Reflections

One of my all-time favorite pics! Why didn't this one win?

It’s definitely fall. There’s a chill in the air, football is in full swing, and I even noticed leaves starting to drop from the trees. There’s something else I noticed, Reflections paperwork coming home from the schools.

Reflections is a contest sponsored by the PTA in the United States so that kids can be rewarded for being creative. My kids love it! When the Drama Queen was a senior in high school (2006), she rallied all the kids and they all agreed that they wanted to enter this contest in every category. There are 8 categories, stuff like Literature, Choreography, Visual Arts…times 6 kids in the public school system equals 48 entries! Oh, they had entered before, just not in such huge numbers, and even though the themes are released almost a year in advance, we never get around to starting anything until the paperwork comes home. We aren't really loving the theme this year...Diversity Means. That could be anything!

So for the last five years, August is flags, and September and October are Reflections. Only this year, with the scout thing and the Dog Walker’s newfound fame (I got my first nasty phone call, btw), September is almost over and we haven’t even started yet.

Our family has managed to place pretty well in every category, but our most consistent wins come in Theater. The Drama Queen and the Dog Walker both won first place at state competition. Princess, Teach, and Sport have also been runners-up at state. I try to provide the kids with the opportunity to prepare their entries, but they do the rest. Remember I told you that we have family home evening on Monday nights? Well, for two months we work mostly on Reflections. Like next week is Visuals Arts night. I’ve already purchased the canvas and the mats and we will break out the oil paints and let all the kids have a hand at painting. I always make sure that everyone gets a turn even if they are too young or too old to enter the contest, although in my family, almost everyone is in the public school system.

The one category we usually don’t do well in is Photography. I just don’t understand what makes a picture great, I guess. I’m tossing in a few of their photos here and there and maybe you can tell me. Dance Choreography is very popular at my house as you can imagine with all of these dancers here. You would be surprised how often the Dog Walker wins in this category. He used to make up dances for just himself, but when he was in middle school he took a social dance class and now he loves dancing with some cute little girl and throwing her around.

My favorite part is that at least once a year we get photos and videos with the kids. That first year, Crafty was in kindergarten and she was so tiny and cute. She made up a dance to House at Pooh Corner. She won on the school level, but that is all. Not that I care…I still have a cute video of her dancing that would never have been made if it weren’t for Reflections. So even though my life is crazy, I’m printing out the grid…6 kids x 8 categories = 48 entries. I’m pretty good at math, too bad they don’t have a category for that!

Or this one...amazing contrast here and the plane is up!