He's Pretty Fast Too...

 
Cayden just ran the 3 mile mini marathon at his school this morning. This is a middle school tradition. He always says he's not going to do it, but he always gets chosen and does very well. Two girls and two boys are chosen in the prelimaries to run for their class. Then on the last day of school they have this big event with police escorts and all, for the runners. They go 3 miles and have a crowd of people to watch. I was banned from coming however... Cayden is weird about these things sometimes. Anyway, I was going to go "undercover" so that he would not see me, however, I got locked in my garage and couldn't get out until it was too late. I saw the last kids coming through, but not Cado, which was a good sign. Anyway, Jessica found him and he came and told me the results. The first place kid beat everyone by about 2 minutes and then Cayden and Gavin intentionally came in 2nd and 3rd together and Carson soon followed. What a good group of buddies!

How Did This Kid Get So Smart?

  Cado's school had their awards ceremony today. Of course I wasn't invited! Hum, that kid just doesn't tell me much about these things. He pretends to never know what is going on. I think it is a farce though because so far he keeps getting those great grades and scores at school that show that he DOES know what is going on. Thank goodness, I have Carrie on my side. She always tells me what is happening because Jessica is in Cado's class too! This award was for his full year of 4.0.
  This award was for all the kids who scored 90 or above on their CRT Tests. They each got a scooter or a skateboard for that!
 

This last group of 10 was for the kids in the school who received a 100% on one or more of the 3 parts of their tests. Cayden got a 100 on math. He did that in fourth grade too. Pretty impressive considering that his school has almost 700 kids in it!

Our Last Spring Soccer Game

  Well it was our last spring soccer game for Cado's team. My name is actually on the coaches roster. However as soon as Cado realized that Dayton would be home from college, he called him up and asked HIM to be the coach! Can a kid do that? Replace their own coach?
  Anyway, Dayton was a great coach. He really got into those games. He would pace the sidelines, draw on his white board and he even threw that white board a few times in frustration. Dave and I quite enjoyed sitting on the sideline and watching!
 

Five Years And Still Walking

For a while I've been thinking that I should blog my walk. After all it's my very favorite part of the day. Shirlene and I have been walking for 5 years now. Terri used to walk with us, but she kept getting shin splints... We used to walk at 6 a.m. even when it was dark in the mornings (gosh I wish I had some pictures of us with our flashlights and red blinking lights!), but now that all our kids are in school, we prefer to go after they leave.

Here comes Shirlene, on time as usual, well, except for yesterday when she slept in! By the way, sleeping in means she automatically owes me lunch--I can't wait!

I really like to see her smiling face every morning! It's a great way to start the day.

We do take our life in our hands walking down North Cove Rd. to the Neola Hwy. You have to really watch out for cars. We also have to put up with a lot of horn honking and an occasional cat-call. We just came up and over that big hill, now we have to go back up to the top.

We also get attacked by a male swan who doesn't want us to get too close to the female who is sitting on four eggs.

Then there is the Snow's pesky border collie who likes to follow us and nearly cause car accidents. Oh wait, she hides from us now because we tied her up to this fence a few times!

Next, we head up onto the back nine of the Roosevelt City Golf Course.

For a while Shirlene and I had matching black and blue New Balance shoes, but we wore them out...so we don't match anymore.

Here is where we go down the dugway.

Which causes a flurry of rock chuck activity! This guy is definitely not afraid of us though.

OK, I never tease Shirlene about snakes, but I just had to get the reaction for the blog. Here she is coming down from the jump it caused. Not a very good pic, but I wasn't going to risk doing it over again.

This is the beginning of the dreaded hike back up the dugway. In the summer I really dread it.

And last summer Shirlene decided we should go up and down the dugway 4 times! The first time was always the hardest though.

This is the spot where I always want to lie down in the grass, but I haven't ever actually done it.

OK, right here is when I noticed that Shirlene is wearing eye make-up because she knew I was going to blog the walk! I can't believe it!! (She does look good though.)

Here is a muddy hazard caused by Roosevelt City. Shirlene's son Dayton works on the golf course and we caught a glimpse of him, but I think he hid from us. He must've heard our plan to steal his Gator and go joy riding. I hope we find him with his Gator unattended soon!

Two mean dogs, I'm glad they finally got them a pen, they once snuck up behind the Snow's old border collie, Naps, and bit him. Naps is no longer with us.

This trail is how we find our way off of the golf course, I'm glad it's there, we might get lost.

Hey, there's Dave, Shirlene's husband and the kids in their farm truck. (This is the second worst way to get to school for Cayden. He is completely embarrassed in that truck.) Hi, Dave!

Here is where we head back down into the Cove. We hate it if any other walkers pass us up here, especially the time Robin Reynolds passed us up! We must've slowed down for some interesting conversation.

Just up from my house is Dead Man's Corner, I think we made up the name. We have to walk singe file here and sometimes we cross the street.

Look out!!!This is Dr. Evans' garden, which is right next to my house. When people ask if it's my garden, I sometimes say "Yes" to impress them!

I always walk Shirlene home and drop her off so that her walk won't be longer than mine, unless I'm in a hurry or too hungry....

Have a great day!

Then I have to walk the long road home by myself. There's my next-door neighbor's house that's for sale on the right if anyone is interested...

So there you have it, four miles of laughs and fun, I hope I'll always be able to keep up!

Memorial Day Weekend in Orangeville

A Second Grade Talent Show

Mariah's tie dyed class.
We broke up into groups and each child read their book that they had written and illustrated.
Today was talent show day for Mariah's class. We soon discovered that only the girls must have talents. There was no boy representation! We saw dances, cooking demonstrations on how to make deviled eggs and a balancing act by a double-jointed classmate!

This is one more shot of Mariah's summer school cubbies that you just had to see. She wants to make sure Dave gets things right!

Mariah's Summer School

Mariah and Dave have been planning on doing a summer school with Mariah's friends this summer. They have been mapping their ideas for about 5 months. Mariah has faithfully kept track of this paper.
Mariah spent all Sunday typing notes for the parents and organizing the cubbies. I wish I had her original note. It was so cute. Well, last night, she typed up these notes and had them by her shoes to take to school this morning. It was just too darn cute to miss. I bet those parents will make sure that they get their boxes marked!


Here are the cubbies. Mariah has gone to a lot of work to get them organized. She asked Dave what they should call him as their teacher. He said, "Call me Dr. Law!" Mariah did not take him up on that. I guess he'll be called Mr. Law, whether he's a doctor or not! HA