Santa Switch 2011

Evan, his girlfriend Audrey and the gang all dressed up and ready for the Christmas dance.

Spelling Bee

Last night Isaiah competed in the school spelling bee.  He did very well.  He was very nervous, but amazed me with his composure and bravery as he took the stage and out spelled 70% of the participates.  This was the 3rd year in a row that he won the homeroom bee and was able to compete for his school.

 The competition and the judges

 Standing when they announce his name

I only take photos at the bee during the beginning round.  I am so nervous and so is Isaiah.  I would not want him to mess us because his mom is taking pictures.

Receiving his participation award 

Well done Isaiah!  We are so proud of you!!!!!!!!

Back to School

It's that time of year again.  The boys were up bright and early this morning getting ready to return to another year of school, books, tests, studying, homework, sports ...ahem, friends and social life.

Evan is a Junior this year and Logan is a Freshman

Isaiah is in the Middle school now, 6th grade

May = Graduation

Another milestone moment at our house this spring.  Logan has finished the 8th grade, graduation was today.  He'll be moving on to the High School in the fall.  Where did the time go?

Isaiah completed the 5th grade, his graduation was yesterday.  He will be at the Middle School in the fall.  No more kids in the elementary school.  Wow!  I have a kid in elementary school since 1999!  That's 11 years!   I've enjoyed all of the room parties, paper grading, copy machine running, student tutoring, reading group leader, math helper, spelling helper positions I've held in so many years.  I think I will really miss that.  Once the boys went off to Middle School, there just wasn't as much need for parent volunteers.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some photos from graduation with you all.  Dennis and I are so proud of all our boys!

ISAIAH'S GRADUATION

All of the 5th grade classes

Isaiah's teacher Mr. Schmitt

Isaiah receiving his awards and certificate of completion

Friends

Mr. Schmitt's class

Isaiah with his teacher Mr. Schmitt

LOGAN'S GRADUATION

Receiving his diploma from the VP

Shaking hands with the Principal

He did it!!!

The Castle South 8th Grade Class

Buddies

After graduation, the class got to take a trip over to the High School and be greeted by the staff and counselors

Love this shot!!  Farewell Middle School, on to a new chapter in life!

Thanks for visiting!

Hope your spring is full of memories for you and your family too!

Winter Formal

Evan and his friends got all gussied up this past Saturday to attend the annual Santa Switch Winter Formal. Santa Switch just means the girl has to ask the guy. Anyway, Evan and the group all came over before the dance for pictures. They clean up well!

Science Fair

Look who got a blue ribbon at the Science Fair last night!

Over the summer we had a few trees cut down. We cut them into firewood, but we weren't sure what kind of wood it was and whether or not it would be worth burning in our fireplace. Fast forward a few months and it was time to pick a science fair project. I saw an idea online about seeing what kinds of wood burned better than others. Logan liked this idea, especially because it involved playing with, ehem, I mean working with fire.

We gathered logs from three different trees; American Elm, Black Locust and Sycamore. We ID'd the trees by the leaves and bark. We burned each piece of wood, timed it and recorded our findings. We were very surprised that the sycamore burned the longest and the black locust, though thoroughly dried out, was full of moisture pockets that when heated, snapped and popped and sent out sparks galore! It was a fun. We're very proud of Logan!

Spell Bowl

What a great evening we had with Isaiah. As I posted in this blog post, Isaiah tried out for the spell bowl team and made it. The competition was last night. Our school did not place in the top 3 spots in our division, but we were very proud of them and especially of Isaiah. The way Spell Bowl works, is each child on the team gets a turn to sit on stage. They are given 7 words to spell. Their proctor checks each word and the child raises his hand when they spell the word correct. Each correct word is worth a point for the team. Isaiah spelled 4 out of his 7 words correct, earning 4 points for his team. Here are a few photos of the evening.

The back of Isaiah's team shirt.

Studying in the lobby before the competition.

Our school is Sharon Elementary School


Isaiah's turn on stage. He's looking over his shoulder either at us or the team.
Raising his hand with a correct spelling. Good job!Competition over, and a big smile! We're so proud of you Isaiah!!

Big Day for Isaiah

Tomorrow, Thursday November 19th at 5:00 Isaiah will be competing in the Indiana Academic Spell Bowl! 20 kids tried out from his school. Isaiah was one of the 8 kids that consistently scored high on the practice tests, and made the team. He has a list of about 1000 words he's been working hard at studying. He's nervous and excited. We're so proud of him!

Back 2 School & Wed. Wonder Why

It's back to school day here in Southern Indiana.
The older boys had to get on the bus at 6:30 a.m.! Yikes!
Evan is starting his Sophmore year and Logan is starting his 8th grade year.
As usual, they were less than enthused to have their annual B2S picture taken.
They won't allow me to take their picture outside, heaven forbid someone see them.
So we took it in the house, breakfast sandwiches in hand and all.

Isaiah's first day of 5th grade is today. He's very excited to see his friends again. He still lets me take his picture on the front porch. Thanks Isaiah, have a great day of school sweetie!

And finally, for the second post of my new series WONDER WHY WEDNESDAYS....

I wonder why my oldest son thought that he and his 3 teenaged friends could all sit on my swing at the same time!