Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Conner turns 9

Conner turns 9 years old with a very fun laser tag party with all of this buddies and a few fun surprises! Happy Birthday to my sweet boy... don't grow up too fast!









Back to School 2014 Preschool, 4th and 7th

















Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Girls Day Out

In April, we also got do our annual girls day out with Jim's siblings.  It was a lot of fun. We had just found out too at this point that Jim had gotten a job offer, one that he was pretty excited about so it was fun to use this as a bit of celebration day too! I got my nails and hair done, got a new top and a new purse! Great Memories!

Junioe HIgh Orientation


April was filled with school events from the animal projects, alpha fair, seven concerts between all three kids, easter, and the school fun fair. On top of that, we also had our Parent/Student Orientation for Junior High.  It was fun to walk around and see Peet Junior High and fun to watch Kyle experience the first time checking it out with his buddies! Afterwards, we all went out for ice cream!

McDonald's Honorary Crew Member

All of the sixth graders at Kyle's school participated in McDonald's Honorary Crew Member program this month. They had to fill out a job application (volunteer experiences worked as experience), write a cover letter, and call people to ask them to be references for them.  Then McDonalds selected two students from each class from those applications and they got to go work at McDonalds for two hours. They were paid with free supper of their choice.
 
Anyway, Kyle got picked. I think it was his experience working UNI Concessions and volunteering at church that helped him. He worked pretty hard on his cover letter too. Anyway, he was super excited about it.  Honestly, it was so cute and McDonalds was so accommodating. They didn't mind us parents all taking pictures etc!
 
Here are some fun pictures of Kyle and his experience.


Taking our supper order. He even had to do his Dad and brother's ketchup only request on the burgers!


 He also got to work in the drive up window filling orders.  Atleast while we were there, he was doing a good job of following orders and almost could run the register on his own, lol!
 All three kids from his school!
 Grandpa was able to stop by so here is Kyle taking Grandpa's order too!
He got to keep his nametag, a certificate, and some other fun trinkets too. 

Truly it was such a great experience practical life experience for him!

Conner's Animal Project- Hammerhead Shark

Conner recently completed his first school project. In 3rd grade the kids usually do animal reports where they do research and prepare a report and display for an animal. Conner chose the Hammerhead Shark.
 
 Conner and Daddy spent quite a bit of time making a model of the animal. I thought they did a pretty job!
 Conner wrote the report at school and made the board to go along with it. Then on Animal Report day, you walked around and each child read you their report about their animal!
Sorry this one is sideways, but I had to share because the story behind it is sweet. There was a mix up in communication so I wasn't a 100% sure I was going to be able to get to school to see Conner's report. He was pretty disappointed so Kyle asked his teacher if he could be excused from class for a few minutes and go. I was able to go and when I arrived, Kyle was at Conner's station listening intently and asking him all kinds of questions.... Truly it warmed a mama's heart.

Kyle is almost done with his 6th grade year and while I am thrilled for him to go to Junior High. I think he is ready for the challenge and all of the experiences, my heart is sad because these two won't ever be go to school (at the same school) together again after this year.  :( Conner won't admit it, but he adores his older brother and they have had so many experiences together.  Lots of new things to look forward to, but some sadness on this one too.

Alpha Fair

This year Kyle was able to participate in the Alpha Fair. It was a great experience for him and a lot of work. His Topic was Misconceptions-What False Facts do we believe? It was actually really interesting and I learned quite a bit.
 
For instance, did you know that the accused at the Salem Witch Trials were not burned at the stake, they were either executed or died in prison?
 
Or did you know that Thomas Edison did NOT invent the light bulb?
 
Or that Vikings did not have horns on their helmets (except for ceremonies)?
 
That Christopher Columbus and European Intellects did not think the world was flat?
 
That the declaration of independence was not signed on July 4?

That Paul Revere did NOT yell "The British are Coming."
 
That the Chicago fire was not started by Mrs. OLeary's cow but that the actual cause is unknown..
 

 His board had some misconceptions on it and then he had some artifacts that were illustrations of his points. Then he made a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game for people to test their knowledge.
Here he is by his display at the Fair.  I thought for the first time he ever did a project of this magnitude that he did a pretty nice job. His seemed on par with the other kids so that was good.

Parents, teachers, and other students walked around and observed (interacted) with the displays of each child. It ended up being kind of fun, but lets say I am not really interested in doing it again anytime soon!!!!!

Look who can (FINALLY!) ride a bike!!!!


This is one way my sweet Conner is like his mama. I didn't learn to ride my bike until I was 8 years old either and I learned without falling down. Just like he did!!!

Easter 2014

Easter was much later than normal this past year but we had a great time decorating eggs, doing our annual egg hunt, and serving a lot of services at church! I can't seem to find our egg decorating pictures, but here are some of the hunt and easter outfits. 
 
 

 

 This is my favorite easter egg from this year!
 This Easter we did our egg hunt upstairs because the boys have moved downstairs. It was fun, we even hid eggs in the bathrooms!
 Kyle found his basket in the shower!
 Conner found his on our bed behind pillows. Callie's was out in the open (she is still little!)
 Dad left each one of them some of their eggs spelling the first letter in their name!


This is not a great picture of us (can you say double chin?), but the kids thought it was fun none the less. We really had a great Easter this year... so much to celebrate and a reminder of how amazing our God is!!!