Happy Birthday Jackson

The traditional wake up birthday picture! We spent 7 hours of his birthday in the car on our way to the beach so when we got there we headed to dinner at his choice, The Boiling Pot. After a really yummy dinner of boiled shrimp, sausages, potatoes and corn that they dump on your table and you chow down on, we headed back to the house to let Jack open some gifts.

Shopping for a 9 year old is so much harder than say a 3 year old boy! Everything is electronic and really expensive. He had a great haul in the gifts department this year. Everything from a personal DVD player to Target gift cards to a giant super soaker!

He had a really special birthday this year and being on vacation made him feel even more special.

Greg and I are super proud of our big boy. He is such a sweet, confident, energetic young man.

Here are some interesting things about Jack at nine:

*loves the outdoors

*great at school

*not a big eater, but we keep trying!

*very friendly

*still a momma's boy

*lots of friends

*really loves his video games

*enjoys thinking games like chess and checkers and card games

*very helpful, would do anything for anybody

*can't wait until he is old enough to go to Guatemala with his grandparents

*loves elderly people, goes out of his way to hold doors or pick up something they drop and loves to talk to them

*loves history, really into watching the History Channel, anything about wars or presidents

*reminds me so very much of his daddy!

Happy Birthday Jack, we love you tons!

Swimming and more swimming

All three kids took swim lessons at our local recreation center pools before we left for vacation.
Jack took a class that was really the last level they offer and did great! All they do is swim back and forth doing all the different strokes that they have learned in all the other levels. The only new thing that they learned was how to do an underwater kick turn while still swimming. He has really mastered all strokes and was the best in class at the side stroke and back stroke! His freestyle is awesome when he breathes correctly. He tends to just keep his head above water so he doesn't have to take a breath! He is really done with swim lessons, not much left to teach him. Bailey on the other hand...
still lots to learn. She did finally graduate to the 2nd level this year and did awesome in that level. She is keeping her head under water and actually swimming for the first time. She is really good at her back float and gained so much confidence this year. She did graduate from this class and we are so proud of her!

Diving off the board was a big part of Jack's class and he loves to dive and cannonball off the board. He is into trying "trick" dives too. His favorite is the back flip dive off the board. Not mommy's fav.

Bailey would jump off the side into the deep, but off the board was a little more than she could handle just yet. She would get out to where the handles end and panic. Maybe next year...

I have not one picture of Connor at swim class. We were a little disappointed in his class. Because of his age we have to get in with him and after a brief description of what to work on it was just us helping him in the water. Could have done that on our on without having to pay! We were happy with how confident he is in the water and with his floaties on we don't have to hold on to him all the time. I think next year he will be swimming around by himself. All in all it was a very successful year of swim lessons!

Seriously, 9!

It is hard to believe that Jack is 9! Seriously, each year just seems to fly by faster and faster.
I have always loved, loved, loved planning our kids fun birthday parties. I guess at 9 that stops! Jack didn't want a "cute" party, "I'm too old for that mom". So, we planned a small sleepover for a few days before his actual birthday, we were leaving town for the beach on his birthday this year. He had three of his best buddies over to play games, jump on the trampoline and watch movies. No cute games, fun crafts or decorated tables!( Well, I did put a few things on the table)

I made cute frog cupcakes and had a few of the boys frogs on the table for decorations. Ok, I couldn't give up the cute completely!

Our Ranger Baseball Player

Well, the Rangers Baseball season is over, at least our Ranger's season is over! It was a good baseball season but they lost in the playoffs this last weekend. Jack loves playing 2nd or catcher. His fielding is so improved. He threw many players out at 1st this season. Very few balls got past him and he was so much more intense and serious in his playing.

We are going to keep working on batting. Sometimes he would smack it into the outfield and others he just couldn't make contact. He has a beautiful swing to watch, but needs to keep his head down until he makes contact. Next year in 4th grade we begin to have player pitch instead of machine pitch so we will have to relearn how to hit.

Jack was excited, his sweet 3rd grade teacher came to his last game and cheered him on!

Aunt Tamara

For Aunt Tamara's Birthday this year we had lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant where we ate yummy food and then they surprised her with a slice of cake with a sparkler in it and sang to her! She is very special to all the kids and we love spending time with her. I got a cute picture of her surrounded by all the nieces and nephews.
This is a picture of her cake and special birthday song.
We love you Aunt Tamara!

Last Day of School~ Yes I'm Back Tracking

I had some cute pictures of the kids with their teachers on the last day of school and forgot about them until I downloaded some pictures today.This was Jack's teacher but Bailey loved her too.

Bailey will miss all her girlfriends so much!

But, she will miss her teacher the most!

Super Heroes

Connor has made up Super Heroes for everyone in the family. His stories completely crack us up! I am going to try to write them down here so when he is 16 I can show him this and get a good laugh.
Daddy is Mr. Yucky.
Mommy is Dr. Winky.
Bailey is Doggy Girl.
Jack is Strong Boy.
And Connor is Strong Man.
He says that Mr. Yucky is a bad villian! That Dr. Winky is a good guy. Doggy girl is sorta good. Strong boy is ok and Strong Man is a good guy too.
When I asked him what Mr. Yucky did to be a villian he said, "This" and threw his hands up and waved them. He loves to crawl into our bed in the evening and curl up with me and tell all these "wild and crazy" super hero stories. I love our time together making up fun stories.

School's Out

This is a picture of the kids on the first day of school. And, a picture of the last day of school.

I can't believe that this year is really over! It feels like yesterday that we walked into 1st and 3rd grade to begin the year. Here is a recap of the kids year.

Jack has successfully finished 3rd grade. He was commended on both parts of the TAKS which means he did awesome. His final report card showed how hard he worked this year. This was the first year that they give number grades and he maintained above a 95 in all subjects. He even got a 99 and a 98 in two of the subjects. He joined an after school club that met twice a month. He loved it! He was nominated as the "morning announcement" person for the whole school. I always enjoyed the days I was there to hear him do the announcements, he was really good. He finished 5th in the Turkey Trot this year. He won the Science Fair and went on the the Regional Science Fair. He made some wonderful new friends this year. His teacher was the best! We love Mrs. Fox and will miss her terribly next year.

Bailey flew through 1st grade! When we got her last report card today it showed how much she loves school. She had a perfect report card all year. They only get E, S, N, U and she got E's all year in every subject. I don't think I helped her once all year with her homework. Her teacher would have to give Bailey her own harder books to read because she actually tested on above a 4th grade reading level. My kids do get their love of books and reading from me! She was chosen this year to be the "friend"and helper to new students to their class. She took her job very seriously. If her teacher got called out of the room for any reason she would ask Bailey to sit in her chair and read to the class. She really loved playing teacher. She made some great life long friends this year and has plans with each of them already this summer. We were blessed by her teacher too. Mrs. Collins was so wonderful to Bailey. She stretched and challenged her and was patient all at the same time.

All I can wish for my kids is that 2nd and 4th grade be as wonderful as this year was. We were so very proud of both of them!