Family Happenings

New School Year

2009-08-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know I haven't posted in a while. So here's a quick update...

Summer vacation was great. We spent a lot of time hanging out at home and in the pool with a few parties thrown in. Fun times! :) The kids both went to sleep-away camp this year - over the same week! So Rob and I had a week of no kids, which was strange but fun. The kids both had a blast at camp too. We had a wonderful visit with Rob's family (his mom and sister along with her 3 kids). Lots of photos to post from our summer!

The kids started the new school year a week ago (24 Aug). Ashlyn is in 6th grade now! Crazy!! She is in all accelerated classes to include Pre-Algebra for Math. She is also still playing the viola. Ethan is in 3rd grade and already likes his teacher. We're hoping for a great year for both of them!

I am no longer working with the soccer league as they have decided to try another company this season. I'm hoping to find another sports league to work with eventually, but right now I am planning to focus more on subbing at the school along with the few photo shoots I have come in.

Rob is Rob :) Busy with work as usual. Working on getting some CLEP tests done over the next few months to knock out some more of his classes.

That's it for now! Watch for photos to come, and I will do my best to update more often! :)

Substitute

2009-01-13T18:04:00.000-08:00

I subbed in Ethan's class today. We went on a field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. It was a lot of fun. Ethan's favorite part was watching the dolphin show. My favorite part was seeing the sharks, as it always is. Pictures to come.

Happy 2009!

2009-01-01T23:18:00.001-08:00

Another year down! They just fly by so quickly!

I have started a photography project, 365: Photo-a-Day, http://lbdigitals365.blogspot.com. I will take a photo a day throughout the year and post it on my new blog. Follow along, or check in when you can, to see what the year brings.

We hope you all have a wonderful year full of blessings.

Christmas

2009-01-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

Christmas was great this year. It was a nice, quiet day spent at home. The kids loved all of their gifts, as did Rob and I. Pictures of Christmas day will be posted soon.

We have all enjoyed our Christmas break and I don't think any of us are ready for the daily grind to start back up again yet!

As a special Christmas gift to the family, I booked a weekend at a new hotel close by, Gaylord National at the National Harbor, for us. It was beautiful and such a nice couple days "away". Pictures to come.

Family Update

2008-12-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since there has been an update on the family.

Rob has been busy with work and school, as usual. He is also currently studying for his upcoming promotion test to MSgt.

Ethan is doing great. He is in 2nd grade this year, has joined DI (Destination Imagination), and likes his teacher (which is always a good thing). He has lost a couple more teeth in the last few months (photo to come). His first report card of the year was a good one, and he won an award for perfect attendance for the first quarter.

Ashlyn is wonderful. She is in 5th grade this year and doing great! She has only flipped her card twice so far this year (to yellow), was on Honor Roll with an all A's report card, won the Principal's Award and a perfect attendance award for the first quarter. She is participating in DI again this year and is also still in Girl Scouts. She is also very much enjoying learning to play the Viola in school. We can't wait to see her in the school concert!

I have been busy the past few months myself. I continued with the soccer league pictures for the second season, and despite some problems with the lab think it was a pretty good success for the business. I will be looking for a new lab before taking on the league for a third season. I am still working as a substitute at the kids school although I haven't been there much in that role yet this year. Ethan is looking forward to Jan 13, when I will be the sub for his teacher and attending the 2nd grade field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium with him.

I have been asked to be the official photographer for the school's PTA this year. That has been fun. I have taken photos of the back to school picnic, the star party, and the Santa shop so far. All photos can be viewed on our website: http://www.lbdigitals.com in the Events gallery.

I was the head of the Santa shop this year as well. It was great fun getting it all set up for the kids to do their Christmas shopping. I will also be heading up the next session of the mad science club. The first session was in the early fall right after school started. This next session will be early spring sometime. Since this is a PTA sponsored event (lasting 7 weeks), I will be photographing some meetings.

I was also fortunate to photograph a friend's daughter earn her 2nd degree black belt in karate. She is in 5th grade with Ashlyn - very impressive!

End of School Fun & Final Report Cards

2008-07-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

The last few days of school were fun days for the kids. Ethan was in a play put on by all the first graders called Lemonade. The play included all the fairy tale characters and Ethan was the Spider from Little Miss Muffett. So cute!

Ethan was also able to participate in the first grade Mexican Fiesta. They got to go around to each classroom where there was something set up to help them learn more about Mexico - food, games, etc... I helped out with one of the classroom stations and got to tell the kids all about the Mexican flag. It was a fun day.

Then a few days after that, the first graders had their end of year picnic. I went and had a little lunch with Ethan (sitting outside on blankets) and got to watch him have fun playing with his friends.

Ashlyn also had her end of year picnic. I went to hers as well, but missed the lunch part. The 4th graders had stations set up - basketball, water balloon toss, kickball, etc... That was a lot of fun.

REPORT CARDS
Miss Ashlyn yet again scored above grade level in Reading, and yet again brought home A/B Honor Roll. She earned 7 A's and 2 B's! The note from her teacher says: "Ashlyn worked hard this year and has made good progress..." We are very proud of her. So she is off to 5th grade next year!

Mr Ethan also scored above grade level in Reading again. He does not get letter grades, but instead checks for Consistently Demonstrating (CD), Developing (D), and Needs Improvement (NI). He earned 28 checks under CD, 11 under D, and only 1 under NI. His teacher's note reads: "I've really enjoyed working with Ethan this year! He is a special kid, and an excellent reader! Over the summer practice writing with neater handwriting!" He was passed to the 2nd grade, and we are very proud of him as well.

Bad Blogger

2008-07-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know... I'm a bad blogger. It's been quite some time since my last post, but I have good excuses! I have been super busy with the soccer shoot I did, which is now finally coming to an end. A few more teams to mail out and I'll be done. Thank goodness! It turned out to be much more then I bargained for. I wouldn't mind doing it again, but maybe next year instead of next season!

So, of course summer vacation is upon us. The kids have been having lots of fun swimming in the pool every day. And just to prove that we do allow them to use it, and not keep it all to ourselves....

Ashlyn's Tan!!

In a couple weeks they will both be going to camp. They are also looking forward to seeing Uncle Shawn, PaPa, and Grandma! As are we, of course. :)

Rob has been keeping busy on the house. He finished my studio (will have photos of that posted soon on the house blog), hung a couple new doors, and started working on the utility room. And now, for the next few days, work will have him busy outside the country.

MORE ON THE KIDS

Both kids had their yearly checkups and eye exams before school let out. They are both healthy and doing fine.

Ashlyn's eye exam showed that her prescription changed so she needed new glasses. These are the 2 pairs that she chose to get.....

Red Glasses

Purple Glasses

And Ethan's eye exam showed that he needs glasses as well. He also chose 2 pairs of glasses, but he would only allow me to photograph him wearing this pair...

His other pair are solid brown in color. I will manage to get a photo of him in those one of these days!

Ashlyn also opted to have a skin tag/mole removed from her face. If you look closely at the above photos you will see a small red spot at the bottom rim of her glasses under her left eye. She had what we believed was a skin tag in that spot for quite some time. As she has gotten older it has grown and kids at school started to tease her. Nothing I said to make her feel better about it, made her feel better. So we went to the Dr. a couple days ago and they took it off for her. The Dr. said due to its size and color she believed it to be a mole, and sent it for testing - just to be on the safe side. Ashlyn was a trooper and didn't flinch or complain about anything. I think she is much happier now that it is gone.

Kings Dominion

2008-05-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 16, was Math and Science day at Kings Dominion. Ashlyn got to go due to being on the DI (Destination Imagination) team. I went with her last year and we had a lot of fun. I was unable to go with her this year as I was scheduled to sub at the school. But that didn't matter much, because Miss Ashlyn wanted her daddy to go with her instead. And as luck would have it, he had the day off and was able to go!

Everyone left from the school at 930 am on the bus and they arrived back at the school at 530 pm. The park is about an hour and a half from here, so they were there from about 1100 till about 400. They had a great time but said they only rode 4 rides due to the lines.

Hopefully next year Ethan will participate in DI, or some other school function that allows him to attend this end of year trip, so we all can go!

Crazy Hair Day

2008-05-17T12:30:00.001-07:00

Every year at school there is a Spirit Week. This year's week consisted of Mismatch Day (wearing mismatched clothes), Silly Hat Day, Career Day (wearing the "uniform" for what they want to be when they grown up), Spirit Day (wearing school colors), and then of course... Crazy Hair Day.

Ashlyn and Ethan LOVE this day and look forward to it every year. Here are the photos of their choice of crazy hair this year.

Ethan and the Missing Tooth

2008-05-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a few posts ago that Ethan lost his front teeth. Well, one has come back in, but the other is still missing. Here is a photo of him with the one missing tooth.

Report Cards

2008-04-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

The kids both got their report cards on April 10th. This is the report card for the third quarter.

ETHAN
Ethan does not get letter grades yet. Not until 3rd grade. His report card shows each area the kids are graded on with check marks for 'consistently demonstrating', 'developing', and 'needs development.' This quarter he has 31 marks under consistently demonstrating, 4 under developing, and 3 under needs improvement. He is, as usual, marked at 'above' for his reading level (meaning above grade level). The note writen by his teacher for this quarter says, "Ethan is still doing very well in reading and math! However, his writing is still very sloppy and he needs to add more when he writes." So my little guy is working on his writing skills.

He also took his quarterly assessments in reading and math. He scored 95.7% in reading placing him in the percentile of students that show an overall understanding of skills assessed (90%-100%). He scored 78.3% in math placing him in the percentile of students that show a developing understanding of skills assessed (70%-89%).

ASHLYN
Ashlyn, being in 4th grade, does get letter grades on her report card. This quarter she earned 7 A's and 2 B's. Yes! My baby girl is on the A/B Honor Roll AGAIN! We are so proud of her. 3 of those A's she brought up from B's on her last report card. So she has been working very hard. She too, is as usual, marked at 'above' in her reading level. She is also in a 5th grade math class! There is a note on her report card that says, "Great Progress!", and is signed by the principal.

Ashlyn just took the MSA exams. April 2 & 3 were for reading and April 8 & 9 were for math. We won't know the results until later, but she says she feels like she did well. Which I'm sure she did. On the 10th the kids who took the MSA's (3rd-5th grades) were allowed to wear pajamas and slippers and bring board games to play for the day as a treat for doing so well during the 4 days of testing. Ashlyn had a lot of fun that day!

Working as a Sub

2008-04-12T10:10:00.001-07:00

Well, I've completed five sub jobs at the school. I have worked with Kindergartners, 1st graders, and very briefly 5th graders.

It's a lot of fun and I really enjoy the kids. I especially like the flexibility. I don't have to work everyday and I can even work a half day and still be paid for a full day (as long as I work more then 3 hours and 25 minutes I get paid for a full day). And each time I work, more often then not, it is with a different class which it keeps it all very interesting.

I am only working at this one school, but that is enough for me right now! I have some more jobs coming up for this month and even have 2 booked for next month already.

What About Rob?

2008-03-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Rob is busy as usual. Busy working at work, busy working on the house, busy traveling around the world (most recently to Africa).

I tell him he needs to take a day off or take some leave to relax. He tells me he doesn't have time for any of that.

Secretly I think he enjoys the work. I don't think he knows what to do with himself if he's not working on something. Resting on his day off feels like wasting time to him. But eventually he will take some leave so that we can just enjoy ourselves. July can't come fast enough!

Summer Plans

2008-03-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that Ashlyn will be going to girl scout camp. I forgot to mention that Ethan will also be going to camp. Ashlyn's is a sleep-away camp and she will be gone for the entire week. Ethan's is a day camp and will be gone from about 7 a.m. till about 6 p.m. They will both be attending their camps during the week of July 20 - 26. Yes.... I planned that perfectly! :) My plan is for Rob to be on leave that week so we can enjoy the majority of the week together.

The kids will also take their second season of swim lessons.

We are not sure what other plans we might have that will take us away from home (Busch Garden's maybe), but I know we will be spending lots of time outside enjoying our pool!

Substituting and Soccer

2008-03-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought it was time to post a little update on what I have going on.

I recently applied to be a substitute teacher at the kids' school. Today was my orientation where I learned some tips and tricks for the classroom, how to use the system to accept jobs, got fingerprinted, and added to the system. The kids are about to go on Spring Break, so I will start working once they go back to school.

My other big news is that I got my first paying photography job! I will be taking the team and individual photos for the soccer league in a neighboring county - St. Mary's (county) Northern Soccer League (we live in Charles county). Rob helped me stuff 1000 envelopes with 1000 letters and 1000 order forms. I delivered all the packets to the coaches last week. I will take the pictures on April 19 and April 26. There will be a total of 893 kids and 67 teams over the two days.

Rob has been a huge help to me in preparing for this. Besides helping me stuff all those envelopes, he also created my order forms and letterhead for me, as well as the labels that we put on all the envelopes.

A friend has created a new logo for me, which will soon be added to our newly updated website (www.lbdigitals.com).

Birthday Updates

2008-03-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

ETHAN
I realized while I was updating Ashlyn's latest adventures that I never posted anything about Ethan's birthday. So here it is...

Our little guy turned 7 in Jan. I don't like that one bit! We tried telling him that he had to go backwards on this birthday and that he would be turning 5 instead, but he was having none of it. He said he has to be 7 and he has to get bigger. I don't know why though. He never gives me a good reason for it. And until he does, I refuse to believe that there is any good reason why he has to grow up!

We celebrated his birthday but taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese for dinner and to let them play. It always works out well for his birthday because he gets free tokens for his birthday and Ashlyn gets free tokens for her report card grades. I also let him pick out what flavor cake and frosting he wanted and I made him a cake. We let the kids each pick an ice cream flavor to go with the cake. Our gift to him (besides the trip to C.E.C.) was a 6 month subscription to an online game of Pirates of the Caribbean. He really enjoys playing and had been asking for weeks on end for us to get him unlimited access to the game.

He also really enjoyed all the gifts that were sent to him! Thank you!

ASHLYN
So my baby girl turned 10 this month (sniffle, sniffle, cry, cry). Where has the time gone?! She has really grown recently and is looking more like a 10 year old these days. I will take the kids to C.E.C. again tomorrow (March 19). She will get to use her free birthday tokens and it will also benefit the DI teams as they are doing a fundraiser there. We didn't get to celebrate much on her actual birthDAY, but she did open all the gifts that were sent to her that day.

We will get her the newest Barbie video that she wants as our gift to her and we will take her, Ethan, and a few of her friends to see Horton Hears a Who in the theater. That is what she wants to do for her birthday celebration this year. It looks like a cute movie, so it should be a fun time.

She loved all the gifts that were sent to her! Thank you!

More about Girl Scouts and DI

2008-03-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

GIRL SCOUTS
Well, the girl scout cookies are in! Thank you to those of you who ordered some. The troop held two cookie booths where they sold over 400 boxes. Ashlyn sold over 60 boxes through her order forms. The troop will be using the funds from the cookie sales to go to Massanutten, VA where they will be staying in a suite for 2 nights and enjoying 2 days at the indoor water park there (http://www.massresort.com/). They will also use some of the funds to enjoy a dinner and show at Medieval Times (http://www.medievaltimes.com/mdhomepage2.htm). They are all looking forward to making some great memories before this Girl Scout season ends!

Ashlyn is also registered for girl scout camp. Her camp of choice is called Art Du Jour - (Description - Explore your creative side as you create an art project each day! Make clay pots, jewelry, sculpture, mosaic, duct tape wallets and more! You'll even get the chance to turn a plain white T-shirt into the latest fashion trend.) She loves anything to do with art, so she should really have a great time this year. She will be at camp from July 20 - July 26.

DESTINATION IMAGINATION
Well, the DI competition was held on March 15. We were there from 830 a.m. till about 6 p.m. It was a long day that didn't go anywhere near as well as we had hoped and/or planned. All of the kids were there and used their prep time to practice their play. The problem came when their actual time started. They had 8 minutes to set up the scenes and complete the play. They had a really tough time taping the backgrounds up. They had painted three scenes onto large sheets of paper that they then had to tape up. They decided to tape all 3 up at once and then tear down the one in front when they were done with that scene. First they had a tough time getting the tape to stick and to actually hold up the paper. Once they finally got all 3 sheets taped up they then proceeded to pull out their puppet props to start scene one, at which point one of the background sheets started to fall. They were trying to fix the background when the timer went off. Poor babies! They were so disappointed that they didn't get the chance to do their play. They had worked so hard on it over the prior weeks.

The judges were really great with them though. They asked to see all their props and asked them all about what the play was going to be, and told the kids that they thought it sounded really great and wished they would have been able to see it. In the end the kids got zero's across the board on the score sheet, but we were given a sheet with judges comments and they all said they thought the puppets were really creative and that the kids worked really well as a team and never gave up or got upset. Everyone was really impressed with them.

After the team challenge came the instant challenge. During this challenge they were in a room with just them and a judge. They were given a challenge and the point is to work as a team to figure out how to solve the challenge according to whatever the rules are. I still don't know what the challenge was (because the kids are asked to sign a paper saying they won't talk about it because all of the competing teams are given the same instant challenge), but I do know that they did REALLY well. The judge came out with the kids and gave a double thumbs up, saying they did a great job on it. And I might add, there were middle school teams who had problems with this challenge!

So overall, it was a bit of a low and a bit of a high for them. They weren't disqualified, which they could have been. We don't know how many points they were given for the instant challenge, but because of the zero for the team challenge they didn't place. The top 4 teams go on to the state level to compete again. Ashlyn was a little upset about it all, but she says she wants to do it again next year anyway. She really enjoys DI and with 2 years under our belts we hope to do an even better job next year!

Ethan and the Tooth Fairy

2008-02-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, so my boy lost one of his front teeth (on top) today at school. He is very excited that the tooth fairy is coming tonight. Earlier he said to me that maybe the tooth fairy will bring him $20. Apparently he thinks she is rich. I say this not because he hopes for $20 (for one tooth) but because he actually said, "she's rich". Ha Ha! He said she always has lots of money with her. I of course explained to him that she has to deliver money to lots and lots of children just like him every single night so she needs all that money.

He didn't buy it.

Which is just too bad. the tooth fairy told me that he is just going to have to deal with 1, maybe 2, dollars. Inflation is a killer isn't it?!

Ashlyn - Girl Scouts and DI

2008-02-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

Ashlyn is in girl scouts and just participated in Thinking Day where all the troops get together to learn about different countries. This year her troop's country was Barbados. She had a really great time and learn a lot about the various countries presented.

Ashlyn is also participating in Destination Imagination (DI) at school.

What is DI you ask? A team of students work together using creativity, critical thinking, and individual talents to solve a team challenge. The teams usually have 8 weeks (or more - we usually end up with less somehow though) to solve the challenge. There are 5 challenges to choose from. This year Ashlyn's team is working on a challenge called DI've Got A Secret! This challenge focuses on Playwriting, Theater Arts (Design, Construction, Costumes and Set Pieces), Optical Physics, Teamwork. While there are adult team managers they are not allowed to help the kids other then to keep them on track. The kids have to come up with all the ideas for the skit and how to solve the challenge, and if there are props the kids also have to build them all. It is a very interesting process and this is Ashlyn's 2nd year in DI. We go to competition on March 15! Wish her and her team lots of luck. From what I hear there are 30 other teams competing in this one challenge.

It's been really fun watching the kids come up with ideas. They have decided that their skit will take place in a school where there will be 3 different scenes that take place in 3 different areas of a school. Scene one is in the classroom where they are making puppets. Scene two is in the bathrooms (singing songs) and an announcement is made for an assembly taking place in the gym. Scene three is, of course, in the gym where the kids use their puppets to put on a concert - Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers. During the puppet concert the big surprise comes when the puppets drop and the real people are actually there (that is their optical illusion that is a required element in the challenge).

They have to finish working on scene 3 and they have to start building the set and making the puppets. But they are making good time - seeing as how we just got started (supposed to start in Oct!).

The weekend of her birthday is going to be very busy for her. She will have a DI meeting probably every day that week, but then she has a girl scout function after the DI meeting the night of her birthday. Then the next day is the DI competition, and also cookie booth sales start that day. On the 16th she will be at cookie booth most of the day. Poor thing! But she loves every minute of it all. :)