Last Day of School

So it's officially here, summer vacation! Scout finished up yesterday with a little awards ceremony. Her teacher named her the most Graceful Dancer because she was a dancer in the operetta and she had her dance entry for Reflections go all the way to state. She earned her Soaring Eagle award which is a nice medallion awarded to each child who goes above and beyond the expected.

Sport and Crafty also earned their medallions for the year. All three had awesome report cards! When I was a kid, my parents gave us fifty cents for each A we earned in school. I remember once when I was in about 7th grade being so excited because I received $3.50 and that was just enough to buy me a new laundry basket.

I'm not that generous with our kids. In fact, this is the first year we have given any rewards for excellence on report cards. It's just something I expect from my kids. I want them to do well in school, not because they have been bribed, but because school is important and they should work hard at it anyway.

So this year Bossy had her kids bring me their report cards and now that I'm a grandma with school-aged kids, I guess I need to be that loving benevolent figure...

I bought them each a candy bar. But that caused no end of grief at my house. I had never rewarded my kids and now I was giving treats to the grandkids??? Where was the justice?

So I bought them all candy bars. And now I've started a new tradition.

Snickers, anyone?!

Crafty at Play

A couple of weeks ago, Crafty came home with a huge packet of papers stapled together at the corner. She was excited! Her class was going to do a play. Not a big play, just one that would be performed in the classroom in front of other 5th graders and parents. It was about the founding of our country and she had a lead role.

It was based on Survivor...called Reviver...and she had the role of the host, Sally Sassafrass. She spent the better part of an entire week learning her lines and practicing them with her siblings. She had never had such a major role in a production and she was taking the part very seriously. OK, she was pretty much driving me nuts!

Last night when I asked her to verify the time, she said, "You don't really have to come if you don't want to." I was a bit confused. She had been practicing for weeks. "Why wouldn't I want to come?" I asked. "Well, my teacher said if you had to work or something, it wasn't that big of a deal..." she trailed off. "Since I don't have a job (Tupperware doesn't really count), I'm pretty sure I can come," I said. She shrugged her shoulders in that 5th-grade sort of way. "OK," she smiled.

My sweetie stayed home since it was his Friday off and he and I headed to the school just before 10:00. I think she was surprised, but pleased to see us both. She was right, the kids were not really dressed in costumes, but they had signs around their necks to identify who they were. And since they were in the classroom, there wasn't really a stage.

But the show was upbeat and fun, full of song and dance and of course my awesome Crafty. She had every line memorized perfectly! They have one more performance on Monday...I'm sending all the kids who are now out of school...since they don't have to go to work or something...

One Amazing Daughter

See this beautiful girl? Yeah, you know her as Princess. She is just finishing up her last few days of middle school and today was their awards assembly.

Now I know she is amazing, but it's nice to see everyone else think so too. She earned a special medallion for having all A grades for the entire 3 years and all H citizenship grades for all three years. Out of almost 600 students, there were only 14 that earned that distinction.

Way to go Princess.  You are awesome!

My Graduates

Today was full of awesomeness! You all know that the Drama Queen graduated with her BA today and Teach graduated with hers last week. But my sweetie managed to take some fun pics of the actual commencements and I want to share them with you.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Sandy

Drama Queen

She wasn't always a Drama Queen. When she was tiny she definitely had a mind of her own, but she was also quiet and shy. She loved books from the very beginning and they quickly became her best friends. I went to work full-time before she was born, so she spent her babyhood in the arms of someone else during the day. We bought our first home when she was only 2, so she doesn't really remember the unsettled lifestyle. By the time she was 4 we bought our current home and that is where she grew up.

The Drama Queen loved school. She is a life-long learner. Random facts spew from her brain because she never forgets anything. (I'm not like that...I would retain information only long enough to regurgitate it for a test and then discard it.) But the Drama Queen wants to know about everything.

She chose teaching as her profession when she was in elementary school. She adored her 6th grade teacher and when that teacher gave her the part of Kate in Taming of the Shrew, I thought she was crazy! How was my shy, sweet little girl who never said two words to anybody outside her immediate family going to react to being the star of a Shakespearean drama?

Oh, she managed, and she was awesome! With her sponge-like brain, she never had trouble learning lines and her confidence (and her British accent) grew and developed with her character. She was never the same again. The stage had transformed her.

We started looking for acting classes and she tried out for any and all community plays. She was in Oliver, My Fair Lady, and Jane Eyre. But her most stellar performance was as the leading role of the evil witch in Annabelle Broom.

I should get her to publish her resume for you so you can see all the productions she was part of in one way or another. High school was another place she excelled. She became one of the mainstays in the drama department and she appeared in most of their shows.

But she also was busy developing that original love of her life, books. She decided in 8th grade that she wanted to become a New Century scholar. In Utah that means that she would receive a good portion of tuition for her second two years of university work if she completed her Associates Degree before she graduated from high school. Now most kids earn that degree in General Ed from the local community college. They take mostly concurrent enrollment and AP classes with only a few internet classes to fill in the gaps.

Not the Drama Queen. She decided to major in English and she attended many classes on campus. Then she transferred to SUU and because she couldn't pick, she earned a double-major, English and Theater Education. She finished up her degree in December of 2011 when she completed her student teaching, but today is her graduation day.

We are leaving at the crack of dawn so she can pick up her cap and gown before commencement commences. She is an awesome daughter and she is so excited to begin sharing her love of learning with middle or high school-aged kids.

Congrats, Drama Queen! You have worked so hard and we are so proud of you! Love you tons and tons...Mom.

Teach

I knew Teach was special from the time she was a little girl. Maybe it was her awesome blue eyes or her sparkly white teeth (she just whitened them again!), but I'm pretty sure it is that huge grin you see on her face. It's a rare day that you see a picture of her without one.

Teach is an amazing friend. In elementary school, she won the Kindness Award every year for her willingness to help her fellow students. As a first grader, it was common for her to be at another kid's desk, explaining the assignment or showing them the proper steps. Even at 6, Teach was a natural born teacher.

I'm pretty sure she knew it too. Other than a very brief period when she wanted to be a Vet, she has always wanted to be a teacher. We tease her a little about her "teacher voice," but I love the fact that I can count on her to turn every situation into a learning environment.

She has always been an amazing student. In Middle School she earned all A grades for all three years. Her high school grades were almost as good (darn Mr. Crump!). She followed her teaching dream into the FACS department and signed herself up as a preschool teacher. She worked for two years in the Bingham preschool and daycare. She was chosen to be a Sterling Scholar in that department and she devoted her service hours for her Girl Scout Gold Award to the preschool as well. Yes, Teach was a teacher through and through.

She graduated from Bingham in 2009 with her associate's degree from SLCC tucked in her back pocket. Three years and not one penny in debt later, Teach is graduating from UVU with her Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education.

I'm so proud of her for following her dream! Happy Graduation Day, Teach. Love you to pieces...Mom

Her Teaching Cohort at UVU

The Traditional High School Musical Jump

Banner Girl

I think I've told you before that we have a bunch of band geeks in our family. I spent my younger years blowing a clarinet in our junior high school band, but I quit playing in high school after only one quarter because our band teacher just couldn't control the group and it really bothered me. I wanted to learn and be part of something amazing, not watch the drummers harass our poor frustrated teacher.

One of my favorite parts of our junior high school band had always been the marching part. Our teacher was awesome! He taught us to "boogie" and we loved it. We competed against bands that were much older than us and we took home top honors. So when Marching Band season rolled around, I was sad that I wouldn't be part of the band. This was the case for three years.

Fortunately, it helps to know somebody.

I'm not exactly sure how or why the arrangement was made, but the band teacher needed someone who was willing to carry the banner in the parades and on the field. It was 1982 and my senior year.  I was excited to be one of the "chosen ones." I even got to wear that awesome pair of white gloves. And you think these outfits are cute? You should have seen the ones we wore for the show...they were harem pants split all the way up the side and worn over a leotard. Sadly, I don't seem to have any pictures of those... my legs were much cuter then than they are now.

To Go or Not to Go...that is the Question

It seems that I've got myself stuck in a time warp. Writing the Drama Queen's birth story earlier this week has transported my brain back almost 25 years ago and I'm remembering tons of good stories I need to tell you. Family history, you know! Let's start with this one.

Me and Bossy making cookies.  Check out our rockin' hair!

When I graduated from the University of Utah in 1986 with my BA in English, my sweetie had taken the year off and was working as an electronic tech for an engineering group here in the Salt Lake Valley. It was a good job and he was making a pretty reasonable salary for a guy with only a two-year degree in electronics.

Our agreement had been that he would work for that year while I finished my degree and then we would transfer to Utah State and he would finish his BS in electrical engineering. That left me with a couple of choices, get a job...or try to get in to graduate school. To tell you the truth, I was pretty scared of getting a real job. I was 21 years old and Bossy was a year and a half. I was loving being a mom and taking care of our tiny apartment even with the classes and the homework.

So my decision was made. I applied for graduate school in the English Department. Six weeks later I was accepted and we started making arrangements to move. They also offered me a Research Fellowship that would pay about $250 every month. Not a fortune, but every little bit would help. We also applied for grants and loans, secured an apartment and got my sweetie registered for school. Things were moving forward quickly and according to plan.

Sweetie starts early - I think he's still hoping for a rock star in the family.

That's about when we found out I was pregnant with the Gym Rat. Suddenly everything was up in the air again. Our families told us we were stupid. We had excellent insurance that would pay for the delivery completely. All we had to do was put off leaving for a year. It was tempting.

We spent several days filled with confusion, but after some heavy duty prayer, we made a decision. We were still going. We decided that having kids just had to be part of everything we did. They didn't make life stop...they were the stuff life was made of.

My sweetie turned in his two-week notice and we filled out all the paperwork for Cobra. (No, that isn't another snake story...that's the interim insurance a company is required to offer as long as you make your own payments.) The Cobra bill each month was exactly $269. Just barely more more than my Fellowship. We paid that amount each month from September until the Gym Rat was born in February and we felt like it was money well-spent. Even though we didn't have any real issues with his birth, we had the peace of mind knowing that no matter what happened it would be covered.

Look at us all graduated from USU!

And school was awesome! Life was good.

Vindication!

My four-year-old grandson, Burrito, goes to the HeadStart preschool program here in the valley. Every day his parents drop him off and then they are supposed to pick him up and bring him to my house so I can watch him until they get off work. This is a pretty good plan and not too inconvenient for me...most of the time. Then there are the days when Gamer's boss decides to take off early and Gamer can't leave the store. Those are the days I get to trek across the valley and pick him up. Yesterday was one of those days.

I got there a little early since I also had to pick up Taco from his school about 20 minutes away. They were all sitting around little tables eating apples and pretzels for their afternoon snack. Burrito wasn't all that excited about leaving until I assured him he could take his food with him.

While I was signing him out, one of the other little boys pointed to me and asked, "What's her name?" to the teacher. I stuck the flower pen back into the can and smiled. "It's Burrito's Grandma!" I said proudly.

That little guy expressed his surprise, "You're a grandma?" he asked. If you remember my post from a few weeks ago, you will understand my response. "Thank you!" I said enthusiastically. "That's the nicest thing anybody said to me all week!"

Describe Yourself, Please

So Teach finished her student teaching in November, but because she still had a semester of scholarship money, she decided to take some on-line classes before graduating. We were sitting around the kitchen table tonight, eating dinner and chatting about this and that. I was complaining about some scholarship applications I’ve been helping the Dog Walker fill out…how each one is different and they are not fun.

Then Teach started telling us about her new classes and how they required her to introduce herself in a public forum so the rest of the students could get to know her. She mentioned that she had gotten really good at cut’n paste. Curious, I asked, “So what do you say about yourself?”

She thought a minute. “Oh, you know, the usual…I love kids and Harry Potter, I come from a big family, teaching is my passion, I have really blue eyes…” she trailed off. Then, a small Curly-sized voice next to her chimed in, “You have the cutest little brother…”

When I Grow Up...

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We work hard trying to convince our kids that education is important and we want them to work hard to pursue an honorable profession. When Bossy first told me she had changed her mind about becoming a teacher, together we started throwing around ideas and eventually social work come to the top. It suited her personality. She enjoyed helping people and she was never one to back down from a fight. And now she has completed her degree and has a terrific job with DCFS.

Teach and Drama Queen were both always destined to be teachers. It was just in their blood and once they set their feet on that path, they never deviated. Both of them just finished their student teaching a couple of weeks ago and are now facing the happy prospects of graduation.

The Gym Rat has just over a year to go on his degree in Finance and although he changes his mind on a regular basis, it looks like maybe he will finish it up this time. He is currently working at a bank, so that certainly could be his future.

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When I was in third grade, I was absolutely certain that I wanted to become a writer. It wasn’t until I was an adult and had my work rejected 39 times that I started to wonder.

I think it’s great that kids nowadays are encouraged to sit down and make plans and goals for the future. Prima Donna and I attended her 8th grade SEOP with a counselor just a few weeks ago. She is already thinking teacher based on her likes and dislikes. Princess wants to be a dance teacher and Sport is thinking a racecar driver sounds good…

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So today I asked my 4-year-old grandson, Burrito, what he wanted to be when he grew up. He responded immediately and with enthusiasm that he wanted to be an astronaut! When I asked him why, he told me that he wanted to “blast off.”

That was much better than the discussion I had with Curly. He has been in a destructive mode lately (I think it’s because the Drama Queen gave him a wood and leather battleaxe for his third birthday…yeah, DCFS knows about it already). Anyway, he was destroying his latest victim when I asked him if he wanted to be a policeman when he grew up. He paused for a moment, then he finally said, “No, I don’t think so.”





He stared off into space, and I started wondering if maybe he too wanted to be an astronaut. So I asked him, “What DO you want to be when you grow up?” Without hesitation he responded, “I want to be the Blue Guy on Sport’s football team!” I wonder how much education he’ll need for that…

A Little Giggle

Who you calling OLD?

About a year ago, when Sport was in 2nd grade, his class had a tradition called Dads and Doughnuts. The idea was that my sweetie would take the kids to school and then just stay there with Sport for about 45 minutes and read books and eat doughnuts. Since we have had other 2nd graders, this was not a new phenomenon. As the two of them walked hand-in-hand, Sport glanced around at the other kids and their dads. Then he looked up at his own dad and whispered, “What if they think you are my grandpa and not my dad?” My sweetie was devastated, of course. Over the past year I have heard this story at least a dozen times and although outwardly I’ve sympathized and said all the right things, inside I was giggling…a little…sorry, Sweetie.

You all know Scout had an amazing 6th birthday party last week! We had nearly her entire kindergarten class in attendance. One of the other note-worthy things that happened last week is that Teach and Drama Queen both finished their student teaching! Yay! (And Teach got a job today as a substitute teacher in our school district. Yay again!) Now both girls are home during the day so I can finally sneak an hour or so away from the little ones so I can help in Scout’s class. She has been hounding me to be the Mom-Helper for a couple of months now.

Today was finally the big day except that I didn’t tell her because I was worried that something might go wrong at the last minute and I would have to cancel. But it didn’t. I got to the school about 10 minutes early and checked in with the office. Then I went down to her classroom. I knew the kids were at recess because I saw them on the playground as I was crossing the parking lot. I wandered around the room for about 5 minutes, admiring their artwork and looking for Scout’s name on anything and everything. I was glad that it had finally worked out and I could spend this time with her. Besides, it would be fun to see all of her little friends again.

About that time, the kids came scrambling through the door, pulling off coats and other outdoor paraphernalia. Scout was one of the first ones. She ran to me and gave me a big hug. “Were you surprised?” I asked, hugging her back. “No,” she said. “I saw you in the parking lot.” Then one of her friends said, “I know you, you’re (Scout’s) mom!” Kids were smiling at me like they were all my best friends. Then one said, “Are you the Mom-Helper today?” I glanced over at Scout and her sweet face beamed with pride. “Yup!” I confirmed. Then one of the little boys frowned. “Oh,” he said. “I thought you were her grandma!” I'm not giggling any more...

Mom and Son Social

Who could resist this face?

On Wednesday afternoon, Sport brought home a half-sheet of yellow paper. Yellow usually means PTA, so I try to covertly dispose of them before the kids get a chance to read them. Not that I have anything against PTA, in fact you know that we LOVE the Reflections program. It’s just that they usually want me to volunteer for something or participate in something and I would rather know what I’m getting into before the kids know about it. 

Unfortunately, Sport was all over this one…the Mom and Son Social. If we could have put off going through the backpack papers for just one more day we could have missed this one. <sigh>  I avoided the subject for the rest of the evening, hoping that by the time school was out on Thursday that he would have forgotten all about it. Not this time! The kids at school were all talking about it and what they were going to wear. Did I mention that this was a “cowboy” social? I spent my after school hours doing what I always do, chasing to the dance studio, making dinner, and helping with homework. At 6:20 Sport strode into the kitchen in his cowboy attire…a button-up shirt and his scout vest turned inside out. He even managed to scrounge up a cowboy hat. I didn’t have time to change even if I had cowboy attire, so we headed out the door, dropped Scout at the dance studio and stopped a few minutes later at the elementary school. 

We even got two pictures!

The parking lot was beyond full so we hoofed it a block or so down the street. Lots of other moms were escorting their boys although most of them looked suspiciously like older sisters… As we entered the gym, I felt terribly out of place. There were chairs lining the entire room, cowboy music blaring from a huge sound system, and two long lines…one for ice cream and one for pictures. Boys were chasing and fighting and playing tag. Moms were seated in the chairs trying to visit over the confusion. Sport wanted to get in the ice cream line right away. When we finally got to the table, we were each served a chocolate sundae with a plastic spoon. We slid past the game of stomp-on-the-other-guys’-foot tag and found a couple of seats in the corner. You know the problem with a social…neither one of us are social. It took Sport about a minute and a half to down his bowl of ice cream. As he looked around for the trash can, I hopefully suggested that maybe it was time to leave. He glanced around, looking for a familiar face besides mine. “They said there were games,” he replied. That’s about when we noticed there was a hula-hoop contest going on in the corner. Not my cup of tea. But we wandered over anyway and stood in the picture line. There were at least 40 moms ahead of us. Their boys must be the ones chasing each other up and down the hallway. After the hula-hoops, they announced a Conga line. I finally convinced Sport I would hold our place in line and he could join in. The line broke up about 10 seconds after he hooked up and they began doing the Hokey Pokey. When they switched to the Limbo, Sport sidled up beside me in the line. Twenty minutes later we were posing for the camera. (The nice lady even loaned me a pink hat.) 

Even though the party was in full swing, I was more than ready to hit the road. Sport looked longingly at the ice cream line that had gotten much shorter. I glanced around. Big sister-moms were doing a line dance that I didn’t know. Their sons had huge adoring smiles on their faces. I needed one of those. “Go for it!” I agreed and nodded toward the ice cream table. Sport grinned a mile wide and rushed to the front of the line. When he returned a couple of minutes later, bowl in hand, he said, “I’m ready to go.” Really? I could have put him through the ice cream line a second time much sooner if only I had known. Better still, I could have picked up a half-gallon at the store and avoided the whole thing. But then I would have missed making a fool of myself with the Chicken Dance and I think I’m looking pretty good in my borrowed hat…what do you think?

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!