Awards

All the kids did amazing in school this year.  They work really hard and earn good grades.  It really nice to see how often our kids get called for awards and how much their teachers enjoy having them in class.  Hopefully this trend keeps going!

Bentley

Bentley made it through Pre-k.  Some days were rough getting her there because she didn't seem to like it too much, but other days she was excited to see her friends.  I think hearing her older brothers complain about school did a number on her.  In the end she had a great year!  Almost everyday she practices how to write all of her friend's names.  The boys never did something like that.  She got several awards for the track meet, received the Kid of Character award and the American Citizenship award.  

Rafe made school so much better!

I'm not sure Bentley would had survived without Ms. Erica!  She kept that class together!

Bentley, Alora, and Rafe.

 Radley

Radley did awesome in 2nd grade!  He made straight A's and was the best reader in the class.  He got prizes all the time from his teacher and loved her.  Mrs. George was awesome!  He didn't receive the citizenship award, his teacher seemed to pick some kids that really needed to get that award which was great.  He missed school the day before the awards ceremony so they took the perfect attendance award away from him, which they've never done before.  It was especially odd with all the COVID absences there were with other kids.  He was sad, but there wasn't anything we could do.  He had some good friends in his class and really excelled this year.

My sweet Radley

Mrs. George and Radley.  She LOVED having Radley in her class.

Damon

We expected 4th grade to be a little difficult for Damon compared to other years.  He struggled a little bit, but overall did great!  The endless testing was hard on him, but he survived and worked hard.  Some days we weren't sure we would survive the homework together, but we did!!  He received the perfect attendance award and AB Honor Roll.  

All the 4th graders that got awards.

He had to get a picture with his little sister.

Damon loved being in Mrs. Wischkaempers class

Mackenzie was done with awards at this point.  She was ready to go!

It was so nice to get this note from Damon's teacher.  It's great to see that others notice Damon's kind heart.  I'm grateful she took the time to write this and give it to me.

Kyler

Kyler finished elementary school!!!  That is so crazy to me. He did amazing every year and 5th grade was no exception.  He had some great friends and loved all of his teachers.  His teachers have all really enjoyed having him in class too.  At the awards assembly he was awarded with A Honor Roll, perfect attendance, and the Presidential Educational Excellence award .  He also received a special award that only one boy and one girl in all of 5th grade can get.  It was the DAR award for distinct qualities of Good Citizenship: 

• Dependability — which includes truthfulness, loyalty and punctuality;

• Service — which includes cooperation, courtesy and consideration of others;

• Leadership — which includes personality, self-control and the ability to assume responsibility;

• Patriotism — which includes interest in family, school, community and nation, to an outstanding degree.

 

The 5th grade teachers all voted and chose Kyler as the boy.  We were really proud of him!  He was pretty excited too.

One proud kid!

One of his friends Alex

He was in Mrs. Thronberry's homeroom class this year.  He's had her for science for 2 years now.

This is the video for his DAR award where a short bio was given for him.  The first part the award is explained, but about 40 seconds in she starts to talk about Kyler.

April Was Busy

She does the splits wherever she goes

Mackenzie does too!

She wants to be a gymnast so bad

Life is rough for everyone when you think you're too big for naps!

Bentley had to do a school project about a country.  We thought England would be best since we have a lot of experience with it!

She was nervous to get up in front of everyone, but she did a fantastic job!

Nanny came to Wellington, but we couldn't get her 2nd COVID vaccine, so I drove her to Amarillo to get it.

Damon wanted German pancakes so I told him to make them.  He did!

He was very proud of himself!

Emma sent Kyler a tiny Rubik's cube.

 

Teeth Twins! Both missing one of their front teeth!

That tooth was so ready to come out!

Kyler made shrimp scampi pretty much by himself!  He did awesome!

Celebrated Papa's birhthday

Kenney's cousins have a slackline company and needed more online reviews, so they sent us a slackline so we would leave some reviews.

It's pretty tricky business.  Radley is the best at it in our house.

One of Kenney projects he was able to squeeze in after practices and games was a compost tumbler.  He did a great job.

When you take away the training line at the top it gets way harder, but they kids had a great time and it's really high quality.

Damon has been doing stuff like this since he was a baby.  I wonder if he will ever grow out of it???

Radley does not like losing his teeth; I can't blame him because I hated it too.  He really wanted to try the Nerf Gun method.  We didn't have much success at first.

After a few more days, Dad finally got it to work!  Radley was so relieved.

This girl goes fast on her scooter.  She has no fear and usually waits until the last inch to bale off before the sidewalk ends.  It's scary to watch sometimes, but she has no fear.  

That little leg gets to pushing off so fast!!

When the weather has been warm enough, we have tried to make little visits to see Nanny.  The activities director at the hospital got some bubbles out for the kids and everyone loved it.  All the nurses came out to watch them, and they called Kenney out of the hospital too!

Easter

We've been trying to make Easter become a more scared and Christ-centered week at our house. Every day throughout the week we tried to have a short lesson that was Easter related. We usually tried to do an activity based on what Christ was doing during that day of his final week on earth. Some lessons were successful and others needed some work, but we did manage to at least hang a picture on our big poster. It was really nice having that hanging in our living room.

The Passover dinner was a huge hit!!  Everyone loved it!

We also had some rotisserie chicken and naan bread.  It wasn't the most authentic food, but the kids LOVED it.  I was shocked how much they ate and enjoyed it.  They asked to eat it every week.

We watched the Bible video of Christ being crucified and buried.  It was great for the kids to ask questions and feel the Spirit.

The dreaded dying of Easter eggs.  Mackenzie sure had fun though.

Yes, we used a Christmas table cloth to protect my counters.

Rachea gave me this really cool amaryllis that bloomed right before Easter.  It was beautiful.

After we had church at home we, we went to visit Nanny.

Then we went to the Barlow's house for Easter lunch.  Rachea even made Kenney a birthday cake, or put candles in the cake she made.

Cousins ready to get some eggs

Lots of room for lots of eggs!

Checking out their candy!

 

The kids were all telling Nanny what they got for Easter in their baskets.

Mackenzie was hilarious!  Her yelling GO! at the beginning, to her missing the bucket for the first few eggs, to giving an egg to Logan.  She was pretty funny!

That's a lot of kids!

We had to redo this reenactment and be a little bit more reverent.