All About ANDREW JOHN

In going back over my blog, I realized that I don't have a lot about Andrew, so this post is about him. In the past, we've had him very involved in Little League and I have pictures of those days. But this year, his father and I decided to put him in the After School Sports Program because it was the best time to make it work with what we had going on with everyone else in our families. Little League has been a minimum of 6 hours (often more)a week which doesn't seem like a lot, but when juggling the activities of five, it took up so much time...so the After School Sports Program just made sense. Andrew loves his coaches and every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, he learns and plays all different sport activities. This program is right after school and he finishes at 4:30 which is the same time that Sarah gets off of the bus. I'm saying all of this to say, I think this is why I don't have many pictures of him because I haven't been at the After School Sports Program. But I wanted Andrew to know that we are very proud of him. Actually, a few weeks ago, it seemed that every morning on the way to school that Andrew would start "sighing". I asked him a few times if everything was OK and he always told me that he was bored. I had his father talk to him and Richard talked to him. We just wanted to make sure that nothing was happening at school that we weren't aware of. He told all of us that he just gets bored at school but he was OK. So I called his teacher...just to make sure. Mr. Sweatland didn't think that anything was wrong with Andrew and went on to praise him...told me that Andrew has always been respectful, hangs out with good kids, gets competitive in gym but isn't mean (the competitive is a Tallman thing...that's what I told Mr Sweatland)Mr. Sweatland told me that the school will miss his attitude when he moves to Middle School next year. Then the following week, Andrew had pulled his groin muscle in the After School Sports Program. I went into the office with Andrew to fill out a request to have him not participate in gym that day. His coach was there and again told me how much they loved having Andrew and would miss him. (Since "Mom" caused so a fuss over his sighing, Andrew no longer sighs anymore nor complains about school being boring.) We love you, Andrew. May you continue to be respectful, always learning and always helping others...even your sisters :-)

Sarah's Spring Concert

Sarah has always been involved with Music and been part of the Choir. This was their last concert. And I have to say that I was very impressed with singing! They sounded great. This last concert was songs from the 50's, 60's & 70's.(Sarah wore a Poodle skirt) I'm not sure how Megan and Sarah managed it, but they were able to be by one another all year long. Sarah LOVES Mrs. James, her Choir teacher! I'm thankful that my children have such great teachers and adults involved with them.

Hannah's Last SFA

SFA stands for Success For All. It is a program that the Florida Public Schools have put a lot of effort into the elementary grades...wanting to ensure that every elementary student has the foundation to be successful through out their school years. At the beginning of the school year, Hannah joined the SFA in Reading which meant that every two weeks she brought home a back pack with 10 books that we'd read. Once a quarter, all of us involved in this program had a function one evening at the school that usually entailed pizza and some type of program to make the children excited about reading. Our last meeting was last Wednesday, May 21st. The students were asked to tell their favorite story in an different way. Hannah was one of four that participated. The other students didn't want to participate. She dressed up like Cinderella, told us about the story and twirled in her dress. We ended the program with Ice Cream Sundaes. Thank you so much to Mrs. Hays and Mrs. Payne for all of their help and desire for every student to be successful. Hannah now reads at on the 2.3 grade level. (Uncle Todd came to this program since he was home from his trucking job.)

Little Miss Liberty

First Grade had an end of year musical production. All the songs were Patriotic. Hannah got to be the Liberty bell. She spoke her part so loud and clear.Hannah's Poppi was visiting Hannah's dad and got to see her perform

America's Next Top Model

There are parts of parenting that I find difficult like constantly teaching my children that they are responsible for their actions, keeping up with homework and the never ending laundry. But there so many other parts of parenting that I love. One of the best things is seeing these little humans that God created becoming wonderful people. One thing that we talk about a lot are the dreams that they have in their hearts. I want to be my children's biggest fan. Sarah goes back and forth between being a veterinarian and a neurologist. Andrew wants to be 1st Baseman for the Florida Marlins. Hannah wants to be a mommy. Andrew took these pictures of Hannah when Hannah wanted to be the World's Prettiest Mommy.

Sarah Plays "Mommy"

One of Sarah's homework in Teen Challenege was to take care of Baby Bob for 12 hours. Her teacher programed the doll to wake up at 5 pm and go to sleep at 5 am. Sarah did really well with Baby Bob and kept up with his crying until about 3:30am. Then she decided to just let him cry. (He had been up about every hour and a half to two hours needing to be feed, changed or just be held)His crying kept getting louder and louder until Hannah and Andrew were awake as well. I reminded her that there was to be NO parent involvment. When I went to wake her up, I found her completely covered up. Normally, Sarah is awake before me. On the way to school that morning, she told me that was the hardest thing that she has ever done. After her teacher checked the chip in the doll, Sarah got a 100%.