Growing Up

Nick and his dudes
Is Craig pushing them down somehow?

My boys, dressed as twins and didn't even plan it!

Mallory and her friends and teachers

Mallory and her closest friends.

So late in posting these photos, the kids have been done with their school year for at least 2 weeks already. They both had really good years, Mallory won the President's Award for having a 3.9 GPA and Nick finished out the year with awesome grades. It's been a transition year for them being in a new school and meeting new people, but we're so proud of how they've handled themselves this year and done so well.

As much as Mallory tries to deny it, I think she looks a lot like me!! Sorry, little one! heehee...

Smart Kids!

A post about the kids, the real reason most of you even read this blog!~ Congrats to Mallory and Nicholas who received outstanding report cards for this first quarter of the school year! Mallory has continued her streak of A's through Jr. High, proving that the transition maybe wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. And Nicholas completed this first quarter at his new school, with A's & B's, landing himself on the Honor Roll for the first time! (4th grade is the start of letter grades, thus Honor Roll.)

We are extremely proud of both of our smart little critters and wish them continued success for the remainder of the year!

Nick's Birthday

In the midst of all the excitement of the last two weeks, Nick had his 9th birthday. Even though our party plans got postponed a bit because his two best friends were not available, we still had lots of celebrations. He went to an Arizona Diamondbacks game with his dad and then had cake with his grandparents on Sunday. Then when he got home on Sunday, we celebrated some more with a party, a few presents and cake, inlcuding a Stoudemire shirt from Craig's parents.

Gamma and Papa also celebrated his birthday last week when they came into town. They took him to his favorite indoor amusement place, Amazing Jakes and they played all day. Aunt Steph and Uncle Robert bought him the Shaquille O'Neal jersey he wanted too. So, even though his birthday was smooshed in the middle of a few crazy weeks, I think he still had special times.

Photosynthesis!

Now is the time for 3rd graders to learn about plants, leaves and leaf structures and the process by which plants turn light energy into chemical energy. I just like saying photo-SYN-the-sis, emphasis on the SYN. I've been saying it that way since I was in 3rd grade probably.

Anyway, Nicholas came home with his science project today. He's been taking care of this plant for almost 2 weeks now, and was happy to report that his plant had grown to be the biggest in his class. According to Nick, even the plant that came in second didn't really count because it fell over and broke in half, thus disqualification. I guess the competition in 3rd grade is fierce. To me, it seems a miracle this plant has even survived, because when he got into the car, I asked him how often he waters it and he said 'I don't know'. Then I asked him if it needs to be in the shade or in sunlight and again he answered 'I don't know'. The test on this science is Thursday, we'll probably have to study a bit more for this one.