Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast

One of my favorite traditions at our school is the Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast each year.  The kids dress up as Indians or Pilgrims and feast on muffins, applesauce and popcorn!  It's so cute and such a fun experience for them.

I made the big turkey out of paper bags and it was filled with popcorn and each student also got their own turkey legs filled with popcorn.

Hudson was the cutest little Indian I ever did see. :-)  They sang a few songs they had practiced and told what they were thankful for as a class.

Science Fair Winner!!!

A few months ago Handley came home with information about the Science Fair at their school! Each 5th grader was required to come up with an idea for their project and they could select to work with partners or alone.  Because of our busy schedule I encouraged her to work alone just because I knew trying to coordinate with a friend to get together as much as it would require would be tough.  We searched online, brainstormed and tossed around a few different ideas for her project, but she ultimately decided to test several different insulated cups and water bottles to see which kept ice water coldest the longest.  

We love cups and water bottles in our house and it is always running joke that the last thing we need is more cups.  However, it's something we all use everyday, so sometimes a new one is just fun!  

She spent about two months completeing all of the tasks required for this project including research, testing, recording data and writing a report.  

She was very specific and exact with her experiment, counting out ice cubes and putting the same amount of water in each cup and using a digital food/drink thermometer to measure the temperature of the water every few hours.  

Her hypothesis was correct and the Swell was the clear winner for this experiment!  She tested it on three different occasions and Swell was the winner each time. After 24 hours there was still ice left in the cup and the water was only 0.5 degrees warmer over the course of 24 hours.  It's probably my favorite insulated water bottle so I was happy to know it was the winner also because I love my water super cold! 

When the experiment was over it was time to create her display board and she followed in my footsteps thinking it was the most fun part of the project!  She loved browsing the teacher supply store looking for borders, labels, and other fun things to add to her board. Science Fair was taking over my dining room, but she was so into it that I didn't mind. 

I helped her use the paper cutter to get everything cut out, but really had to sit on my hands and let her go at it when it came to gluing everything down.  She did a fantastic job and her presentation looked fantastic!

They had outside judges come to the school on Monday and judge each project.  She came off the bus on Monday afternoon with the biggest smile and told me that SHE WON 1ST PLACE!!!!  I couldn't believe it!  Apparently the judges narrowed down to the finalist and called those students back down to talk to them again and question them about certain parts of their experiments and she returned to class.  Then, at the end of the day she got called down to the office one more time.  She said she thought she was in trouble or something, but really they just wanted to take her picture because she was the overall winner!  

On Monday evening all of the parents got to visit the school and see all of the Science Fair projects displayed.  She was on cloud nine with everyone congratulating her and wanting to check out her project.  She was so sweet saying, "I totally didn't think I would win because so many people were doing things like making electricity out of fruit and stuff like that." Her teacher told me she thought it as just a really original idea and that it is something really practical the judges were interested in. 

Now she gets to go onto the county Science Fair in a few months to see how her project compares to the other winners from schools all over the county so she's very excited about that! 

Last Game as a Walton Youth Raider

On Saturday Handley cheered her last game as a Walton Youth Raider!  The football team won big and moved on to the 5th grade Super Bowl this weekend, but we're going to be out of town and have to miss the big game.

She's planning to try out for the middle and eventually high school cheer squads so I have a feeling there will be a lot more football games in our future!

She cheered with some of these girls since 1st grade and they are all so sweet!  They go to different schools, but will all be together next year in middle school!

She loves cheer so much and has the best time with her teammates, cheering for the players, and engaging with the crowd.  It's fun to watch her do something she loves and I secretly love that she's following in my footsteps. Some of my fondest memories of high school were cheering on Friday nights.  I know she'll continue to love it more and more the older she gets and it is fun to think that these girls and the football payers will continue through middle and high school together. Go Raiders! 

Halloween 2017

The kids had so much fun this year on Halloween. It was the first time we haven't all trick or treated together because Handley was invited to go with some of her friends, but we got lots of pics ahead of time with all three kiddos!

The girls were characters from the Disney Descendants movies and Hudson wanted to be a basketball player this year! The girls looked so great in their colored wigs and of course my little sporty guy looked the part.

Handley had so much fun with her friends and they are the sweetest group of girls and so creative with their costumes!

We went over to a friend's neighborhood and trick-or-treated with them this year since everyone in our neighborhood was going to other places.  It was fun for Harper to be with her friend also and Hudson, well that is another story.

He was so into his trick or treating that he ran ahead of us and was flying from house to house. He couldn't get enough and was so excited about getting more and more candy!

Halloween falling on a school night made it tough because everyone had to get home and get to bed before it got too late, but they still had a blast and came home with more candy than we will ever be able to eat!

Kindergarten Field Trip to the Farm

Last week I got to go with Hudson's class as a chaperone to the farm!  They visited The Art Barn and it was so much fun.  He and his classmates got to learn about all sorts of farm fun. 

They got an art lesson and learned how to paint a chicken!  There were real chickens walking all around so they had real-life models! 

They learned about barnyard animals and got to get up close and personal with donkeys, goats, sheep and pigs!

They learned all about chickens, baby chicks, eggs and even got to hold baby chicks. 

While that was going on we looked over and saw some goats on top of a roof!  It was crazy to see them up there, but they were happy as can be! 

Lastly they learned all about honey bees and how they make honey before eating a picnic lunch under a giant magnolia tree.  It as the perfect day with my little guy and I was so happy to get to tag along with them! 

A little bit of everything...

Major blog catch-up going on here and sharing a little bit of everything.

A few weeks ago Handley's cheer coach, who is so dedicated to her team, came to help coach them on her way to the Homecoming dance!  The girls loved seeing her all dressed up.

And I loved seeing my girl cheer on the Raiders to a big win under the lights!

I had a couple of people text me randomly and send me this pic of a familiar face!  It was so funny that they used a 5th grade class for a 3rd grade flier, but I was happy when a copy of our own was finally sent home.

The kids had early release a few weeks ago and it finally gave us a chance to have some playdates!  Our afternoons are so busy with sports and practices, that it doesn't leave a whole lot of time for having friends over, but with early release we were able to.  Hudson's best buddy from his class came over and they stayed outside playing every single sport you can think of the entire time!

Hudson's baseball team played great throughout their tournament and although they got knocked out before the finals, he played awesome the entire time.  In the first tournament game the score was tied and went into extra innings. He hit a home run to drive in 3 more runs and seal the deal for their win. He was so excited to end the game that way and get his home run that he'd been hoping for all season long! He also got the game ball that night!

After the game we made our way up to the lake to get the boat for the winter and celebrated with Gigi and Papa. He couldn't stop talking about how excited he was for his big hit!

NTH Night at KSU

Kennesaw State University is pretty close to us and Harper's soccer club planned an evening for their teams to go and support the KSU soccer team.

She got to go on the field before the game for the National Anthem and was so excited to get to be up close and personal with the players.

She loved watching the game with some of her friends/teammates and taking in all the action.

After the game the team sets up for autographs on the field, so she got to speak to each of the players and get all of their autographs. It was such a fun night for this soccer loving sweetie!