Max's Moment

When I sent Max to Kindergarten a month or so ago I had no doubt he was ready. In fact it seemed he had been "ready" for years. What I didn't know was exactly how that "readiness" would translate into his performance and perception as a student at school. Max is a very smart boy, but not "showy smart" like Reed. People could always recognize that Reed was smart because he has such a great memory, knows lots of stuff and  readily shares all of his stored information. Max on the other hand is smart in a way that only becomes obvious when you take the time to notice.

  Max has also always been my Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde as far as behavior is concerned and  I wasn't sure which one would show up in the classroom. He can be ridiculously polite, sweet, kind and thoughtful. I have thought before that if you could make it on adorableness Max would be set for life. On the other hand he has also been known to be relentlessly stubborn, sometimes making  his wishes known only in the form of a glorious fit. 

During the first few weeks of school I waited anxiously, curious to know which direction things would head for him. My answer came sooner than I anticipated when Max came home after the first few weeks of school with a notice that he would honored at a special lunch assembly for receiving the "Character Counts" award for the month of September, selected from his class for being an example of good character. When I asked Max if he knew why he was chosen he said, "I don't know. I guess because I always follow direction." His teacher later elaborated that Max is always eager to do the right thing and reaches out to help others who need it.

Max was so excited when we came to eat with him at his awards presentation.

Of course he chose a Lunchable as his "special lunch". 

Ruby was pretty excited to be there too.

The proud recipient.

Ruby-- doing everything she can to keep the attention on her.

The other part of my question was answered a few days later when  I got an e-mail from Max's teacher letting me know how well his was doing. She had just done the reading assessments and wanted let me know that Max had tested far beyond anyone else in her class. She was emailing to get my permission for Max to join a special enrichment group with 3 other Kindergartners from other classrooms who were also reading on the same level. I was thrilled and overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude that my prayers had been answered that his teachers had taken the time to see what a capable boy he was. I was also so proud of all the effort Max has put into learning. Reading came unusually easy to Reed, but Max really worked at it and I  absolutely love that about him. I knew his academic achievements had come from both natural ability and lots of determined effort.

Max is  now doing great in his enrichment class and has continued to make great strides as he is challenged. The other afternoon while I was helping Reed with his homework Max asked if it mattered who he did his out loud reading to. I told him it didn't matter and naturally assumed he would be reading to Ruby.

I was wrong. Now Monkey know a lot more about George Washington.

 

I love this boy and I'm so glad he is getting his opportunity to shine.

Wow...I've posted 3 days in a row. Is it too early to say I'm on a roll?

Canned Food Drive

Sam and I are always trying to encourage our kids to "think of others" more. We have also had great intentions to incorporate more service opportunities into their lives, but planning those types of opportunities don't seem to happen as often as we would like. So when our Stake Day of Service arrived, including a canned food drive, we knew this was an opportunity not to be missed.  We also knew our kids would need no encouragement to get involved. For some reason, they LOVE canned food drives.  I can only guess it's because it's been one of the few experiences where they have felt like they personally contributed to a big service project and have enjoyed the good feelings that service brings. Whatever the case may be, they were thrilled when we told them we were going to be canvasing the neighborhood with flyers and knocking on doors to encourage food donations. What was even more surprising and pleasing to me was that Reed and Max wanted to knock doors on their own while Ruby and I worked on the opposite side of the street. (Sam got to be on his own team.) I was a little nervous about how they would handle talking with people, but as I listened from across the street all I could do was smile and be impressed with their bold and courageous presentation. I even laughed a little to myself when I heard them explain that we would be by the next day between 8 and 9 a.m. to pick up any donations, followed up quickly with "And a good thing it's going to be Saturday, otherwise we would be at school at that time."  Watching them scurry from house to house was pure sweetness as I couldn't help but imagine them as confident future missionaries.  Even Ruby was anxious to contribute in every way she could. She really wanted me to let her do all the talking and while I always let her help, it was almost never enough for her.

The next day collecting food was even more exciting for the kids, dragging their wagon through the neighborhood watching the back of our truck fill up. Reed even told me, "This is almost as fun as trick-or-treating" Max added, "Yeah...it's like practice trick-or-treating." This was obviously a light bulb moment for Reed who then suggested we do a canned food drive every year a few weeks before Halloween.

Reed had no problem leading out  in this activity. I could see on his face how happy he was that his efforts the previous day had been fruitful.

My hard-working Max is never far behind when it comes to keeping up with Reed.

Ruby wouldn't  dream of being left out of this (or anything).  She chased the boys and wagon through the neighborhood helping wherever she could.

No--our life is not always sunshine and roses or a truck load of canned food, but sometimes it is and that's something I definitely don't want to forget.

It's official...

...I stink at trying to "catch up". And, while I am not willing to admit defeat, I am willing to move along for now and hope, for the sake of record keeping, that keeping up with a more current moment in our life will be more motivating.

Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year. For as long as I can remember that has been the true, and living on the East Coast for the past  8 years (Yikes!) has only solidified its top spot. Living in a more rural area sure helps too. Every drive out of our neighborhood is a scenic one. With an intro like that you'd think I'd have some lovely pictures of some of the beautiful Autumn foliage that abounds, but I never seem to have my camera at the right moment. I did, however, have my camera on our recent trip to a nearby farm and corn maze. What says fall more than a corn maze, and, as beautiful as fall can be, my children are always my favorite subjects for photos.

Gaver's Farm is a true farm, but first and foremost it's a "fun farm". The gigantic jumping pillow was a definite highlight for all of my kids.

Rubber duck races were also a favorite. Although playing beside constantly running water for too long did not bode well for my recently potty trained Ruby.

The super slide.

 I have no idea what straw jumping is, but this is what my boys decided it was.

The 5 acre corn maze was the big event of the outing, but it was also the part I was actually dreading. This was my first corn maze experience...not from lack of opportunity, but lack of any desire whatsoever. Being claustrophobic and without a great sense of direction corn mazes fall pretty low on my list of things I would ever choose to do. At least we had a map.

 Ruby's exuberance at the start of the maze told me that she clearly had no idea what a corn maze was all about.

Her continued exuberance as we traversed the maze however told me instead that she had not inherited any of my corn maze loathing qualities.

 I told Sam to take my picture, because I was sure this would be my one and only corn maze trip.

 In the end the corn maze wasn't as bad I anticipated. Doing something the kids are super excited about is always fun. Hurray for fall and hurray for hopes of not being a slacker anymore!

Who needs a time machine?

Anyone who knows my children well knows that I would be well served to get my hands on a time machine. Whenever one of them gets upset and loses it over something they insist that the only way to fix things is to go back in time and make things exactly the way they were before. I've had many a frustrating conversation on the topic of time machines, however, the more I think about it, I could really use one myself sometimes. I'm having a hard time moving forward with this blog without going back to where I left off before. So here we go back in time to remember things exactly the way they were, starting with the end of 2nd grade...

A couple days before the last day of school, Reed's class had their end of the year celebration where they presented a couple short plays, poems and songs they had learned throughout the year.  Reed was so excited to have the lead in one of the plays--excited and a little nervous. Folding his arms is definitely one of his nervous habits. Despite being a little anxious he did a great job on both the play and the poem he was assigned to introduce. He was the only one who memorized the whole thing. He's got a great memory and likes to use it.

Max was enthralled with the whole preformance and did his best to resist jumping in to sing all the songs he has heard Reed singing at home all year long.

Ruby enjoyed the show too even in her groggy state. If she hadn't been asleep when it was time to leave she might have not looked so rumpled (and maybe a little less stripey...I can only hope no one thought I picked that outfit out.)

Reed seemed pretty pleased (or at least relieved) when the  presentation was over.

Reed with his best school friend looking just about as comfortable as I was with this kind of picture at his age.

 Reed and Mrs. Smith. I was really happy to have Mrs. Smith as Reed's teacher. She pushed the kids to do a lot of extra thinking and appreciated Reed's strengths, calling him a "little thesaurus".

The Dicksons have left the building.

 

A couple days later the official last day arrived and we all joyfully welcomed the new found freedom of summer.

Per Reed's request, we celebrated the start to summer with his favorite treat--donuts. Don't let these pictures fool you--the kids did actually enjoy their donuts.  

It wasn't all donut eating. They also did important things like practice their signatures. Reed's class didn't do cursive in 2nd grade and that is something he was really looking forward to in the coming year.

We arrived home to the serendipitous arrival of  a package with the kid's new bathing suits. They of course were thrilled.

Seriously...where did these kids come from?

After our swimwear fashion show, our neighbor hosted an end-of-year ice cream social in the cul-de-sac. It was quite the gathering of children. This picture includes about half of the crowd.

Donuts and ice cream. Yep...my kids were feeling pretty lucky.

It didn't take too long outside to remember that the commencement of summer isn't all good. The middle of June and it was already boiling outside. Max knew how to take care of that.

Max also knows how to make his eyes shine in a way that makes him irresistible to his photo obsessed mother.

It may technically be Fall now, but I'm still going to do my best to zoom through all the greatness of summer before we launch too far into the best season of the year. Lightspeed ahead!