The Latest

Mid-February already!  Despite best intentions, another few weeks have slipped past without any writing.  It's the same deal as last time, no items of what I would particularly call noteworthy but when I think back about it, there are definitely things happening in our world.

The kids got their report cards for the midpoint of the school year.  Both did very well - Quinn receiving all As and Bs, Keely all Gs and Os (good and outstanding).  Keely needs to work on her chatting in class.  She has been given time outs in other classrooms, and can be pretty disobedient when her teacher asks her to stop talking and getting out of her seat.  Quinn needs to work on time management.  He has a lot of work to do, but this classroom is very open and he needs to focus himself and concentrate on tasks at hand - both at school and at home.  He struggles with not waiting until the last minute to do things.  I think it's something we all struggle with, but we are trying to teach him to do things in smaller chunks, with rewards of free time after for things like reading books and building Legos. 

While on the subject of school, Quinn was formally recommended for the AAP program.  Currently, he is a guest in the program because he was a new addition to the school.  He took the CoGAT tests in the fall and his scores came back a couple of weeks ago - he scored in the 97th percentile compared to other 4th graders.  That, combined with his teacher's recommendation meant we had to fill out some paperwork for him to be considered a permanent addition to the program...well, permanent as in for 5th grade as I am not sure what happens when he enters middle school (middle school?!?!).  Now that the files have been prepared and submitted, we won't hear until April or May.  Even if he isn't recommended, he can still be a guest next year if space allows.

Nana, Papa, and Annie visited us last weekend to celebrate Nana's birthday (and I guess Annie's birthday a couple of days late). The weather was the coldest of the winter so it was tough to do much other than go shopping.  We also enjoyed a fantastic meal at Founding Farmer's downtown near GWU. 

We went downtown and spent some more time in the Smithsonian - seeing the Star Spangled Banner, Revolutionary War and the First Ladies Exhibits in American History and gems, minerals and insects in Natural History.  Once again, it's nice to have no pressure to see everything and be able to explore these museums at our leisure.  No one gets burned out from museum overload, and we are there and back home in an afternoon outing.

Keely lost her last tooth for a while - number 8 for those of you who lost track.  It sorely needed to make its exit because it was blocking the front tooth from coming in straight.  After a couple of nights of really working on it, James was finally able to pull it out.  The Tooth Fairy (maybe our last visit?) left her a generous $3 in exchange for her hard work.  She bought two packs of Tic-Tacs - one for her and one for Quinn - very generous of her!

Lastly, a quick follow-up from last time - Quinn won the Webelos I portion of the Pinewood Derby.  Sounds great, but not so much a win though - he was the only car racing from his den of 3.  He went on to race the other dens and came in 3rd overall.  Not too bad and now he gets to compete in the Regional PWD on March 10th should we choose to attend that event.  He can also add weight to his car since he left about 0.7 ounces on the table - and the difference between 1st and 3rd overall was less than 0.10 seconds so perhaps the extra weight would push his car faster.