Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back again.



Friday, March 29, 2013

March recap

Hi everyone. So today is Friday and I have spent this week enjoying my family's company since it's Spring Break. We didn't have much planned and it's nice to not have so many scheduled things to attend to. We just "hung out". I had forgotten the last time we did that! 

Anyways since today would be my last post for the month of March, I decided to do my monthly recap. Here's our family's highlights from this month...

Maddie's class celebrated Wacky Wednesday in honor of Dr. Seuss birthday. We put Maddie's hair in a high pony tail and placed the bow underneath her pony tail then she wore her shirt backwards. I helped out at her class that day and I have to say, the kids really got into this day as I saw a bunch of kids with wacky hair styles and clothes worn funny. Their teacher even dressed up to look like Cat in the hat. So fun!

In the month of February, the 1st and 2nd graders in Maddie's school participated in the I love to read program. The incentive for the kids to read were patterned to Karate Belts. Every time they finish reading 5 books they moved on to the next belt. So they all started with white and worked they way up to black. Once you are in black you can move up some more by reading 20 books (with each level). The highest belt you can get is a black belt with three red strips on it, which they called "degrees". 

It was a lot of reading but Maddie was up to the challenge and we are proud to say that she accomplished the task given to her all the way up to the 3rd degree black belt. 

Here's our bookworm with her certificate and belt. 

And the teachers tallied up the books that all of the kids that participated read and it totaled to 6,035. That's a lot of reading and (from this mom's standpoint) I'm so glad it's over. LOL. 

During this month, I too took on a challenge. I worked hard on putting together a styled photo session to kick off my Senior Photography season. You can see some of the results of that in this blog. One of the things I did to prepare for this session was to rent a new lens. The Nikon 24-70mm 2.8 lens is sadly more expensive than the camera I own right now so I opted to rent one instead of buying it. 

Here are just some of the pictures I got from playing around with this fantastic glass...



I love challenges and the opportunity for growth. This personal project proved to me that I still have a lot to learn but at the same time, I was able to remind myself that I have a passion for capturing moments and that is what drives me to continue on doing this. 

and finally...the kids got to have lunch with the Principal this month. There's a program in their school that when they are good at something (this month was good in writing) their teachers will pick one from their class to have pizza and soda lunch with the principal. It just so happen that both my kids had theirs at the same time. How awesome is that?! 

they both got picked because of how well they wrote their essays in class. Maddie talked about her favorite game which is Princesses and Marcus wrote about his opinion on "should 4th graders sleep when they're tired or at a certain time?". I'm so proud of my writers. The Sunday journal writing that we make them do is finally paying off. Hahahaha!

They even got a key chain with a cheese charm on it as part of their reward. I don't really know the connection of the cheese to the program but the kids' seemed to like it. 

Side note: Last year, Marcus and Maddie both had lunch with the Principal at the same month too so I stopped in so I can take some pictures for a future scrapbook page. During this time, I witnessed Marcus breaking down because "this was not what he normally does". It broke my heart because he wanted the pizza meal so bad and yet he couldn't get himself to join the group because that's not part of his routine. He later on joined in after they allowed me to sit with the group in thinking that it would make him feel less afraid. 

So this year, I was very scared of how he would react. I asked him multiple times before hand if he had any reservations or if he would get scared going to the luncheon and participating in the activity. He said no every time. I was not able to come see their "lunch with the Principal" because I went to the temple but I was saying a little prayer for him the whole time.

When I picked him up from school I asked him how his day went and if he had any problems with the lunch. He was so happy and rambled about how many pieces of pizza he ate and the soda he drank (we don't drink soda at home so this was an extra special treat for him) and how it went great. You can just imagine the relief I felt after he told me his story. I even asked Maddie to see if it was all true and she second everything Marcus said. 

This might not be a big deal to some, but for my son who's always been apprehensive about trying new things, this is HUGE! He's finally growing up and is showing signs that he's open to new experiences and challenges. That's my boy!

So how about you, what where the highlights of March for you?

Till next time,
Grace

No comments: