End of School Year

I am so proud of each of my kids for all their accomplishments this school year.  They have all worked hard and had a fantastic year!

The Friday before school was out, Jarem had an awards assembly for the school which was immediately followed by a class awards party.  He received this certificate.  After the party, they had the cute owl cake which said, "Kindergarten was a hoot" with ice cream too.  Then, their teacher gave them each got a big rubber ball and they got to go around and have their classmates sign it.  It was a fun time. 

The following pictures were taken on the last day of school (May 24th):

Jarem has had a great year with Mrs. Williams this year. She has been just what he needed...very loving and kind and an incredible teacher. After the initial class divisions, he ended up with only 16-17 kids in his class, and they were a really cute and sweet class. I think he has learned more than any of our other kids did in Kindergarten mainly for 2 reasons: 1) he didn't know as much going in, and 2) he was the only one of our 4 kids to have all-day Kindergarten. For the rest of the kids, I was much better about making sure they knew everything before they went to Kindergarten and then Kindergarten seemed like kind of a waste of time for them excepting the social aspect (of course).

Jarem has learned SO much in Kindergarten. He went into Kindergarten knowing almost all of his letters and only a few sounds. He is reading now. A few nights ago he read the whole book of "Green Eggs and Ham" by himself. He was so proud because it was 62 pages! I am proud of all he has accomplished this year in Kindergarten.

Tessa has also had a great year and was blessed with a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Harrison. This was Tessa's first year in the PASS program for the gifted and talented. Mrs. Harrison has done an excellent job in making sure Tessa is always challenged. She has really pushed her far. Mrs. Harrison also really made Tessa understand and love science. A few weeks ago when I was fixing Tessa's hair in the bathroom, we had some leftover birthday balloons that kept lingering next to us. I would push them away and they kept floating back next to us. I said, "I wish those balloons would just go away". Tessa said, "I bet the negative ions in my hair are attracted to the positive ions on the balloons creating static electricity". I was like, "Yeah". I bet that is exactly what it was. :)

Anyway, I am very proud of her for getting straight A's the entire school year. Good job Tessa!

Jesikah also had a fantastic year in 6th grade. Her transition to middle school was nearly seamless. She had all A's all year with the exception of one B. She was moved up to both advanced language and advanced math during the school year. She maintained an A average in every class and was ranked #5 on her team at the end of the year awards assembly. I believe they said that she had a 96.7% average which includes all her classes for all of 6th grade. She has been excellent at always keeping up with her homework without ever needing a reminder from me.

I am also proud of her for working hard to learn the clarinet in band. She practiced diligently and is getting really good.

Alex also had a successful year in school this year. This was his first year of high school, and he worked hard and got all A's for both semesters. This was also his first year of early morning seminary. He had to be there at 6am each morning before school. Getting up at 5:15 is not easy for a teenager, and it was a bit hard for him to get up sometimes, but he had a pretty positive attitude about it for the most part. He only missed a few days of seminary all year. And, he memorized all of his scripture masteries for seminary for the year. It was also his first year making the soccer team, so we are proud of him for his work in soccer as well.

On the last day of school, Jesikah and her friend, Pramika planned a going away party/sleepover for one of their good friends, Anne Purdy, who is moving.  They planned everything including games and all.  Pramika did the party portion at her house and then they came to our house for the sleepover portion.  Jesikah is learning cake decorating for one of her value projects in young women.  She has been making all kinds of cakes.  This cake she made for Anne all by herself.  I hope you can tell it is a purse.  I did make the frosting for her and write the letters for Anne as well as the piping on the outside, but she did everything else including coming up with the design.  I was very proud of her, and it made the party very easy.  I thought it turned out very cute, and it was delicious too.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the 5 girls together.

3 in the Bed

Jesikah is usually the one who babysits when Eric and I go out on dates. She generally does a fantastic job. We really appreciate her being so responsible in babysitting. Many times we come home to this cute scene. :)Jarem doesn't want to sleep alone and the girls usually sleep together in Jesikah's queen bed, so they all just sleep together.

Field Day

Jarem's field day was Friday, May 13th.  Amazingly, we had great weather for the few days that the field days took place.  The rest of April and May were very stormy.  Jarem loved his field day.  I had to take an hour to spend with Tessa's class that day too.  One of Jarem's favorite activities was the "pig toss".  They tossed rubber chickens, fish, and pigs back and forth between them and a partner.  They had so much fun with that.  I got a video of Jarem jumproping too, but alas, was not able to post it due to error messages.

This n' That

Our schedule has been SO busy lately.  Here's a little of what's been going on: 

Alex has been playing High School soccer.  With all the rain, many games have been rescheduled.  Last night was his last official JV match.  The Varsity will be playing the tournament this next week.  They usually have 2-3 games a week plus practice every night that they don't have games. 

Jarem and Tessa are also doing recreational soccer and have games every Saturday as well as one practice each a week.




Eric's brother and wife, Kyle, Jessica, and baby Taegan, came to hang out with us after the storms last week since the power plant in Huntsville was destroyed by tornadoes and they were going to be out of power for several days.  They came Thursday, April 28th and stayed until Wednesday, May 4th.  We were glad that we were close enough that they could come.  It's always fun to have them here.  We all love to hold Baby Taegan.  He is such a cute and sweet baby. 

They were also an awesome help.  Jessica cooked or helped cook nearly every night AND had some awesome recipes and ideas for dinners.  That is so helpful for me because probably my biggest stress with company is what to cook.  They are self-sufficient as far as breakfast and lunch.  Kyle organized all our DVD's and helped us plant some new shrubs.  We also had some good times eating ice cream, watching movies, and Eric and Kyle playing golf.  They were starting to feel like part of our family.  The kids were getting comfortable enough with them that they didn't even mind fighting around them. :)  I am not sure they appreciated that!  We loved having them though and were all sad to see them go back home.



We bought these new spiral spruce shrubs while they were here.  It has been something that I have wanted for over a year and Eric and I finally got them.  We also added a few more shrubs and trees to our front area.  I am very happy with the results which I will post later.

Below is Jarem with his buddy "Firefox".  I took these pictures a little while ago and had forgotten to post them.  Firefox is a red panda which is part of the endangered specied collection of Webkinz.  He was so excited when he saw a real red panda at the Nashville zoo.  They are a very unique animal and Jarem loves his Firefox.