride any of the rides.  After a short lightning delay, they reopened the slides and the kids had a blast.  The storms kept most people away, so the kids rode all the rides without having to wait in any lines.  We let them ride until it was too dark to see.  It was a fun evening with the cousins and I hope we will be able to do it again next year!

Parker enjoyed celebrating his friend, Zachary's, 12th birthday with him at Ellen's Amusement Park in Cedar Hill.  The rain almost cancelled the fun but they were able to get most of the activities in before the rain hit.

We had dinner at Emily and Jon's house one night and enjoyed getting to play with the cousins.  The girl genes are strong in our family but we sure are glad that God blessed us with these three boys!

Our school celebrated Homecoming Week by wearing black and gold to support the Yellow Jackets.  Mrs. Humphreys sent me this picture of Lily and several of her friends showing their school spirit.

Cory and I decided to surprise the kids with a spontaneous trip to the Rangers game one Sunday afternoon.  Since it was the end of the season, we got really good seats for a very cheap price.  The weather was cool and we had a great time spending the day together.

Eden's class wrote a poem about themselves.  I thought Eden did a very good job on both her poem and her self portrait.

Lily is always creating things in class.  Mrs. Humphreys sent me these pictures of some of her creations.

It was a fun month and we are looking forward to celebrating Lily's birthday and Halloween in a few weeks.  I have a feeling it's going to be very busy between now and Christmas break!

13 Years

13 years ago, I lived through one of the hardest seasons of my life.  Today, I look at Parker, Eden, and Lily and thank God for what a blessing they are in my life.  I'm so very grateful for His faithfulness even through the storms of life.  Every time I think of the months and years after losing Katelyn, the one verse that always comes to mind is Psalm 30:5- "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Katelyn will always hold a very special place in my heart and I long for the day when I will finally hold her in my arms in heaven.  Until then, I will hold tight to the three blessings God has given me here on earth and do my best to always appreciate the joy they bring to my life.

1st Six Weeks Awards

Today was the awards program for the 1st six weeks.  Both girls received awards for A Honor Roll, Perfect Attendance, and Perfect Conduct.

Lily also received the Grizzly Greatness Award for her class.  Mrs. Humphreys told me that Lily is helpful and shows kindness to the other students in her class every day.  We are proud of her for being such a sweet student at school.

Lily was excited that her best friend, Jery, also received the Grizzly Greatness Award today.

We are always proud of our kids when they make good grades but knowing that they are being good citizens at school makes us even more proud!  Way to go, Lily!  Keep up the good work!

Eden's Carnival Game Presentation

One of Eden's projects this semester was to create a carnival game to share with the school.  She wanted to create a skee-ball game and this is what we finally came up with:

The entire school was invited to come to the cafeteria and play the games that the 4th graders had created.  Eden had to explain to the other students how to play her game and then they got to play.

Lily's class got to come down and play all the different games.  Here is Lily playing a game with fidget spinners.  She had a blast getting to walk around and play.

We are proud of Eden for the hard work she put into her project and for doing such a great job on her presentation.

August Birthday Celebrations

We celebrated several birthdays this month!  The most important was Daddy's 43rd birthday.  Unfortunately, we were in school all day so we didn't get to do a whole lot to celebrate.  We did get Daddy an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen that was very yummy!

Eden helped her best friend, Reagan, celebrate her 9th birthday with a unicorn party.

Eden also helped her friend, Alyssa, celebrate her 9th birthday.  They played BINGO and Eden won!  Eden also won the basketball shooting game they played at the party.  She came home with lots of prizes!

We hope all the August birthdays felt very loved on their special day- especially Daddy!

First Day of School

It's back to school time!  I have a feeling this is going to be a great year for all three kids (and hopefully me too!)

Emily and I started inservice last week and got our annual picture together at convocation.

Last Thursday was Meet the Teacher for Eden and Lily.  Eden will have Mrs. Adams for homeroom/language arts/writing/social studies and Mrs. Glover for math/science.  I know she's going to love both of them!

Lily will be in Mrs. Humphreys class!  This is the third (and last) time we have been blessed with Mrs. Humphreys as a teacher.  She's definitely one of the best!

Today was the first day of school!  I can't believe I have a 6th grader, 4th grader, and 2nd grader!  Time flies so fast!

Parker started middle school today!  It was so weird not taking him to school this morning.  He said he had a great day and liked changing classes all day.  I'm anxious to see if he still likes it by the end of the week!

The girls and I were surprised with a fun Welcome Back sign when we drove up to school this morning!

I am starting my 20th year of teaching.  15 of those years have been at Gerard.  I love having the girls at school with me and being able to see them throughout the day.  This year I am going back to work full time for the first time since Parker was born.  I know it's going to be quite an adjustment for all of our family.

Drop off was easy this year!  Eden was so excited because her best friend Reagan is in her class this year!

Lily also has several good friends in her class and I know she'll make even more as the year progresses.

Mrs. Humphreys sent me these pictures of Lily throughout the day.  It looks like she had a great start to 2nd grade!

The 2018-2019 school year is officially under way!  I can't wait to see what this year has in store for us!