Kirsten and AR

The elementary school has an AR (accelerated reader) program in place.  Students read books on their grade levels and then take tests on those books.  Each book as a points value and a student gets points based on the test results.  Each student is given a goal at the beginning of the school year and parents are updated about how close their student is to the goal.  Kirsten has been reading diligently since the beginning of the year, but was only able to meet 90% of her AR goal.  She has improved so much in reading this year, we don't mind that she didn't make it to 100%!  Here is a photo of a new way Kirsten found to read her AR books:

To All Those Who Served.....

Groundhog Day!

The other night as I was flipping through channels, I happened to see the movie Groundhog Day and clicked on it. It was towards the beginning where Bill Murray's character meets Ned the first day and says "I'd love to stay here and talk with you, but I'm not going to." Dallin thought that was the funniest thing and wanted to remember it for school. He said "I have to write that down so I don't forget it." He actually wrote it down:

The 'pause dramatically' made us laugh! 

Kildeer - baby!

Every year, we have a Kildeer make a nest somewhere around our house.  The cat goes BONKERS trying to get to it, but the Kildeer parents are well-equipped to deal with predators.  Seriously, they have to be!  It's pretty darn rare in the bird world to have a species that makes a nest ON THE GROUND!  We've never been able to see the Kildeer babies though - they usually hatch at night and they are ready to walk away from the nest.  No little peeping mouths to bring food to or ugly gray, featherless bodies for these guys!  This year, the nest was out back right next to the soccer goal.  Apparently, using good judgment to pick out a nesting spot isn't a character trait in Kildeer!  (We've had them next to farm dumpster, next to the driveway, etc....)  This time we had a special treat though - we got to see the babies!  You've got to look really closely, but a little one is in the grass!

Cute Calf!

 Calves are so darn cute!  This little one was absolutely exhausted from its birth experience and barely lifted its head to see who was petting it. 

Beta Club, Soccer, and Track

 State Cup Games

 NPC (North Piedmont Conference) Track Meet

Hayleigh's BETA Club induction

BUSY BUSY BUSY!!

My Future

Kirsten figured out how to make bubbles by using (LOTS!) of hand soap and blowing into her fist.  She loves to see how big she can make them!  The other day, she made this one and in her spookiest voice said "Looook innnnnto yourrrrrr fuuuuuuture!"  I turned and looked at her and the thought hit me that when I look into my kids' faces, I DO see my future - I can see the whole world and all of its possibilities!

Happy 17th Birthday Ethan!

(got his game face on!)

Storms!

It's been storming like crazy around these parts!  The rain dug out a trench in the driveway - which is not so fun to drive over.  The rain also filled up both ponds; it's not ALL bad.....but MAN did it come down!

Tim and I realized that we have WAY more shoes than we should...most of them are in pretty bad shape, but apparently NO one can throw shoes away!  We had the girls collect all the shoes from the front porch, the carport, at the back door, and from anywhere else they could find them.  They lined them all up in the carport for everyone to go through.  We didn't get to it the day we should have and the storms started and the rain came pouring down the driveway into the carport and the shoes FLOATED around...and now it's muddy...and if a person walks around in crocs in the carport on the muddy concrete to line up the shoes again, that person might just slip on the mud and land on her butt and get very unhappy.  I'm just saying.

Soccer Recap - Spring Season 2012

 It was nice to have Kyle home this spring and have him go watch his brothers play!  It is still so strange to only have Ethan and Dallin playing club soccer!  We're still in the 4-5 games per weekend mode...

 Ethan had a great season this spring - they only lost one season game and came in 2nd in their division!  Ethan mostly played defense, although in one game VS. Greensboro, Coach Jay put him 'up top' and he scored a goal off a nice header tying the game 1-1!

Ethan - 93 TCYSA White

Dallin had a pretty good season.  He struggled with new team dynamics again - everyone had to learn how everyone else played and where they would be and who to pass to, etc....  Towards the end of the season, Dallin scored a goal VS GUSC and tied the game 1-1!

Both boys' seasons ended after state cup round robin play - neither team advanced to the quarterfinals this year.  Next up, TRYOUTS!!