Missing Jed

The whole last week of school teachers were sending home folder after folder of the kids' work throughout the year. In one of the folders of Tatum's work, we found a paragraph she wrote about Jed, and it really made us miss him. I thought I'd share it.

My Pet Jed

by Tatum Richardson

My pet dog is named Jed. Jed is a very fat, black dog. He is a very old dog. Jed feels very, very hairy. He smells very, very bad. I hear him bark. Jed likes to go outside and he is slow ALL the time. To me, Jed is the best dog anyone could have.

Guess Who Got Braces?

Poor kid got his dad's teeth. Need I say more?

Academic Night & Student Council

Connor had straight A's again this year, so he was named a Gilbert Public School's Golden Scholar. We were invited to attend the Ashland Ranch Academic Night. It's basically an award ceremony for all the Golden Scholars. Quite a few of Connor's friends, and his cousin, Kamryn, were all Golden Scholars as well.

I am really proud of him. This year hasn't been easy. In fact, we're told that 5th grade is the hardest year at Ashland Ranch. Connor maintained straight A's while learning the double bass, playing competitive soccer, and serving on student council. Way to go, Chacho!

And speaking of student council, our goofy kid just won the student council elections. He is now the student body President of Ashland Ranch Elementary. This is a picture from the Academic Night slide show. It's Connor and a couple of his equally goofy friends. What a crack-up!

Soccer Schedule

Okay, everyone! Here's the soccer schedule for the rest of the year. All the girls' games are at the Gilbert Youth Soccer Complex on the southwest corner Germann & Greenfield Roads. Tatum plays on field E-7, and Rylee plays on field D-1.

March 27th
Rylee - 8:30 am
Tatum - 11:30 am

**April 3rd
Rylee - 10:00 am
Tatum - 10:00 am

**Connor has a 3 vs. 3 tournament in Tucson that week, so we may or may not be attending these games with the girls.

April 10th
Rylee - 10:00 am
Tatum - 1:00 pm

April 17th
Rylee - 11:30 am
Tatum - 1:00 pm

Meeting DJ MacHale

For a long time now, one of Connor's favorite series of books has been The Pendragon Adventure. There are 10 books total, and they are all about 500 pages long. He's been reading them since 3rd grade, anxiously awaiting the release of each new volume every year. This year the last book, The Soldiers of Halla, came out, and he snatched it up and read it in a few weeks. He LOVED it! A few weeks later, we found out that the author, DJ MacHale, would be visiting our school. Connor was so excited!

The presentation was only for the 4th through 6th grades, but since we have read several of these books as a family, I took the girls out of class so they could hear DJ speak. He was really an amazing speaker and SO motivating for the kids. He talked about achieving your goals and never giving up, even when people tell you "no" over and over again. He also touched on the importance of writing, and it really made an impact on Connor.

Most of the kids at Connor's school hadn't read much of the Pendragon series, so they brought up the one book they'd purchased at the school and had it signed. NOT CONNOR! He brought a huge bag full of all 10 books to be signed. DJ was so cool. He took the time to sign and personalize each one, and even checked out which books were first editions for Connor. He signed a special message in those, and told him to hold onto them because they'd be worth something. Connor was on cloud 9--he wouldn't even let me take his books home for him. He carted that huge, heavy bag of books around school all day. What a goof!

Valentine's Day Pouches

Valentine's Day was a big hit at our house this year because of our new Valentine's Day pouches. I made these adorable pouches from an on-line tutorial I found here. There has been a lot of fighting in the Richardson family lately, probably because of our tight living quarters and the stress of living out of boxes for 7 months. There was very little kindess shown to each other, but I knew it was still there. I also knew that the kids wouldn't say some of the nice things they were thinking about each other out loud.

That's when the idea of the pouches hit me. I encouraged them to write nice things to each other all month and put them in their little pouches. On Valentine's Day, we opened our pouches over breakfast and read the nice notes (and in some cases gifts) that were left for us by our family members. It turned out really well, and the kids can't wait to do it again next year. Score one for mom! Now if I can just figure out how to get them to do this all year long...

Tatum's First Soccer Game

So Tatum and her best friend, Jules, signed up for soccer this year. They were adamant about trying it, so we signed the girls up. Luckily, they got pink and black (Tatum's favorite colors), because I think soccer is more about the cute uniforms and hairbows for her.

They had their first game a few weeks ago. She actually did really well for her first time on the field. She gets right in there and mixes it up... but she's hilarious to watch because she really takes it seriously, and she gets so stressed out during throw-ins and time-outs. You can actually see her taking deep breaths trying to calm herself down.

We're super proud of her for deciding to take on an unfamiliar sport and having the courage to get out there and play. Way to go, girlie!

When we have some pictures from Rylee's games, we'll put those up, too. Rylee is having a blast, but Justin is coaching this season, so he can't coach and take pictures at the same time. That means I'm going to have to step it up.