Sixth Grade 4th school

Trevin is off to his first day of 6th grade. Which means that next year I will have a jr higher. And a kindergartner. And a preschooler, and a 1 year old. I'm just mapping out my insanity plea now in case you are wondering.

I'm very proud of Trevin's educational journey. He has always been a good student and gotten good grades. He's only had minor behavioral issues (like getting too excited to participate and forgetting to raise his hand first). I've had very little trouble dealing with the boy in the academic world. That doesn't mean that I'm not worried about his future. Jr high is a totally different beast as anyone who has lived through it understands. I'm just hoping he continues to improve or at least stay steady.

His teacher this year I am impressed with, just from the one meeting. She is very atune to the fact that her kids will be in jr high next year and she wants them to be ready. She doesn't assign homework. She simply assigns the work for the day and if you use your time to get it done, then wallah! no homework. If you don't time manage, then you'll probably have homework. She also believes very strongly in the fact that these "kids" need to be the ones in charge of their work and the communication that needs to happen between parents and teachers. She spoke of how this is how it is in upcoming schooling and work environments so getting them ready now is the best approach. I couldn't agree more. I hope Trevin really catches on so he has this little advantage and has a certain skill set in place by the time the nightmare and scare of jr high begins.

I am apparently lacking as a parent though as I did not get a picture of him this morning. I think I have pictures of his first day of preschool (with Miss Gina), kindergarten (Eaglecrest) and first grade (Fox Hollow), but beyond that, I've slacked. I just use school pictures. I will, however, post pictures soon of his chipped tooth before and after. It was the mark in my head of the beginning of school. Me getting him into the dentist in enough time that he wasn't known in his 6th grade class as "dumb and dumber". The chip was repaired and I can look at his smile without wincing anymore. Onward and Upward!

Double Digits

Trevin had a low-key birthday. Amidst the move we just didn't have the time or inclination to do much more, but he got what he wanted. Some cash some games and brownies. All that you need to be a happy ten year old.

love the boy.

McDonalds Made Me Do It

Before we moved into my parents house we had made the decision to let Trevin stay at his Elementary School for 2 more weeks before transfering him to the one by us now. We did this for a few reasons. First, Trevin loves his school. It's been the school that he has been at since 1st grade so he is very comfy there. I wanted to make the transition as easy as possible and a couple things were happening in the upcoming weeks that he had been looking forward to for quite a while. Every school has fundraisers. Every year. They may be different thinks like cookies, chocolates, wrapping paper or coupon books but they all have them. This year Trevin was one of the top sellers of the school. It doesn't hurt that he has aunts, uncles, grandparents and neighbors galore who just happen to love being sucked into these things (THANK YOU ALL). So with Trevin being the master salesman that he is (or just having such a HUGE family net) he got the grand prize of riding in a firetruck to McDonalds and eating lunch with the firemen. oh, hallah. He had a great time, as you can see below. The other reason that we waited a few weeks to move him was that his class was scheduled to go to Clear Creek and Trevin would have been devastated if he hadn't been able to go. So he went, and he had a blast and then he transfered and didn't like it, but he has lived through it and we are proud of him for it.

Paper Bag

Trevin on the first day of 4th grade!

This will be an interactive post...I expect to see MANY comments!

Trevin came home from school today, and along with his math and reading homework he had a plain paper bag with instructions that were to fill it with 8 things that make him...him. It got me thinking what I would put in my paper bag today. Trevin filled his with great things that really show who he is and what he likes. The things in Trevin's paper bag are as follows:
1. A Movie (Specifically Pirates of the Carribean...could have been Star Wars too)
2. A CD (he wanted to take Barenaked Ladies but I didn't want to be called in on the first week of school so we sent the Shrek 2 soundtrack)
3. His pinewood derby car (because he likes boyscouts and building things)
4. His football trophy (he loves football)
5. A Baseball (he loves baseball)
6. A magnet of a lighthouse in OBX (this is a vacation that we have taken twice now and signifies how much he loves the beach...and vacations in general)
7. A picture of the family (because he LOVES being a big brother)
8. This one is still being debated but it's a toss between a soda can (because he likes soda) and his wallet (because he likes money to buy things).

The 8 things in my bag....

1. My wedding ring (i love this ring and i love what it represents)
2. Chocolate chip cookie (i do like to bake and i'm pretty good at it...never bad to have a little chocolate in your life too)
3. Picture of my kids (obvious reasons)
4. The Giving Tree book (i love this book)
5. A theater pin (i love the theater)
6. Sand from a beach (representing travel and the ocean)
7. a bracelet that my best friend gave me a few months before he died (to remember him and to remember how precious friendship is)
8. The song I Hope You Dance (which is how I try to live my life and in small tribute to the fact that I cannot dance as I once did)


So I put it to you...what are the 8 things in your bag????

Scarred for life

You know how some kids have those memories of walking in on their parents doing things that they never wanted to know parents do? Trevin will now have one of them.

Now, before you click off my blog and report me to anyone...hear me out.



I worked out on Wednesday. An hour of aerobics that dern near killed me since I haven't worked out in some hrrrrmmmmffff months. I was gently explaining to Above Average Joe that I was so very sore and he replied in the most expected of ways by mocking me. I took it upon myself at that time, to pounce the man and beat on him to the best of my ability. In my pouncing his legs went up and so I decided that my best plan of attack would be one of bending Joe in half since he is not the most flexible of guys. So I have his feet up in the air and I am standing over him and I realize we are in the perfect position for an "airplane".
**For those of you unfamiliar with "airplanes" it is where one person lies flat on their backs and another is standing and facing them. The person who is lying down puts their feet on the other person's hips and then lifts them into the air with the greatest of ease**
....So I requested an airplane from my husband. And then Trevin walked in and yelled "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MOMMY!?!?!?!?!" Seriously, just like that. So now when Trevin is talking to his therapist about the many things we did wrong I'm sure this story will be at the top of the list. In the meantime Joe and I cannot stop laughing.

Pinewood Derby

Trevin and his dad made his car this year because Above Average Joe was busy planning the derby and waiting for his wife to pop. Trevin's car is in the #2 lane and he was SO proud of how well it turned out because he actually got to weild the power tools to make his car this year and pick all the colors and such.

Trevin's car is in the #1 lane in this picture.

Trevin took 1st overall because every race his car was in, he won. He was so excited when he came home with his blue ribbon for the night. I was sad that I missed the fun but luckily Above Average Joe took these shots for me so we can still have the memories. Good job, Trevin!

Backpeddling to Mother's Day...

I didn't get this post up before my little stint in the hospital so forgive me for the out of order posting but I had to acknowledge what a great Mother's Day I had. Above Average Joe got up and made me stuffed raspberry and cream cheese french toast (so yummy). Then Trevin's class had a little program that I got to go to where they sang us some songs and did a little poem about all the hats that mom's wear. Trevin had the part about mom's being chef's.

And this is the really cute cards that he made me at school (on Friday, since Mother's Day was Sunday).
On the official Mother's Days is when I had my special breakfast and then after church where I got more cute notes from both my boys (thanks to their teachers) we went to my mom's house where Above Average Joe took over the cooking again for us and made up some superb fajitas at my request. It was a great Mother's Day and I was really happy that Kiya waited a few days to come after that.

ps. love you, mom.

Grand Ol' Flag

Trevin is going to turn 9 in 10 days. Last Tuesday he had the opportunity to present the flag in his cub scout meeting. This was a great thing to me because he'd never done it before and I had my camera handy! He asked so many questions about how to do it to his leaders because he wanted to do it right. He is a very detail oriented boy with things like this. That night he was awareded his Wolf. I have no pictures of that presentation because Joe is the one presenting the awards to the boys and they always have the scouts mom's up with them as they are awarded. I even get my own little pin. (They know who is home making sure these boys get these things done.) I was very proud of my little man. He did a great job and has really loved being in scouts for the last year.