And the Award Goes to.....

JARON DANIEL KELLYHe did it! He graduated Elementary School with flying "A's" in all subjects, in all grading periods and his final grades for the whole year 98-101%!!!! How awesome is that! We are so PROUD of him! Today was the 5th grade graduation ceremonies at his school.

Here he is walking across to receive his Certificate of Completing Elementary School :)

To his and our surprise Jaron received not one but 5 awards this year! FIVE!!!! WOWSA!!! Talk about a proud Momma moment! :) I couldn't stop smiling and neither has he!
His first award was the Presidential Academic Excellence Award signed by Pres. Barak Obama and a letter from the President as well! He had to work hard for that! Having a GPA of 3.5+
(his was 4.0) all year, receiving high marks on on his state academic testing, recommendation from the teachers, guidance counselor and the principle.
VERY PROUD MOMENT!!!
Jaron had to point out the Presidents Signature!
He received awards for Jr Beta Club and Academic Team.

In each class 1 or 2 students were chosen for a Citizenship Award and our Jaron received one!!!
Way to go Jaron!!
After the initial ceremony we were released to take our children home if we desired to. Before doing so we were to meet in their classrooms. There, Mrs Miller handed out their rewards that had not being given out during the ceremony, their report cards, a special poem she had written them (which was beautiful and made me cry!) and another award that the students themselves voted on. There were only 5 given out and once again Jaron was chosen :) This time for the Best Student of Social Studies/History.
His wonderful 5th grade class!
Jaron and Mrs. Miller...she has been a fantastic teacher , Jaron really enjoyed being in her class.
I can't believe the school year has come to an end. We are very proud of Jaron but are equally as proud of our other three children as well. I truly can not believe that this coming fall we will have a JR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT! Seriously, where did the time go? I want him to be that cute bumbling 2 yr old that was in love with kittens and lizards again...sigh!

School pictures

So I haven't been writing. To be honest I just haven't been in the mood to. I have so many other fires burning that I just haven't been all that interested in writing. But I will get back to it I am sure. I wanted to share some recent pictures. The kids had their school pics taken in Sept. We didn't purchase them but every student regardless of whether they are purchased receives an ID card with their pics on it. So I scaned and cropped them so I could share. Not the best but relatively recent. I am hoping that this week I can take the kids to a friends house that sits on the lake and take some fun fall pics. We shall see what the week holds for us.

Oh an announcement must be mentioned! The last week of Oct. Sara lost not just one tooth but both bottom teeth! She was SO excited! The 2nd one came out during our Fall Festival at church while she was apple bobbing. She thinks its wonderful that she lost them before Eli has. Eli has always been a little but farther along in developement than she is. So this is a first for her.

Laundry ...Sara loves it!

So if you have been reading lately, you know that our dryer died. YAY! Ok, so not really a shout out but I have to say it has been nice to get in the sun and hang those close and thankfully we have had weather that allows meto do this. I am still trying to "catch up" with all the laundry from when the power went out but I know eventually I will get there . . . eventually. . . it's not like when you get it all done there won't be more anyway! So in the last few days Sara has enjoyed helping me hang the clothes. Something about it is exciting to her. If I remember right I always enjoyed helping my mom hang the clothes too. Then there was hiding in them when we would play hide-n-seek. Our feet always gave us away...fond memories. The other day I thought I would capture a few pictures of her helping me and then she want to pose for the camera So I have encluded those pictures as well. I can't believe she is growing up. The other day she wanted to make her own chocolate milk, "all by myself Mommy!" Naturally I was envisioning the mess I would have to clean up and didn't want to let her...but I stepped back and let her do it all by herself. I realized at that moment I am living on borrowed time. Soon she will be saying "hey Mom, can I have the keys to the car?" Boy do I NOT look forward to that. But for that moment I let go and as mom's that is what we do, teach them to fly so that eventually they will soar! By the way she did fantastic and made no messes! YAY!

oh by the way, last month in the midst of finding homes for our puppies, we adopted a little guy named Bentley. Bentley will turn 1 on May 29th. In his short life he spent 8 weeks in an abandoned home when the owner left him because his home was forclosed. He and a few other animals were left to fend for himself. Poor little guy. The original owner/breeder that sold him to the gentleman (that lost his home) went to visit him. What she found him and the other animals in were deplorable conditions. They were surviving on their own feces and were very ill. One of the pups had a bad staph infection. She took them home, got the cleaned up, fed and took them for medical attention. Bentley is a full blooded Minature Schnauzer who has all his shots and is healthy now! She was very excited when we responded to her ad about them. She herself is a trucker and has 4 pups that go with her in her semi and she could not keep Bentley and his brother Ludwig. So he is now a part of our family. We got him for Kristofer because he was having such a hard time letting go of the puppies. Ok some will say, why not keep one of the puppies . . . the truth is we can't handle two large dogs. Thankfully Izzy and Bentley get along great! Bentley is perfect for our family!

Don't forget! I am doing a short series about what our fishing adventures have taught me over on my other blog Broken Potterie. So far I have discussed - God & the Fishing Line, Tangles, and today's is Celebration.