Friday, August 23, 2013

First Day of Pre-K~

~Landen Alexander~
~4 years 2.5 months old~
43" tall~35.5 lbs.
Favorite Color~Green
Favorite Food~Cucumbers
Favorite Candy~Green Gummy Bears
Favorite TV Shows~Fetch with Ruff Ruffman & 19 Kids & Counting
Favorite Animal~Giraffe
Favorite Farm Animal~Cow
Hates Kisses~
Wants to be a fireman, carwash driver, trash truck driver, and an astronaut when he grows up~
Just started remembering his dreams~

Be still my heart!


 He's only going to Pre-K on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but he feels like such a big boy!

"Let's go mom!"

He IS a big boy!




Oh, my dear, sweet baby.

Monday, August 19, 2013

First Day of 8th Grade~

 Well I'm going to have to skip blogging most of our summer fun because Mikayla started 8th grade last week!  I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of her before school, so we took these after school.  Of course, Landen insisted on jumping in there too!
Sissy is HIS girl!
 She's about 5'7.5" now.  I say about because at the Dr. she measured 5'8" but at home she was 5'7.5". Either way she is TALL!  She wears the same size shoe as me, 9.5 or 10 depending on the shoe. She really wanted high top black converse for the new school year and they are size 10.  It finally dawned on me that her feet might end up being bigger than mine!  
Gorgeous!

 Same school, same friends, 8th grade started off great!  She got all the classes she wanted, Musical theater, Advanced Vocal Ensemble, and Bible Discipleship.  We are so blessed that she is able to attend such a great school and I pray she has another amazing year.
Oh you!

Friday, August 2, 2013

Zach's Awards~

Well, since Mikayla starts back to school in 2 weeks I'd better blog about all of Zach's end of school awards.  The summer has been busy and good and fun, but not good for blogging.  I guess that's best,    but there is a lot I want to remember!
My handsome boys!

This is Zach being silly getting his Awana certificate.  Memorizing scripture is sooooo easy for him, but he really never wants to work on Awana at home so he only made it through one book.  Still proud of him though!  Maybe more importantly he earned enough Awana bucks to buy a giant stuffed Rasta Banana and a giant blow up banana.  Thank you to the parent who donated those items!  From all his years of Awana and being at a Christian school in Indiana he has a good amount of scripture memorized.  Lately, I have been trying to talk to him a little about what those verses really mean.  Remember when I used to post videos of him saying scripture in Pre-K??!!??  That was when he was Landen's age. 

Zach and his teacher at the end of the year open house.  Yep, he is finally taller than one of his teachers.  This is a goal he has had since 1st grade.  She was a great teacher and we were really blesssed by her no nonsense, unflappable teaching style.  
Funny how he wore his shirt from his school in Indiana!
This is Zachary the morning of the We The People competition. He was sooooo nervous but then his team ended up getting a perfect score!  
This is from the practice competition at school that parents were invited to.  He pretty much had his and all the other team members speeches memorized and if someone said something wrong or incomplete his teacher would look at him and tell him it was ok to stand up and clarify or add to it.  He really excelled at this and I wouldn't be surprise if he ended up being a lawyer or even president someday.

Zach has participated in Math League the past 2 years and it is pretty much just doing word problems for 2 hours every week.  Can you even imagine!?!  But he looooves it and he finishes his work in about 20 minutes and usually only gets 1 or 2 wrong.  I'm not really bragging (maybe a little) this is just how his brain works!
Zachary's school does a 5th grade Culmination, aka Graduation.  They get a certificate and do a couple songs and a slide show of kindergarten pictures.  It is really sweet and there's not a dry eye in the house.
They always sing Happy Trails at his school because they are the Wranglers.
But most importantly they serve cake afterward!!

So proud of his big brobro!

Even Zachary questioned if this was his kindergarten picture.  This is why I spend the extra $ to get the year printed on the corner of his school pictures.  This is Zach at age 5.5 and above picture Landen had just turned 4.  Same face just different hair!
The teachers made this montage of pictures with some sappy 80's music.  It was like they were trying to make me cry.


Then they sang "I'm Proud to be an American." Insert sobbing.
That's it!  We survived elementary school!







Last but not least was the Presidential Awards.  Between Mikayla and Zach we have quite the collection of Presidential Letters.  
Such a giant.
This is our amazing Principal!  He does a lot of great things, but this year he made a point to take his work out to the lunch tables every Friday so Zach and some of his friends could have a Chess League.  There weren't any parents willing to volunteer so he just made it happen!
All the kids were required to give a 1 minute speech.  Zach talked about how thankful he is for his family support.=) So proud of our smart, handsome, young man!
I meant to take a picture of his certificate signed by Obama.  I still will because it is pretty cool!