Monday, October 1, 2018

Kid Update

Evelyn is 100 percent pre-occupied these days with The Little Mermaid!  So proud of her hard work and devotion to learning her lines, dances, and vocals. She is always working hard- that's for sure.  But when she isn't working hard, she is spending time with her theatre buddies.  They are such great friends and have all sorts of Autumn plans! Parties, with matching outfits, trips to the mall to find the matching outfits, pumpkin patch outings, Sea World trips with no accompanying adults- obviously!  She is really growing up and I'm proud of her desire to do well in all things academic and music theatre.  She is a teenager, however, and so we often struggle with the attitude and ingratitude that teenage years bring with them. Its a daily thing and I'm sure we have much worse to endure!  This past month, a young woman personal progress leader texted her about her progress.  Well Evelyn is not currently very excited about personal progress and couldn't even find her book! She kindly put her off once or twice, but the lady was not going to back down and she even started texting ME about it.  So that evening the two of us spent at least one FULL hour searching for her book so we could report her progress. Looked EVERYWHERE and couldn't find it. High and low, under coach cushions, in the car, in the scriptures.  No where to be found.  I was so frustrated with the whole thing after an hour that I knelt down and prayed... "Heavenly Father, if you really care about her doing this, I need your help because I'm out of ideas with this kid."  Sure enough, right after my prayer, I headed back to her room and had the idea to look inside a little box she has in her closet that stores swim suits.  I took out all the suits and underneath--- far underneath-- was her personal progress book.  She could not deny and neither could I, that Heavenly Father wanted her to get going on her Personal Progress!  








It's definitely been an adjustment for Dane at middle school.  Generally, he enjoys the responsibility of attending 3 different classes a day, different ones each day, different teachers.  He enjoys his friends and feels special with all the attention he gets from so many awesome older kids he knows from church.  I'm so happy he has them!  What a blessing to have one of the coolest eighth graders at school high five you as you walk by.  He has no idea how lucky he is!  But he is enjoying school and is showing incredible responsibility with his school work.  He checks his grades on-line a little TOO much, in fact.  About a week after school started, Dane wanted to get the Vans that he saw everyone else had.  Forget the awesome red Nikes Blake and I had bought him mid-summer.  Not cool enough. So he used his own money to purchase a pair of Vans to be like all the other kids.  Reminded me very keenly of someone else in middle school. ME!  Evelyn wouldn't DREAM of needing or wanting brand name clothes or shoes.  In fact, the other day she said-- "I'd like some Berkinstalk shoes"  I told her she'd need to save her money cause they were pricey- but she chose to buy the Target knock offs. No questions asked.  She had no intention of spending the money on the label.  But Dane wants to fit in-- just like I did in middle school.  It's interesting to watch.  Soccer and football are certainly keeping him busy.  He is at practice 4 days a week and Saturday games.  It's not easy on him, but he loves soccer and chooses to continue! And he's great at it. He's having an awesome season and his hard work is paying off.  I'm proud of him.  Every morning, Dane asks for a detailed itinerary of the day-- even on school days--- so I laughed at this meme from the office.  I end up explaining the day so often to so many kids that I pretty much lose my mind by the end of the day.  My kids just like to know what's going on!  I love the morning time when Dane has an extra 40 minutes to spend with me before school and after younger kids are off.  He sure is a sweet boy.




Grant's world is full of his passions right now-- football, soccer, musical theatre and chorus.   Wait, that's not right.  Grant's world is full of not only HIS passions, but his mother's passions at the time being.  Haha!  I talked he and Anna into trying out for Beauty and The Beast at the school and they went for it!  Grant got the part of Maurice- Belle's Dad (Anna is a flower girl in the ensemble).  He has quite a few lines and is doing his best  to memorize and work up to a solo.  I don't think it's his favorite after school activity but I'm sure proud of him for giving it a shot.  Grant is also staying after school on Tuesdays to do chorus because I'm the pianist.  Again, not his greatest passion, but he's been a good sport and I love him for it.  Now, football.... on the other hand,  football has been so much fun this month!  Not just for Grant, but for Grant's mom and dad! He is such a great little player-- mostly as running back, but also as quarterback recently.  We sure love watching this kid play and it is the highlight of his week-- even more than soccer!  Grant invited all of his buddies over for a big playdate one day after school this month.  He was bound and determined to put together a goodie bag for each friend.  It was so sweet.  So sweet.  I think all the boys had a nice time together.  But I don't think I'm up for hosting 6 boys again anytime soon unless it's a birthday party... haha!  Grant was chosen as student of the month-- he was chosen last year too for September.  I'm truly so proud of him.  He receives so much special attention for his good works at school and I'm astounded when I ask what he does to get his good marks.  Last time I asked why he had earned the prize and he told me he saw a student sitting alone at a table, so he moved that table over because there was no room at the table he was sitting at.... but he wanted this kid to be included.  One of the boys went up to tattle on him for moving a table but the yard duty was so pleased at his good works that she rewarded instead of punished.  Hey, this is my journal, I can brag right?  So proud of Grant.



















Anna has had a busy month too, full of play practice, chorus, play dates with JoJo and new buddy and neighbor- Kate!  Anna is such a great little sidekick.  She will go ANYWHERE with me and loves it more than life itself.  As long as she's able to get a little something on the way out.  And sometimes when we go to Costco and there's really nothing little to buy for a small girl, she ends up with a humungous stuffed kitty cat.  Haha!  I know I spoil her, but I have a hard time not.  She drives all over the world with me and has the very best attitude on earth. And I could not adore her more.  Whether we are on the sidelines of a soccer game, or shopping at Home Depot, she finds a way to entertain herself.  Anna is by far the most social child I've ever raised.  People are important VERY important to this little girl.  She loves her friends, she loves her teacher, her grandparents, her parents, her siblings.  She writes little notes to her brothers- especially Dane-- each night.  One night I found Dane's drawer where he keeps all of his special items opened and saw inside a bunch of notes form Anna.  So cute.  She is always trying to lift everyone around her.  Her current favorite pastime is pretending that she is the chorus conductor.  She has my music stand and my music and will play for hours.  It's so adorable.  I love it.  And Anna IS a singer.  She is enjoying her singing activities and soon (once we endure the crazy of soccer season), she will get her chance to do dance!  She is not too eager to begin, but I have a feeling she'll love it once she starts.  Love this little girl more than words.