School wraps up for the year

Here we are, nearing the end of school.

L had her last track meet.  It has been a different track year and, according to L, it was her last.  I was glad to finally make it to her last meet.

L was recognized by the Stake YW presidency for earning her YW medallion this past year.

(What terrible photography skills!  I have a new camera--what can I say?!)  J had a guitar I and percussion concert.  I was only able to stay for the guitar part and it was fraught with tension because he locked his guitar case and I had to run home to get the key attached to his backpack.  I arrived just as the guitar class finished its first song.  I thought the class did well.  He's enjoyed guitar.  I missed the percussion part but B was there and filmed it.

That same night (and the reason I missed the percussion part of J's concert), L received two awards, one as a top student in her Spanish II class and one for 4.0 GPA.

Tonight, T graduated from seminary.  Good job!

Easter at Babylon

For our Easter outing, we went to Babylon and had our Subway sandwich picnic.  Not only had I never been there (a hop, skip and a jump from home) but I had never heard of it until the past year.  T kept saying, "Where are the hanging gardens?"  :o)  

Here are the usual suspects just after our lovely picnic.

Here are the usual suspects after our private annual Easter egg hunt (note the Longaberger Easter baskets!).

And here are two more of the usual suspects.

[This post was an experiment in making all the photos so no one can enlarge them from the size shown here.  I've done this by altering the HTML.  I supposed someone could still copy them but they're pretty useless to someone when the photos are this small, one hopes. Maybe they're even too small to be useful for their intended purpose.  But, like I said, this is an experiment.  Thanks, E, for the directions.] 

Portrait of a reader

One goal of mine has been to have children who are readers.  I believe reading is the key to all other subjects.  If you cannot read the math text book, can you understand the problems well enough to do them correctly? This applies to every single topic.  I do not see myself as a real driven person about most things but I have been driven about having children who are readers.

T was a natural reader from the beginning.  He loved to read books and he needed no urging on my part.  I have supported his love of reading but I did not have a lot to do creating it, just with nurturing it.

L was a little "slow out of the blocks." By that I mean she was slow at loving to read, not that she was slow at reading. I persisted in bringing home arm loads of books geared to her interests.  I allowed reading as a valued behavior (i.e., allowed reading when perhaps she should be doing something else).  She caught the reading bug at some point and is every bit the reader Tyler and I are.

 J was my challenge.  He was a resistant reader from the get-go.  I have bent over backwards with every trick I knew to get him to love reading.  I have offered bribes for reading books.  I have carted home books and books and books, with many of them going back to the library unread.  I have worked and worked and cajoled and cajoled.  Finally, I think it is safe to say, he's a reader now.  Yea!