20 Year High School Reunion

Back in March, one of my friends emailed me and asked if I'd help her plan our 20 year high school reunion.  I agreed, thinking it would be pretty simple.  It turned into a lot more work than I had anticipated, but I'm so glad I was able to get involved.  We held meetings off and on over the summer talking about when we would have it and what things we wanted to do.  In the end, I got the job of tracking down everyone's contact information (thankfully I only had about 50 on my list), all the RSVPs came to me, I got to collect all the money and pay the dinner bill, I made all the name tags, and I got to put together a slide show with everyone's current pictures and information.  I spent many nights leading up to the reunion, staying up till after midnight working on the slide show.  In the end it turned out great.

We held our reunion the weekend of Aberdeen's Homecoming.  We started the weekend with the Homecoming football game Friday night.  We pulled the kids out of school an hour early, so we could make it in time.  My four younger kids decided to stay at grandma's house while we went to the game, so just Sara, Savannah and Josh went to the game.  I spent the whole game visiting with my classmates that were there.  Josh spent a lot of the time actually watching the game, and the rest of the time the three of them played on the big legendary painted rock and took selfies.

When I was looking through the pictures later that night, I wondered who they'd had take the picture of them above.  The next picture revealed the answer.  My best friend and neighbor when I was a little girl - David Anderson.  It made me smile to know he was hanging out with my kids that night.  

The next morning we held a family breakfast at the city park.  Scott and I went early to set up, then he went home and got the kids when it was time for everyone to arrive.  I had been so anxious about the upcoming reunion, agonizing over what I would wear and how I would look.  It was so nice to spend that morning talking with friends and realizing that they were still the same people I'd grown up with, and that none of them were judging me by how I looked.  These friends were with me for almost half my life, and it was just wonderful to see them again and catch up.

That afternoon the kids played at grandma's house while Scott and I finished the final touches on the slide show for that night.  My kids LOVE grandma's house.

That night, we attended the couples dinner.  We had it at an event center halfway between Aberdeen and American Falls, and had a catered dinner.  Out of the 50 we invited, we had 24 come (plus spouses), so we had a pretty good turnout (more than we had at the breakfast).  We all laughed and talked for well over 4 hours.  When the evening ended, no one wanted to go home.  We stood out by our cars and talked and laughed for another hour.  It was such a fun evening.  I'm so glad I was asked to help, because I might not have gone otherwise, and I would have missed out on a wonderful weekend.

The next day, Savannah woke up with the biggest cold sore I've ever seen.  Poor girl was absolutely miserable.  So we decided not to go to grandma's church, and instead headed for home.

Kate took a good long nap on the drive.

We stopped in Mountain Home and fed the kids chicken nuggets and french fries.

When we got home, Scott took Savannah into the doctor (Primary Health), and got a prescription for her cold sore.  I let her stay home from school the next day, so she wouldn't have to have all her friends asking what was wrong.  Poor girl.  It ended up taking about a week to heal completely.  The medicine is supposed to cut down on future occurrences of cold sores.  We are crossing our fingers she never has to have one that bad again!
 

What a wonderful weekend with old friends!

 

3rd Grade

Aaron is loving 3rd grade.  I was so nervous for this year to start.  The demands in each grade keep getting more difficult, and I worry about Aaron being able to keep up.  He is so smart, but his physical limitations when it comes to writing make school difficult.  But, he has a wonderful teacher this year (we've been so blessed with great teachers every year), who lets him do a lot of things orally.  I was able to meet for Aaron's 504 at school, and I came away feeling like he was in great hands.  We have a new principal this year, and so far I am impressed.  He talked to us about being open to the idea of pushing keyboarding with Aaron.  Aaron's therapist doesn't want him to let up on his work with handwriting, and we understand that.  But to hand write a simple book report would take him hours.  He physically just doesn't have the hand strength to hold a pencil and write for that long.  The principal said he had come from a school where 80% of the students were boys, and that of those boys 40% were on the spectrum.  He said a lot of those boys were so smart, but struggled with handwriting.  So while the ideas were flowing from their minds, they just couldn't get it down on paper.  He said that when taught to keyboard, it opened up a whole new world for them to express themselves freely.  He told us that keyboarding would change Aaron's life.  So we are going to be open to starting that this year.  They have something called an AlphaSmart that they will have available for him to use in his classroom whenever he wants.  It's just a little keyboard with a small screen attached.  He can type in his work, then he takes the USB off it up to the teacher to print.  It's small and portable, so it will be easy for him to use at his desk.  His teacher isn't going to push it, just have it for him if he wants to try it.  I am so appreciative for good educators that take care of all of my kids. 

Sara's 10th Birthday

Sara turned 10 on September 10th.  It was a busy school day, so we started off with a special breakfast of sticky buns before she had to go to school.

After school, Savannah had Volleyball practice and the boys had football practice.  I wanted to still make it Sara's special day, so Scott took the other kids with him to the boys' football practice, and I took Sara with me to Savannah's volleyball practice.  While Savannah practiced, Sara and I walked around the beautiful town of Hidden Springs, which sits up in the foothills.

And then we all met back up at home and let Sara open her presents.  She got a new dry erase board and colored markers for it, Savannah gave her mechanical pencils and her favorite kind of candy bar (Hershey white chocolate cookies and cream), and Randy gave her a card with a white handkerchief to save to use when the Meridian Temple is finally dedicated.

 

 

 

Her big surprise present from us was a new bike!

 

 

Then time for cake and ice cream! 

I snuck one re-light trick candle into the bunch.

We love our Sara girl so much, and are so glad she is in our family!

Also....she got to go shopping with Grandma Jo and out to dinner the weekend before her birthday.  It's such a fun birthday tradition.  Usually it's clothes shopping, but Sara decided she had enough clothes, and wanted to get a new bed spread for her bed.  She got an adorable one and a new chair!