Field Day and End of School 2017

 Shea was so excited about Field day that she let me braid her hair and she wore the Elsa dress that Lindsay gave her that used to be Kinleys.  Pretty much her fanciest clothes for the least fancy event.  But she didnt even think twice about it.
Avery hurt her knee so she had to sit out during her part of field day, but she got to help with the little kids in the morning so she was at least glad about that. Though she may have just gone home because she was introverting.  It is sometimes hard to tell...she was better by the end of the day and no signs of pain in her knee. (Quick forehead wipe)

Shea clung to me a little at the beginning and was nervous, but decided she would try and get in line with Sass. Sass kept trying to push her and make her stronger by pretending to be in line with her and at the last minute bailing and making her climb up and go down by herself!  Sabotage. But Shea never lost it or really cared that much.

She is a calculated risk taker.  She only takes a risk once she has assessed the situation and feels like it will be both safe and fun enough to try.

And sure enough, THIS WAS.

 She kept going over and over all by herself.  She loved being with the kids at school and just never wanted to leave.

The next station they went to was an even bigger water slide.  She wanted to try it with ben and it was amazing! It was so tall, but she wasnt the least bit afraid! She loved it!

Then she wanted to stay with Ben's class and keep rotation with them and they were so sweet to her.  It was heart melting. They let her help with all their water events and she was in heaven.  I am so thankful that everyone is so great and laid back up there. I am sure in some other school this wouldn't fly, but here, she was like the queen.  (The Ice Queen).

 

(Avery had the same teacher as Ben so she hopped in the pic)

Then the kids had their end of year awards where they received awards from their teachers and it was so sweet.  It makes me cry every time! (And reaffirms my need to learn spanish.  I love listening to the ESL teachers give awards and just hate that I cant understand them. How can I learn an entire language in like 24 hours?) I am just so dang thankful for these teachers and for their friends.  I am so proud of my kids for how hard they have worked and I just love for our school.

Avery was chosen to be a Burks Ambassador this year, which is like Student Council and she had so much fun.  She loved having different responsibilities and getting to be in charge of things.  (Like doing the welcome at graduation.  That we missed because we can never get to something when it starts.  We told her she had to start doing things that weren't at the beginning.  Her teachers know us.  They understand).  She did a great job and I am so proud of her and all the ways she stepped out and led at school.

But her graduation was on Thursday and that is a whole other post.  She is going to middle school and I cried through the whole ceremony cementing that in her life.  It was AMAZING. More later.

One Child Left Behind 2015

SOOOOOOOOO many things to post about this summer that were incredible and amazing and I want to remember every moment of that include weddings and new nieces and nephews and trips and fishing and lake days and way too many selfies of my children where they used weird apps and their faces look like aliens.  But, we dont have time for that right now.  Ill be back for that.  Today, we document school for my fourth and second graders (WHAT?!)

Shea couldn't resist being in the photo.


And one with Gracie and the isolated toddler.
The only reason we were able to make it to school after an entire summer of sleeping in, was that Avery woke everyone up, made them breakfast, got their lunches out of the fridge and into their backpack and was ready to go by the time I got out of bed at 7:10.
She is amazing.  What would I do without her?! (dont answer that).
Shea was fine the first day because she got to help them walk in and drop them off.  The second and all the days since, she has had the panic cry every time they walk out of the car.  She is devastated.  She misses them so much.
We have tried to stay busy.

We have taken her babies on lots of walks, changed their diapers thousands of times, and tried to acclimate to life without the big kids.  It has been sad, but I am just so thankful for our school and their teachers and our life.
I read a post that a blogger wrote about attending public school and I shared it on Facebook.  It is similar to our experience, but not completely, but it does reinforce some of the views I have about why we go to public school.  I obviously am pro any type of schooling and think everyone has to do what is right for their own family.  I didnt say that on Facebook and I wish I would have.  I hope no one thinks that I think public school is the only way to go.  But it has been what works for us and something I am so thankful for.
The girls and I got our second grown up pedicure at a real place before school with some of our church crew and it was the perfect start to this year.  I am so thankful for people in mckinney that we have grown to love so much.  Making friends who are as weird as us is so hard.  I feel like it takes me forever to get close to people and feel safe with them, but I feel like we  are there.  We have met some incredible people and I am so so thankful.

(Ok, I didnt do it.  My social anxiety trumps any idea of a pedicure, even if it includes a massage of any kind.  I just cant do it.  Luckily the girls loved it and my friends are pros.  No way I could have done that shiz on my own.  The whole thing scares me.)
Let's do this school year 2015-16!!
This post was brought to you in part by the word 'thankful'.

Senior Citizen Day and Little Lion Cheerleaders

We had our last home game on Friday so the girls had a dress up day at school. We went all out since it would be the last theme dress up day. Who am I kidding though, I would have gone all out anyway. 

We had SO much fun with this one! Ella and her sweet friend Reagan from class went as matching old lady close-knit friends. Reagan's mom and I did some planning on this one, I made the shirts and she made the walkers. It was hysterical!

I was cracking myself up over the shirts. I made Ella and Reagan's say Close-Knit Friends and McKenna was OVER THE HILL. 

The walkers have the best back story. Callie went to Home Depot with a picture from Pinterest of the walkers. The lady was so helpful and took her all around the store showing her all the things she needed to make them. She then told Callie to just come to the break room and she would help her make them. She helped Callie make both walkers and then told her it would be no charge because Home Depot would donate them! What?! How crazy nice is that?! I couldn't believe it. So so sweet. We took a picture of the girls holding up a Thank You Home Depot sign so Callie could give it to them. 

The girls walked in the classroom together and the kids loved it! Everyone was cracking up and wanted to touch the walkers and honk their horns. McKenna sprinted into her class so excited to show off her gray hair. It was my favorite theme day by far. 

I helped serve lunch at the school that day so I got to eat with my Granny Ella. (who obviously forget to put in her dentures)

The washed out their gray hair before the game that night and went from senior citizens to little cheerleaders. The girls had done a cheer clinic last weekend and got to preform at the pep rally and then again during halftime at the game that night. They did a dance and then a couple of cheers. I have to share with you a little video of McKenna doing her cheer. It just melts me. She is so tiny and confident. 

Door Decorating and Homecoming Float

One of the perks of being home room mom is getting to decorate the classroom door. The wannabe teacher deep down inside of me was so excited about this part.
Everyone does a Homecoming door that is related to whatever team we are playing. Our school played the Royals. There were some great doors, I wish I had pictures of them all to share. There was Roll the Royals, Roast the Royals, Rain on the Royals, Reel in the Royals, Wreck the Royals and I went with Rock the Royals. 

I went up to Ella's class one day to take pictures of each kid with some Rockstar accessories. I loved getting to do this with the kids. I read a book to the class first so that everyone would feel more comfortable with me. I read one of my favorite books called "Purple, Green and Yellow." I was so excited about doing this but got so insanely nervous when I sat in front of the class and I could feel my face and neck turning red. Then I caught a glimpse in the mirror at how red I was which made me even more nervous so it just never went away. Ella even asked me why I was so red. Ugh. Way can't I  just be a normal person when it comes to public speaking?!

I gave all the kids a star to decorate and then I called them in the hallway one by one to get their picture. I had a bunch of props and let them pick how much they wanted to put on. Most of the boys just held a guitar but most of the girls went all out and put on as much as they could. One little girl immediately went into rockstar mode and started singing and dancing around. It was awesome! 

I put everyone's picture on their star and used my silhouette to create the Rockstar Lion. I blew it up real big and traced it on my computer screen. It took a while but I loved doing it. 

McKenna's teacher gave me some pictures of each kid in front of the schools lion and told me the door didn't have to be homecoming themed. I went with a basic Lion theme so it could stay up longer than the homecoming week.

Here is a glimpse of my living room after making one of the doors. Bob said it was like someone brought in a wood chipper and put hobby lobby threw it in our house. 

Each grade decorates a wagon for the homecoming float. The homeroom mom from the other Kindergarten class and I worked together on this one and it was so much fun. She had the idea of doing a Royal Flush. I told her I loved it and I just so happen to already have a potty that I had made. Remember the potty piñata from McKenna's potty party?! I just gave it a face lift and it was perfect. We put it on a checkered floor and had a crown to flush the Royals. They pulled it during halftime at the football game and also at the pep rally.

 I made shirts for the kids to wear that were pulling the float at the pep rally. The kids loved the potty humor!

Turns out we really are #1! We won the game!

I switched the class doors over to a Fall theme last week. McKenna's teacher requested a scarecrow and I got to pick whatever for Ella's so I went with a Fall tree.


Now if it would just feel and look like this outside.

Theme Days

Maybe one of my favorite kind of days. 

Every Friday when there is a home game, the school has a theme dress day. We have had so much fun with it! The first one was neon 80's. I heat pressed a lions face with some cool shutter shades on a neon shirt. They looked totally tubular! 

Then is was movie character theme. You can only imagine how many Elsa and Anna's there were that day. 

Construction day was next. I had found some overalls at walmart and the girls couldn't believe I would even buy them. They hated them to put it lightly. McKenna wouldn't even try hers on. I tried to convince them how cool and practical they were. The endless amount of pocket possibilities...

I ended up taking the overalls back and getting an orange vest for Ella and I just taped on some lines with yellow duck tape. McKenna decided against dressing up with the theme for this week.

Super hero day! 

Pink or blue day.

They also had twin day where each one dressed the same as someone in their class. I didn't get a pic of them on blackout day or red, white and blue day. Next Friday is the last dress up day for the football season and I will be sure to get a picture because it is going to be hilarious! 

Senior Citizen dress up day! How funny is that?! I can't wait to see what everyone does for it. 

First Day of School

I should start this post off by bragging on my parenting skills.
The night before school, (or the last day of summer as I like to call it) we had One Direction tickets. Like any good parent would do, we stayed up late partying the night away and put our kids to bed tired and without a bath.

We are lucky we all made it out the door at all.

But thankfully, everything is just so much easier the second time around.

We are so so excited to be going back to the same school for the first time.  We loved it last year and the kids already feel at home and excited for this year (and obviously more prepared because sass has her glasses on.  Everything is just more clear this year all around).





They do this fantastic thing on the first day when the kids arrive where they have a blue and red carpet that the kids walk down to go inside.  While they are walking into the building, the principal says their name into a microphone as a few other teachers stand along the carpet and cheer.  For every single kid in the whole school. It seems like a small thing, but every time it just makes me cry.



Ben and Sass are in the same class again (Yea!) and they have lockers this year.  We saw them the at meet the teacher and then Ben possibly wore that shirt again under his first day of school shirt.  Maybe never took it off...


My mom gave the kids some money for back to school and instead of spending it on clothes (like we should have), the kids got build a bears and legos. We got Shea a build a bear with a recording of the kids saying that they love her inside of it.  I know she loves hearing their voices and misses them when they are gone.
I am praying so much for this year.  For all their teachers and for the school.  I am just so thankful that God has led us to this place with these amazing families and kids.  I am so thankful for the effort that all the teachers and principals put into their learning and just their overall school experience.  They push the kids to do their best, but they also love them and encourage them and listen to them.  I cant wait to see what this year holds!