A few more...

After seeing Brylee's pics, the girls decided that they wouldn't mind having a few pictures taken. The boys, still, wanted nothing to do with it. I think that I probably could have talked Michael into it, if the older to boys weren't around. *sigh* They are getting too big! A few years ago they would have been excited to get their pictures taken.

Anyway... these didn't turn out quite as well, but they are still cute. I think that I now want to save up for a good camera, and maybe a photography class in the future, because it is really fun!

Experimenting

For a long time, I have wanted t be able to take good pictures. I don't have a nice camera, and I won't be able to afford a nice camera anytime soon - but, I kept thinking, there has to be some way to take some decent looking photos with my cheap digital camera. I started reading online, and found alot of helpful sites that offered some really good tips.

So with a $40 camera, Picasa (free photo editing program), and Brylee (the only one of my 6 kids who was willing to have her picture taken) I got the following pics:

They are far from professional, but I think they turned out cute!

Alysa's story

My Wild Thing

by

Alysa Roberts

My Wild thing's name is Aly. She looks hairy and has sharp teeth. Aly has black claws. My wild thin eats cheesy nachos. She like to do cartwheels because her favorite thing to do is gymnastics. We play together at the park. We go to the hair styler and get new hair styles. We see other monsters at the hair stylers. They look cute. They have cute hairstyles. My wild thing and I like to be together.

Report Cards

My girls got their report cards today, I am so proud of them! As much as I have managed to screw up everything else in life, I feel like I have done at least one thing right in raising my kids - so far! I am so very proud of both my girls!!!

Alysa

Reading: A
Writing: B
Math: A
Science/Health: A
Social Studies: A

As far as Exceptional, Satisfactory, or Needs Improvement - everything was Exceptional or Satisfactory.

Teacher Comments:

Alysa is an accomplished reader for 2nd grade. She approaches reading with a positive attitude and demonstrates a good understanding of what she reads. She is making good progress in her fluency, as well as comprehension. Alysa willingly participates in classroom discussions, gives her best effort on most assignments, and maintains a positive attitude toward school. She has show excellent understanding of math concepts. Keep up the good work!

Adalyn

Ady had two report cards - one for the Gifted And Talented Program (GATE) and one for her regular classroom.

GATE

In GATE, they don't get letter grades. They grade them Excellent, Satisfactory, or Needs Improvement in 12 different areas - 6 in Life Skills and 6 in Thinking Skills. Ady had Excellent or Satisfactory in all areas.

Teacher Comments:

I am so proud of Adalyn for qualifying for the GATE program. She demonstrates excellent work habits and shows enthusiasm for learning.

Classroom:

Reading: A
Writing: A
Math: A
Science/Health: A
Social Studies: A

Everything evaluated as Exceptional, Satisfactory, or Needs Improvement was graded as Exceptional.

Teacher Comments:

Adalyn is making exemplary progress. She is a responsible student and puts effort in her work. Adalyn participates in class, and it is evident through class discussion and written work that she comprehends the material. Adalyn is curious and enthusiastic about learning. Her writing is well organized, and she has begun expanding her ideas to be more descriptive and to include more details.

Adalyn works well independently and assumes a leadership role when working in a group. She is cooperative and helpful. It is a pleasure to work with such a conscientious, well - mannered student. Thanks for the help from home.

quote

I really, super, LOVE the following quote that my friend Kaylyn sent me:

"Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them."
- Anna Quindlen

Anyone who knows me at all, will know that I am very against banning books. In fact, I have gone to the extreme of choosing books to read off of the most frequently banned book list. In my opinion, these books really inspire people to THINK. More specifically, they inspire people to think outside of the nice, comfortable, little box that we are all suppose to fit in. I am proud to say that I have never, and will never fit inside that box.

I am also against censoring books from our children. We cannot shelter them from real life. And by attempting doing so, we are sending them the message that we don't really trust them, and we don't really believe that they are capable of thinking. Open and honest and constant dialog with our children is the ONLY way that we can show them who we really are - our beliefs, our morals, our values. I really believe that opening their eyes to the horrible things in our world and discussing it with them, will not encourage them to be bad people - it will encourage them not to be.

Book Review: Playing with the Enemy

Playing with the Enemy - Gary Moore -A

"Gene Moore was a country boy who could hit a baseball a country mile. He was so good that the Brooklyn Dodgers came calling. When Gene's baseball career was interrupted by WWII, he joined the U.S. Navy, and in 1944, he found himself on a top-secret mission: to guard German sailors captured from U-505, a submarine carrying an Enigma decoding machine. Stuck with guard duty, Gene taught the enemy how to play baseball. It would be a decision that irrevocably changed his life... and maybe our national pastime. Inspired by true events, Playing with the Enemy is the story of a young man's brush with destiny during an extraordinary time in our country's history."

This book is based on true events. The author, is the main character's son. For me, that made the story even more fun and interesting. I am not a fan of baseball, and war stories usually just confuse me. Even though this book was both, it was one of the best books that I have read.

The book itself, was very well written and easy to read. The story is amazing. Even though, I have never really played baseball, I found myself really identifying with, Gene, the main character. I felt as if I was standing in his shoes. During the book I cried, I laughed out loud, and by the time I read the last page, I was inspired.

Playing with the Enemy, made it to the top of the best seller list, shortly after being printed. This is pretty impressive considering that it is Gary W. Moore first novel. This book is definitely worth reading!

Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I love to dress up with the kids!

This year, Ady decided very early on that she wanted to be a High School Musical Cheerleader. She really loved the HSM costume that she saw in the Disney Store. I, however, was not about to pay $60 for a costume she will wear once. So I got on ebay. I got a the exact HSM cheerleader costume she wanted for $5 - including the shipping. You can't beat that!!!

Alysa was dead set on being the Corpse Bride for Halloween. She loves that movie! Well, of course, they don't sell an actual Corpse Bride costume, so we had to improvise. I had an old bride costume that was just her size, and a skeleton costume that didn't fit anyone in the Halloween box. So, we cut the bones out of the skeleton costume, and sewed them under some holes in the bride costume. She wore one of the skeleton gloves and slippers, so that half of her was skeleton and half was not, like in the movie. I thought it turned out pretty great! That was a pretty original idea she had!

Brylee has been obsessed with vampires, ever since she saw Twilight. So, of course, that is what she wanted to be. She wanted to be a "girl vampire" wearing a dress. There are alot of those costumes out there - but, of course, none of them were her size. After alot of searching online, we found a cheap one at Walmart that was exactly what she wanted. She had to wear her Sketchers with the costume because, her Sketchers make her run fast, and vampires are fast!

I decided that I wanted to dress as a 1920's flapper this year. And Brian dressed as a 1920's gangster.

My friend Kris came over, and we took the kids to the houses in our neighborhood. We started early, and it only took about an hour. Their Halloween baskets were completely full, though! Then, we just came home and hung out with our friends Kris and Mitch, and Adam and Dustann, handed out candy, and let the kids play and watch a Halloween movie. Nothing exciting, but it was fun!