Olivia's Wild Adventures Field Trip

 Olivia's class field trip this year was to Wild Adventures.  She was chaperoned by her uncle Sam who enjoyed "watching kids get on a ride and instantly regret it". Olivia was not one of those kids.  She rode all of the rides- including the Twisted Typhoon.  This was the first time that she's been tall enough to ride that.  She's says that it is "the funnest ride ever".  Olivia and Sam had a great time.  When they got home, they both looked like they were ready to collapse.  It was definitely a fun day.

School Miscellany

Since returning from spring break we have been busier than normal due to all of those miscellaneous end-of-year school activities.  Here are a few of the things that have been keeping us on our toes.

Swim lessons:  This actually took place the week before spring break.  Each second grade class in our county gets a week of free swim lessons at the local YMCA.  Although Owen has made some progress with the swimming, he still has lots of room for improvement.  These lessons were much-needed, and I could tell that they paid off.  When we were on vacation I noticed that he was swimming better and more confidently than he had been prior to having the lessons.

 More Young Authors:  Since Olivia won the Young Author's competition for the RESA region, she was invited to a reception at the local RESA office.  There, she and the other winners were presented with a book containing their stories, a certificate, a medal, and a check for $50 (!!!).  Where were these kind of awards when I was in school?  The reception was really nice.  The people at the RESA office went above and beyond to make this a great experience for our kids.  Olivia is certainly motivated to continue writing.

Cancer Walk:  This isn't school related, but I do want to mention that the Toys R Us crew have been busy with their annual booth at the cancer walk, and this year they won 1st place.

Academic Boosters:  Our school system has an awards ceremony for those who participate in academic clubs and activities.  Olivia was honored for her participation in math club, robotics team, and battle of the books team.  She also received awards for placing or being on a team that placed it the Sum Dog Math Competition, Young Authors, Tech Fair, and Robotics Competition.  She has really enjoyed being on these academic teams this year, and she wants to do more next year.  Owen is looking forward to being in 3rd grade next year so that he can join some of these teams

 AR:  I am fortunate that both of my kids like to read.  I don't have to stay on them about their accelerated reader (AR) points because they take care of that themselves.  The school rewarded those students who reached 100 AR points for the year with a t-shirt and a game of glow-in-the-dark dodge ball.  The kids loved this.

Owen's Zoo Field Trip

Owen took his class field trip to the Jacksonville Zoo last week.  Once again, he was chaperoned by the lovely Granny Mel (who is probably field-tripped to death at this point). Mel was able to check Owen out, and they ended up staying later than the students chaperoned by the school.  I think that they did every single add-on that the zoo had to offer (the train, the stingray experience, the butterfly garden, etc...). It was a really good day, and Owen loved spending this time with his friends and his Grandmother. 

Olivia's Art

 The kids have both enjoyed having art as an exploratory at school this year, and they have both had an opportunity for their art to be displayed.  In February, I wrote about Owen's art being shown at a museum in Valdosta, and now Olivia's is being shown at the local heritage center through the month of April.  The students were asked to draw a picture that showed what was unique about them.  Olivia drew herself in a dress playing basketball.  We made a trip to the Heritage Center to view her work.

Young Author

We were recently informed that Olivia won the Young Author's writing competition.  Here is an announcement that appeared on the school district website:

We are excited to announce that 3rd grader Olivia S. has won the Young Georgia Author’s writing competition for the local RESA district.  Olivia’s story was initially selected as the winning entry for her class and then for the entire 3rd grade at her school. Competing against 3rd graders from each of the other schools in the county, Olivia was again selected as the school district's 3rd grade winner. Her story was then sent to the next level, where it was selected as the winning entry among all 8 counties in our RESA district, which includes Coffee, Atkinson, Clinch, Bacon, Ware, Charlton, Pierce, and Brantley. Olivia’s story will now compete at the state level.

Olivia’s story, The Woods, describes a magical hideout in the woods “where dragons flew, unicorns roamed, and a giant apple tree stood.” When her father decides to cut down the trees surrounding the hideout for firewood, Olivia comes up with a plan to save it. Olivia’s teachers at say that they are proud of Olivia for combining her creativity with the writing skills she has learned in class. We wish Olivia the best of luck in the state competition. State winners will be announced May 2016.

James's Baptism

 My nephew James was getting baptized on the Sunday that we would be passing back through Atlanta on the way home form Missouri.  Brian had to be at work on that Sunday, but he dropped the kids and I off in Atlanta so that we could attend the service and then we rode home with my mom and dad.  Bonus #1: Aunt Connie and Uncle Mike were also there so we got to see them.  Bonus #2:  Owen finally got to hold James (he's been waiting for that).

Graceland

The drive home from Missouri was going to be a two day affair, so we decided to break it up by stopping at Graceland along the way.  Had to- love Elvis. We arrived at Graceland (which is in the hood) and signed up for self-guided tour of the house and grounds.  They gave us each an ipad and a pair of headphones.  We used our ipads for the interactive tour.  Not only were we able to hear the audio, but we were also able to click on different icons on the ipad to access additional content (photos, video, etc.).  This was our first experience with ipads on a tour.  It was pretty cool.  

Graceland was a large-ish house with some interesting decor.  As we moved through the rooms our audio tour told us about the life of Elvis Presley.  There were a lot of things about him that I did not know prior to the tour.   

 Some of the most interesting rooms included the media room with three TVs...

 ...the billiard room with carpet on the walls and ceiling...

 ...and the jungle room (of course).

 The old raquetball court building has been converted into a trophy room.  We got to see a lot of Elvis's awards and a couple of the sequined jumpsuits.

 The tour ended with a walk though the memorial garden to see Elvis's final resting place.  After paying our respects, we loaded back into the car and continued our journey back home.