Today, Kirstyn started her Northern Illinois University Summer Engineering Camp (NIU-EEP) that was part of the program she started on Saturdays not long ago. The program buses them out to NIU in Dekalb every day and they spend the whole day there learning about engineering, completing projects, and going on field trips. She loves the stuff and has decided she still wants to be an Architectural Engineer when she grows up.
Have fun this week, Kirstyn!
Yea! It is finally here! The last day of school was today and the kids were VERY excited to be done!
Sarah and Brittany have been wanting to be done for quite some time. This year was pretty hard for them and they were tired! I think we are excited to have Zach done to protect his teacher from him! 🙂 He had a little bit of a rough year with some behavior and attention problems, but his teacher did a GREAT job in helping him this year, so we hope that next year brings some more positive results! Kirstyn was the one who we think could have kept going. She loved school this year, had a great time, and got great grades! Angela is gearing up for a summer with lots of activities and lots of bodies running around the house making lots of noise!
Today I was a chaperone for Zach and his school class at Brookfield zoo! I did this with Kirstyn and had a blast, so I volunteered to help with Zach as well. I only had 3 kids (including Zach) and that worked out VERY well. Each kid was supposed to figure out what his or her favorite animal was, research it, and then we were supposed to visit that animal during our visit.
Zach did his research about bats and wrote a great report to read to us. It was fun to listen to what each boy had written. 🙂
The trip went really fast! I think we were actually on the bus longer than we were in the zoo itself. Each of the kids brought their own lunch and with my boys, as soon as we got to the zoo they wanted to eat! 🙂 I made them wait until they had found their animal and read their report so we could at least see some animals. 🙂 We ended up walking fast and seeing quite a bit in the couple of hours we were there!
Thanks for asking me to come, Zach!
Today was a great day! It was very hot and muggy, but we had a great time going to the memorial day parade in Aurora and watching the girls march! It was kind-of weird, however, as it was just Angela, the boys, and I watching. What a small group! 🙂
The girls did a GREAT job and looked VERY professional in their marching! Metea and Still were the best bands out there! 🙂 Go girls! The boys really enjoyed watching them and also getting some candy.
Tonight Sarah and Brittany attended their Metea Music Award Night at the high school. Brittany received her letter jacket numerals along with her music pin, and Sarah received her music letter along with her pin as well. The picture below is the only one that turned out but aren’t they cute? 🙂
I stayed home with the boys so Angela could enjoy the time with them. 🙂 Even though the girls don’t practice as much as they should, we are so proud of what they have accomplished in the music programs they have been involved in.
Way to go!
Today was part 2 of the District 204 Fine Arts Festival. Kirstyn sang and played in the band, and Zachary had an art project that was displayed…
Zach’s project was a cute little teapot that he made out of clay stuff. It was really cute and he was so excited to show it to us. We were worried at first because we didn’t think that he had anything selected to be displayed, but fortunately, the letters were a little late getting out.
Kirstyn sounded great in her band performance. It is really amazing how good the kids sound after just a 5th grade weekly band practice and then 1 year of daily playing (Kirstyn every other day because she has chorus too). We really appreciate our district’s emphasis on the arts.
Kirstyn sang great too! The middle school 6th grade chorus groups sang with the Waubonsie Valley High School top choir. Our neighbor is in the top choir and sang with her so that was pretty cool as well.
Great job Kirstyn and Zach! You guys are awesome!
Tonight, Sarah had her final band concert of the year at Metea, and she performed wonderfully as well. Unfortunately, I missed this one as well due to the TechEd conference in Atalanta. I was bummed about that one as well. Angela got a couple of pictures, but they were really blurry due to the boys being rowdy. By the end of the concert, Ben had her about wiped-out! 🙂
Great job Sarah!
Tonight Brittany had her final Metea Orchestra concert of the year and it was awesome! Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to hear it as I am at TechEd right now, but I sure wanted to be there, and was bummed when I found out I would be missing it. They did a GREAT job! Angela didn’t get any pictures because she was wrestling with the boys, trying to keep them busy and quiet.
Great job Brittany!
Today was round 1 of the District 204 Fine Arts Festival at Metea for Sarah and Brittany. Next Saturday will be Kirstyn and Zach. Angela volunteered to work at concessions for most of the day with a break to watch the girls play…
Brittany played first with the Metea Orchestras and the middle school orchestras from the feeder schools. They did a great job! All the girls wore red flowers in their hair to go along with a Spanish number they did. It was cute.
Sarah played next with the combined Metea bands. They sounded great as well (of course)! 🙂
It’s amazing to listen to the talent that we have in our district! It’s hard to believe when listening that these kids are only 14-17 years old! What a blessing it is to have such a great music program in our district. It’s no wonder that high schools in our district win a grammy (gold status) every year! 🙂
Great job girls!
Tonight Kirstyn had her final Still Middle School chorus concert and she did a GREAT job! They had all 3 grades participating, along with the honors chorus.
The picture above is of Kirstyn’s 6th Grade chorus. They sang 3 songs: I Love a Piano, I’m Goin’ Home on a Cloud, and Songs from Gahu. Kirstyn is excited for chorus next year and hopes to make it into Honors Chorus. Keep up the GREAT work, Kirstyn!
Yesterday, Angela and a bunch of her running friends drove down to Indianapolis, and today, she ran in the Indy Mini Half Marathon along with about 37,000 other runners! This is her 4th race there and she did a GREAT job! Her time this year was 2:12! That is her best time so far (she beat her best by 8 minutes)! She worked and trained hard!
In the picture above, it’s hard to see, but in the stretch of street you can see, are all 37,000 runners! Crazy!
Great job Angela! You are the BEST! 🙂
While Angela was running, I went with Kirstyn to her last NIU EEP session where they (in their teams) presented what they did and their overall impressions to the entire group. It was great to hear all the fun stuff they did and all the fascinating speakers they listened to.
She got her official graduation certificates and patch and was very excited! This summer, she is going to do an extension of the EEP program and participate in a week-long summer camp at Northern Illinois University.
Great job Kirstyn!
Today Sarah took her AP Calculus Test! She felt VERY good about it and hopes to get a strong 4 if not a 5. We’ll keep our fingers crossed! She should get some good college credit out of this one!
