And his award is.....A fortune cookie fortune????

On Thursday May 12, 2011 the North Mesquite High School J.R.O.T.C. held their annual awards ceremony for all of the cadets enlisted in their program.  This was a mandatory event for all of the cadets to attend and of course family was welcomed.  The ceremony began shortly after 6pm and up first to receive their rewards were all of the first year cadets.  With them lined up in alphabetical order and the ceremony ready to begin the Colonel stepped up and announced to the parents that the first years would not be receiving any awards, however they would be called up individually and recognized for the awards (ribbons, medals etc) that they've earned throughout the school year.  Following the first years they would then award "the real awards" (according to the Colonel) to the second years and upper classmen followed by an announcement of the choice for the new brigade commander for next year.  All first years would be allowed to leave after the completion of the first year ceremony but were encouraged to stay for the remainder of the event.

So when it was Dalton's turn to be called, they called his name and read off a list of letter number names that identified his awards; he approached the current brigade commander; they shook hands; she handed him a piece of paper that looked like a fortune from a fortune cookie; they saluted one another and he was finished.

Seriously it was like being at a bingo hall.  As Dalton's name was called they began to read off on the list of awards which were N-1, N-4, N-2 etc.  I was all I could do listening to them call out these numbers for each kid not to jump up and yell out "BINGO!".  I guess the best part of the evening was that we were there to support him and we were able to get a few photos of him in his full uniform. 

The ribbons that Dalton has are: N-1-6 (LET Service), N-3-5 (Orienteering), N-3-7 (Rifle Team), N-3-10 (Good Conduct), N-2-1 (Varsity Athletics), and a few more that I can't remember right now...need to find the list.

The badges and devices he has are: a green cord (orienteering) and an expert marksmanship badge.

Chicka, Chicka, Meow, Meow

On Thursday May 5, 2011 Alyssa and the rest of the first graders in Ms. Smith's class were given awards for the books they'd written and illustrated at the Pre-Bill Martin Jr. Symposium Cinco de Mayo Literary Fiesta.  As it turns out the girls and boys split into groups and wrote their own stories complete with illustrations.  Alyssa along with the other first grade girls in the class wrote and illustrated a book called "Chicka, Chicka, Meow, Meow" which was based off of and inspired by the Bill Martin Jr. story "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom"  At first their teacher was under the impression that neither the boys nor the girls books had won anything but that they had placed and were going to receive certificates of recognition for their works.  As it turned out the girls actually took first place with their book and the boys had second.  Each group was awarded with a certificate and trophy to keep in their classroom and each student was given a pencil labeling them as an A+ Author.  The event was really nice, all of the books that were written throughout the district were on display, and the entertainment was great.  I am so proud of our students for the job well done, I just wish that I would have remembered to bring my camera with me.  So a few photos from my phone will just have to do.

Life Stages of a Silk Worm

Last year in Kindergarten Alyssa and her classmates learned all about the stages of a butterfly's life and the changes that it goes through.  So, on April 21, 2011, when we discovered a caterpillar inside of a cocoon just outside of my bedroom window we decided that it would be a good idea for the family to watch as the caterpillar made it's amazing transformation and document all of what we were seeing. 

April 21, 2011 (Day 1):  White caterpillar (silk worm) found inside of a white cocoon. The caterpillar is lying with it's legs up and it's head facing towards the upper right side of the cocoon.

April 22, 2011 (Day 2):  The caterpillar's body no longer has legs. It appears to have rotated inside of the cocoon leaving it's head now in the bottom left side.  The tail end of the caterpillar appears to be changing color from white to a yellow tint and is slightly larger in size.

April 23, 2011 (Day 3):  The caterpillar has completely changed color from white to brown.  It has grown a little larger than it's original size and the head appears to be covered in a white fuzz.

April 24-May 12, 2011 (Days 4-22):  The appearance of the caterpillar has remained the same.  The body has only turned a little darker but there have been no other changes to report.  We are concerned that something may be wrong but will wait a few more days.

May 13, 2011 (Day 23): We discovered this morning that the cocoon has a hole in the upper right side of it and the body of the caterpillar appears to have been broken open.  Upon further inspection we noticed a single white moth within the screened window.  After researching we discovered that only the caterpillars that will become moths encase themselves within a cocoon.

Life stages of a silk worm:

Illustration taken from enchantedlearning.com

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year we kept things pretty simple.  Well not as simple as last year....Michael was smart enough not to hand me a coffee pot again, but we still kept it simple.  Alyssa had begun on Friday with not really feeling well and had missed her practice on Friday as well as her game and team pictures on Saturday morning so we knew that anything we were going to do was not going to be done out in the heat and sun.  We really would have liked to have gone camping for the weekend but that was out of the question and we've decided to save that for our Memorial Day weekend. 

For Mother's Day our family outing was a night at the Galaxy Drive-In Theatre down in Ennis, TX.  With Alyssa feeling up to the trip and knowing that we'd just be sitting watching movies we loaded everyone up and headed to the theatre.  From our house it's about a 35-40 minute drive to the drive-in theatre but it is always well worth it.  Our features for the night were Thor 3D and Rio 3D.  Yep, that's right....two movies and they were in 3D and it cost us only $31 to get everyone in including the $2 fee for the glasses.  Now how awesome is that?!  Both movies were really great and surprisingly kid friendly. It was a great night!

For Sunday we really didn't do too much other than hang around the house and hit a few stores for some much needed stuff.  For Mother's day gifts Alyssa gave me two cards that she'd drawn and written poems for me at school during the previous week:

Michael went to the comic book store and bought me the over sized purse that I'd seen on Saturday when I brought the kids to the free comic book day:

They bought me a frozen mocha frappe and some sushi for dinner. Then for dessert I tried out my king cake idea for Alyssa's birthday:

Like I said, we kept it simple but it was still a good day.  We did a little shopping for Alyssa's birthday and came up with some really great ideas and at the end of the night I helped Michael complete his final term paper and homework for this semester.  Ultimately though, the night did end with poor Alyssa really getting sick and staying up all night vomitting but at least it held off until the day had come to an end.  This is where we were by 6am Monday morning....poor kid:

Ahhh, the life of being a Mommy!