Almost

It was ALMOST time... time for the kids to go back to school.

Can I get a "hallelujah!" ?

The day before school started, the elementary had a "Meet and Greet".
We packed up their backpacks and headed to school to see who they got. Abree found out that she has Ms. Beal.
She is in a 1st/2nd Grade combo class this year. I guess they had too many 1st graders, but not enough to make a whole class, so they combined with some 2nd Graders. I'm curious to see how this all plays out.... some parents were UP-SET with the combo class and were expressing their concerns loud enough for me to overhear.
We're going to make the best of the situation and have a great year...atleast that's the plan. :)

Treyson has Ms. Smith.
He was initially upset. He had heard she was "mean". He started fussing and worrying and was expressing his concerns vocally... to loud for my comfort. I assured him, if he made the best of the situation, he would have a fine year. I also asked him to think about how she would feel if she walked by and heard what he was saying. I think he took it to heart.

After meeting both teachers and checking out their new classrooms, both Abree and Treyson were excited and pronounced each of their teachers as "nice".

Next, we went to the middle school.

Taylee had been wanting to get her locker set up since registration. We found her locker. She remembered her combo! She set up her shelf and vital accessories and then she felt ready. She expressed her gratitude about not being a 6th grader (bottom of the pack) and was looking forward to her 7th grade year.

A Kindergarten Thanksgiving

Do you think they had cheese cubes and pickles at the first Thanksgiving?Well, they did at the Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast.

These cute little Pilgrims and Indians had a smorgasbord of yummy things to eat.

By the way, do you think Pilgrim girl's wore pink? This one does. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Reflections

Treyson entered "Reflections" a national art contest, again this year.

This year's theme, "Together We Can...."

".....Be Colorful. Because people are colorful and our world is colorful." -Treyson Smullin

He made a watercolor rainbow last year and talked about doing another rainbow this year. I encouraged him to pick something else. He came up with kids wearing colorful shirts..... like a rainbow.

His first rendering had more kids and more colors, but in the end it looked like this.

He's hopeful and focused on a medal this year. (He has seen Taylee get one the last 2 years.) I talked to him about doing it for FUN and because he likes to draw, instead of doing it to win a medal. He said, "I know, I know. I will do it for fun..... and a medal."

Last year, he received a participation ribbon/certificate and that didn't seem nearly as FUN as a medal.

The day after turning it in, he started fretting about it coming back and if it had been judged yet. I told him that it takes a LONG time to get it back and he won't know for a LONG time. Really, we'll probably know after Thanksgiving break and an awards ceremony will be the first week of December, but for him it will be a LONG time.

I don't know whether to ask you to cross your fingers that Treyson gets a medal or wish me luck if he doesn't.

Magnets

In preparing for school, we thought it would be fun to make marble magnets. Rylee has collected a few fun things to decorate her locker at school, but Taylee was starting fresh this year.
We picked out cute scrapbook paper, punched it into a circles, Mod Podged it to the flat part of the marble and then glued a magnet to the back.


Voila!
Locker decor.

Haircut!

I knew I wanted Abree to have a trim, before school started.

I put it off until the night before!

Here goes nothing.....

BEFORE

AFTER

Boy, I sure do miss Tawnya in moments like these. I wasn't very happy with my lack of skills and choppy results. After trimming it here-and-there, for a few days, it looks ok now.

Sorry, I can't play. I have homework.

This past Friday, I had to turn down an opportunity to go to, "Art in the Park", because I had homework.... oh, I mean Taylee had homework.

Her assignment was to create a newspaper, about herself. It had lots of details and things to be included in the assignment. It actually took 3-4 days to fully complete.

Included was: 3 advertisements, a letter to the editor, 2 personal stories, a cartoon strip, a single cartoon, an editorial and fantasy article about her making history as an artist.
All of them had to be typed up and then neatly arranged on a large piece of poster board. Taylee added a few photos and drew a couple of pictures to give it more interest.

I think we... oh, I mean she, did a great job.



PS- I've done more homework this year, than I have in the last few years combined... and we're only in the third week of school!!! I haven't had this much homework, since I was IN school. This is going to be a busy year.

Run Like the Wind!

Rylee's part of the Heritage Cross Country team, this year.

Allie, Rylee, Lessa & Laura.

They had their first meet this week. Cross country is quite a bit different than track... one race and it's over. They run 1 1/2 miles, "cross country", like not on the track the whole time (duh!). Some school's even have hills and berms they might have to race over.

It was a very HOT day. I was proud of ALL of them (even the opposing team) for running in that type of heat. Yuck!

In the first half of the race Rylee was consistantly in the 4th to 6th place (out of about 50 girls). Then towards the end the heat got the best of her and she dropped back a little.

Her final placement was 12th.
Way to go Rylee!

"Where's my water bottle?! I need water!"

Rylee, you amaze me and impress me with your "go for it" attitude. Good job.

School's In!

The kids went back to school this week...Rylee is in 7th grade this year. (I can hardly believe it!) At registration, she found out that she got a bottom locker, again. She was a bit disappointed, but made it her own by puting her white board, magnets and other fun stuff in it.

She LOVES her teachers and is in Cross Country... later she may also try out for basketball.
Taylee is in 5th grade. She's Top Dog, of the school. She says she doesn't feel like the oldest yet though. She told me her classmates basically still looks like 4th graders to her.

She was nervous about her teacher, at first, but came home the first day reporting, "She's awesome! She only has ONE rule in her classroom." What is that one rule? "Uhhhh, something about not bugging anyone." Hopefully she becomes a little more clear, as the weeks progress.

Treyson is in 3rd grade. (No way!) He's excited about the microphone/P.A. type of system, his teachers uses. Oh, and he thought it was way cool that his teacher gave him a fruit roll-up on the "meet your teacher" night. (The way to his heart is DEFINITELY through his stomach.)

Abree will be starting pre-school toward the end of the month. We had a planning meeting the other day, and now she's WAY excited. We're doing things a little different this year and I think it will be good. We're going to be focusing more on getting them ready for Kindergarten. These girls will be SMART COOKIES, by the end of the year!

Award Assembly

We received a letter in the mail, inviting us to an award assembly for Rylee.
Mr. Briggs (her advisory teacher) presented the Certificate of Excellence in Mathmatics. He explained that she was the only student several chapters a head of the class and even took a test to "test out" of next year's 7th grade math. She will be going straight into Pre-Algebra. Smarty!
Jason and I are so proud of Rylee... but we're kind of wondering where she got her Math skills. Not from me and not from him. Must have skipped a generation.

Side note: If I remember the numbers correctly (and that is a big IF) I believe the vice-principal said that 50% of the 6th graders were on honor roll and 25% had a 4.0 grade average. Quite impressive!!! It made choosing the awards very hard.

Speech..speech..speech!

There were a lot of candidates running for student offices.

Six students ran for the same office as Rylee.

"Hi Huskies!

My name is Rylee Smullin and I am running for 7th grade secretary.

When I first considered running, all I knew about a secretary was that they write things down at meetings. I thought that if I wanted the job, I better figure out what it is all about. I looked secretary up in the dictionary and this is what it said: "Secretary; noun, one who keeps records, handles correspondence, etc. for an organization or person."

This is exactly what I thought it meant!

Seriously, I do know that the secretary has great responsibilities in helping the student board organize and plan activities and events for the Heritage Huskies.

Let me tell you why I am qualified for the job;

1. I LOVE to be organized.

Looking at my bedroom, you would never know it. But I share with 2 sisters that DON'T love to be organized.

2. I LOVE to have a plan.

When my mom went on a trip for a week, she left an outline of everything that needed to be done. My job was to make sure my dad followed the schedule. That was a REALLY hard job. HE DIDN'T EVEN READ IT!

I'm excited to serve you. I will do my best to be organized, keep records, and help plan activities and events.

And although I like order and like things in line...

3. I can also be flexible. (Then she got on the floor and did her infamous feet-behind-the-head trick.--I missed taking a picture of that, darn.)

Vote for Rylee Smullin, 7th Grade Secretary!!!"

Here is one, of the 2 campaign posters hung in the cafeteria.

Campaign results: Rylee didn't win the secretary position, but was told that it was a close race and that she came in second place. (I don't know how accurate that is, but that's what she was told.)

When we talked about how she felt that she didn't win, she said she was a little sad, but not that sad. I asked her if she was ready to run for another position. She said that she wanted to take a little break, to get over it. I said that she would have a whole 3 months of Summer. She said, "Oh yeah, that will be long enough." --I wonder if she'll choose to run again. I'm guessing, yes. She's just that way. When she puts her mind to something, she's usually successful.

I'm so proud of her. She's much more brave and confident, than I ever was at that age. Heck, more brave and confident than I am at this age! Way to go Rylee!

Running......AGAIN!

Rylee's been running again, but this time it was for 7th Grade Secretary. She was informed on Friday, that she would need 2 posters by Monday. Busy weekend, equalled doing it late Sunday night...of course.

I had the brilliant idea of taking pictures to illustrate the 3 main points of her speech and Jason stepped in with his artistic abilities and did the awesome lettering for the posters.

1. She is organized.

(Don't you think studious librarian-types are organized? I thought so.) 2. She is a Planner. And........


3. She is flexible... in more ways than one.

Vote Rylee Smullin for 7th Grade Secretary!!!!

Until we MEET again

Rylee's second, and final track meet was "regionals". She was in 2 events; the 100 meter dash and the long jump. She beat her "PB's" in both events.

(In track-talk that means "personal best", I was informed.)
As we were cheering Rylee on, Taylee tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Mom, look at Treyson....AND the sign." I couldn't resist taking a picture. Maybe it's Leno material. What do you think?

Way to go Rylee! I'm so proud of you!