North Carolina/ Virginia / Washington DC Trip

Well last minute we decided to go see Grandpa Dan & Kristy in North Carolina. We had a good time swimming, eating, watching the beautiful hummingbirds, and watching all their feathered friends. They have a coupe with several Guinea Hens, Hens & a Rooster named Jim Dandy. After that we dashed northbound to Alexandria and stayed with Penny for a few days and did some of the sites. We visited The Smithsonian (Musuem of Natural History), saw the Capital, Washington Monument, The National Mall, The Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, vaguely saw the White House from the road (its so much smaller than you expect), saw the Pentagon and 911 memorial, The Smithsonian Zoological Park, The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where the money is made), Fort Henry, Five Guys Burgers and last but certainly not least..... Trader Joes. We also had a wonderful dinner/visit with my cousin, his wife and sweet 4 month old son, sure wish we all lived closer. We did all this driving in 6 days. Phew!!!! Hoping to get a trip in next summer too.

Horse Farm

Megan's Girl Scout Troop went out to a farm and was shown how to care for a horse and then was lead around an arena. I think most of them thought it was pretty awesome!

Annual Check Up Results

They are growing like weeds!!!
Ethan (9): Weight: 71.3 lbs - 75% & Heigth: 56 inches - 90%
Megan(7): Weight: 50.1 lbs - 50% & Heigth: 48 inches - 50%

Outside Stuff....

I love my children... Truly I do but I enjoy other subjects also. :) Here are some of the pretties on our lots. I am trying to take my camera off auto focus and enjoy its full potential.

Ethan's LAST single digit birthday....

WOWSA!!!! First off we had a great day! We went to see the movie Up, then off to the boys Karate class, then out to dinner, and back home to open presents. Phew... Makes me tired just thinking about all the festivities... LOL!! I am pretty sure he was happy with all his Legos. I tell you this kids LOVES legos!!! Well Legos and video games... Ha!

Almost done...

Well we made it through another school year, well tomorro is a half day so ALMOST made it, LOL! The last few weeks have been insanely busy. I will try to add a few catch up posts here and there w/ some photos. The kids are well and we are looking forward to our summer. We plan to swim, read, watch movies, catch up with old friends and play!!! We also are going up to Alabama for a wedding and family vacation.

Ryan's Graduation...

Oh man, talk about bitter sweet. Watching my BABY grow up and leave elementary school. He is getting so big and testing so many boundaries. Anyway, he had his Moving Up Ceremony today and also had a drum club performance. We enjoyed watching him, he was the first child to cross the stage so he was a bit nervous. LOL!

So the results are back...

I had my meeting with the school this morning. Megan is on the low end of average for intellegience. Her speech other than a slight tongue thrust is good. So basically nothing they can do except for what they are doing. I have her in tutoring 1x a week, the teacher is sending home books everynight that we are doing above and beyond her homework, and she is doing extras for her in class. We did decide that she processes things a bit slower. At this point they are not recommending retension. We will have to make up a little lost time over the summer. The teacher tutoring Megan says she is a breeze to tutor, she is like a little sponge and wants to know more. She is normally this way with me unless she has it in her head to do something else. LOL! Ethan we are still waiting to see the verdict for him. I am praying he will do ok. If anyone knows a way to organize a 8 almost 9 yr old and keep him on task at school, feel free to enlighten me. Ryan we are just waiting to see where he ends up for next year (its not neighborhood schooling here, they like to call it choice and I like to call it lottery) He has started guitar lessons and is loving it.

Other than that we are well, just hanging in here. This economy has caused us to make a lot of hard decisions. We just keep shoveling forward in hopes that it will get better.

School with the littles....

I have some disappointing revolations the past few days regarding my youngest. I knew they were struggling in school, but I guess I didn't realize the extent until the report cards came home and I have had contact with both of their teachers. Ethan has had a difficult time since 1st grade, I have tried to work with him and his 2nd grade teacher worked her butt off to get him up there. Then he went on to 3rd grade and has become so disorganized that all the improvement we made is not pulling him through. His teacher has told me that his biggest issue is his organization and that he doesn't complete stuff. How do you get a child to become organized and complete his work. We have gone through the glasses and provisions for him having possibly ADD. His holistic testing was not as good in the one category as we had hoped, so now its all riding on FCATS. Ugh! Then there is Megan who has been behind the ball since last year. She is just a very inattentive child, who gets frustrated very easily. She got a wonderful teacher this year in 1st grade, but she was on maternity leave from the end of January till April. So she has gotten further behind than I had hoped. I had a meeting w/ her teacher Friday and was surprised that she is still testing this far behind. So we devised a plan and I also went and hit up the guidance office who was supposed to have her Student Study meeting this week. They tell me they have an appt for her on 5/14. I told them I am going to have to dig my heals in here. I feel Megan is getting the short end of the stick. Not only is she a child who is behind, but her teacher went on maternity leave and she was left for over 2 months with a new teacher who is not equipped to help Megan. AND I feel they should have been testing her for learning disabilities. Now they read my request as she has dyslexia and there is nothing that can be done. I told we don't know till we test. Now we are left with very little time to get her the help she needs. I told them I am not signing off on retaining her. I will work with her over the summer. So they understood where I was coming from and they would move up the SST and they got me in Thursday at 7:40 am. I went back and told her teacher who is very pleased. Also the guidance counselor applauded me for standing up for Megan and promised me she'd have the testing done before the end of the year and try to have a follow up too, so that next year Megan will have everything in place. I have been reading on LD and lets just say my baby girl fits the bill. I don't want to keep her back and its a combination of things. Maybe I am being unrealistic, but I want to try to help her get ahead.

Hoping we can figure something out for them and that Ethan's FCAT Testing comes back good. I have also signed Megan up for tutoring with a teacher friend.

A small update:

Easter was wonderful, we had a great time with some good friends. I am so thankful for them. We ate good food, swam, talked, and egg hunted. It was a good day! Our family went to Lion Country Safari the day before so we missed all those crazy city egg hunts as we do every year. I don't know how people deal with all the mobs of people. Perhaps that is yet another dose that I have my momma. :)

Ryan: He is doing beautifully in school, very proud of my boy. He is getting ready to transition to Middle school next year, in fact I need to get his application turned in soon. We live in a county with choices.. You make a list of what you would like and they pick whatever they randomly feel like and put your kid there. Doesn't that sound great? Ok... so I am praying he will get one of our top 3 picks. He is thriving well in his Boy Scout Troop, they are going on their second campout next weekend. It sounds like so much fun honestly.

Ethan: He is doing ok in school. His biggest pitfall is his lack of organization, I have tried and his teacher has tried. I just pray he did well in the state testing which he informed me was EASY Mom!! Cub scouts is so-so for him, he is loosing interest which is making thing tough. He wants to be big like his brother. The next year will be interesting with them being more seperated in school and activity.

Megan: Oh lord, she is just a handful. She definately came last for a reason. She is pushing all my buttons at once to see what I do. She is doing ok in school, she is coming along better in reading and math thankfully. Hoping it will be enough to get her through. She is liking Girl Scouts but that is yet another so-so. It will all work itself out one way or another.

It's hard to believe how quickly time is flying by...

Sometimes it feels so slow like please hurry up. And other times its just like OMG... I can't believe that we have already blown threw all this.

So lets see... we have kids that have been sick and got better. Parents who are now getting sick. We had a chopped full couple days, I personally am relieved its done. So much prepartion that for the most part was fun but to clumped together. In the past three days, I have had my first meeting with Megan's troop since we seperated from the kindergarteners. It was mainly still run by Meg's leader who works for council now, but it was much calmer than having 20 girls in a room. We did our swaps for ingathering, which turned out SOOOOO cute. When I get my computer fixed (doesn't want to upload my photos) I will upload some pics. Then saturday we had ingathering and it was fun, but after all the prep and then being the hot sun was again happy that it was finished. Meg didn't get to do her swaps this year because we had to leave early. She had Father/Daughter Dance w/ Daddy at her school @ 4 pm. Again, have some cute pictures, will share when I can. They had a good time and it was a good memory for Megan. Then today we had our cub scout Blue & Gold Banquet where our boys earned their ranks. My oldest Ry has now finished cub scouts and is moving on to Boy Scouts. I am very proud of him as well as Eth for working hard to finish their requirements. I think a good time was had by all.

Tommorrow I have a field trip with my Diva and the rest of the week is fairly uneventful.. YAH!!!!

More lost teeth and such...

Things here are about the same. We are all done with soccer till probably the fall. I am actually happy that scouts and school will be the only thing occupying the kids time for a while. Speaking of Scouts Ryan is crossing over (moving up) to Boy Scouts in March. This sunday he will be presented with his rank at our Pack Blue & Gold. And then in 2 weekends after that he will go over the Ceremony and officially be welcomed into his new Troop. I think he is a bit nervous, but I think that is understandable. Luckily many of the boys from his den are coming with him. Ethan is earning his Bear rank this sunday. Because most of the moms who have run this pack for the past 2 yrs are moving onto Boy Scouts we are loosing a lot of our support system, so there is a possiblity that Ethan will be joining a new pack (he has friends there so he is very happy). With Megan's scouting her leader actually is working for council now so I am stepping up to do Megan's troop w/ her help. She is working on bridging to be a Brownie in May. First meeting for me is friday night with the girls. Outside of that Ryan is going into middle school next year and we are applying for a special school, a Marine Oceanographic Academy Prep School. We are praying that he makes it in as he is very excited about it. They only 25 students out of the district for each grade. So we have recomendations coming together and such. Ethan and Megan will stay put at the school they are at. Oh!!! And speaking of Ryan he has lost 3 teeth in the past 2 weeks... Crazy... I keep teasing him that he is a snaggle puss! ;)

Other than that not much else to report.

Healing Arms, Lost Teeth, Cookie Sales, ect.

Its been a little while since I checked in. First of all my girl has lost 2 teeth on the bottom, she looks a little snaggle tooth ish now. LOL! She also started selling cookies, she has worked a cookie booth and walked the neighborhood. We have also got some orders from friends and family (THANK YOU), so she is doing pretty good with her sales. Then we have Ryan who we went to the Orthopaedics yesterday and he is now allowed to take the brace off and in just over a week he is allowed to return to PE at school. Huge steps. He has decided to bypass soccer in the spring, I think he is being a nervous nelson since the dr assured him he would be ok. But its his choice. Ohhhh and he got student of the month. They a passage from the nominee and she said that he was a boy scout and she sees in his daily school life. That he is respectful to others and always willing to help. Talk about melt my heart. Not much up with Ethan other than his stubborness. LOL!!! He fell off his bike last weekend and we thought maybe we had another broken bone on our hands, but we got the swelling to come down and we think he just bruised the heck out of himself.

We are a cast free family again...

We are a cast free family again after 2 months and 3 casts. YAH!!! Today we took Ryan to the Orthopaedic Surgeon and he is very happy with how his bone is healing. He told me his break was a really bad one, so to see it healing like this was great. He is now in a brace for at least 3 weeks, but the wonderful thing about the brace is he will be able to use his hand more and we can take it off and he can be clean. I will post a picture a little later, but just wanted to share our good news. Lord knows the good news has been on the low side, so we will take it where we can get it!!