It seems like the last few weeks (okay months) have been filled with activities and updates of exciting things that have been happening with the kids and I've been spending lots of time here talking about Sweetie Pie, I thought it was time to catch up on what else has been going on...
Living History Museum:
Before spring break, Michael and his class had been working on a research project. They had spent the previous month, Michael and the rest of the 3rd grade team working on their living history project. Each student was allowed to pick a famous person in history who the student found to be interesting. Michael’s class got to select from the past U.S. Presidents or first ladies. Michael, after careful consideration, and seeking Dad’s perspective, selected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
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| Michael dressed as FDR. |
While at school Michael did most of his research learning about FDR, often coming home at night sharing an interesting fact or historical detail of FDR’s life. Then it was time to work on his poster at home to bring in for his presentation at school. As the two most stubborn members in our family, Michael and I tried to work together on putting his presentation together. Soon we discovered he wanted to do it on his own, and soon after that decided that maybe Mom’s slight creativity talent could help him instead. So the following day we started working on his poster again. We made a trip to the dollar store where we gathered the supplies he needed, including a pair of reading glasses similar to the ones FDR wore, so he’d look even more authentic. Dad busted out the lenses so we didn’t hurt Michael’s eyes and Michael prepared his suit complete with a small American flag to take as a prop.
The Friday before spring break started Michael went to school, with costume in hand and speech in mind and presented to his peers, parents and other teachers, the story of FDF in his words. Michael did a GREAT job. He was one of a handful of students who memorized his entire speech, and he even went above and beyond, asking the health officer if he could borrow her wheelchair to sit in while he presented because he learned that when FDF was president he was in a wheelchair because of having polio.
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| Michael reciting his speech to the students at his school |
Nana, Isabelle, Dad and I went to the school to watch Michael present and we were all very impressed. Many kids were gathered around him, I think the wheelchair made his appearance even more interesting and we watched with great pride as he shared all he had learned.
That afternoon when Michael came home he was so excited and dug the grading form out of his bag right away. “Look Mom!” he exclaimed, “I got a perfect score!” He then thanked me for helping him with his poster, saying, “It looked so much better when we worked on it together.”
It was really fun to watch Michael go from dreading this project and being “forced” to look up 10 interesting facts at home for his timeline, to watching as he completely got behind it and found the project to be “fun.” I loved seeing Michael with confidence as he shared publicly what he had learned and demonstrated great public speaking skills. I know it’s not easy , but I think being able to speak publicly is a very important quality to develop. I told him and Gabriel, they will come to appreciate the skill in being able to give a speech. I was (still am) so proud of him and how well he did on his research project.
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| Michael (aka FDR) and his friend Bella (aka Susan B. Anthony) |
Baseball, Baseball and more baseball:
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| Gabriel up to bat... here he is playing with some kids in the majors division. |
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| Gabriel and his team running out on opening day. |
And then there’s been another activity that’s been filling out time… baseball. Gabriel started baseball back in February and while I can absolutely say, I’ve done none of the running that goes along with it, I have tried to go to as many games as possible (where I sit in my new comfy chair Nana and Papa got for us). It has been fun watching Gabriel be one of the leaders on the team, now the oldest age in the division, it is clear the younger 8 year olds look up to him and I see him enjoying taking on that leadership, think Team-Captain role. This past weekend Gabriel was asked to play up a division, for the majors and he thought it was a big honor. It was immediately following his minors game and such a transition watching him go from the loud, super-vocal ra-ra player in the dugout, to a super quiet, very reserved, observer with the much larger boys in majors. It’s just a reminder that next year, he’ll be back to being the “little guy” on the team with so much to learn.
Sing your heart out:
Last week, we were able to go to a concert at the after school program the boys attend. Earlier this year the boys joined the after school singing club, and have been practicing performing several pop songs with their peers. This past Wednesday, we were treated to a concert where they performed all that they had been working on. We learned a few days before the concert that Gabriel decided he was “too cool” to sing, so we’d just be going to watch Michael. And it wasn’t until we actually got to the school and saw the kids lined up that we found out all of the other boys had decided not to perform either… that is except Michael.
And Michael even had a solo part during my favorite song, “Stand up and Dance”. Of course I was too slow to the punch to record that part but got a few pictures to capture the moment.
Rainbows… and letters
And then there’s Isabelle. She’s been staying very active too learning her letters and numbers at school. Just in the past couple of months has she really taken an interest in learning what letters are in certain words. Her teacher is wonderful at school and Isabelle has pretty much mastered writing all of her letters, both upper and lower case thanks to Ms. Irena. Now about 50 times a day she asked me, “Mom what letter does ________ start with?” with about every word she thinks about. Most of the time I turn it back around to her and sound out the word for her to be able to guess. About 90% of the time she’s right only having trouble sometimes with W versus V and J versus G. While I can’t imagine my little Isabelle being ready for Kindergarten, I’m seeing that indeed she is almost ready. Thankfully Mom has another year of preschool left to emotionally prepare for that next journey. Oh and here’s Isabelle outside her classroom by their bulletin board. Isabelle LOVES to point out the pretty picture each day I pick her up… can you guess why?
And lately she's been really into dressing up and "looking pretty." Here are a few of her posing after she got herself all ready...
And finally Mother’s Day.
Before it gets too far away, I just have to say how nice Jarrett and the kids made the day for me. Yesterday afternoon we decided to go miniature golfing. At first it was quite scary as I realized we had basically just given our children weapons they could have used to "accidentally" hit one another with as they tried to swing with all of their might. Thankfully, after about 15 close calls, we made a rule no one could swing their club unless they were up to play and that everyone else had to stay about 5 feet back. We left without anyone losing blood so all and all it was good. The boys were of course competitive with one another, and Isabelle would try to swing at the ball once or twice, before just walking up to the ball, picking it up and walking it to the hole where she'd drop it in. Jarrett was a good sport, taking away about 2 or 3 of my strokes so that Mom could win on Mother's Day, and he was a good sport to bend over and pick up the ball for me at each hole so I didn't have to "try" and bend over all that way.
It was a lot of fun and I think all of us enjoyed it.
After the golf outing we stopped for ice cream on the way home, which of course made "Sweetie Pie" happy. :-) And then we came home and played outside for a while. Later in the afternoon dad and the boys decided they were going to make supper and boy did they outdo themselves. They made seafood enchiladas with rice and fruit salad. It was so tasty, I told Dad his meal was going to be added to the monthly food calendar for a couple of times. Now that he's shown me he's such a great cook, we can't let such great talent go to waste. They were super good!
And then, if the day couldn't get any better, the kids treated me to a "spa evening" complete with a hair make over, a neck massage, a hand and foot massage with lotion to fix my "dried out" skin. It was so nice and relaxing. I told the kids and dad they had made mother's day very special and despite my crabbiness from being so uncomfortable, they willingly put up with me and made the day very nice.
All in all, this was one spoiled momma yesterday.
So much happening in the middle of such an exciting time. Lots of blessings to be thankful for.
Three healthy, active and good kids to give thanks for and hopefully soon, another one to join the craziness that is our life.
Until next time,
Angie
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