Hard at Work!

We're overdue for a school update, but these kids have been working hard this year!

Adam and Leah both tackled the Novel Writing Challenge in November, and they both worked really hard to finish their stories!  That required 300 words a day from Adam and 500 words a day from Leah all month long, and they did it!  Adam's story, The Lego Lab, details the adventures of a boy who is transported to a Lego World. 

Leah's story is called The Sister Swap and follows two sisters who switch bodies and learn more about each other as a result.  This is the third year that Leah has participated in this program, and the third time was definitely a charm- I'm not sure why it took us this many years to divide the word count by the days in the month and then mildly threaten the kids that they wouldn't get dinner until their word count was met, but it worked like a charm!  There were no tears, no despairing moments of panic, no giving up.  Slow and steady won this race, and we celebrated by taking the kids to the new trampoline place in town, Urban Air. 

And by we I mean Jason, who also took them to a basketball game one night.  Fun and games daddy for the win!

Not pictured here- Emma, who took full advantage of the social opportunities a basketball game provides.

It has been such a delight for me to be in Emma's classroom this year.  I get to work with her and all of her classmates,

and sometimes I get to see some of the fun things they get to do- like this balloon float parade!

When she's not working hard at school, Emma enjoys writing songs, and they're really quite good! 

She has been asking for a guitar for a long time now, and after some research and asking around we decided the ukulele would be a perfect place for her to start learning about stringed instruments.

 And thanks to modern technology, she's even started lessons!

I love this age and grade- so many colors and ideas and words.  Second grade is pretty awesome!

This is true!

One week Adam, Emma, and Noah all received the main event award, where their names are called out by Principal Moss over the loudspeaker.  Go team!

And just a few months of hard work later, we were marking off the 100th day of school!  

Celebrated with bacon and pancakes

 Or, in Leah's case, nothing.  Because "they don't celebrate anything in middle school!"

 What a happy first 100 days of school!

We love Edwina and her chocolate chip cookies and espeically Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie!

Taught like a true Iowan.

I love that Emma thinks her daddy will still have an influence over her ability to get a cat when she is 100 years old.

Adam was asked to join a Quiz Bowl team about 24 hours before the competition,  

which was a little nerve-wracking, 

 and he did a great job!

 It was equal parts fun and intense, and he definitely pulled his weight on his team!

 And once or twice a year we take the afternoon off and head north for a family field trip- this time to see Click, Clack, Moo!  Leah opted not to join us (middle school is a bit harder to miss!) but the rest of us had a great time! 

I'm never opposed (yet) to taking the kids out of school in favor of an equally important experience.  In our family, we work hard wherever we are.  If we're in school, we do our best in school, and when it's time to play, we have a whole lot of fun playing!