qualifying

wes and william spent last week in jackson preparing for the MS junior qualifying.  they had a blast at river hills and the club/reunion doing clinics with great instructors and making/reconnecting with friends!

the club/reunion crew

william and will (this doubles duo became known as will squared)

julia fair and wes

the river hills crew

shashank and wes

they both made progress this week, and they both qualified for southerns.  we aren't going to make the trek to north carolina or baton rouge to play at southerns, but they were both happy to get the qualifying nod!!

sunday school

gwen and i tag team taught the 3rd grade sunday school class at church this past school year.  i've never taught kids that old.  i usually end up with kindergartners, but i have to say that i LOVED this class.  it's nice to have kids that can read!!  ha!  and this group was really fun and sweet, and they genuinely seemed to like each other!  i may have to request 4th grade next year!

we had 18 in class, but i never got a picture of everybody!  (and reed joined our class the last few months.  he's an honorary 3rd grader!)

the end

the end of school was completely chaotic, like always, but we made it through in one piece!!

william celebrated a day away from school with the others in his class who completed the AM (accelerated math) objectives.  they chose the mall, the arcade, and chick-fil-a for their day off!  this was one of the most fun field trips that i've chaperoned.  it was a really sweet group of kids.  or maybe it was just that there were only 8 kiddos to transport!

reed's class celebrated their end of the year at build a bear where they built a puppy dog (they were the puppy dog class).  having three boys, we have never stepped foot in build a bear.  reed had no idea how it worked.  for those who don't know, you pick out an animal and then pray over the animal's heart which you then put inside the animal and stuff it before he gets sewed up.  the workers handed reed the "skin" of his dog, and he looked at me with huge, confused eyes.  "mama, i don't want this.  it's not even stuffed."  ha!  poor deprived kid!!  he came around when he saw that it actually looked like a dog when they got through with it!

wes' class went to house of bounce, but i was busy picking up kids here, there, and yonder, so i don't have any pictures.  but in the middle of all the running around, we did have a birthday get together for him and his buddy, collins.  all they wanted to do was play wiffle ball, so we got some cupcakes and made that happen!

and we officially finished up the year with awards days.  reed and wes had their awards day together.  first grade doesn't get many awards, but reed came home with the award for dependability, the computer award, and the eagle award for performance and sportsmanship in PE.

wes got the accelerated math award, reading counts, the eagle award for performance and sportsmanship in PE, headmaster's honor roll, the citizenship award, the award for carefulness, and the fruit of the spirit award.

i hate that i missed out on getting a picture with mrs. lansdell, but hopefully i'll have one more chance when reed makes it to third grade!

william had awards day and a promotion to middle school.  they actually get subject awards after fourth grade, so william got a few more than his brothers.  (they weren't happy about that!!)  he got the president's award for outstanding academic excellence, DUKE TIP, the eagle award for outstanding performance and sportsmanship in PE, the music award, the accelerated math award, headmaster's honor roll, citizenship award for good conduct, reading counts, the highest academic average in spelling, math, language arts, science, bible, and reading, and the character award for responsibility.  he accompanied the 4th and 5th grades as they sang to mrs. golding who was retiring.  he's never accompanied an entire choir before, and he did it perfectly!  he also played a beautiful arrangement of "for the beauty of the earth" by chris rice to add a little music to the promotion program!  it was a good day for him!

i didn't make wes and reed dress up since they had dressed up the day before!

hello, summer!!!