Best Dad EVER!

The girls had sleepovers last night,

and David took them out for a special breakfast.

Yup, the best dad EVER!

Lydia's Poem

Lydia's class wrote poems to end the year, with the theme "I Am From..."

I just love it.  Here's what she wrote:

I am from summer dresses,

From American Girl and fun.

I am from colorful walls to hard wood floors.

From the park on playful trees.

I am from Christmas and family. 

From Mom, Dad, and Bex.

I am from cooking and laughter

From "do your homework" to "go play"

I am from cheerful and fun.

From Nashville and Ireland

Watermelons to hot cocoa.

From Uncle Fred and cancer, the fun to bad,

The sobbing to laughter with family.

I am from the bookshelf, laughter, and cries.

by Lydia

Our Memorial Day Weekend

Our Memorial Day weekend was full of time with friends.

  Friday night we went shopping for our trip to Guatemala.  Then Saturday, David spent the day on the river with some buddies, celebrating a friend's birthday.  Meanwhile, I was outside chatting with my neighbor, Shawna, and getting burnt to a crisp!  Saturday night, we spent some wonderful time with Todd, Renee, and their family.  Then Sunday, we hung out with friends from church at lunch, and the Boyes for dinner.  Then today, we relaxed all day until the Greens came over.  Then it was time for this.

And this. 

And this. 

The girls had a fun time on the slip and slide with Sarah, Ellie, and Abby. 

Even Bear got in on the fun (and got a little wet). 

There may, or may not, have been a Dora sprinkler as well.  *grin* 

Afterward, we pigged out and hung out. 

Hope everyone had a restful Memorial Day.

Report Cards & TCAP Scores

These crazy girls finished out the year with a bang!!

We got their final report card grade, along with their quick grade TCAP scores. Both of the girls made honor roll, and we are very proud of their TCAP scores!

Here’s the breakdown of their scores:

 

Lydia gets a separate grade for Reading and Language Arts. These are combined to give her a Literacy score to correspond with her TCAP test.

Lydia made four A’s and one B.

Reading: 85 B
Language Arts: 91 A
Math: 94 A (Woohoo!)
Science: 94 A
Social Studies: 91 A

Here are her TCAP scores:
Literacy: 93 (Advanced)
Math: 80 (So proud of this score! She’s worked so hard!)
Science: 92
Social Studies: 93 (Advanced)

Here is the breakdown of Bekah’s scores. Bekah gets one Language Arts grade, but it was counted as both her Literacy grade and her Language Arts grade on her report card (reported twice).

Here’s the breakdown of her grades. She got four A’s and two B’s.

Personal Fitness: 100 A

Language Arts: 88 B

Social Studies: 89 B

Math: 97 A

Band: 99 A

Science: 95 A

Here are her TCAP scores:

Literacy: 92

Social Studies: 93 (Advanced)

Science: 92

Math: 79

When we got the TCAP scores, Bekah reminded us that she didn’t finish her Math TCAP. All year, Bekah’s teacher focused on them getting the concepts and not on speed. I barely had to help Bekah with her Math homework this year, so I know she’s getting the concepts. Maybe next year we can work on speed. But I’d much rather her have the knowledge than the speed. =)

Cumulatively, for the year, Bekah made straight A’s. (See the last column.)

We are so proud of our girls and all their hard work! Such smart cookies!!

Bekah's Honors

Rebekah came home from school last week and this week toting a couple of awards!

Bekah got a certificate for completing the DARE program and another certificate for having Honor Roll all year long!

So proud of my girl!

Lydia's End-of-the-Year Class Party

Yesterday, Lydia's class had their class party to celebrate the end of the school year.

I didn't tell Lydia I was coming to the party, so she was quite surprised. 

The had their snacks and then worked on a Father's Day craft. 

Seriously, how cute is this kid??

I was so glad that I got to come to this party!  And I can't believe my baby is going into 5th GRADE!!

Rebekah's Yearbook

Rebekah brought home her yearbook today.  The cover is a picture of a hornet (their mascot) comprised of tons of tiny pictures of the students.

Can you find Rebekah in the crowd?

Here, I'll help you.  Bottom row, far left.  =)

Here's part of Rebekah's rather large, 6th grade class. 

There she is, second row.

Bekah really cracked up to see one of her favorite teachers, Mr. Lee, on the faculty page.

Have you ever seen a faculty picture like this?  Ha ha!

Of course, Bekah was in the 6th Grade Band photo as well.  She's on the front row, toward the middle.

The middle school yearbooks are really nice.  I'm so glad she's got this to save her memories.  She got some of her friends to sign it today, and she's taking it back to school tomorrow (for the LAST day of school)!!  Wow!  Where has the time gone??

Conduit Underground

Today, our church did a little something different.

We met in ten different houses around the area to get a feel for what it's like to meet in an underground church, like they do in so many other countries (like Iran and China).

We had a time of worship, and then listened to a brief message prepared by our pastor, Darren.

  

Then we heard a message from Naghmeh Abedini, who asked that May 19 be an international day of prayer for her husband, Saeed.  He is an American citizen, currently imprisoned in Iran for nothing more than his Christian faith.  He was setting up a non-religious orphanage in Iran and was arrested for "setting up house churches" which is not what he was doing.  He has been beaten, denied medical care, and put in solitary confinement.  She asked that we pray for the persecuted church around the world. 

Afterward, Russ led the group in discussing persecution.  Brian shared about their time in China, and Russ' dad shared about their time as missionaries as well. 

Afterward, we had a potluck and the kids had some fun playing in the (cold!) pool. 

Lydia's Glee Musical Videos

You Can't Stop the Beat


Broadway Medley


Music Man


Because I Knew You



We Go Together (Grease)


Whistle a Happy Tune

Lydia's Glee Musical

Thursday night, Lydia had her big Glee Musical.  They've been working hard on the songs all year, and the night finally arrived for them to give their performance.

They were doing different Broadway songs throughout the show.  Lydia's part/song was part of You Can't Stop the Beat from the show Hairspray.

The girls were to wear fun dresses and have big hair.  I tried to do really big hair, but Lydia was having none of it.  She wouldn't let me do a bouffant, and I caught her smoothing down the top of her head before we walked out the door.  (She said she didn't want to look like a nerd. LOL!)

We put on a little "stage" make-up...just a little...and we were good to go.

The kids sang songs from Wicked, Grease, Hairspray, The King & I, Rent, and The Music Man.

Afterward, we grabbed a few pics with her friends.

Lydia (Hairspray), Alyssa (Rent), Becca (Grease), and Grey (The King & I).

And one last shot of Emma (Rent) and Lydia.

They did a great job and it was super entertaining.  Videos to follow.

Lydia's Yearbook

Lydia brought her yearbook home this week, so I wanted to share Lydia's various photos throughout the yearbook.

So here they are, in order of appearance:

Lydia in Glee.  (She's in the front row, black shirt, fifth from the right.)

Lydia is Run Club.  (She's in the back row, fourth from the left.)

Lydia is one of the kids working on a Science experiment in the top left photo.

Veteran's Day Program: Lydia's in the photo on the right.

The girls in Lydia's class during their Fall party.  She's in the front row, far right.

This is Lydia's class page.

She is the group shot, sixth from the left, in the orange shirt.  She's also in the second row of pics.

Here's the fourth grade collage photo.

If you zoom in, you can see that she's right next to Dr. Allen.

So there you have it!  Lydia's appearances in her fourth grade yearbook!!