Back to School

So here is the scoop from the first day of school.  Shane chose a Mario Cart lunchbox and a Lego Ninjago backpack.  His teacher this year is Mrs. Washington and his best friend Camden is in his class again.

 

 

Sarah has Mrs. Jacobs as her homeroom/math/science teacher and Mrs. McAdams for ELA and S.Studies. She wanted peace and camoflauge stuff.

Wish that this had been a better picture. 

We were in a hurry to get to school and I didn't realize that I cut her head off. 

 

This year wasn't fabulous as far as our walk together to school.  Steve was out of town and on Monday, the school called and asked if I would sub.  I was able to walk each of my kids into their classrooms, but it wasn't quite the same as being a parent (only).   I am grateful to their awesome teachers whom them a few minutes early so that I could get back to the door where I was supposed to be greeting students.

Having taught 4th grade for 5 1/2 years, I have always condiered 4th graders as "the big kids."

I cannot believe that my kids are in 4th and 1st.   

Scary words

Steve:  "Let's go and take the wheels off the lawn mower and add them to the car we're building."

Oh my.

This is what they've worked on while Sarah has been at camp.  They are hoping to finish it today.  Wondering what it will look like by the time I get home. 

Hope I don't get a phone call to meet them at the emergecy room.

Hard to beat...

Here is my view from my friend's lakehouse on Eagle Mountain Lake.  24 hours away from home.  Eating.  Talking.  Laughing.  And a little digital scrapbooking, too.

Slumber party

Sometimes my kids like to sleep in the living room. On this particular occasion, Sarah was in the chair with the ottoman and Shane was on the couch.  I love how our cat is also attending in her little bed.

                                                  
Here is a picture of all three of them.



     And here is Oreo, later in the night.  She has "fallen" out of her bed.

Shane's sentences

Here are a few sentences that Shane wrote near the end of kindergarten.

Sarah's similies

In an effort to clean up my study, I am scanning in my kids' school work so that I can throw it away.  Once I scan it in, I put it in a digital scrapbook, or I print the image as a wallet or 4X6 picture.  Then, I can fit a school year's worth of work on one page. 

One of Sarah's assignments was to write similes about themselves.  Each similie was written on a flap that you could open, revealing a picture underneath.  The flaps were pretty tattered so it wouldn't scan, but here are her similies and the picture:

I'm as cute as a new born baby.
I'm as sassy as a diva at a fashon show.
I'm as nice as a red blooming rose.
I'm as silly as a squirrel with lots of nuts.
I'm as smart as a scientist that just discovered somthing new.
I'm as crazy as a monkey with 14 bananas.

It's about WHO you know...

OK, so I recently finished this book called The Gifted Sophmores by Terri Blackstock and one idea from the book really stuck with me.  The idea, I accepted 7 years ago when I became a Christian, but I just thought the analogy was so clear, that I wanted to blog about it. 

In the book, three students survive an earthquake and they work together to witness to others about Christ.  Here is the excerpt from the book:

"Sandy, you survived for a reason.  The Lord loves you and wants you for His own.  He sent us to tell you."

"I want that," she said. "I really do.  I've studied Zen Buddhism and Eastern religions.  I almost became a Hare Krishna. I even read the Koran and tried to see if that would fit my life...but none of it did."

"Christ is the only way." Mo's words brooked no debate.  "He's the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father except through HIm.  It's like, if you wanted to get into a really great concert, you'd have to have a ticket or something, right? But if you don't have a ticket, you have to know the right person to get in.  If you know somebody who's, say, in the band, you can go right in, get treated like royalty, enjoy the benefits of being a friend. But you don't get in because of who you are. You get in beacuse of who you know. It's that way with Jesus.  We can't get into heaven through Buddha or Hare Krishna or Islam...only through Jesus. If we know HIm, we get in..."  page 79-80


This was not her best novel.  I love her suspense thrillers much more than this quick read.  But again, this message from the book has been on my heart and I wanted to share it.