Teenagers (sigh)

Award-Winning 7th Grader

Bragging- On

It was awards day for the 7th grade at RMS.  Grey received awards in Math, Science, and Theatre. Personally, I think I should have received an award for sitting on the bleachers as long as I did.

     I thought he would run off and not let us get any pictures, but he wanted to lobby for us to take him out of school early. Ummmm at 10:00, no, I don't think so. But, I did get some pics.

      We are really proud of him getting the math and science, but the theatre award is the one I think he is most proud of. His teacher always raves about him even though he only had theater one semester. And we are proud because she sees how creative and funny he is all the time.  

Although, I wouldn't mind if he dialed it down a little at home.

I figured out how to get a good expression out of Grey for pics.  When he gives me the creepy or crazy face I tell him to "stop", and when he laughs I snap the pic. That's right, I'm one step ahead, again.

          Grey and the principal. 

Always good to see them together under these circumstances.

Grey

His talents are being wasted in middle school.

Grey and his Mardi Gras Krewe

One of Grey's best friends invited him and his other best friend to go to Mardi Gras with him and his family. Before you start questioning our parenting abilities, they went to the family-friendly, PG version in the small towns near New Orleans.
Grey and his Krewe checked out of school Friday at noon and came back on Sunday evening. He had a blast. I think they went to 5 or so parades and came home with 34lbs of beads (individually) and a bag of goodies. And that was what he could physically carry home. I think some had to be left behind.
Best part was he had to turn his Alabama sweatshirt inside out so they would throw him some beads. That made me smile.

After punching in his lunch pin #, Grey asked the middle school cafeteria lady if he could get $10 cash back.

April Fool's

Grey's favorite holiday of all is April Fool's. I dread it every year. This year he locked Mac's iphone and changed the passcode leaving "April Fool's" as his wallpaper. He set up a couch alarm that blew a horn when you sat down. ( Holland and her friend who spent the night got that one.) He decided to expand his prankdom this year when he put eviction notices on 6 of our neighbors' houses.

We may be moving soon or serving time.

Grey's Desk

This is a sign of genius, right?

Open House 2011

The other night the kids had Open House at the school. It is really not my favorite way to spend an evening. Parking is a nightmare, and I've seen the computer lab, library, and music room every year for 5 years. And every year I act like I've never seen it and ask the child leading the tour to show me around. Most of the evening is spent going to one of the children's classrooms while the other child complains and asks, "when are we going to my class?" And of course, Mac wants to catch up with every man, woman, child, and teacher he can find which gums up the whole process. What I actually do enjoy about the evening is getting to see the kids' projects and work. They are always so proud and so am I. I particularly liked this word problem Grey came up with.

You can take the boy out of Alabama, but you can't take Alabama out of the boy.

(Believe me I've tried.)

Happy Birthday, Grey!

First, I would like to give a shout out to Christopher Columbus since he and Grey shared October 11th this year. So, thanks Chris for the discovery and the day off from school. Historical figures rock!

HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY, GREY!

I actually ordered the cookie cake before Saturday's game. Had I known the outcome of that game, I would still have ordered it, but with a smile in my heart.

Those are sparkler candles in the shape of the number 11. Very smoky, but cool.

We had "Grey Day" on Sunday. We took him and his friend, Blake, to The Kemah Boardwalk for the day.

They rode rides over and over and over and over........

Frankly, I don't know how they kept their lunch down.

Holland said she didn't like this ride, even though this is her 2nd round.

She got rowdy. Steps were taken.

Chillin' in the awesome weather

Grey and Blake on The Inverter. They were completely upside down.

I like the slight look of panic/fear on Mac's face.

Grey had to ride the birthday broom at Joe's Crab Shack.

Grey, Mac, and Blake

Ridin' the train. Easy and Relaxing.

(photo by Holland Davis who wanted a seat to herself)

I loathe/hate/despise/havemajorphobiaof ferris wheels and yet, here I am sitting on one. A clear example of peer pressure, plus it was a small ferris wheel.

(Yeah, I changed shirts. I opened a Coke Zero and was soon wearing the contents of that can.)


Grey had a great day and hopefully didn't suffer any brain damage from riding the Bullet 9 times.

WE LOVE YOU!!

Thanksgiving Feast

So, just before the Thanksgiving break, the kids had their school Thanksgiving Feast. That could be considered false advertising, because any food served on a styrofoam tray with a spork (spoon + fork... yes, they make such a creature) can by no means be considered a feast. But for $4, what do you expect. I expected mashed potatos served with an ice cream scoop, and that's what I got.



Holland and her good friend, Tiffany. (You can see from her vest that she is a direct descendant of the Kroger tribe.) Tiffany is my source of info about what's going on in the class. Tele-phone, tell a friend, tell a Tiffany. She's always in the know.

Me and my Native American first grader.


Holland and Faith. They've been friends since they were 18 months old, as much as you can be friends at 18 months. Anyway, it was also Faith's birthday. Note the hat.

Word to the pilgrims.

The teacher had to come over and ask him to behave.

Let's take a closer look at those light, fluffy, mashed potatos.........

See how the spork is firmly set in those potatos. Those aren't going down your throat without a fight.

Moving on......

Despite the expression on his face, he wanted us there.

Mac ate with him, yes, he ate the feast twice. They sat with Grey's "girlfriend", her mom, stepdad, and grandmother. The grandmother told Grey that they had heard many "charrrming" things about him around the house.

Mac said Grey dropped his spork and was speechless.

I hate I missed it.

I couldn't eat with Grey and Mac, because I was called to the front lines......

First Grade Computer Duty.

Not for the faint of heart or those who don't speak first grade nonsense.
I happen to be fluent in nonsense.

Freedom and Flouride

There is not much my kids won't do to get out of school for a couple of hours.

Oh, I suppose I could just keep them out for the rest of the day.....

Like that's going to happen......

Team Holland vs Team Hungary x 8

Mercifully, the soccer season, or rather the 8 game playoff series between Team Holland and Team Hungary is over. At one point, we had the series tied up 2 games each. But it went downhill from there and Team Holland lost the last 4 games.
I think Mac enjoyed being assistant coach even though he had to miss some practices and games for work, and I know he enjoyed working with Coach Patrick.
During the halftime peptalk, Coach Patrick would say stuff like, "You guys are doing great; keep working hard......blah blah....." and then he would turn to Mac and say, "Would you like to add anything, Coach Mac?"
And Mac would say, " YOU GUYS NEED TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!" He might have even thrown a chair or two if there had been any out there.
It was like good coach/ bad coach. But to no avail.

This would not be a banner season.

September/October 2009 Upwards Soccer Season

Official School Pictures (with commentary, of course)

This is Grey's official 4th grade picture. This one will grace the pages of the annual. He's pleased and I'm pleased. Thank goodness.
We don't have an official school picture from last year because they were taken on the scheduled retake days because of Ike, and he forgot to take the money in on the day. Then for Spring pics, he had the flu, and nobody wants a picture of that. So, now I can never have one of those 12 year photo frames that documents each school year, not that I have kept anything for 12 years or even that I wanted one, but it's kind of sad knowing the option is no longer on the table for Grey.

Like I was saying, here's Grey's 4th grade picture.

He will autograph for free.

Holland's picture came out pretty good, too. She always gives me a smile. We had a "not our best" kind of hair day. I actually took her to get a haircut a couple of days before, but a small, possible tornado actually came through our area, when I say area, I mean my neighborhood. It's never a good sign when news helicopters are circling above your house. Anyway, the storm blew some trees down, lightning set one house on fire, and knocked power out for about 6 hours. Undeterred, I headed to the mall to get her hair cut, but alas their power was out, too. I should have known that when I got a great covered parking spot. Long story short, (where's the entertainment value in that?) No haircut.

Also, she had a VERY loose tooth that day. I asked her when she got home from school holding it, if she lost it before or after her picture was taken and she said after. I was so relieved. We needed all the teeth we could hold onto for the picture. But if you enlarge the picture or look closely, you can see a very bloody tooth and even some blood on her lip. Only Holland loses a tooth ON picture day.

But I still like the picture and even more 'cause it captures a neat moment, bloody tooth and all.

Happy 10th Birthday, Grey!

1 year old

Terrible.....I mean terribly cute...2 years old.

3 years old

4 years old

Feelin' 5 years old

6 years old

7 years old

8 years old

9 and forming his own SEC loyalties.

Happy 10th Birthday!

Because I love him so I agreed to eat Chinese on his birthday. The picture is proof.

I also agreed to eat Chinese every year his birthday falls on a Sunday. Thank goodness, that's only every 6 years...it would have been every 7 years.....darn that leap year.

WE LOVE YOU, GREY!