Porter is finished with 6th grade. Porter is no longer in elementary school, excuse me while I mourn the loss of his childhood! I can't believe it!
Before school ended, he had three big events:
First, awards ceremony at school! Porter has never received any sort of award at the end of the year at school. I remember one year, they had sent a note home informing parents of an awards ceremony in the classroom. It seemed pretty generic, like everyone received it. So me, being a supportive Mom, attended. He didn't receive one award. It seemed like 3 kids in the class took home all the awards, one was wearing heathered gray sweat pants with a burnt yellow button up blouse, tucked into said sweat pants. Ha, he certainly didn't get the fashion award, but read like 100 books that year. That day, I checked Porter out early and we had our own award, at Dairy Queen. So you can imagine this year, when we received a personal letter from the school, saying he would be receiving an award we were extremely excited! We both kind of figured it was for AR (accelerated reader). This year, due to the wonderful world of Harry Potter, Porter's desire to read has changed. He read book one, last summer and thus began our magical journey through all 7 books this year. He also read a few other books, while we were waiting for a book to come in the mail. Thank you JK Rowling, for helping my son learn the joy in reading! After each book he read, we would watch the movies together. And indeed, when we went to the awards ceremony, he was recongnized for getting over 100 AR points, 149 to be exact. He actually would have had more, but he finished a day after the last day to take the test. So I am sure he was at least 170, maybe more! I was so proud, and you could tell he was too!
Second, following the footsteps of his cousins, quite literally, he tried out for the High School Cross Country team. Here, you can try out for the team in 7th grade, and begin training early on. His cousin, Ethan, is currently on the team. So we thought it would be super awesome for them to run together. I could tell, when we pulled up, that he was a little nervous. We had not practiced an actual 2 mile run. Porter swims 3 times a week with his Makos team, so I know he is in shape. And every chance he gets he is running around outside or riding his bike. He is an "outdoor dog" as I like to call it. So many kids these days are "indoor dogs" some even "indoor cats", they just don't like to be outside and prefer TV, tablets or video games over outside play. And to each his own! But Porter, is an outdoor dog! We arrived and filled out paperwork. The goal was that the boys were supposed to run 2 miles in 18 minutes, a 9 minute mile, which isn't too hard to accomplish, if you are in shape, I would guess. I gave him a few pointers. Don't waste your energy in the beginning to be in the lead, stay in the middle for a while, and then when the time comes you break away and push it in the end. They started warm ups and ran a little. It was a strikingly hot day, which worried me a touch. But again, he is outside.... all. the. time. As they came around in the warm up, Porter wasn't in the front, he wasn't in the middle, but in the back. Uh oh. Maybe we should have prepared more! And then they began. It is an outdoor course, and I could only see him when he would make a loop, and he would only make it twice. Several kids came around, and then there he was, in the front-ish, running along side his cousin. We cheered for him. He was red and he had taken his shirt off. I wasn't sure how he was doing until he turned, waved AND smiled!!!?! So I knew he was feeling good. I felt relieved! It was nice to have his cousin with him cheering along side of him, giving him pointers. Again, on the last loop, he came around, generally close to the front. And ran up the hill to the finish. He ran it in 15 minutes, that's pretty darn good! 7 1/2 minute miles, not too shabby! A lot of the other boys were walking?! And several were struggling. One got to right where we were, he was trying, bless him, but just kept saying he couldn't go on. His Mom was walking next to him, telling him he could, he was almost done. "I can't, I can't" And then he vomited. Oh gosh. And I say Oh gosh, not because I hate vomit ( I do hate it!), but because Addie witnessed it. She turned to me and said "I will NEVER race! Ever!" Oh gosh, here we go! Addie has got some serious speed and ability to run, just like Porter. Hopefully she will grow out of this fear of vomit. But Porter made the High School Cross Country team! We are super excited and super proud!
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| This is kind of adorable, same cousins 8 years earlier, running a race together. |
Third! Porter tried out for the High School Swim team, the try outs were that same week on a Saturday. Now here we had a lot more confidence, because Porter has been swimming year round with the Makos team, of which the high school coach runs. So we felt a little more confident here, but I wasn't sure what the try out would entail. We got to the pool and filled out paperwork, and then got instruction. The boys had to swim a 50 yard free style in a certain amount of time, the coach wouldn't tell them before hand what the time they needed to beat was. Then, if they accomplished that, they would swim an IM (Individual Medley, one lap of each stroke). Then, a 500 yard swim.... which is..... 20 Laps! Yikes! I think I would drown?! Porter was one of the first kids to swim the 50. Now, I drop him off at his swim practices, 3 times a week. I don't stay and watch, because I have a 6 year old I would have to keep out of the pool and a 1 year old. We live close enough too, that my life is happier if we just drop him off! So, I hadn't actually seen him swim a lap in a while. We hadn't done too many meets during the year, just because life is busy. But Porter has turned into a wonderful swimmer. He glides on top of the water. He is so smooth. There is no choppiness to his stroke. I was just so impressed on how much he has changed as a swimmer. I believe there were 4 swimmers going, and he was in the lead?! I know they are all around his age. But he was kinda smoking them?! He hit the wall at 32 seconds. We waited for all the swimmers to finished to hear what time they had to beat to move on to the next stroke. The girls had to swim the 50 in 45 seconds. The boys had to swim it in 40 seconds! He made it! He moved onto the IM. By far the freestyle is his best stroke, but he is very proficient at the other strokes. Once he finished the IM, it was onto the 500. I asked him if he thought he could do it. He nearly rolled his eyes, "Of course I can, we swim those all the time, sometimes several times in a practice" And he was right. He was the first one done in his group, sometimes lapping kids a few time?! I think we have another Michael Phelps in the water! Ha hahah, sorry, I am a touch proud! They do share the same birthdays, coincidence?!?!?! So, Porter made the High School Swim team! (I'm a bad Mom, didn't get a picture of this!)
All these awesome confidence boosts in a week!
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| Look how much he has grown!?!? |
Then, one more thing! For scouts, there was the raingutter regatta. He built his own ship on his own, it didn't win anything, but he did it all himself. But the coolest part was that he lead the scouts in a march as they did cadences! Thomas took a video, I will try to download it on here. I watched him, thinking, who is this kid?! Or, who is this young man, rather?! I have been just so impressed by him! But best of all, it has truly built up his confidence in himself, which he has often lacked. He really needed these big bunch of boosts! My sweet Porter, turning into a man!
Addie accomplished her goal of not throwing a giant tantrum getting out of the car for school , for several weeks! And so she was able to have "fake nails". They are just the sticky kind from walmart, but she is obsessed with them! I can't believe she is done with kindergarten, this year has really flown!
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| Addie and her nails |
We found a cool little pattern with the kiddos. Porter was in 6th grade, and Addie was 6, when he goes into 7th Addie will be 7. Addie is going in to first grade and Ellie is one. When she goes into 2nd, Ellie will be two! My kids love little patterns like that! It's kind of fun!
Ellie is just growing and a growing. She is so so so close to crawling! She gets to her hands and knees and just almost moves forward. The big thing is now she can be on her back, roll over and get up to a sitting position. The first time she did it, no one saw her do it. But now, she does it all the time, and looks so proud of herself! And then another big thing, she keeps trying to pull herself up. But she doesn't always choose the best thing to pull herself up with, normally it is something mobile, so it usually rolls away with her. But the other day, she grabbed the middle shelf of the changing table, and with much effort, pulled herself up! I tried to get her to do it again and film it, but it she couldn't do it again. I am super proud of her! The pediatrician wanted her to start first steps, because she isn't walking yet. But technically she is really about 10 months old, and most babies aren't walking then either. I chatted with the lady, and we decided, come July and she isn't walking, we will try the program. I am just not worried. She is sturdy and trying and moving. She is making progress every day. I think she is going to be just fine! She has cut 3 more teeth! So she has 7 teeth, I think that 8th one is on it's way!
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| I love matching, matching is my favorite |
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| That is a picture of my Mom, it is crazy to see similarities! Isn't it?! |
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| Ellie likes watermelon as much as her siblings! She also loves to marinate herself in the juices! |
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| We can never agree on a movie |
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| Ellie wants to taste everything, even puppies! |
But summer is here! The kids are a part of the local YMCA swim team for the summer, hopefully no tantrums for Addie, more fake nail incentives are probably in our future. I hope we can get in a good routine!
The new house in coming along. I have started another blog for that, don't want to bombard this one with boring house pictures. But demo is pretty much over. Our house basically has no sheetrock on it, just a bare boned house. Now we get to put it back together. You can just call us Chip and Jo! Ha, if only I was as talented as her! Thomas is pretty darn close to Chip, maybe not quite as funny in Chip's goofy way!
I hope to keep the posts coming during the summer, but can't make huge promises. 24/7 with kiddos, it is hard to find the time!
Oh, And I forgot to mention my regatta! Every year, for the past 4 or 5 years, we have done the Dragon Boat Regatta. It is a lot of fun! We had a great team this year. We took first place in the Finance Cup, got a trophy for that. And then we took 8th place overall, out of 56 teams, which to me is pretty impressive. I do think we actually got 5th, but anything after 4th doesn't get a medal, so it kinda doesn't matter. Next year we are taking it! Ha! Go LSA!
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| Brandie and I were co-captains this year |
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| I wore an arm sleeve, because I chafed the stew out of it at practice! |
