The First Day of School 2013

The girls had a great first day of school!

Mackenna was up early (6:20 am) and ready to begin her high school career. She had her friend; named McKenna, meet at our house so they could walk in to the school together. Neither girl wanted to walk in alone.

Mackenna and McKenna, IDs on and these freshman are ready to go!

She found all of her classes without any problems. She was a little concerned about finding them because the volleyball team had an away game and she had to leave orientation early…and miss the tour!

Alexa was up early on the first day, too. She was excited for fifth grade. She was happy she already knew several girls in her new class. Her only complaint was her classroom was freezing! Her classes, and all of the other fifth grade classrooms, are in portable classrooms in the back of the school. There are about 1,000 kids in her elementary school!

The crazy part of Alexa’s day came at dismissal. Matt had worked from home and he and I walked up to the school so we could walk home with her. Just as the kids are being dismissed, it begins to sprinkle. (Neither of us had thought to grab an umbrella.) Then, just as the kids were walking across the street toward us, it began to pour!! We ran under some trees for cover to wait it out. It was raining so hard!!!

As we stood under trees contemplating what to do, one of our neighbors (who had seen us walking to the school) drove up and stopped. She put her window down and yelled “get in!” When she saw the rain, she hopped in her car (no shoes!) and drove up to find us because it was pouring. She doesn’t even have kids at this school! We have the best neighbors!

That night, we did have our traditional “First Day of School” dinner of spaghetti. It was great to come together and hear all about the girls’ first day. Also, I made our traditional (now 10 years!) back-to-school cake. This year’s cake was based on the game Words with Friends. I titled it “School with Friends,”used their favorite colors, and listed both of their names, grades, and words about school on it. Yummy!

Volleyball Tryouts

As volleyball tryouts were approaching late Sunday night, Mackenna woke up on Saturday morning with a massive headache and a really bad sore throat. I took her temperature; I discovered she also had a fever of 102.4! NOOOOO! She had trained and worked so hard to get to this point, she just can’t possibly be sick!

Matt and I debated taking her to urgent care. We both think she may have strep throat but by taking her too soon, would the rapid test results come back negative? (That has happened before!) By 1:00 she was feeling worse, so Matt took her to urgent care. She was still running a low-grade fever even after having taken Motrin. The test results were positive; she had strep throat! She was given an antibiotic and I felt a little relieved. We knew she would be feeling better soon!

On Sunday, she woke up and was feeling much better. She began to feel nervous and excited as the day went on as she was thinking about the beginning of tryouts.

The tryouts…Sunday night, Matt took her to the high school track at 11:45pm. They put all of the girls into four groups, two upperclassman groups and two freshman groups. They had to run a mile (4 laps) in a given time. (Upperclassman in 8 minutes, freshman in 8:30) Mackenna had been training and was feeling pretty good. She had run it in 8:20 recently and felt she could make her time.

The first group started just after midnight on August 5; it was the official beginning of the high school season. The upperclassman went first and then the freshman. Mackenna was in the last group because they were also grouped by last name.

She posted a time of 7:46!!! (With strep throat!) Her fastest time yet! She was so excited and proud she had even beat the upperclassman time!

Not every girl made their time and had to keep coming back to the track each morning (although at 6:45am instead of midnight).

Later on Monday, she had to report back at 5:45am for a session until 7:30am and then later from 2:30-4:30pm. It was a crazy day of adrenaline rush and small sleep windows. Monday night she went to bed at 8:00pm. She was exhausted!

Tuesday was better since they had to report at 7:45am. She was there until 11 and then had to go back at 12:15. The tryout session ended at 2. They called the girls into the coaches’ office individually to let them know if they had made it through to the next round…first cuts! Two o’clock came and went and no one exited the building. Then it was 2:15, 2:30…no one came out! Talk about nerve racking!!! Finally, at 2:40, girls came out of the building. She had made it through to the next round!!

On Wednesday, the final day of tryouts, the freshman had to report to the gym at 7:45am until 10. She had a nice long break and then had to return at 1:15. This session was scheduled to end at 4:30. Mackenna texted me around 4:15 and said to plan on closer to 4:45. I was pacing!! I was going crazy wondering if she had made it. She felt really confident, but I didn’t want her to be disappointed. Finally, shortly after 5, she sent me a text: I MADE THE TEAM!

We are so happy and proud of her!

                                               

End of the School Year

Both of our girls had another amazing year at school. They both received all A’s all year long. That makes two years straight! That’s quite a record!!

For Mackenna, as an eighth grader, she took two high school classes, Algebra and Spanish. So, she already has two high school credits completed before she even attends high school.

At awards night, she received an award for academic excellence. It is called the President’s Award and is “signed” by President Obama. She also received an award for the all A Honor Roll.

There was a separate awards night for Spanish classes. She was so excited that her Grammy was visiting from Ohio and was able to attend this event. Mackenna had fun performing in a group presentation and then she received an award for academic excellence. Only a few were chosen for this special award. We are so proud of her!!!

For Alexa, as a fourth grader, she had a great year, too! She really loved her teachers and has really come out of her shell. She had a Poetry Café in her classroom and she volunteered to be a speaker (yes, she really did volunteer to speak in public…we were shocked and thrilled!). Grammy was able to attend this event, also. There were many parents, some grandparents and all of the students in her class in the audience. She was a speaker and had to read one of her poems. She was fabulous!

Alexa's award ceremony was right after the Poetry Café. She received a special award for outstanding writing and for "writing with pizazz!" She received awards for outstanding reading achievement, all A’s honor roll and the Perfectly Punctual Award. Her classmates voted her “Future President of the United States.” We are so proud of her, too!!!

Mini-Society

At school, Alexa did a social studies/math project called “mini-society.” The students decide on a team/city name, come up with their own currency, create jobs, and sell products to earn “money.” Alexa’s class named their city “Infinity” and their money was called “Beyond Bucks.”

She was very interested in interviewing for one of the jobs in this society. The job she wanted is called “paymaster.” The paymaster walks around and notes any infraction to the rules and then deducts this fine from the students’ weekly pay. (They get paid for being silent in the halls, being prepared for class, pushing in their chairs, etc.)

On the day of the interview, she made sure she was dressed up and was really excited about interviewing for the position. Students from another class were conducting the interviews and she got the job!! She was so happy! She got to walk around (with a clipboard no less!) and make sure everyone was following the rules.  This job suited her perfectly!!

Part of the mini-society experience is making and selling a product. They have to submit their business idea to their teacher and get their idea approved. They have to buy a business license, rent their selling space, desk/table, and chair. 

For her idea, she looked up projects on line and decided to create flower pens out of duct tape. She watched a You Tube video over and over again until she was sure how to create them. They turned out great and were a big seller!!! She made a ton of “Beyond Bucks” and had a great experience!

GS EOY P-A-R-T-Y

In May, Alexa enjoyed hosting her Girl Scout troop’s end of the year party. She planned the menu and the flow of the activities. The girls performed skits about ways to break stereotypes of girls (girls can’t play sports, girls aren’t good at math, etc.). Then they swam and while Matt grilled hot dogs. After swimming, they had a picnic lunch. They were so cute! We decided to have the troop meet back at our house in August before school starts to scrapbook their summer events. Should be fun!