Darby Creeking with the 6th Graders

Last week I took a day off to go on a field trip with Ella's sixth grade class. We went to Darby Creek and lucked out with a gorgeous day!! Earlier in the week it'd been 20° cooler and rainy. 

The kids has different assignments to complete to evaluate the water conditions. 

Ella was excited to jump on in and see what she could find. 

I can't remember what she called this thing -a sand penny or a water penny... something like that. 

Then she found a little crawl dad. Some of the kids found a bunch of them and big ones!

I discovered that my right boot has a hole in it as I was standing in the creek...That was chilly!

And of course I took a lot of pictures while I was there.

Goober Girl!

Fun day. I'm happy I get to tag along on these field trips!!

Back to School 2014

And they are off and running. Yesterday was back to school!

Ella was less than thrilled to be woken up at 6 AM. Her first words uttered were "Know what I can't imagine?"

"What's that?" I asked. 

"Doing this every morning!" 

Yep, it's going to be a rough year I think as she transitions to getting up at the crack of dawn!!

Silas got up with her the first morning to walk her to the bus stop. I don't think that'll be happening very often...

You can see he wasn't quite awake. 

The bus stop is about a block away so we walked her to the bus stop yesterday and today. 

I suspect that too will end soon and she'll be on her own. 

Silas was much more chipper when it was time to walk him to school at 8:30am. 

They both had fantastic first days of school!!

And felt a lot like this at the end of the day:

Besides the fact that I'm getting up at 5:50 in the morning, it's nice to have some morning time with Ella alone and then time with Silas alone before school. And there's a lot less fighting going on!!

The Office

I have to say, I'm very lucky with my job. I get to work from anywhere that I have Internet access typically. The Friday that we left for the beach, I got to work from the van while on the drive to North Carolina. (hectic, but a nice option).

This week (the last week of summer break before school starts back), I took the kids to lunch and then we went to the park with their friends. I was able to tap into my Wi-Fi hotspot and work in the park while they played and had fun. It was quite ideal. 

I feel grateful that I do get to spend time with my kids, work a full-time job, be home for them when they get home from school or need something during the day...

I'm sad that Ella is leaving our elementary school, which is right in our neighborhood. She's moving on to the sixth-grade building. I think Silas will definitely find it weird the first week or two of school.

Today we went to Ella's new school, got her schedule, made sure that we could open her locker... And got her first school ID!

It'll be six more years before she and Silas will be in the same building again. That won't be when Silas is a freshman and Ella is a senior! 

Back to School 2012!

We are off on another school year. This one is another milestone - with Silas starting 1st grade and Mason a SENIOR!  That's a whopper!!

The first week went smoothly and I managed to get 1st day pictures without too much fuss!

Mason Paul as a 1st day Senior.  This just amazes me.  How can he be a Senior already??
He also started his first job this past week too - as a food runner at Mill Run Movie Tavern.  Yesterday, he worked a 10 hour shift and he put in about 20 hours total this week.   He's working hard and excited to have some money of his own!

We've been looking at cars and hope to get one for him very soon. Driving him to and from work is a job in itself!  I hope he has a fantastic Senior year and can keep up with his job, grades and having fun with his friends.

 Ella and Silas we both very excited on the first day...I think Silas more so than Ella.  This year is a big change for Silas. All day school.  He's used to 1/2 day and then fun with his friends at Kelly's and going to mam-ma and pap-pa's on Friday afternoons.  Now it's all work and no play! :)

 He is such a super learner.  He is excited about the things they learn in class, his teacher (who everyone tells us is SO super awesome) has already sent great feedback home.  I think he's going to have a wonderful year!

Ella also got a teacher that we've heard wonderful things about (Ms. Bailey). I'm excited because it's a new looping year and we'll have her for 4th and 5th grades. 

 Ms. Bailey emailed me this picture from  her 1st day of school. I love her hot pink shoes - it's hard to miss her in those!

I take this same picture all the time when Justin walks with us to school and I always love it.  This one in particular, since it's the first day of 1st grade and I love how Silas is looking up at his Daddy. He's at such a great age - still small enough to still hold our hands, snuggle and want tucked in but so excited to test his independence and learn, learn, learn. 

There is a lot of growing up going on around here and on one hand, it can be tough and sad because I love the toddler and preschool ages.  But it's very exciting to see their personalities as they get older, see the qualities (for better or for worse) that they have inherited from Justin and me...

I think we are going to have a really awesome school year!

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!!!

Admirer...

It appears that Silas has an Admirer at school.  This note was in his backpack :)

She didn't know how to spell his name though...
so cute.

Last Day of School

Hard to believe, but another school year is over.  Silas finished up last Friday, Mason took his last exam yesterday and Ella's last day was today.  What a great year they all had!!  

One early morning event that we went to in Ella's class was a book signing.  Each kid chose a topic, researched, drew pictures and wrote the text and then it was bound into a book.  The parents then got to visit the classroom, see all the books and the "author" signed the book for us.

This is some art that Silas did in school, then the PTO had a company take the art and do magnets, mugs, t-shirts, etc.  It was cool.  Those they had to shrink the art (thus the hand print) for the magnets and Silas could not understand why his hand was so small!

Unlike Mason and Silas, Ella actually gets to celebrate her birthday during school. We took snacks and the class sang Happy Birthday.

They sang the "cha, cha, cha" version.  Mrs. C was fabulous this year.  Ella absolutely loved her and today as she was leaving the room, gave her a huge big hug. Mrs. C asked Ella to email her over the summer.  Hope she knows what she is in for!

Silas' field day at school was postponed twice, so it ended up being on the last day of school. I volunteered and was stationed at the "cow milking" area.  They must have known I was a home-grown Hilliard gal.  The kids loved it, though Si doesn't much look like he's enjoying it.

I love this picture - Si's favorite activity was the wet ball throwing.  When his teacher, Mrs. P, was out on maternity leave, Mrs. H (here in orange) was the sub for 8 weeks.  She came back to visit the class on field day and Silas welcomed her back by nailing her with a soaker ball. Look closely in the upper right corner of the picture and you can see the ball that bounced off of her.

Today was the "clap out" at the elementary for the 5th graders.  We have a few friends whose kids are moving on up to the 6th grade building. It's SO emotional and I was glad today that my kids are all going to be in the same buildings next year.  I'll still have a high schooler, an elementary student and a preschooler.  They just all move up a notch.  I'm happy for some even keeledness (not really a word, I'm betting) - it's been a rough week/month/2010.  I'm looking forward to not necessarily a stress-free summer, but definitely spending a lot of time with the kids, family and friends.
And I've got my list of Fun Stuff to do!

A Very Unorganized Update

I am way, way overdue on the updating and if I wait around to organize it...it'll never happen. So in no particular order...here is the past week or so!

1. Margie's 9 months post-chemo scan results have come back NED :-) Yippee!! NED means No Evidence of DISEASE!

2. Miss Cleo has had THE awaited appointment and is now declawed and spayed. I LOVE this cat - she is a total doll, but she put some serious hurtin' on our leather couches during the couples weeks that we had her with claws.


3. 6pm or so on a Sunday - Silas and Daddy on the porch enjoying some gorgeous weather. We have been SO spoiled with gorgeous late summer weather. It might look like we have Silas in his pajamas pretty early...but the truth is...he never got out of his pajamas that day. He loves his "lazy days"!

4. Klutzy Silas has struck again. He fell out of the blue porch chair and did a head-dive onto the concrete. I'm seriously surprised that Childrens Services hasn't come calling on us...


5. Silas started his first round of swim lessons at the Y. He did great. I remember when Mason started taking swim lessons - it took about 10 sessions before he'd even put his face in the water. Luckily, Silas has been around pools and water since birth (thanks to the James' lovely pool). He is totally at ease in the water. He was freezing his butt off though.

6. This school stuff is putting a totally whooping on the kids - they either crash out at the end of the night or are manic for hours on end and refuse to even contemplate sleep. Silas often tells me "I cannot close my eyes in my room" - that is his way of trying to get to sleep in our bed. He's been waking up in the middle of the night for the last 5 or 6 days and coming into bed with us. He is not subtle...he'll come in on my side, I'll sit up so he can climb in and then he totally takes my spot and zonks out in an instant, leaving me to move his jello body over into the middle of the bed, where he promptly completes the H between me and Justin, head in Justin's back and feet in my ribs...this morning he was laughing and giggling in his sleep.


7. This wonderfully, beautiful weather that we are having has gotten us outside a lot in the evenings. I would take the weather year-round with a couple days of snow at Christmas.

8. Justin bought new jeans. Finally. Sam's club jeans. Nice jeans, $12 - can't complain. Here he is in his new jeans moments before leaving for work...luckily I had downed several cups of coffee before he left and was pretty observant...

Yes, I told him before he left the house...


9. Mason - he avoids the camera as much as possible. but he still exists. More about him later....