Where did I put those darn earplugs?

My little drummer boy...sans cymbals. Baby steps.

Wordless Wednesday

I can't believe it's over...

Last Wednesday was the big 5th grade banquet for my Ben... doesn't he look handsome all dressed up before school?

We gussied up the school cafeteria pretty well...

The theme was a Parisian Cafe'... I love the kids' renditions of the Eiffel Tower. They didn't even know they were making them to decorate their own banquet. Sneaky art teacher!




We even had a standing Eiffel Tower made out of cardboard... it was supposed to be 16' tall, but the bottom legs didn't look too sturdy, so we improvised & took them off. I still thought it was pretty impressive, especially with the lights twinkling.


Isn't this a pretty work of art?

You would never know it was on the door of a school cafeteria.

Here's Ben's place setting. Aren't those memory books cool? Absolutely stunning, right? I think whoever designed them must be an artistic GENIUS! (teehee!) Actually, I was pretty proud of how they came out. Ben's superlative for his class was "Most Likely to Be President"... maybe my politically minded dad can be his campaign manager. Leave me the heck outta that one!

They had each table come in one by one to have their pictures taken, then they were lead to their tables by their "server". Here's Ben's group... minus the other kids' faces.

Here's Ben with some of his awards. He got a medal for getting straight A's, one for perfect attendance & one for being an "Ancient Mariner"... he went straight through from Kindergarten to 5th grade. His first visit to the school was when he was a week old, when he visited his sisters' classrooms. His legs weren't even all stretched out yet.

I know my son is growing up, but I don't think he should be in a class with girls who wear shoes like this... YOWSER! You should have seen the boots she wore to the 1st semester awards ceremony... I wish girls wouldn't try to grow up so fast!

After the banquet, the rest of the school lined the halls for "Clap Out" as the 5th graders paraded through the halls. This tradition started after my girls graduated from the school (as did the banquet), I had never seen it done & I admit I was bawling like a baby.

I'm thinking the girl with the high heels was regretting that choice about now...

There's Ben...he's the one with the un-pixelated face. Duh?!

When all was said & done, we came home & had a little photo shoot with his sisters. They're so proud of their little brother. The day will come soon when he'll be resting his arms on their shoulders. *Sigh* Where does the time go?


Then he was off to his first drum lesson. Oy vey!

Perfect!

So, it's my boy's last week of elementary school. The big 5th grade banquet is on Wednesday, last day on Thursday. Although I missed the awards ceremony this morning (I didn't get the memo), Ben informed me that he got straight A's for this 9 weeks... which means he got straight A's for the year! Woohoo! He also had Perfect Attendance. That, my friends, is a PERFECT REPORT CARD!

Way to go Ben!

Lost

No, not the TV show. Me. I'm lost. Another weekend with no soccer & no plans. I need a plan, direction. As of now, my only plan for the weekend is this for dinner tonight.

I need to come up with a plan or I will sit here in my jams all day playing Zuma.

Not much...

Not much to report here. We somehow managed to get through a holiday weekend without soccer... well, not MUCH soccer anyway, we did end up having a team lunch/meeting with Jordan's team after the girls had a light practice on Saturday. The fam went to see Star Trek (we all enjoyed it, though none of us has seen more than a hand full of ST episodes) on Sunday, then we had my parents over to celebrate dad's bday. On Monday, my friend Kristen & her husband hosted a Guacamole Throwdown. I actually had never had guacamole before. Very yummy indeed!

The big excitement around here is that after washing all the damn gray out of my hair this morning, I plucked a gray hair out of my !@#$! eyebrows. How long has that been there?! Aargh!

I'm bringing Mom to IKEA this morning. YEAH! I love me some IKEA!

Oh! and I FINALLY heard back from that teacher about the 5th grade banquet stuff. Another parent volunteered to print of the invitations & memory books in color. So I'm off the hook. I wonder if she ended up using my designs or made some herself. I'll let you know... and I will TRY so hard not to be offended if she didn't use mine.

Catch!

I've been so neglectful of this blog lately. I was on a roll at the beginning of the month, then life caught up with me again. My thoughts & activities are scattered far & wide, so I think I'll utilize the bullet point...

• The new IKEA store opened here on May 6. I was going to try to stay away for a month or so, til the crowds died down a little bit, but I needed a bookshelf. So Megan & I spent two hours in HEAVEN last week! I have never been to an IKEA before & I have to say that I'm in love. I don't normally like the modern European style, but I really did love so much of it. Michael has always loved that style & I'm thinking that if I can get one of their wardrobes in our bedroom, I may even redo the whole room to match. Not that I would really have to "redo" anything, as our bedroom is full of mismatched hand-me-downs & clutter that doesn't fit anywhere else in our house, but still...

• School is winding down here. The kids get out on June 4. June 3 is the big 5th grade banquet. It is IMPOSSIBLE that Ben, my baby, will be in middle school next year!

• Speaking of the banquet... I've designed the invitations & memory book cover to match the (surprise) theme of the event. I'm really happy with the way they turned out. I sent them to the teacher who is organizing the event (thankfully she's not Ben's teacher) on March 24 & have been going back & forth with her since. Actually, I've been emailing her often & receiving input back rarely. She requested some (bogus) changes & I'm waiting for her final approval before I print them. I'm getting antsy. I want it done! I'm irked that the changes she wanted make them not nearly as cute as they were. I'll show you what I'm talking about when it's over...

• Ben has been taking speech therapy at the elementary school since he was 3. That's 8 years of speech! As of Wednesday, he is dismissed from the program. WOOHOO!!! When he first started, the school went through 3 speech therapists over the course of about 2 months. Ben's speech impediment at the time was pretty severe & we were really discouraged at the turn over. Then, in November 2001, along came Ms. Kelli. Oh Ms. Kelli! Pretty, young, perky Ms. Kelli. I think Ben purposely didn't graduated from speech so he could visit with Ms. Kelli 2-3 times a week. I have a feeling the speech therapist at the middle school wouldn't be quite so appealing, Ben probably had that feeling too. Michael was disappointed that he was was out of town Wednesday & couldn't go to the dismissal meeting. Ms. Kelli may be the thing both of my guys miss most about elementary school. I can't believe I don't have a picture of her... I'll make sure to remedy that at the banquet.

• Last weekend, we had Michael's brother & the grandparents over for a cookout to celebrate what we're now calling "Grandmother's Day" (the Sunday after Mother's Day). I had hoped to get some pictures of the kids with all of their grandparents, but unfortunately I forgot all about that after the first pitcher of margaritas. Bummer! I guess I'll shoot to get that done on "Grandfather's Day". Lack of picture taking aside, we had a great time & ate some yummy food (oh yeah! and enjoyed the margaritas...)

• We've been in a draught here in west-central Florida (actually, I think most, if not all of Florida) for about 3 years now. The past few months have been especially bad. The water restictions have been tight, the lawns have been parched and the ponds in our neighborhood have been drying up. It's been sad. Monday morning, the sky opened up & it's been raining pretty much for a week straight. The weather forcast is for more of the same all weekend. The lawns are happy. The ducks are happy.

• Jordan is sad. Her soccer practice has been canceled twice this week.

• The tournament her team is supposed to be playing in this weekend has also been canceled. Tragic.
  

Actually, it does put us in a kind of funny position. What does a family do on 3 day weekends when there isn't a soccer tournament? Hmmm....

Whatever you do, I hope you have a fun & safe Memorial Day Weekend!