Back to School

This year the first day of school went pretty smoothly.  It helped that the triplets had "meet the teacher" night last night.  The 4th grade has about 18 classes so the hopes of getting a good friend in your class or a teacher you're hoping for seems pretty slim, but somehow it worked out for Connor, Tanner and Sydney.  Before they found out what class they were in they all told me who they wanted to get for a teacher and somehow they got who they wanted!  (they based their wishes on how nice some of the teachers were to them in the hall and what they had heard from other kids, except Sydney wanted a particular teacher who she noticed dancing and singing a lot)

Sydney was all about the clothes of coarse.  She has begged for converse shoes for a year and I finally relented so the outfit was carefully picked out with the shoes in mind.  Sydney also wanted to try a "bag" instead of backpack this year.  She has her best friend from last year in her class.  Her first words to me about her first day at school were:  "my teacher is hyper!"  Lots of dancing and singing I guess!

Connor somehow got a teacher from heaven again, who's personality is exactly what he needs.  He was not nervous at all this year, but didn't like that the poison ivy he got while camping hadn't gone away yet.      His teacher is the former TAG teacher, which was evident on this first half day of school orienting as she somehow had time to do 2 experiments with them involving coke and diet coke.

I told Tanner he could pick out his first day of school clothes if he wanted, something the boys have never cared about doing.  He grabbed a star wars/aquarium black t-shirt, looked at me, and then said "hmm, I think I'll wear something nice instead since it's the first day of school" (whew)

Allie tried to con me into a new backpack again this year until I reminded her that last year she got a more expensive backpack with the promise of keeping it more that one year.  So she quickly started working the angle that because she wasn't getting a backpack then she surely deserved to get a new pair of $80 shoes for school.  What? HAHA! I don't think so.  She was excited to welcome new students to school as part of her SGA duties, but was not excited that she had to wear an SGA t-shirt on the first day of school.

Trey was as casual as he was last year, asking me as he walked out the door "what class do I have 4th block again?"  I asked him if he wished he was graduated already and going to college instead, to which he quickly replied "no!  I'm ready to be a senior!"  Excited to go to lunch and the gym after school with friends.

We love to read

 

David and I love to read. When we both have a good book at the same time it's even better. Trey and Allie both loved to read at an early age. They would choose reading over other activities then and now. Trey got hooked when he read the Redwall series and for Allie it was probably the Harry Potter books. They both still love to read and do it all the time. Tanner, Connor and Sydney like to read, but I rarely see them picking to read over say watching a show on TV or riding their bikes. It was more of a "ok, it's close to bedtime, I'll read for 30 minutes before I go to sleep". And for Connor in particular he never really stuck with a book (besides small chapter books like Harry the Horrible) til the end. He'd just read parts of a book and then move on to something else. Until now. A friend told him about the series Warriors. It's about the adventures that different clans of cats have as they battle and enforce laws in a forest that they share. There are 6 books in the first series and then it goes on to a second series and so on. Well the light clicked for Connor and now he reads all the time. He chooses to read. He started reading them right before school got out and has just started the second series. It has also inspired him to start writing his own Warriors book called The Desperate Rise.

Oak Island 2010

Oak Island never disappoints. May is especially nice, the weather is good and local schools are not out yet so the beach is uncroweded. The Cruze Family made our trip even more pleasurable. Highlights included: "survivor" game on the beach, year two of buying the raft/boat, digging for clams, catching fish, adults + Trey Puerto Rico tournament, adult dinner out, Provisions with the kids and outside games for Allie's birthday.

Happy Beachy Birthday Allie!

Allie is now 15!  I'd say more than half of Allie's birthdays have been spent at the beach.  Most of the time there are aunts, uncles and cousins there to make it even more special.  Allie was pampered by her cousins with a good 6 person (that's 12 hands and 2 feet than belonged to Josh) massage.  

p.s.  she has been on me everyday to take her to get her driver's permit....watch out motorists!

Strawberry picking

Saturday was the most perfect strawberry picking day ever! Grandpa's farming skills showed as he picked as much as the five of us put together. Fun, fun, fun morning. (It was not as much fun to come home and wash and de-stem 22 lbs. of strawberries.) But the crepes, jam, and pies are worth it. I love strawberry picking season!

Demolition = Father/son bonding

The year after we moved into our house we got the play set in the backyard.  It was used for many things:  a fort to fight off Indians, a place to have picnics, a place to hide, a construction site, a barn, and most recently a goal for Allie to kick soccer balls into.  It was not an expensive set and has been deteriorating the last few years but we put off taking it down because just when we thought the kids had outgrown it, they would find a new purpose for it.  Recently, however, besides the fact that it was infested with hornets, it was falling apart and was becoming unsafe.

David had a dumpster delivered for clean up and was ready to start Saturday morning.  After about 15 minutes of watching him swat at flying insects with a cardboard box he comes inside and announces there is a problem.  "It's swarming with hornets."  Also, the bolts were not cooperating and were stubbornly not unscrewing for easy dismantling.  After some brainstorming with Trey, they borrowed 2 cans of hornet/wasp spray and a mallet and were ready to start again.

The next stage of the demolition consisted of David and Trey chasing after and spraying hornets.  Finally I noticed David start to take some swings at the play set with the mallet.  I notice Trey is just watching, and it appears it is going to be slow going, so I go outside and suggest Trey get started on the weeding until David needs his assistance.  David tells me "oh no, Trey's staying right here".  Then I notice that Trey is holding the can of bug spray and is poised to knock out any pesky flying insect that might get the wrong idea.

I went outside periodically to take pictures of their progress and laugh at them.  They had a lot of fun deciding the best way to make the play set crumble.  Nothing was as easy as it first seemed.  There was a lot of pushing, pulling, hitting, tugging, swinging and spraying.  Each time a different large section was conquered they felt empowered.  I finally had to leave for a soccer game but they reported they finished up the job just a the skies opened up with a rain shower.

 

Vice president Allie

Apparently, Allie likes to get involved.  Little did we know how much.  Everyone knows the story of Allie not making the soccer team then deciding to try out for and making the basketball team.  We are seeing a pattern with Allie.  A characteristic that she seems to be developing, or maybe it was always there, that no one else in our family has......she's fearless.  She does not get intimidated and is not afraid of failure.  She is not afraid to take a risk.  She joined the track team with a friend to "stay in shape for basketball".  She takes after her parents and is not a very fast runner.  However the team needed someone to do shot put and the discus and she said "why not?"  There is no coach for this sport so she is sort of on her own with it but she doesn't care.  Because she and one other girl are the only ones who compete in these events for Farragut, Allie represents her school at the meets even though she is just a freshman.  It was very clear from the first meet when she was in the bottom 1/4 of the throwers that this was not going to be something she was a natural at, but did that stop Allie from continuing forward?  No.  She's having a great time.

A few weeks ago Allie announces that she wants to join SGA at school.  Great, sounds good.  She later tells me that you have two ways of being a member:  one is you have to be voted in and the other was based on an application.  Then, last Friday she texted me from school and tells me that there is one more way to be a member of SGA....  she found out that officers are automatically inducted into SGA so she thought she might as well run for a class officer and announces she is now a candidate for Vice President of her upcoming Sophomore class. Huh? Where did this come from, Allie?  "are you sure Allie?"  She tells me "yeah, I've already turned in my application with 50 signatures on it."  So it was on.  Allie vs. the current freshman VP.  She had posters up (Tanner, Connor and Sydney helped in making the posters and had some cute slogans on them like:  "vote for Allie, if she's not elected, you'll be suspended", passed out candy, had "team leaders" that were in charge of getting people to vote for her.  She found out today that she is the Vice President!  She won!

David says Allie would make a good lawyer.  She's fearless.