5th Six Weeks Awards

While I was at ITZ with Parker, Cory and my mom were attending the girls 5th six weeks awards programs.  They both received awards for A Honor Roll, Perfect Attendance, and Perfect Conduct.  I am so proud of their hard work and can't believe we only have one more six weeks to go!  Summer is getting so close!!

ITZ Band Competition

Today I had the opportunity to chaperone the SMS Beginning Band to their first competition at ITZ Family Amusement Center in Euless.  I was so excited when Parker asked me if I wanted to go!  He has absolutely loved learning how to play the trumpet in band this year and it was amazing to see how much these kids have learned about music in just a few short months.

We were the first band to perform and the kids did a great job!  They received a superior rating and took home a nice trophy.

I had to miss Parker's first concert back in February so it was nice to finally get to hear the band play together.

After their performance, the judge talked to the band and told them what he liked about their performance.  He then gave out awards to several students who stood out to him as doing an exceptional job.  I was so proud when he chose Parker as one of the recipients!

For the rest of the trip, the students spent their time eating pizza and playing video games.  Parker had so much fun with his friends and I enjoyed visiting with some of the other chaperones.

It was a fun day and I enjoyed spending time with Parker and his friends.  I'm so thankful he's had a good year in band and I'm glad he's signing up to be in it again next year.

Happy 10th Birthday Aubrey!

We started April with a fun sleepover celebrating Aubrey's 10th birthday!  It's hard to believe another kid has reached double digits in the family.  These kids are growing up way too fast!

Aubrey had a few friends over and Emily sent up tents in the playroom for them to sleep in.  Emily and I gave manicures and pedicures to all the girls and then they watched a movie. I'm not sure what time they finally fell asleep but it was much later than my bedtime!

My girls had a great time helping Aubrey celebrate her birthday!  We hope she felt very loved on her special day!

March Little Things

March flew by and now we're headed into STAAR testing season at school.  Here are a few more little things we did in March:

Lily's class got to go on a quick field trip to the local theater to watch "James and the Giant Peach".  She has been so blessed with sweet friends in her class this year!

Now that the weather is getting warmer, we often find Maggie sitting in her chair on the back porch sunbathing.  She can sit there for hours enjoying the sun!

The 4th graders had a market to learn about economics.  Each student had to make 10 items to "sell" to the other students.  Eden worked very hard making keychains and was so proud when they all sold.

Spring baseball season started this month with a tournament in Stephenville.  They didn't win but Parker pitched well and they learned a lot.  I know the next tournament will be better!

March was good to us and now we're getting ready for a big birthday month.  Five of the ten cousins have birthdays in April, including Parker! It should be a fun month!

Math Pentathalon 2019

At the beginning of the school year, Lily was asked to be on the Gerard Math Pentathlon team.  This is the first year our school has had a team and only two students from each class were asked to join.  The team was made up of 2nd and 3rd graders and the goal was to learn 5 different math strategy games well enough to be able to compete in the Math Pentathlon tournament in March.  The team met once or twice a week every week in order to learn the games.  Our sponsor, Mrs. Smith, needed help from parents so I volunteered to attend the meetings every week and help the students learn the games.  

Yesterday, Lily and I attended the tournament, which was held at a high school in Mansfield. There were over 300 students participating in the tournament.  Each student was paired with another student with the same level of experience and they got points for either winning/losing/tying each of the 5 games. 

Lily did a great job and won 2 of her games.  She lost three of them which gave her a final score of 11 points.  She was one point away from earning a medal in the tournament.  She was a little disappointed that she didn't medal but I was very proud of her and thought she did a great job since this was her first time to participate.

Our Gerard Pentathlon team

I was so proud of all of our students who worked so hard learning the games this year!

I hope Lily will decide to be on the team again next year.  Now that she knows the games, she will really be able to work on her strategy and come away with a medal at next year's tournament!

4th Grade Field Trip to Austin

Two years ago, I had the privilege of being a chaperone on Parker's 4th grade Austin field trip.  Today, I got to repeat the trip with Eden and her classmates.  There were a lot of parents who asked to go, but only three were allowed so Mrs. Adams put the parent names in a hat and drew three names.  I felt very blessed that I was one of the names drawn.

We arrived at the school bright and early and loaded the buses promptly at 6:30am.  

The tour guide company had several activities for the students on the bus ride to Austin, including a movie on the excavation of La Salle's ship in the Gulf of Mexico.  The students would later see the actual ship at the Bob Bullock Museum once we arrived in Austin.

Our first stop was the Bob Bullock Museum.  They had added several new exhibits since I was there with Parker two years ago.

La Salle's ship

After the museum, we went and toured the State Capitol.

During the tour, we saw the House of Representatives chamber.  Unfortunately, the Senate was in session so we could not go into their chamber.

Mrs. Adams' class

Our final stop of the day was the Texas State Cemetery.  We didn't visit the cemetery on Parker's trip, so I was excited to see and learn some new things.

We saw the graves of Tom Landry and Chris Kyle.

The cemetery was beautiful and a great end to a fun day!  I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to spend the day with Eden and her class.  Hopefully I'll get to do it again with Lily in two years!