Kindergarten Graduation and Awards Day for 1st and 2nd Grade

The end of the school year brings Kindergarten Graduation and Awards Day. I can hardly believe that this year has come to an end and that we actually made it through it! When the boys were little and I was asked how old they were and I would say 1, 3 & 4 I would follow it with they will be in Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade. Well, that was this year! I can’t say that anymore and never did I think it would get here so soon and that it is now over! When Will began Kindergarten, Jason and I decided to send him to public school because we felt like it was the best place for our children to get the best possible education. Troy Elementary School has some of the best teachers in our county and we knew without a doubt we wanted those to be the ones to teach our kids. For 3 years, the boys each have had the same Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Huner. I can honestly say that every Kindergarten teacher is wonderful, but we chose Mrs. Huner because she knew the boys and we knew it would be easier on the boys to get adjusted. Each one of them entered her classroom knowing very little. I didn’t spend time teaching them everything they needed to know before they started school because that is why they go to school. I am not saying they didn’t know anything, they did know their letters, the sounds of some of them, they could all write their name and they knew their numbers but none of them could read. She taught them so much and it was so neat to see their faces when they came home to tell me what they had learned that day! The most important thing she has taught them is how to LOVE School!! That is a very hard thing to do for some kids. I don’t know what I am going to do tomorrow when I have to go get Ben from her class. Thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I cried last year when I picked up Drew and I knew I had another year with her. I don’t think I will ever be able to thank her enough for being my boys other mother! So, Thank you Tracie for being there for my boys and making sure they knew everything they needed to know to get to 1st grade. Thank you for also reminding them of their manners and how to use them!! And most of all thank you for teaching them to LOVE school! It will be a long 4 years, but I will be back and only because I do not want Kate to grow up, I am not going to rush it! But I can’t wait for her to have you for a teacher!
First Grade for Drew has been a tough one. Well maybe not for him, but for me it has been. He has worked so hard and we were so fortunate to have the best 1st grade teacher for him! Mrs. Jordan never gave up on him. She took the time to get to know him so she could teach him everything he needed. Drew is the type of child that wants to know why and I believe Mrs. Jordan got that question from him a lot. Not once did she say because I told you so. She always related the reason why to something he is interested in. Those types of answers are what got Drew’s attention! One particular why question she got was why did he have to learn to read. He went on…”All I want to do is drive a tractor” her response was…”Drew when your tractor breaks down you have to know how to read so you can read the directions on how to fix your tractor”! That gave him his reason on why HE needs to learn to read! Drew worked really hard this year in 1st grade. He made the A/B Honor Roll and also received an Art award for his painting that placed 3rd place in the Troy Fest Art Show. I am so proud of his accomplishments. And thank you Mrs. Jordan for pushing Drew to be his very best! I know what you have taught him will carry him all throughout school.
Second grade for Will has been a breeze. Rarely did I have to help him with his homework. It all comes easy for him. I wish it was that way for the rest of us!!! He had Mrs. Tate for the 2nd year in a row since she moved up to 2nd grade from 1st grade this year! We were so excited to have her again this year. Will absolutely loved her. She was the best fit for Will. She has done a great job preparing her students for next year. Mrs. Tate is a wonderful teacher; you can tell she takes great pride in her work by the love she shows to her students. Thank you Ashley for taking Will for 2 years, He loves you more than you will ever know and I appreciate everything you have taught him. Not only for school but for the little things that he can use throughout his life. Will received the All A Honor Roll award, an Art Award for having a piece of Art Work placed in the school Art Show and he also received the PE Student of the year award!! I am so proud of him!!!
I am so ready for summer. I know I will not get to sleep late but at least I don’t have to get up and get ready for 2 months!! Woo Hoo!!

A Little Surprise for the Boys and Kate

Two years ago, Jason and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary at Walt Disney World all by ourselves! We didn't tell the boys we were going because they would have been so mad. I know all of you that have been before always see the umpteen million "Vacation Club" desks all throughout "The World". Well we set up an appointment to check it out. Since we were planning on visiting Disney World on a regular basis we saw that is was worth our money to buy a piece of "The World"! And boy, was it so worth our money. With 4 children, back then it was only 3, it is a much better deal all around. We had 80 Vacation Club points we had to use by September 2009 or we would lose them. I tried to get us a reservation for several of the other timeshare properties that Disney is a partner with but couldn't get a reservation for any of the times we could go. So Jason said "let's just go back to Disney World and do the Water Parks". So I booked the reservation and kept it a secret from the boys! Every time we go to WDW, I start checking the weather 10 days out. This time the forecast showed nothing but rain. I was a little disappointed but still excited to get to go. We left after school on Thursday and drove to Ocala for the night and then got up and headed into Orlando. It was raining. We got checked in and unpacked and then out the door to Magic Kingdom. When we left it was raining just a little so we went on and put our poncho's on. We had not eaten lunch yet and one of our favorite places to eat is in Adventure Land at the El Pirata y el Perico across from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. So when we got to Magic Kingdom that is where we headed. Right before we got to the Magic Carpet Ride, the bottom fell out. We were in the perfect location for shelter, thank God. We waited it out for a little while and decided to make a run for it because we were starving. We got a little wet but were able to eat and Jason and the boys rode the Pirates of the Caribbean. We walked around to try and ride some other rides but since it was still raining the lines were crazy so we left. The next morning it was nice and sunny. We headed over to Hollywood Studios for "Star Wars" Weekend. It really was cool; Jason and the boys loved it, me and Kate not so much!! We also took Kate to see Playhouse Disney and she loved it! After spending most of the day there we went back to the hotel for some pool time! That was fun but didn't last long since another storm came up. We got our shower and went back to MK, but once again it started raining. We got over there and the Spectra Magic parade had just started. We watched that and then got to ride 2 rides, The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan. The lines were not long but the park was closing so we left...again! Sunday we were going to hit Typhoon Lagoon but since the rain storms had been so bad we hated to chance it and Will was devastated that we had only ridden 3 rides! We went back to MK, which was totally fine with me because it is my favorite. We spent the whole day there and had a ball. But just as the weather man said... the rain would be in around 5:00 and he wasn't just talking rain but a bad storm. We made it back to the Wilderness Lodge just as is got bad!! We had a great time and it was the perfect way to end the school year! The boys all worked so hard this year and even though they were not the "BEST" kids they deserved this treat! I am so excited to be going back with the WHOLE family in October!! And by whole Family I mean whole family...Bibbie, Deeda, Lizzy, Brett, Lacey, Walker, Neemama, Papa, John, Amy, Will, Mary Hollis, Jason, Will, Drew, Ben, Kate and me!! It will be a GRAND Adventure!!!

What a Day!!!

I will confess that I was dreading the day today. Will played in a baseball tournament with a team of 11 other great baseball players his age. They played in a travel ball tournament with guys that play every other week all year around. No, we don’t have a travel team and I hope we don’t ever get into it as much as those guys do. If you read my blog on a regular basis you read about us playing in a tournament last summer in Dothan. The tournament we played in today was the same organization that we played with last year. Some of the same teams as well.
A couple of weeks ago, some of our players dads decided we should all get back together and play in the tournament this weekend in Enterprise. So, we did. We had one practice and then thanks to the rain we were able to use Coach Ron’s training center at Troy Baseball to get in some batting practice. So now I guess you can see why I was dreading today. If you read back to my post last summer you would know that we were slaughtered in every game we played. It was awful, an experience I was not looking forward to. Not to mention having to pack up 2 other kids and a baby for the day. (which thanks to Neemama and Papa who took Kate home after game 2) But anyway, the way these tournaments work is …the 1st part of the day are the pool games. Once all the pool games are played, the teams are seeded. Once you get your seed the actual tournament begins.
The 1st game of the day began at 8:30. Thank God we didn’t play that one. We played the 10:00 game against the Dothan Cardinals which is the team that won the last tournament that was played a couple of weeks ago. They beat us 22 – 5…the 10 run rule. It was not even fun to watch. Our next game was at 1:00. We played the Mudcats also from Dothan who also beat us by the 10 run rule 14 -4.
There were 6 teams in the tournament and we were seeded 6!! Our first game was at 4:30 and we played the #3 seeded team, the Dirt Devils, who also by the way are from Dothan. We beat them by the 10 run rule this time!!! 21- 5!!! We were on fire! I could not even believe it. I was thinking…okay this is it. We can head on over to Daleville to eat dinner at McLin’s! Oh well, not yet. Next game we met up with the Mudcats. The team that beat us 14-4 in the first game we played them. They had their own bus, tour bus that is; that they rested in between games. They even changed uniforms! What good it did them! We came from behind in the last inning to beat them 12-10! They even had the last bat and we held them!! Their mouths were in the dirt!! So this, our 2nd win sent us to the championship game to play the Dothan Cardinals for another game. By this time, our kids were tired. They had already played 4 games 3 ½ which were in the blazing sun and ½ of the number of games we play in a recreation season! We played a great game; we got beat 4-12 and were 2nd place in the tournament! Not bad for a team that only practiced 1 time together!! I am so proud of our team. We had a great day and the boys got in a lot of practice. Maybe it will help us all to finish up our rec. season! Between our 12 players, we are on 4 different teams. Being together for a day of baseball helps bonds great friendships, it really is going to be hard to going back to competing against each other.
We ended the day with a celebration dinner at Mellow Mushroom. I am so glad the boys had this experience together. I know it is one they will take with them for many years! Way to Go Troy Americans - 2nd place in the Boll Weevil Bash!! I am proud of you!!
This is what Drew, Ben, Walker and Brady did most of the day!
Wouldn't you know Kate would find something to climb on!
waiting for their time to bat!
Will got a great hit every time he got up to bat and only had 1 stike out (I think!)



















For all of you that think Will looks like Jason...well, in this picture he looks just like my sister, Elizabeth!