Last Days of School

June 4th was the last day of school (this year went SO fast!) and the weeks before that were bizz-y wrapping up all the school events.

Ella's art was in the school art show.  She had a Picasso...

 And a self-portrait in clay

Ella and Silas both got to give a hand in making ice sculptures

There was Field Day, which I got to volunteer at.  What a blast for all the kids!!

 (picture taken by Si's mom's friend, Lori - (Studio Williams)

I was stationed at the "devil sticks" - they were fun - but hard!!

We had a wonderful Kindergarten picnic at the school with Si's class.
 We took a delicious picnic dinner of fried chicken, cole slaw, cheese/olive/pepperoni kabobs,
lemonade and watermelon.  It was a perfect picnic (except no wine! :)

Si's pals - Ben and Joey.

The last day of school...last day as a kindergartener and 3rd grader!!
I wasn't able to get Mason before he left the house :(

Walking Siley to his classroom  :'(

 And a last picture with one of the sweetest kindergarten teachers ever.
What a fantastic year she made for Silas and her class!!

He just exploded with learning this year. This was her comment on his report card:
I am so proud of Silas and all that he has learned this year.  
In his quiet way he contributes
great things to our class. He has become such a proficient reader and is ready for almost any beginner reader you can find at the library!  He is also such a great math thinker. It is amazing to watch and listen to his thinking as he solves a problem.  He loves numbers!!  Silas is so ready for first grade!  He is going to be awesome!  Thanks for sharing him with me this year...what a treasure!!

I'm so proud of him in his first year of school.  They all 3 had a great year - we've got a little bit of time and summer fun to prepare for 1st, 4th and SENIOR year!!!

Back At It

Yesterday was Back to School!  Mason is now an 11th grader, Ella in 3rd and Silas started Kindergarten.  I knew that Silas starting K would be sad but I cried all the way home from school.  I told Justin he'd better get snipped soon, before I start on a baby kick again!

Mason has some interesting classes this year.  He's taking German, a Marine biology class, personal finance, psychology, pre-calc...he started an Engineering course but wants to drop that (can't say that I blame him...).
His friend Kyle is supposed to drive him to school, giving him an extra 20 minutes of sleep in the morning.  Kyle picked him up yesterday but at the end of the day, his car wouldn't start, so it was back on the bus today!

Justin and I walked Ella and Si to school - Silas was very excited.  He met his teacher at an ice cream social last week and then also at open house on Monday evening.  It's the same teacher Ella had for K and we LOVE her!!  Justin has been teasing Silas about how mean she is and how she likes to pinch the kids.  Silas came home yesterday and told Justin that she only pinched him once :)

I'm used to having Silas walk home with me after dropping Ella off - now I drop them both off.  But a mere 2.5 hours later, I pick him up and take him to Kelly's so at least I get a mid-day hug and to see his rotten little smile :)

El looks like such a little grown-up here!

Holding Dad's hand on the walk :)

Silas posed with Mrs. Sherwood before getting into line with his class.  Such a big boy!  He was SO excited when I picked him up yesterday and said what an "awesome!" day he had :)

Monday, the last day of summer break, was absolutely beautiful out.  I decided to take Ella and Si to the zoo for a last outing.  It was perfect!!  And not very crowded as some of the schools had already started back.

Silas looks a little concerned about the polar bear coming up behind him!

Hard to believe another summer has flown by already!!

Snow Days and Luaus

The kids started the week with Monday out of school for MLK day.  We had a pretty lazy day at home.  My children would stay in their pajamas for days, weeks even, if I let them.  Silas played with his Legos a lot. I don't know why but I am amused when I see his Lego space plane with Woody and Chewbacca on it together.

On Wednesday night, I had to go to the school to pick up Si's Kindergarten registration pack.  I can't believe my baby will be heading to kindergarten.  Seems like just yesterday that he was grabbing and sucking on his toes.

So the kids now-a-days (and I remember Mason did this a time or two also) have this ritual that they do when they want a snow day.  They turn their pajamas inside out and backwards, and wear them to bed like that.  They also flush ice cubes down the toilet.  Apparently 6 is the magic number. 

Thursday is started snowing around 8am...and snowed and snowed all day.  I think we had 5 inches here. Ella had a ball walking home from school in all the snow.

And last night right after tucking the kids into bed, school was canceled.  So they had another lazy day at home!  The only reason that Ella got out of her pj's today is because she had a Girl Scout event in the evening. She went to a Paradise Island Luau and came home with a painted face and flowers in her hair.

While Ella was gone, Si had his friend, Carson, over.  They had fun playing Wii.  During MarioKart, Justin told the boys to come eat after their "race" was over.  Silas informed him "we're not racing...we're just driving to see who finishes first!"  Got it :)

Ella's week

This week was Ella's special week at school. Her teacher "features" a different student each week and they get to bring in photos, tell about themselves, bring a favorite book (she took The 26 Princesses), bring her favorite snack (rice crispy treats) and best of all was that she got to bring Darby (the stuffed) Duck home for the weekend. She cried and cried when she had to take him back on Monday.
Here is the picture that she drew in Darby's journal along with a description of what she did with him all weekend (not her handwriting :)

Notice anything ODD about this duck?

Kindergarten screening

What a busy day for Miss Boo! She had preschool today and it was the field trip to the police department. I had to pick her up a few minutes early from there to get her to kindergarten screening. She did awesome! The principal asked all the kids to line up and she got right up and went. Then they marched off to another room to do the screening stuff, while the parents filled out papers, watched a video, listened to the principal talk a lot (really liked her - she is new since Mason was there, or maybe came in his last year).
Ella was so excited afterwards and told me how much fun it was.
Mason's kindergarten teacher was there and saw the last name so she asked Ella to make sure she told Mason HI for her. It made me teary-eyed to see her, especially after finding those pictures for Mason this week...my (hairy, smelly, goofy, almost teen) baby! :)
It was also Ella's first night of soccer practice - with Daddy as the coach again this year. Nothing cuter than seeing Justin out there with eight 5 year old girls - Go Cinderellas! (that is their team name :)