3rd Day of 5th Grade

Yesterday after school, we had to go shoe shopping. I thought I would be able to get away without buying new shoes for Lexi just yet. She had quite a few new ones in the spring. Sadly, her toes were scrunched up. I guess she had a foot growth spurt this month. She is now wearing a ladies size 6 or 5.5 in Converse. She got to wear her new shoes today. 

I like this outfit. I think it is the only one that I picked out. I bought it online and surprised her. Good thing she likes it. She is getting to that picky pre-teen stage. 

2nd Day of 5th Grade

Lexi really wanted a Texas A&M shirt this year. I am sure that part of it is the color. I always liked the color and that school. We live in an area that is very education minded. Adults regularly ask kids which college they want to go to. There aren't other options. Nobody mentions military or anything else. Most kids wear shirts from their favorite universities. 

Even though I like A&M, I often tell my kids to just think about BYU. It is 1/3 of the cost and academically ranked much higher. Of course, that means it is tougher to get into to. I guess they'll have to keep getting good grades. 

First Day of 5th Grade

School started again today and Lexi is a big 5th grader. I can't believe this is her last year in elementary school. I swear she started kindergarten a year or two ago. She has really grown over the summer. She is now up to my lips, so it will not be long before she catches up and passes me. 

Lexi was very excited to see her friends and get back to school, but she was "not want to learn." That basically means, she doesn't want all the work only the fun parts. Oh well.  Lexi picked out her clothes this year. I, of course, had to approve, but I gave her a lot of the decision making. I did insist on longer shorts though. She wanted ones that were about finger tip length. I just like the Bermuda ones better. 

The school has an whole bunch of new kids thanks to boundary changes. A school nearby was at 125% capacity and our school has been at 75% capacity, so they shifted a bunch of those kids over. This is a new year, with lots of new kids. 

We are walking our neighbors, Sofia and Isabella, again this year. Their parents are teacher in another school. They need a little help getting to school and coming home.

Big 5th Graders: Lexi & Sofia

Got to the school a little early (Lexi did NOT want to be late, which we NEVER are)

Lexi with her homeroom teacher, Ms. Torres - She has 3 main teachers this year and a few more for specials like P.E., Art and Music.

Great Grandparents Passing

I had some very shocking news on Tuesday morning. I woke up to a bunch of text messages about my paternal grandparents passing away. My grandfather was 89 and my grandmother was 85, so maybe I shouldn't have been too surprised. My main shock was that they died on the same day together, which is actually very sweet and the best way for them to go.

 It took a few days to get the best details. At first, the news was that she died first and he had a heart attack trying to help her. Now, it has come out that they were both outside doing yard work. He must have had a heart attack. She used a walker so she went to help him, but realized she needed to get to their phone. As she was headed to the house, she fell. She tried to scooch along, but it was just too hot and too hard. She passed away. A delivery man found their bodies and made the call. My aunt, who lives nearby, rushed over too (small town so word spreads quickly). She said they looked like they were napping peacefully.

I can imagine him dying first and then watching her make the effort to help. He probably kept trying to tell her just to come with him. Eventually, she laid there and heard him. They were fiercely independent, but needed each other to survive. 

My grandparents did not like funerals or attention. They didn't even make it to my dad's funeral, which could have been partly because of the cold weather and traveling. They have actually lost 3 out of their 5 kids in the last 10 years (my dad was first). It has taken a real toll on them.

These funny grandparents had a list of things that they did not want to happen and threatened to haunt anyone who did not follow their wishes. The list included holding a funeral, buying flowers for their grave, and creating/having an obituary. It makes me laugh how they think these things are for the people who died. They are actually for the ones alive to help heal. All of these wishes were sort of followed and sort of not. 

They had bought plots in a tiny cemetery in the mountains near a town called Moore, Idaho. It is ridiculously far from even that town. It was one of the places that they used to heard cattle in the summers. My aunts, Barbara & Maureen, had a "non-funeral" for them today. I wasn't able to attend, but my brother, Clayton, did. There was not an official obituary, but we are all on Facebook and posted a lot about it. They didn't even know to ban that.  I think they are laughing about it now that they are in heaven. 

 Surviving children, Maureen & Barbara (small pot of flowers)

Some family members that attended, including my brother, Clayton, and several of my cousins.

Time marches on with a little sadness. I realize that this was the best way and that it was time. It is also the end of me having grandparents that are still alive. I have been writing letters to them for as long as I can remember. They were very good at writing back and keeping in touch that way. The world has definitely lost two more cowboys with a fun sense of humor.

Meet the Teacher

We had Meet the Teacher Night. On Tuesday, I logged in to find out that Lexi has Ms. Torres for homeroom and Jordan has Ms. Brown. We wanted to meet them, distribute our supplies, buy the required planners and folders, and see who their switch teachers are. That is a lot to do in the 1 hour allotted time. It is much easier for people who only have one kid. I guess that will be me next year since Lexi will be in Jr. High.  ...GASP.  How did we get to this point so quickly???

Lexi's teacher seems nice. We only chatted a little and I got right to work filling out the classroom paperwork. Fortunately, her teacher will have her sort the supplies on Monday. I like that!  I didn't end up taking any pictures at the school. I guess being busy and having a church activity that we had to run to just made me forget. Oh well. At least we snapped the one above before heading out.  

Rainy Day Antics

It was raining this morning, so my kids quietly got their swimsuits on and grabbed a towel. Next thing I know, they are out on the trampoline laughing it up. It is actually nice to see them getting along and having fun together. Now that it is the end of the summer, they are pretty sick of each other and have become excellent fighters. I keep thinking that I'll have to turn the trampoline into a cage fighting arena, but they also seem to be nice when they are out there. Too bad it is usually too hot for this in the summer.

Model for the Day

Lexi had her first paying job today. The headquarters for Academy is in our town and every once in a while they hire kids to try on the clothes for the designers to critique their work. It isn't a well known thing around here. Most of the kids have parents that work at Academy. However, a close friend has her kids do it. Her son was called in for a fitting a few weeks ago and told me that she would be happy to take the measurements for my kids to them. I gave her the measurements. We got an email and call that they wanted to take official measurements, so we went.

I was quite surprised that Lexi and Jordan had very similar measurements. I think of him as VERY skinny and her as thin. She is several inches taller than him. I guess both of them are very skinny.

Lexi:
neck - 11 1/4"
chest - 27"
waist - 24 1/2"
hips - 27"
inseam - 26"

Jordan:
neck - 11 1/2"
chest - 27"
waist - 24 1/2"
hips - 26 1/4"
inseam - 24"

Today, there was a big fitting event and Lexi has the measurements they wanted. We were there for about 3 hours and Lexi tried on school uniforms. Lexi was a little upset that she was picked for size 7. I told her it was no big deal and that they had her measurements, so they knew what they wanted. She even went up to the lady to mention to her that she wears a 10 - 12. The lady said they were mainly looking for waist size. There were no pants to try on just shorts, a jumper and a skirt. Lexi was a little more incensed when she saw that the girl in size 10 was about 6 inches shorter than her. I just laughed and asked her if she wanted to get paid for this. Of course, she did. She also liked that they called the kids "models."

Wake Boarding Camp

Today was our last day in Waco. I took the kids out to BSR Cable park for wake boarding camp. It was 9 am to noon, which wasn't long enough, but they learned a lot and had fun. If I do this again, I'll plan to stay for the afternoon too and have them continue wake boarding. They were just starting to get it when it ended. Lexi was especially upset about it ending at noon. Apparently, I didn't explain that very well. She thought they were going to keep learning all day. We definitely have to do this again.

There was a practice/learning lake, which they started out on. Once they kind of got it, they were sent to the other lake. It was much harder over there. Lexi took a little longer to get to the big lake, but she held one longer there then most of the other kids. By the way, most of the other kids were in the week long camp and had spent all of Monday building their skills.

The Royal Flush

From noon to 6pm, we had a blast on the Royal Flush slides as BSR Cable Park. Actually, the kids had a blast. I thought it was pretty painful, so I only went off of the littlest one a few times. I enjoyed watching them and the other crazy people though. Lexi and Jordan did not slow down the whole time. They went over and over and over, only mentioning a few times how much it hurts. Lexi is more of the dare devil in this family. She was quick to try out the bigger slides, but only got up to the second biggest. Honestly, the lines for the smaller slides were shorter, but none of them were more than 5 minutes.

Morning at Magnolia Market

This morning, we headed over to Magnolia Market in Waco. The store part wasn't open yet, but we got treats from the bakery and then wandered around the grounds. The little design details are so inspiring. I actually enjoyed walking around the grounds more than the store, but mostly because I didn't have money to spend in there and everything was a bit high end/pricey.