A Speciality

On the way home from school last week Joel said, "Mom, I think teaching is your specialty." He then proceeded to tell me that everybody has a specialty - Michael's is making chips (for cell phones), Emma's is being a good big sister, and his was losing at math games. That came as a surprise becuase he is actually very good at math, but apparantely not very fast when they're playing games in class.

Every now and then he comes home with a really big word that he actually understands. A few months ago the word was "deviate." He was so excited to tell us about how his teacher was going to school to become one thing, but then she decided to deviate and choose something different.

He may be our baby, but he sure likes the big words.

Finally Summer!

We have only been on summer break for about five days, but we are trying to make the most of it. We were so happy to be able to celebrate Kyle's half-birthday with him. We miss living so close and love any chance we have to get together with old friends.

Besides packing and getting ready for our tip we have been spending the rest of our time relaxing and hanging out at the pool as much as possible. Today I learned a painful lesson about needing sunscreen in Arizona, even though I never did in California. Oh well, the burn should fade soon.

Battle of the Books

This was the moment they realized they had won!


Emma was on a team called "The Divas and Those Guys." Don't they look the part?



The principal and the team holding the plague that will be displayed in the office.


Every year our school has a Battle of the Books competition. Students from 5th through 7th grades are asked to read from a list of between 11 and 14 books. They are put on teams of five or six students. 5th and 6th graders are on teams together, and 7th and 8th graders are on teams together. They read for six weeks and then we have a big competition. It starts with all the 5th and 6th grade teams battling each other and the 7th and 8th grade teams battling each other. The final four teams from each grade level then battle against each other. It is a major competition with the loud speaker, costumes, a fog machine, and very intense participants. This was Emma's second year to compete and they won! Michael and I were so proud of her. But, better than that, she was so proud of herself. I don't think she stopped talking about it for two weeks and we really didn't get tired of hearing about how her hard work paid off.