Double Congrats!

We were super excited to have two graduates this year....Logan from kindergarten and Kira from elementary school :) Logan had a program of singing that was so cute. I love kindergarten because the children are so innocent and just singing their lungs out. We are very proud of him .
First grade here he comes!!!


Logan and his brothers and sisters who all wanted to see him graduate :0)


Logan and his teacher Mrs. Wood....she was also Kira's teacher and could not get over the personality difference in my two kids. Logan was not shy at all....Kira was. Logan did the Haka for the class (a maori war dance...the one done at rugby games) for his show and tell for the letter H. I need to ask Mrs. Wood for the video ....she said he was way into it. Kira would've dropped over dead instead of dancing in front of the class :0)


Kira had her fifth grade promotion and is now off to junior high school. It makes me nervous but I know she will do awesome. We were very proud of her for receiving the Presidential Award (G.P.A. of 3.5 and high test scores). Not to brag....but I just have to. Kira received straight A's on every report card in elementary school and to top it off, she got a perfect score on the math portion of the national CRT and Iowa testing. I think she got this from her mom right? (haha) Since she was student body pres. she started the ceremony off with the pledge of allegiance and did a great job. She was a little sad to leave elementary school behind, but is ready for middle school.



Her teacher this year was Mrs. Wright and she is AWESOME! Keenan will have her next year.



Kira and her best friend Lindsey.



Kira, Lindsey, and Addie




Kira with both grandmas.




Kira also had her D.A.R.E. graduation last week (saying no to drugs, alcohol etc. ) All of the students had to write an essay to finish the course. Hers got chosen as a winner so she had to stand and read it aloud at the graduation. This has been a really great year for Kira because she is normally soooooo quiet. She ran for president and gave an excellent speech, and has since had to do much in front of crowds. We're proud of her. She never did smile during her choir performances though....she didn't like singing high school musical in front of everyone ... lol... guess we'll take it where we get it.

Congratulations Logan and Kira. We are very proud and love you both very much!!!!

As for my other troops....Trajan just finished seventh grade and is entering his final and 8th grade year of junior high....CRAZY! Keenan just finished fourth grade and really loved his teacher this year. He was voted most athletic boy and was excited about that (not to mention Wayland being proud) Both boys also got straight A's so I couldn't have asked for anything better from my kids this year. They all worked hard and gave it their best effort. Trajan starts practice for football today (forgot to mention he made the jr. bulldogs team for fall) so will be be breathing, sleeping, and eating football all too soon. Anyway....just had to gloat. I love my kids so much and I'm so proud of them! They're awesome!

Just A Few Gripes

I went to the gas station last night to fill up my tank for the rest of the two days of carpooling for school....$113.00!!!! I could not believe it. I'm glad it's summer and sports are over and school will be done so I can just stay home and not drive anywhere. And of course I live in the hottest place on earth, so we couldn't even ride bikes to my mom's (maybe 5 miles) to swim without being dehydrated. Let alone we'd get killed by the cruddy drivers of Vegas on the main roads. And although I am extremely thankful for our mediocre temperatures the past week, I know the hundreds are on their way, and then the money I will be trying to save in gas will go to the gigantic electricity bill. Yep....I'm a bit irritable this morning, but now that it's out of my system...I think I'm good. :) I will ask myself one more time..."Why do I live here?". To all my friends who live anywhere other than Vegas....what are your utility bills like? Maybe I have a misconception that other places in the good 'ol U.S.A. are cheaper, when really I just need to deal with the reality of the times.

And one more thing....Kira told me this morning that tomorrow at her elementary graduation they are singing a song that made some of the kids in her class cry because it's called "It's Time to Say Goodbye". See...I'm already tearing up. That means tomorrow as I watch my baby end one chapter of her life, I will be a red eyed puffy mess for pictures. How sad is that song for a graduation? A friend of mine (hi Kell :) did something so creative for her kids last day of school. They had a BBQ by a fire pit in their backyard and her husband played games outside with the neighborhood kids. She totally inspired me to try and think of something creative to do with my kids for tomorrow. I would play with the neighbor kids...but they're all a bit weird and have cruddy mouths. (sorry...rude of me I know, but my kids don't really play outside...especially since Kelli moved my sons playmates up to Idaho...j/k) So give me some fun ideas if you can. I'm a bit brain dead because I've been so busy getting my teaching stuff together for signing my contract for teaching junior high next year. I just want them to have a good time...and of course not too much money involved :0)

This brings me to one more thing...originally I was hired to teach what I'm specialized in...life science. And now guess what? I'm teaching three classes of math and two of science. I have never taught junior high math in my life, so this will be an adventure. I have my final interview tomorrow (although I'm already hired...it's just the "make it official" thing). One more gripe...I looked in Trajan's yearbook...it was not my favorite thing that a bunch of girls left him their number and asked him to call this summer that they would "love to get together". Luckily for me, Trajan is VERY shy and will probably not even ask a girl out until he's a senior in high school, but how forward is that? And worst of all, I matched the girl's names to their pictures in the yearbook and they're totally cute. I'm not sure I'm going to like this teenage phase of life. I know...snoopy mom...but that's how I am--can't help it. Is there such thing as arranged marriages anymore? I'm sure between all of us we have enough to get everyone married to those we know....lol....just kidding, but wouldn't that be nice to have a say so?

So you are probably thinking to yourselves that either:

A. I'm having a bad day ...or B. I'm PMSing ha ha hee hee

The answer is neither...my friends who I call all the time know that I will go on forever talking about superfulous information that I'm sure they could do without. So I thought for today, I'd write it all down and let it go. Now I'm going to go watch Rapunzel with Celine and make some candy leis for Kira and her friends for graduation tomorrow. Thanks for being my listening audience. And don't forget....utility costs and creative end of school ideas....give me some replies blogging world :0)