Belated BTS Haircuts!

The girls all got haircuts on Friday. I am so lucky to have Frances as a bonus mom for my girls. She took them all in and got them taken care of. Even brought them by after to see me and took before and after pictures for my blog. Didn't even mock me and call me a nerd like others have. Anyway, here are the before and after pics. 

McKayla 

Natalie 

Alivia

Quarter One

It is the end of the first quarter for my girls and that means we just had parent teacher conferences. I love the time I get to spend talking to my children's teachers about them. For posterity sake, I like to record some notes here as well.

Alivia

Report Card:
English/Language Arts - B
Math - B
Social Studies - C (mostly due to a group project done while she was out)
Science - B
Health - A
PE - M (Meets grade level standard)
Music - M
Traits of successful learners - M

Notes from her teacher: I love having Alivia in my class again this year She is an enthusiastic learner who arrives at school with a smile each day and embraces new challenges with a positive attitude. Alivia is a kind and caring student who is always willing to participate and share her wonderful ideas. The enthusiasm she shows for school, friends and life in general energizes our whole room. Alivia puts a lot of effort into her assignments and tries her best through out the day. Keep up all the great work you are doing! You are a third grader who truly shines!

Conference notes: Fantastic conference! Alivia is doing amazing and her teacher loves her. Since this is her second year in Mrs. Dallas' class, that helps. We love Mrs. Dallas, she's known the girls' dad's family for generations. Anyway, Liv doesn't have much to work on. She's really got nothing to work on and not a lot of habits she needs to change.

Natalie

English/Language Arts - B
Math - C
Social Studies - B
Science - A
Health - A
PE - M (Meets grade level standard)
Music - M

Traits of successful learners - M

Notes from her teacher: Natalie is a bright light who makes our classroom is a better place! She has had an amazing amount of growth as a reader this year. She also continues to show growth in math. Natalie should continue reading every night, for at least twenty minutes. If she could read with an adult a few times a week, it would benefit Natalie's comprehension. I am so proud of Natalie. She is a compassionate and friendly student who perseveres in her daily work. Natalie, than you for being a shining example of what it means to be a hard and dedicated worker. You are a magical unicorn!

Conference Notes: Natalie's reading 64 words per minute, very close to the 70 wpm goal set in her IEP. She is doing great in school. Natalie seems to have a love of writing like her mommy and is showing a knack for it already. Even though her spelling is phonetic she still tries and does amazingly. Her teacher loves that she gets in there and works hard. She only asks for help when she really needs it. We will have an IEP update meeting in December to see where she is sitting for her goals this last year.

McKayla

English/Language Arts - B
Math - B
Social Studies - A
Science - A
Health - A
PE - M (Meets grade level standard)
Music - M
Instrumental Music - A (Pleasure to have in class. )

Traits of successful learners - M

Notes from her teacher: It has been lovely getting to know McKayla this quarter. McKayla is a sweet, hard working individual. She constantly has a bright smile on her face and she tries her best at each assignment that she is given. She is excellent at following directions, completing tasks and helping her classmates on anything that they need. I would encourage McKayla to voice her opinions more and share her ideas with her peers. Communicating her understanding will only help McKaya's confidence and knowledge base grow. McKayla shows a strong interest in writing, especially when she is able to create her own story. However, I have noticed frequent misspellings and grammatical errors. I look forward to seeing McKayla's growth throughout the remainder of the year.

Conference Notes: McKayla is doing well overall. She is quiet in class but does well in groups. There is one concern though: her spelling and grammar errors may not be random. Her teacher is concerned there may be an underlying cause. Before we jump to conclusions, she is having a nearly certified teacher work with M for 15 minutes every day until Christmas break. The teacher will document what she's doing and M's progress. If there hasn't been a lot of progress, we will move into testing to see if testing is necessary for an IEP (Individualized Education Plan - what Natalie has) or possibly a 504 to accommodate to her personal needs (for example, she might require a computer to be successful at writing, just an example). 

Camp Recap!

I am so very blessed to be a part of The Salvation Army. My children have been able to go to church camp since turning seven. Until this year, they had been going to Camp Kuratli at Trestle Glen in Boring, Oregon.

This year was different, the girls got to go to Camp Pinewood in beautiful McCall, Idaho with a bunch of other children from Idaho. Having an "Idaho camp" allowed for other children to have the opportunity to go, who might otherwise not be able to.

This is the day they left, Stephen got to drop them off. He was kind enough to send me pictures. Something he doesn't usually do, but I asked nicely and since he loves me so much, he obliged.

The girls got home today. Since their other mom is so awesome, she got pictures and asked them all questions! These are memories I will treasure someday so I feel the need to document it for posterity's sake.

McKayla: Best memories of camp: slip and slide and naming a deer Courtney.

Worst memory of camp: Hearing about the black bear in the camp.

Funniest memory from camp: meeting Emma

Natalie: Best memories from camp: the slip and slide

Worst memory from camp: black bear

Funniest memory from camp: boys being scared of the bear

**please note. when answering the questions, she was still not feeling great from the trip. She is a tendency toward carsickness

Alivia: Best memories from camp: Slip and slide. Seeing a fox drinking water. Seeing a deer with three babies

Worst memory from camp: her tummy kept hurting and she kept being sent to the bathroom, even when she didn't need to go. She didn't like her counselor.

Funniest memory from camp: the boys were being so crazy and loud that one of them needed their inhaler.

Other notes:

The lake was amazing but it was storming.

None of the girls can decide which camp they like better.

Alivia thought the McCall camp was slightly better because they saw more nature.

WW: Funny Girls

Linking up with Mama Kat again this week for writers workshop. If you want to learn more about it, click the link at the bottom of this post. The prompt I chose this week is: Something your kids said that made you laugh.

My girls always seem to have something funny to say. Of course, when given the chance to talk about it, I can't seem to think of anything off the top of my head. To add some length to the post, I will just add their school pictures.

Lately it's been a lot of attitude from Natalie. The other morning Stephen was talking to them about cereal portions. He was explaining that if they used the regular size bowls, they didn't need to be full. To emphasize his point, he reminded them about the day before, when a half bowl full had gone in the trash. Natalie promptly told him "don't look at me, I finished mine!" Just so freaking fast that it made us both laugh at her.

Alivia has been frequently using the word "hangry." I finally asked her if she even knew what that meant. She looked at me like I was crazy and said "uh, it is hungry angry mom."

Then there is Miss McKayla. She hasn't been as much funny lately as she has been hormonal. Pre-teens! The other day she had a huge breakdown because she was sure her sisters were lying to us about something she "hadn't" done. After I had finished talking to her about her behavior, she went outside. Not three minutes later, she was back inside crying that her sisters were lying. I thought the conversation was completely over already. Apparently not. She continued to be mad at me for the next hour before she was back to "normal." I am so not looking forward to the next few years. Pray for me! I have three girls that need to make it through puberty.

This post inspired by:

Wordless Wednesday

#coparentingdoneright 

SO grateful that Frances had this idea.
She made a point of making sure that we got a picture of our girls' whole family together.
This is something they deserve to have.
Sometimes it might be uncomfortable.
Sometimes we might not want to.
But we do,
because they are worth it.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Mostly Wordless Wednesday