First Day of 7th Grade

7th Grader

And so it begins,  Ryan started 7th grade this year.  He was very excited (and nervous).  He was definitely looking forward to the new experiences.  His school has uniforms.  He has the choice of purple, yellow or white shirts.  On his first day, he choose the purple shirt.

6th Grade Field Trip - Renaissance Festival

Doug & I were able to join Ryan and his class for the very last Elementary Field Trip.  This year we went to the Renaissance Festival.  The day before the field trip it rained all day long.  So, we were a little concerned about the weather and mud.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day - and not too much in the way of mud.  Just a few puddles here and there.   The parking lot was the worst area - and the place that I got all the mud on my shoes for the day. 

We had four boys assigned to our group.  And they are all good boys, not a trouble maker in the group.  We had a pretty easy day deciding which shows to go see, which shops to look in and what food to eat.  The very first thing the boys wanted to do was get Turkey legs. 

All four boys enjoying their Turkey legs.

Once we had our Turkey legs, we headed over to the jousting
tournament.  And wouldn't you know it, the knight that was
"fighting" for our section was purple!

Ryan bought a mystery egg.  It ran down this
track to get smashed and then you won a prize.



And of course funnel cake!  You can't possibly go to an event
like this and not have funnel cake - can you?



December Band Concert

Ryan's band concert was this month.  It was really fun to see how the band has progressed from beginners to intermediate players.  What an improvement!  They did such a great job.  And afterward we celebrated with some DQ.

The beginning bang looking on as the Intermediate Band plays.
This is pretty much the entire brass section - just missing the
baritone in the picture.  This year Ryan is one of two French
Horn players.

Ryan playing on his horn.

Ryan's friend - Shawn playing in the
percussion section.

6th Grade

Ryan's 6th grade school picture

Fall Picnic at School

An event we look forward to every year is the Fall Picnic at Ryan's school.  And it was a little sad to think that this is the last year that we will be attending.  There are always all sorts of fun activities for the kids to do, good food and music.  In the past few years, Ryan as been old enough to be able to just hang out with his friends and do all the activities on his own.  Which has been very nice for us, we find a spot to eat our meal and that becomes "home base", he knows where to find us at the rest of the night.  It also means that I don't get pictures of what he's up to.  This year, there was one activity that I did photograph, and video, him and his friend on.  It's called That Spinny Thing.  And that is exactly what it is - a Spinny Thing!  Check it out:

Ryan and Shawn waiting in line.

Getting strapped in.

Ryan getting "seat belted" in.

The final preparations.

And they're off!

 

Here's a short video of the ride.  They actually were on it for quite a bit longer.  And the guys got it going pretty fast at the end.  The boys had a lot of fun on it - and we had just as much fun laughing at them being spun all around.  (And don't forget, if you get this in email form, you need to go to the sight and click on the picture below this typing - it's the video portion.

November Calendar Pages



2007



2008



2009

2010

Yummy Fund Raiser

So, Ryan's school was out for a week last week for Fall Break.  They come back to school for three full days and then have two half days.  I don't get it.  Seems kinda silly to me, but I'm sure if I was a kid, I would think that whole week back should be half days.  On the first half day, his school had a fund raiser.  I really love their fundraisers.  They are so easy.  You show up to the specified restaurant and eat a meal.  The only hard part is remembering to give them the flyer when you order so the restaurant knows to give the credit to the school.  So tricky.  My parents and brother Kelly met us there for lunch.  And it was great to sit and visit with them.

The fund raiser was at one of my favorite restaurants.  Jason's Deli.  They are so good and fresh.  Love their food.  And you get free ice cream with every paid meal.  Yum!

Ryan got a big bowl of Broccoli Cheese Soup

My Yummy Sandwich - Turkey Cranberry Ciabota

I must be rubbing off on Doug.  He took this picture of my
strawberries when I was done eating them.

Egg Drop . . . Soup?

At school, Ryan participated in an egg drop.  We did this when I was younger too, but it was a part of our Physics class that I took as a senior in high school.  I tell you the kids today learn things so much earlier than we did.  It's crazy to keep up.  Ryan's in 6th grade this year and will be starting algebra during the year.  Wow.  Anyway, he was in a group with two other students.  They did a lot of planing, testing, retesting and so on.  (I think Mythbusters was a good influence on him for this project.)  At one point he told the others in his group that they needed to do some testing because, and I quote, "science is 90% testing".
Their egg did not break.  Well, that is until another student got excited when their egg also did not break.  He proceeded to do a happy egg didn't break dance and accidentally hit Ryan in the face with his elbow.  Ryan dropped their container and the egg broke. 

Here's a video of Ryan demonstrating the egg drop from the top of our stairs.  Sorry, I didn't move the camera quite as fast as the egg was dropping, but you get the idea.

Faces of the First Day of School

We finally made it through the summer - and I finally got pretty much caught up on all my pictures.  I guess I will just have to start taking more pictures again!

It was the first day of school about three or so weeks ago.  We had a pretty rough year last year with some personality issues.  This year, Ryan has a male teacher and we have been hearing some really great things about him. 

Ryan did allow me to photograph him before we went to school.  My days of walking him to his classroom ended about two or three years ago.  So, I will take what I can get!  He really does not enjoy having his picture taken.  Sometimes, he will participate when I am working on a fun photo project that includes things like motion and stuff.  And he does all right with me taking his picture while he is doing stuff.  But taking pictures because it's the first day of school is not really his thing. 

Anyway he let me snap a few and I had to be quick about it, so please do not look for anything artistic at all.  This was strictly a mom taking pictures of her child while he was standing still!

Here are the many faces anticipating the first day of school:

He ended up having a really great first day (although if you ask him you may get totally different answers). He actually got in the car in a good mood. He said his teacher was pretty funny. We even went to Tilly's to celebrate the first day and bought him a new seatbelt belt. This one is green and black checked, and I can't remember which car symbol it has on it. He picked it out and loves it!

End of School Swim Party

Well . . . here we are one week away from the new school year starting and I am just now posting the End of School Year Swim Party pictures.  Slowly, but surely I am making progress in my backlog.  I have toyed with the idea of just starting from now, but really do want to share all the fun adventures.  So, hopefully those of you that are hanging in there with me don't mind.

Every year since second grade, we have hosted an End of School Swim Party.  We invite the entire class.  We have yet to have the entire class come, which is okay, because I'm not sure where we would put them all.  We had a pretty good turnout this year, in spite of a couple last minute cancellations.  The kids had a great time.  I didn't melt too bad and had two moms that stayed with me during the heat.  It was fun to sit & visit with those moms.  My brother gave up an afternoon to man the door for us so that we could be outside with the kids.  And Doug made sure all the pool toys, snacks and drinks were taken care of.  All in all a great day.

The kids have a great time with the water guns.

Posing for me.  Unfortunately because I could not see the LCD screen because it was so bright outside one of the girls got cut off in this picture.

Goofy shot!

Sammers absolutely loves these parties.  Inevitably some food gets dropped and makes his day!  He pretty much hung out under the food table for two reasons.  1.  The Food (duh!)  2.  It protects him from all the splashing water.  He is not a fan.  And if there was no food, he would have been nowhere near that pool that day.

August Calendar Pages

Wow, can you believe that August is here?  The year is officially half over and the beginning of the school year is just around the corner.  It's been a bit of a long summer here, so I am ready for school to get back in session because hopefully that means the summer (and all of it's not fun things - mostly me being sick) will be OVER! 

So, here are the calendar pages for the past four years for the month of August.  As you can tell, they mostly involve school.  I really should get a head start on the calendar pages for next years calendar!

2007

2008

2009

2010

Band Concert

In May, Ryan had his last band concert of the school year.  I think he had fun playing the French Horn, although, it depends on his mood at the moment whether he will agree with me or not.  He had fun practicing for this concert and was less nervous for it than he was for his piano recital.  He did sign up for band again next year on his own, so it must not have been too terrible for him.

He had pretty good support for this concert.  His grandma & grandpa were there as well as his cousins Ben, Brittany, Baylee and Payton.

After the concert was over, we joined Ben, Brittany, Baylee, Payton and Ryan's friend Shawn and his family - Rick, Kim and Matt for some frozen yogurt.  It was yummy and fun to visit with family and friends.

The Beginning Band

Ryan playing his French Horn

Ryan with his band teacher, Mr. Strock

Shawn & Ryan

Kim, Rick, Doug and Matt enjoying their frozen yogurt

Baylee and Ryan

May Calendar Pages

Here are the Calendar Pages from May over the last four years. It's fun to see how much Ryan has grown over the years. And to see the different activities we have been up to.

2007

2008

2009

2010

Project Time for School

Well, it's project time again at school. The kids had a choice of making a poster or a 3D model of a redesigned or original memorial. So, naturally Ryan decides to build a war memorial out of lego's. He worked on it a little bit every night after dinner. I think he had a fun time building it. He knew exactly what he wanted to do for it as soon as he came home with the assignment.

Top view of his Korean War Memorial:

Entrance:

Statue of the various uniforms from the war:
Scene of soldiers entering a Korean forest from the water:

Back side of the battle scene, with people visiting the memorial:

Ryan with his project: