Last day of school

Yesterday Jessie had Teddy Bear day at school where they got to bring a blanket and stuffed animal and play games and watch a movie. Brandon had a party because he passed his final math test which was a big deal for him since math is difficult for him. Today they got to go home after their assemblies were over. Jessie's was first. She received awards for super performance in reading, writing and math. Advanced performance in spelling. The Book It! rocking reader award, Awesome acts of kindness award, AR top 93% earner silver award, AR top point earner with 26.7 points, hard worker award and perfect attendance for 4th quarter. She would have had more AR points but she didn't think she could take more than one test a week until the last few weeks of school, then she figured it out and took a test every day. Next year she will know. I am very proud of her and know she will do great in second grade. She is my little ray of sunshine and is so smart and funny and lights up a room. Almost all of the teachers know who she is because she has that kind of personality that makes herself known anywhere she goes. Her teacher told us that she will miss her and she never worried about putting her in groups because she gets along with everyone and tries to make them all feel at ease.

Brandon received excellence in spelling and technology, Colorado historian award, a citizenship award for good behaviour and 4th quarter perfect attendance. He also made the merit roll several times this year. I am also very proud of him. He may never get as many awards as Jessie but he has greatly improved in most aspects of school. He improved enough he no longer needs assistance with reading. He is making great strides in overcoming his learning disabilities and I know that one day he will do great things and any shortcomings he may have in school he more than makes up for in his compassion and personality. He is starting baseball again this summer and is already showing improvement from last year. I know I am bragging but I am trying to embrace the fact that they are growing up great rather than to think about the fact that they are growing up so fast. It is really depressing to think that Brandon is going to be a fifth grader next school year. I just hope my next blog isn't complaining about how I can't wait for school to start because they are driving me crazy. We are taking them out to eat and to the drive in movies for their end of the year celebration.

Pat's party pictures

Here are the pictures from Aunt Pat's birthday party.

                                          Some of the decorations

                                          The balloons

                                          picture frames GG got her

 

                                             Kindle Uncle Jim bought her

                                             Art magnets Brandon and Jessie made

                                           3D book mark Mom got her

                                          The kids helping blow out the candles

More school happenings

Brandon had a field trip to the symphony. It was kid's day and a bunch of the schools were there. They played movies silently and did the music for it like the old silent movies. Brandon said it was kind of cool but being in the dark with only music playing, a bunch of them fell asleep. At least he can say he went to the symphony. He had to dress up for it but he said a lot of the kids, especially the boys, didn't bother. I don't understand why the parents don't at least make an attempt to follow the rules, they just don't seem to care anymore.

Jessie had her AR fun day. AR is accelerated reading. All the kids at reading age read AR books that have different levels and points. The kids read the books and take quizzes on them. At the end of the year the older grades got to go on a field trip but the younger ones just did a party. You may remember my previous blog last year about Brandon's trip to the Rockies baseball game. They went again this year but Brandon didn't quite make his goal so he didn't get to go, not that he was too upset because he didn't have much fun last year. Anyway Jessie went above and beyond her goal. She had something like 26.7 points for the school year and a 95% accurate reading level. Keep in mind her books are only worth .5 points each and they only started the program the second semester of school so that tells you how much she read. So the first grade combined and had an AR fun day for all the kids who passed their goals, which was all of them. They had different stations and every ten minutes they switched. Scott and I were manning the food station. The theme was tropical. They had a dance station with hula hoops and hula skirts and got leis to wear. At the food station, they made fruit kabobs and had fruit punch with little umbrellas. They had a craft station and one they made, I am not sure what it was supposed to be, something with marshmallows and toothpicks. They also made bubble pipes out of water bottles and socks. I am not sure how that worked because it was outside so I didn't see them. The last station they made slime. They had a lot of fun. Probably more than the kids on the Rockies field trip.

On Thursday the kids had their field day. This year it was all day which was a lot better. It was more organized and the kids got to do every station. The only problem was the weather was chilly and we had a lot of water stations so we had to improvise a little to keep them from freezing. All the kids got tshirts this year, which was nice..

It is hard to see but the front has a running wildcat and says field day and on the back it says be the best version of you.  They had laundry relays with wet clothes, tug of war which Jessie's class went against Scott, one other dad, and Mrs. Carter (the teacher). The adults lost. They had to find giant bugs in water covered with floating foam, parachute play, things like that. They even had one of the parents who is a part time DJ play music. One of the most popular things was to dance by the speakers. Brandon's class even made it into one of their stations. It is really fun to watch a bunch of little kids line dancing and doing the worm. One time he played YMCA and the kids didn't know how to do it so they formed a congo line and did that instead. At the end of the day was the annual fifth grade against teachers kickball game, which the teachers won as usual. They show no mercy for the fifth grade and win almost every year. I can't believe Brandon will be doing that next year.  They were very tired that night and then Jessie got sick and Brandon also got sick on Sunday but at least they made it through the fun days and had a long weekend to recover.

School happenings

The end of the school year is fast approaching and lots of activities in the month of May. It started with career day which Scott did for the preschool, kindergarten and first grades. The kids made him come back in the fire truck to pick them up from school.  That was on the 2nd. On the 7th Brandon went to the water festival at CSU-Pueblo. They were off of school on the 8th and 9th for literacy testing. On the 13th was their vocabulary parade. The kids are supposed to pick a word and make a costume out of it. Brandon didn't have a choice, he had to draw words and he got convulsed. All I could think of to do was get a white tshirt and put wavy lines on it. Jessie had the word lavender. She dressed all in purple and I made her a lavender flower crown and she had a lavender flower attached to her word card. They were really excited until they came home disappointed because there was no parade they just sat in their classrooms being judged and then had to sit during an assembly and watch the winners go up in front of the class. Jessie's field trip on the 15th was better. We went to the railroad musuem where they got to ride a train to and from the musuem. They didn't get much else out of it but they got to ride the train so they didn't care. Then we went to the park to eat lunch and play for a bit. After lunch we loaded up and went to the children's museum. They listened to two stories and then broke up into groups. Our group went to see the art first. I realize that they figure kids aren't that into looking at art but they barely gave them any time to look at anything. Then we went into the children's museum and they played in there for the second half. Nobody stayed on any area for more than five minutes I don't think. I took Jess home from there so she got a little extra time with me before Brandon got home. She had a good day. Brandon went to the dinosaur museum in Woodland Park on the 16th. We couldn't go because we couldn't afford the gas to get there. He was disappointed but I gave him a prepaid phone to use in case of an emergency and he felt very grown up. Of course now he wants to keep it. He took a bunch of pictures with the camera to show us.

Pat and Jim also came to visit this weekend. The kids were so excited they were coming I think they were a little overwhelming at times. We went to see them Friday after noon and then went out to dinner at Country Buffet for Aunt Pat's birthday. On Saturday we went to see Groods at the movies. That is a cute movie. That night everyone came to my house for a birthday party for Aunt Pat. We did a Hawaiian theme and everyone had leis and their own wild cup. I will get pics later and post them. Sunday everyone came out again and we visited and ate pizza. GG got stuck in my bathroom(the doorknob sticks sometimes) and Mom and Jim especially thought that was hilarious for some reason. They got their giggle fest in at least. We really enjoyed having them and can't wait to see them next year.

Next up is Brandon's field trip to the symphony, AR fun day and Teddy bear day for Jess, Field day, Memorial day and the last day of school.

I was having a not great few weeks. Things keep breaking, we keep having unexpected things come up that we have to purchase and with school coming to a close in the next month it will not get any better. I am taking the work keys test on Thursday so I can look into possible jobs hopefully with dist 70 so I would still be home with the kids for the most part. I had been feeling sorry for myself that things just aren't going easy for us. Then I got word that a friend from school whose husband has been fighting cancer died on Saturday.  They have three kids, one in fifth grade, one in first, and one in kindergarten. I think about how they won't get to experience life with their dad and he won't get to see them grow up. It was even harder for them because they thought he was doing pretty good and went to Denver for a checkup and he was admitted and never came home. It makes me remember that my financial problems are nothing compared to that. We may not have a lot of money and it can get stressful at times but at least we have our health and each other. I think sometimes I take my family for granted that they will always be there, and I for them but then something like this happens and makes you realize that any one of us could be taken any time and maybe without warning. So hug your family and tell them you love them and appreciate that they are there to drive you crazy.

Brandon's play

Brandon's 4th grade play was about Colorado history. He decided to do his project on Mesa Verde. He wanted to do a diorama and a power point presentation. I ended up doing the majority of the project and diorama and Mom did most of the powerpoint. He tells me two days before the project was due. Then he got upset because they didn't choose him to be one of the presenters for the play. I told him that if he had learned more and practiced his speech more than maybe they would have. The day before the play he came home and said he was supposed to be an Indian  for the play so we spent the rest of the evening creating an Indian costume for him to wear. It is a good thing I like that kind of stuff so I had some things on hand. They played their recorders and sang songs and 11 of the kids did their presentations. I don't know how they chose who got to do the presentations but most of theirs wasn't any better than Brandon's.

                                              Brandon during the play

                                            Brandon saying he was an indian from Mesa Verde

                                            At the end of the play

His Mesa Verde cliff dwelling diorama

 

Attitudes

Brandon is already acting like a teenager. He has attitude, talks back, and doesn't listen. He is only ten. He keeps forgetting homework and papers. He had a big project due at school and I kept asking him when is it due and if he got any papers on it and he kept saying no until he tells me two days before it is due oh by the way and I find out he had a paper for two weeks in his desk. Then he doesn't want to help with the project, and gets mad when he doesn't get picked to present at the play. He told us the day before the play that he had to have an Indian costume so we were scrambling to make something up and I had to go to school to drop off the thumb drive his project was on because he forgot it. I considered not helping him but getting bad grades on top of everything wouldn't help matters. He can be so confident one minute and crying that he is stupid the next. What happened to my sweet little boy who was so considerate of everyone especially his sister. Now he acts like he can't stand to be around her half the time. At this rate he will be grounded the rest of school year.  I think he will be a little better when Scott goes on fires because he knows money is tight and worries about it constantly even though we keep telling him we are fine. Once Scott starts working again maybe he will calm down a little.  I thought I would at least have my little girl for a while longer but she wants to grow up too fast also. She wants to wear makeup and jewelry and a training bra. She also pretend talks on the phone and told me that her play phone was too old and I needed to upgrade it because she couldn't text on it. She really wants a real phone because her best friend who is also 7 has a real one, so why shouldn't she also. Why are they in such a hurry to grow up? I would give anything to be young and not have responsibilities again. I feel like I am losing both my babies at the same time. I look forward to the next phase of their lives preferably without attitude, but I miss the sweet, innocence too. Of course in this day and age it is almost impossible to be innocent with everything that goes on in the world. I will have more on Brandon's play after I get the pictures downloaded.