DARE Graduation

As the end of the school year quickly approaches, it is time for the afternoon that many of the 5th grades have been eagerly waiting for... DARE graduation.

They have spent afternoon's each week with Officer Van learning about drug and alcohol abuse as well as many other topics that have a factor is these issues.

From what we have been hearing at home, not only have this been a very education experience, but extremely fun too. There was songs, dances, cheers and a lot more!

As part of the program, Officer Van brought a guest speaker with him. This was a young man that has spend a great deal of time with Officer Van talking about drug and alcohol abuse. During his presentation he spoke openly and everything that he said was was very eye opening for the adult.

As with any graduation ceremony there were certificates to be handed out. Each of the kids was very exited to receive their certification that they earned. During the ceremony the parents were entertained with several of the songs, cheers and dances that the kids learned over the last few weeks. Now we could understand why they were all so excited about the DARE program!

But there were two things that they kids were the most excited about. This first.... once they all received their certificates, Officer Van announced that they were official DARE graduates and could now UNTUCK their shirts! This of course got a huge laugh from all the parents.... we all were wondering how he got everyone to come out with their t-shirts tucked in! NOW we knew the real truth! LOL
The second thing these kids were all excited about? Office Van personally signed the back of each of their shirts to "seal the deal." As soon as the ceremony was over, the kids quickly lines up to get their hard earned signature!

Great job to all of the kids in this year's DARE graduating class!

Darrin and Officer Van chatting as we left the school

Family Reading Night

Each spring, everyone looks forward to Family Reading night at the school. The kids start preparing for this night weeks in advance as they all have the opportunity to take part in the huge book swap. For 2 weeks before the big night, the kids can bring in books that they want to donate to the book swap. For each book that they bring in, they will receive a ticket for a free book at the book swap!

Every year, Darrin bring in a huge pile of books from his ever growing collection and replaces them with "new" ones. However, in the last few years, he has been finding it harder and harder to find books that he wants at the swap - many of the books are for younger kids. He has always been an advanced reader and many of the books were just too simple for him! We figured that this year was going to be tough for him to find many books at the swap.

But then he had a great idea! John and I had recently reconnected with an old friend and found out that she has a 5 year old son that, at 18 months old was diagnosed with an in-operable brain tumor. As any young child, Jayson LOVES to read and play games. Darrin decided that instead of picking out books for himself, he was going to pick out books for Jayson and then we would send these to him. I was very proud of his generosity! When he went through the books on his shelf, he ended up with 2 bags of books to donate to the book swap - 48 books in all!!

Now, with Family Reading night upon us, Darrin was on a mission to find books for Jayson.

This evening was filled with all kinds of exciting events, including a petting farm, open mic night, the book fair, basket raffles and of course the book swap. I think most of the kids spent the majority of their time playing with the animals in the petting zoo - including a snake!

By the end of the night, we found about 5 books at the book fair (gotta love when they book fair features buy one get on free books!), bought a bunch of raffle tickets for the basket raffles and found 30+ books to bring home - some for Darrin, but most of them were for Jayson... another fun successful family event at the school. With this being Darrin's last year at this school, we are going to miss the many events that they put on for the kids!

Winter Storm Carter plus Cat and Mouse... and cat

So I wake up this morning on this powdery white morning, wondering if Winter Storm Carter will cause closings or if the schools will actually be open and if I will be able to make it to work. By watching the news I find that there are several of the schools that are closed, but not us. Go figure. But it is still early, so there is still time.

As I head down to the basement to get in a morning workout, I find 2 of the cats sitting right next to the elliptical. Almost as if they were waiting to say hello to me right away this morning (even tho Fozzy had already jumped on me shortly after the alarm went off while I was still in bed to say good morning and make sure I was getting up). Ok, no big deal, as soon as I start using the elliptical, the start wandering away slowly.

But I should have realized they were up to something. a few minutes later, I see little miss Silver dart along the wall behind the rocking chair... hot on the tail of a mouse. Yup, they were not waiting to say good morning to me...they were on mouse patrol - aka toy hunting! As they disappear to the other side of the basement, with Fozzy right on their tail also, I am distracted by the weather/news on TV. Still no word on if there is school or not. More and more schools all around us are closing, but nothing for us... the workout continues...

A streak across the room catches my attention tho. Silver is on a mission to get across the room, with the mouse tucked strategically in her mouth, with Fozzy right on her tail. He looks pretty determined to get his hands on this fun little play toy. But Silver is not in the mood to share, so she darts behind the couch, heading to the stairs. Fozzy, not to be left behind, decides to take a short but OVER the couch, pouncing down right on Silver's tail as she heads upstairs.

Great. Now I have mouse upstairs in my house. I can deal with them if they are in the basement, but they need to stay out of the rest of the house - that is MY space! Ok, I will deal with that later. As I continue on my elliptical journey, I turn back to watching the news. Any news yet on schools? More schools around us are being added to the list, but still not Green Bay.... go figure! What are they waiting for? Apparently the roads mus not be slick enough and we didn't get enough snow - even though on the news they are telling people to stay off the roads since they are so icy and that we are gong to continue to get snow.

Oops, they are back. Silver, with Fozzy right on her tail, mouse still tucked in her jaws. She does not want to share... and she does not want to let go of that mouse! A few laps around the basement, around the rocking chair and back upstairs we go. Once again, Silver went around the back side of the couch be Fozzy had to go up and over to try and get in that good pounce... and there they go back upstairs.

Hey, schools are finally on the closing list. I think our school system was the last one in the area that decided to close! Some schools were closed before I even woke up, but they wait until 6am to close our schools. go figure. At least Darrin's Snow Day Dance last night appeared to work for him. But that does not mean that I get a day off... I still get to head out to work. Can I have a snow day too??

Ok, I think I need to get my cats some more mousing lessons... wander back to the basement, one right behind the other, with noses to the floor, trying to find their lost toy... the question remains... did they leave the mouse upstairs or is it hiding safely in the basement? I don't think I want to know! But I did get some great entertainment during my workout this morning!

Ok, I guess I have delayed long enough. Time to get ready for work and head out into the white abyss!

Starting School and Making Decisions

The official first day of school has arrived! We are never really sure who is more excited for this day to come - the kids or the parents! But it is also bittersweet as it means that summer is ending...

This year Darrin was really excited to start school, as this is his final year at King Elementary! He is "one of the big kids" now. This was also the first year that I was not able to bring him to school for his first day. With the new job, it was not going to work! So I had to be a pain and ask the neighbor to get a few pictures of the kids at school, and the annual picture of Darrin in front of the school sign. I will have to dig out all these photos from years pasts and start a collage or something! The one thing that I want to do this year, that I have forgotten in the last few years, is to have Darrin wear the same shirt that he work on the first day of school, on the last day! That way we can get a real comparison of just how things can change over the school year!

This year he also had a big decision to make... What instrument did he want to play in band! This is something that he has been waiting for over the years. He had his choice down to drums or the trumpet. When the paperwork came home from school, he found out that he could not pick the drums, for various reasons. So it was the trumpet. He decided on the trumpet because that is what Unkie played in band. Works for me, as my brother's trumpet is still at my parents! All we need to do is have it cleaned and all that fun stuff.

Now only if all decisions were that easy! Then again, you take away the options, and things become clearer!

A new school year brings great changes

As many of you might remember, last year with had some issues with Darrin in school. We were curious as to what we were going to find out when we went to Parent Teacher Conferences this year. Last year was very trying for all of us, including his teacher!

Last night marker the first Parent Teacher Conference of the year. Darrin had some incentives riding on how this conference went! He kept telling us that he was doing good, but we wanted to wait to see for sure (we learned the hard way last year that what he said was not always what was really happening!) Grammie has bought his a really cool pirate ship to paint, but he was only going to get the ship and paints if we got good reports! So now was the moment of truth!!

The conferences were actually Student lead, so Darrin was in the hot seat! His teacher and student teacher were both there to add their input but the first half of the conference was all him! He showed us some great work that he had completed and then shared what he THOUGH his grades were going to be. This is where his teacher stepped in and filled us in on what his actually grades were...

WOW... big differences from last year! All A's and high B's at this point! His was only missing ONE assignment! This was a huge improvment from last year (missing assignments, incomplete assingments and more!). We were expressign some of our concerns about what we had been dealing with last year (the talking in class, daydreaming, missing assignments, incomplete work etc). Both his teacher and the student teacher looked at each other, looked and Darrin, then at us as asked if we were talking about the same kid!

They have had NO issues of talking or other class disrutions, all his assignments are finished (with the exception of the one that we knew he was missing) and he is participating in calss discussionsn regularly! He is actually at a higher reading level than they look for by the end of 5th grade! He loves math and science and is always eager to learn more.

WooHoo!! The old Darrin is back! Now we are just hoping that he continues the great work! It will be a while yet before we get that first report card (not til after Thanksgiving) so we are anxious to see the results!