Night of the Notables

Grabbed a few pics of Boo at his gifted Night of the Notables event. Each kiddo picked their Notable Person, researched them, completed a power point presentation, costume and poster board. Family members were to go around the room and ask questions of each kiddo and then guess what famous/notable person they were. (When Ian did this for his class, he was Brett Favre. Pre-texting (sexting) allegations. Ahem.)
Ethan decided to be Rafael Nadal. (Can I just say how excited I was when he told me he chose him! I think the only other living athlete that would excite me more would be TIm Tebow). I realize there are/were many famous notable people who made fabulous, wonderful contributions to this world, but for this athletic momma, I was one happy chickita! Ok, so anyways, at the end of the night each kiddo took to the stage and declared what notable person they were.

 Notables ranged (for the girls) from Madame Curie, Ruby Bridges and Laura Ingalls Wilder-to Lucille Ball, Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift, Angelina Jolie, Jane Goodall and Selena Gomez. Two girls chose male notables: Charles Dickens and Elvis. Really.

 Boys ranged from Mohammed Ali, Dale Earnhart, Jr. Albert Einstein, (my favorite costume-sorry Boo!)

(Ethan is checking out Honest Abe's not so honest moustache! ;-) (Little of my corny wit inserted here).

 Abe Lincoln, Peyton and Eli Manning, Michael Jordan and more. Boys were definitely heavy on the athletes, girls a little on the pop stars. Nonetheless, always a fun and interesting evening when you fill a room with a bunch of enthusiastic, animated kiddos and their family members and teachers!

Anyhoo...here's the dude in all of his glory. (Envision  bigger biceps, darker complexion, dark brown eyes, dark brown hair). There ya go...here's to Rafael Nadal!

First Day of Junior High

Yep. Can't believe I am the mother of a junior high kid! Time flying exponentially for me now.
Today was exciting and bittersweet. Ian going back to public school after three years home with me and Boo beginning his educational adventure at home with me! Honoring both of their wishes in terms of how they wanted to be schooled this year (Although don't get the idea that they had the sole say in the decision-they both knew Mom and Dad had the final say so).

Ian's Day:

• Came home with a bunch of papers to sign and more school items to purchase along with a report of 2 cursings and one waving of a digit by a few 8th graders. None of which was directed at him, but nonetheless, he was witness to it all. So much for naivete`. SIGH

Ethan's Day:

• Began very early (as he wanted to be done before or at the same time as his Big Bro) at 7:15AM
• subjects covered: spelling, vocabulary, writing, more language arts, typing, German, penmanship, math, social studies, science art and PE!
• highlights: learning about Euclid, Escher, tessellations, fractals and Sierpinski's triangle (and creating one) learning about taxonomy, Linnaeus and making an inverted pyramid of the Classification groupings as a memory aid
• Lots of energy, excitement and happily, no complaints! Here's hoping tomorrow is more of the same!

Orientation

One could just taste the anticipation...

...and the fear (by both kiddos and parents alike) in the auditorium. Stifling!

Heading into "Advisory Classroom" (AKA: Homeroom to us "Old Schoolers")

 The flag outside the  school. I was trying to catch the gorgeous sun's rays from the oncoming sunset but didn't have my wide angle lens with me!

Here's a better shot over the rooftop of the junior high.

And this one on my drive to TB to play tennis. (SOOC and taken through the window of my vehicle)

Journey from Tweenhood to Teenhood + The Short List

Today...I've been reading + researching books + websites for study topics + curriculum for Boo. He is going to be home schooled this year and Ian will go to jr. high. Big changes (insert HUGE here) for us all.
Orientation is tonight. Mixed emotions for all of us as we trek our way along this journey from "Tweenhood to Teenhood" + beyond.

Excited.
Nervous.
Scared.
Apprehensive.
Cautious trepidation.
Anticipating good things.
Great memories.
Forming new friendships.
Keeping some old.
Building new bonds.
Strengthening others.
Communicating better. (And with different/much different mediums than what I grew up with. Learning a new language (texting).
Keeping an old language ! (Plain ole face-to-face encounters with English-LOL)


Will try to post some pics of the big event "l8r."   ;-)
Suz


PS The reason I began this post was actually to create a short list of books I've been reading. Please comment on any recommendations you might be enjoying.
Here's my current "SHORT LIST":

Crazy Love- Francis Chan
Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling (hope to have completely read by Nov.21 the day the movie is out in theaters).
Phantom of the Opera- Gaston Leroux
Life Skills for Kids -Christine M. Field
The Holy Bible (ongoing read)
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto -Mark Levin


As you can probably imagine now, my nightstand (and my Kindle) is overflowing with good reads!