Barely a Camping Trip

Sean had his High Adventure trip with the Scouts the last week in May, so I decided to take the kids down to White Sands. None of us have been there before. We couldn't find out sleds, but we grabbed a trash can lid and a bin lid and headed down. We also threw in some camping gear because there is a little campsite nearby that I thought we would stay at overnight. I didn't realize how much hotter it would be down there but as we drove farther and farther south the temperature just kept rising and rising. I'm glad we decided to go in May because if we went later in the summer (which was another option) it would have been baking. I think it went from 80 to 95 degrees from our house down to White Sands. We stopped at a few hills and explored around. We tried to slide down with our make shift sleds AKA lids, but they didn't have the best effect. It was more fun to take off our shoes and just run around all over on the sand. All the kids loved it. Then we grabbed some Little Caesars pizza and headed to the camp spot. There was no one at the drive through to take our money so we just found a spot anyway and figured we would pay the next morning. Well as we tried to put up our tent, which was a new-to-us huge tent from the Pearce's, we realized that we were missing a pole. I think when we originally set up the tent at home we took a pole aside because it was a little bent and we were going to try and buy a new one online. Well, it was still set aside in the garage.....so we had no tent. That meant all 6 kids plus my 8 month pregnant self sprawled out in the Excursion. There were lots of bugs so we had to keep the windows mostly up. It was a LONG night of not much sleeping. We got up the next morning, ate donuts, packed up and headed home. It was an adventure for sure.

Kindergarten Promotion

It's Kindergarten Graduation Time! Can't believe how the year has flown by. Nathan has done amazing this year. He actually didn't even know all his letters and sounds at the beginning of the year. On his first Dibbles test (a test where they measure that kind of thing) he didn't have the best scores, so they offered him a free membership to this online reading program (usually costing $100). By the time I found out about it at his first Parent Teacher Conference his teacher said he had more than caught up and really didn't need it, but it was free and already paid for so he might as well use it. His next tests were above grade level. His standardized testing put him as advanced (far above the level he should be at). He got straight As all year. At his graduation ceremony they gave awards for the pillars of character that they focus on at the school. Then they have 2 awards (the only 2 awards that any of the other grades give during the entire year). One is for Academic Excellence (it is basically who has had the highest grades for the entire year) and the other is for character excellence (who has exhibited all of the different pillars of character throughout the whole year). Nathan received the Young Lincoln Award (the character excellence one). I was so pleased....and so was he!

Baseball Season and Broken Heads

Baseball season is upon us again. This time Megan and Nathan get to be on the same team. They both barely fit into the Rookies age group and so they can play on the same team. They are both having a great time and happy to go to practice. They have also been practicing at home.....which leads us to our little mishap. Megan and Nathan were both tossing up balls and then swinging their bats to hit them. I was watching from the kitchen window and right away thought, "This does not look like it is going to end well." Not 30 seconds later I watch as Nathan moves to grab a ball just as Megan swings back with her bat (winding up to swing forward) and whacks his right in the head. The shock and initial pain led to the crying, but it was when he put his hand up to his head and then realized there was blood all over it that the crying led to panic. I brought him in, we cleaned it up and then Dad did a little surgery on him. He cleaned it out really well and then used the steri strip bandages to pull it together and seal it up. He had to leave those on for a few days and by then it already started to heal over. It was pretty awesome to be able to tell the story that his sister hit him with a bat. To be honest she was totally panicked to once she saw his cut, but it all turned out fine. A boy as busy and active as Nathan needs a good scar.