barrett: 129 months old

It feels like Barrett has had a busy life lately too!  He's getting nostalgic and a bit teary about the idea of leaving his elementary school for junior high next year.  He's my old soul and has never embraced change - he gets attached to what he knows and loves, and will gladly stay where he's comfortable and feels safe.  He's really gotten into math lately, and is killing it on fractions!  He absolutely loves social studies, and is not so excited about choir anymore, but is determined to finish out the year.

Barrett made his annual Mardi Gras book float for the school library!  He chose "I Survived: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871" and really ran with it.  His favorite part was the fire made of tissue paper - I showed him how to tear pieces and twist them around a pencil, then dip the end into glue and tap it onto the cardboard.  

And he's really gotten into football and the NFL, and badly wanted this Super Bowl jacket.  He's still "earning" it through a month's worth of extra chores, but had to model it when it arrived.  He also enjoys playing Madden video games and learning about the teams and players.  Once he gets interested in something, he dives completely in!

Likes:  cheering on the 49ers to win the Super Bowl

Dislikes: doing homework

174 months old

 

A few days late because we have been BUSY!  Britton made the JV softball team - yay!!!  She's already started scrimmages, and her first game is next week.  It's made her schedule very packed, which in turn means we've had an increase in practice pick-up, game attendance, and dropping off forgotten softball bags at school.  Britton is firmly entrenched in her last semester of 9th grade, and it seems like she'll get a week with no demanding schoolwork, then the next week she's got 3 tests!  She's doing an incredible job keeping up with everything. She's way more organized than I ever was in high school.  

Likes:  softball!

Dislikes:  hauling all of her stuff on the bus, her glove giving up this week - we're searching for a new one

barrett: 128 months old

Barrett had a great December!  He wanted nothing but rest and relaxation, and that's what he got - a lot of time playing Madden 24, having friends over, and going on fun adventures once the hubs and I shut down the work computers.  We went to Popstrokes, explored Asian Town, went shopping, and went out to eat a ton!  His favorite Christmas gift was a bike from Memaw and PawPaw - a mountain bike, and he's picked up using the gears and such really quickly!  He also got a ton of football-related shirts and shoes, and a new football and basketball.  Barrett got some really great Pokemon cards, including one he's really been wanting (the name escapes me!).

January has seen him return to school, and this week they started learning the recorder in music class!  I showed him how to play "Hot Cross Buns" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (there's things I'll never forget in my life, and playing those songs on the recorder are a few).  Pretty soon he'll need to decide on what elective he wants to take next year - right now he's leaning towards band.

Likes:  Bob Evans mac and cheese, getting to pick where they all sit for lunch

Dislikes:  having to go back to his usual bedtime now that school is back in session

173 months old

 

Somehow, December and Christmas and all that amazing stuff we love between Thanksgiving and New Years just flew by!  Britton finished up her exams by mid December, then was on vacation from December 15th to January.  She needed the break, to decompress after exams, and sleep in past her usual 5:30 am wakeup, and go on some fun family adventures, like mini golf and shopping.  We tried to go see the Christmas lights on a hayride, but we got downpours that night, so we ended up just driving around and seeing the lights from our rainy car windows.  We had a fantastic Christmas, and Britton got her much-wanted purple bow Uggs and a Stanley!  

Likes:  knowing softball practice is cancelled in advance so she can wear fun non-athletic shoes to school

Dislikes:  the exhaustion of getting back into her school routine

barrett: 127 months old

 

Barrett competed in his school's spelling bee last week!  He got 21 of 25 words correct, and while he didn't win, he studied hard and exceeded the performance he thought he'd do.  He also had his winter choir concert last week, and then the entire choir got to go on a field trip to two nursing homes to perform for their residents.  Bonus - they got to stop by CiCi's Pizza for lunch.  Barrett doesn't have choir practice until they go back to school in January, so that's an extra bonus to me - I don't have to get him to school by 7:00 am!  He's ready for Friday's festivities, which is the annual pajama holiday singalong!

Likes: learning to clean his Betta fish Keono's tank - we learned how to use a gravel vacuum today (thank you YouTube!), his new holiday pjs, which have fleece shorts instead of pants (this kid is always hot)

Dislikes:  putting away laundry

172 months old

We're in December, and have no idea how we got here this quickly!  How is Britton's first year of high school almost halfway over already?  Britton is gearing up for finals starting this week, and is firmly in the A range for most of her classes.  She was able to exempt two exams, so this week shouldn't be too overwhelming for her.  

Softball tryouts are in January, and Britton has been working with a softball coaching group on batting.  They do some high-tech computer analysis stuff I don't understand, and then give her homework on her swing.  She's improving so much - getting a good technique instead of being lucky when she hits the ball.

Likes:  Vietnamese coffee, getting tickets to live music - she's got two concerts in February alone!

Dislikes:  studying for exams

barrett: 126 monts old

 

Barrett had a fun and exciting October!  He is on Safety Patrol at school, so three times a week he stays after school to help car riders get into their cars, and gets to take down the American flag from the pole.  He claims the flag weighs a ton!  We went to the STEAM Night at the local high school, and Barrett and his best friend Walker got to make a lava lamp, dirt pudding, slime, an airplane, and a biomechanics hand. Such a cool night! And for Halloween, Barrett was Brock from Pokemon.  We walked miles around the neighborhood trick-or-treating!  Barrett has also had two choir concerts, one for multiple elementary schools, and the other was a performance for a school assembly for Veteran's Day.  Very cool!

Likes:  choir, Pokemon

Dislikes: math homework (though he does like division now)