SCE Spirit Day

Leyton Waller and Preston

After spring break, everyone gets antsy and ready for school to end.  The longer days, the warmer weather and summer at our fingertips makes it hard for the kids to really focus on school.  So as the end of the school year gets within single digits, the kids get super excited for summer!  Spirit Day is always in the last week of school, and always a really fun day for the kids. Let's get this summer started!!

getting some air!

John Michael Graduates!

It is hard to believe that our little ring bearer, who was mad at us for the entire wedding reception because we didn't put the actual rings on his pillow for the wedding (I don't know why we didn't honestly), graduated college this weekend!  John Michael is all grown up!  Over the past 13 years, I have really enjoyed watching JM grow up (in height, maturity and age).

John Michael graduated from John Carroll Catholic High School, with his sights set on a IT degree from UAB.  He did great all through high school, so we didn't want to miss his big day.  Steve, Bennett and I attended the ceremony at Samford, and then we picked up the boys and met everyone at Cocina Superior for the celebratory dinner.

We are so proud of you John Michael!

4th Grade Wax Museum

The students of Shades Cahaba have something to look forward to every year....musicals (which are done by every other grade starting in Kindergarten), science fairs, special field trips, spirit day, winter festival and more.  This year for Bennett, she had wax museum.  This is where all of the 4th graders dress up and have to be VERY still while parents and other students come view them.

Each class took a different time period.  Bennett's class focused on the women's suffrage movement.... the decades long fight for women's equality and their ability to vote.  It is a great learning experience because the kids have to study their assigned time period, and then decide on who they want to dress up like.  Bennett and I went shopping and she found suitable clothes for her costume.

Walker and I came to the "museum" to see Bennett and her classmates.  They all looked great.  However, shortly after we left, one of her friends passed out.  She evidently locked her knees and stared into the lights for too long and just passed out.  Thankfully she was okay, but supposedly it happens to a child every year.

I look forward to Preston's year to see what time period he gets, and how he dresses up.

And the Littlest One Learns to Swim

tears from the first day

Last winter I enrolled Walker in swim lessons at the YMCA because I couldn't get him into the swim instructor that taught our other two children how to swim, Laura Canterbury.  Like I expected it would be, they were a complete waste.  Walker could hold onto a noodle and blow bubbles, but if an accident happened....he would sink like a rock.  I knew I needed to change that, so I called right after Christmas this year and got Walker signed up for swim lessons this spring.

Laura's two week class is brutal on the parents and the children for the first couple of days, but by the end of the first week, it improves.  Her tactic is to pry the child away from the parent, blow in their face and dunk them, and then let them go while instructing them to kick their legs.  She taps on their head and reminds them to breath, while grabbing their swim trunks and pulling up, so they don't sink.  It is amazing to watch them transform into little swimmers in just a few short days.  The lessons were after school, so Walker was already a little tired, but he was a trooper.  In fact, by the end of week one he was swimming several feet unassisted.

holding his head down and forcing him to look down (which keeps them horizontal in the pool)

Finally getting it and swimming!

The second week, he would jump in repeatedly off the side of the pool and swim to the steps all by himself over and over again while he waited for his turn to swim with Laura.  He took a breath a couple of times, but Laura thinks he needs to learn to kick stronger before he can adequately breath because he sort of sinks when he lifts his head.  However, this new found confidence it just what we all needed to kick off our summer!