My Baby Girl Turns 11

Hannah celebrated her 11th birthday this week.

Her brother got her some Hunger Games merchandise. 

I "officially" gave her my old Kindle. She had been using it since I got my Kindle Fire in December. We gave her a new orange case for it and some Amazon gift cards.

Hannah LOVES Harry Potter and she LOVES Scene It games.

Hannah has never been really fond of birthday cake, so she chose cheese cake for her birthday.

It was a cheese cake variety.

Her BFF stopped by & joined us for cheese cake.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl! We love you!

What am I Reading?

I haven't posted a "what am I reading" post in over a month! I have been reading, so I am behind things. I try to post one every couple of weeks, but May is just a crazy month with the end of school and activities.


Phone Kitten by Marika Christian was a free Kindle book. It was about a woman who takes a job as an phone sex girl who gets caught up in a murder investigation of one of her clients. It was a cute and funny story.

I was so excited that Kristin Higgins had a new book out! It was about a single mom who grew up in a wealthy, privileged life. Her father loses the family fortune and her trust fund. The only thing she has in old, run down house that was left to her by an aunt. The house is Gideon Cove, Maine and many characters from some of Higgins' other books are brought back. It was a typical Kristan Higgins book and I was not disappointed.

Virtually Yours by Alexandra Erie was also a Kindle freebie. It was about a computer programmer who gets involved with a wealthy technology owner. It was a formula romance, but it was entertaining.

Close to Famous by Joan Bauer is another title for the 2012-2013 Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. My now 6th grade daughter will be participating in her school's team next year, so I am trying to read as many of the books as I can to help her prepare. This book was a cute story about a young girl with a talent for baking. She and her single mother have started over in a new, small town. They move frequently, so she holds back when it comes to forming relationships with people. The descriptions of the baked goods made me hungry!

I bought a copy of Life's a Beach by Claire Cook on the clearance section at Barnes and Nobles over a year ago. Then it was a freebie for the Kindle and I got the digital version. Life's a Beach was about a 40 something single woman who lives in the apartment over her parents' garage. She has yet to "discover herself". She is hired by her sister, to accompany her young nephew as he is cast in a movie. It was fun reading the behind the movie scenes.

For Service Rendered by Patricia Kay was another Kindle freebie. It was about a young woman who is offered a marriage of convenience by her wealthy and handsome boss. I was hooked from the description, but it fell a little flat to me. It entertained me, but read more like a typical romance and I was expecting a little more.

I got sucked into the Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy by E. L. James. I won't even begin to describe them. They were very intense and I had difficulties putting them down. The first one had a cliff hanger ending, so I had to go into the second one immediately. The second one ended nicely and in my opinion, it could have stopped there and it would have been fine. The third one was a bit longer than the others. I enjoyed all three, though books one and two were my favorites.

My book club's selection for this month was Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Greg Gilmore. It was a coming of age story about a young girl who lived in Ringgold, Georgia who dreams about leaving the small town. As soon as she turns 18, she heads to Atlanta. Tragedy strikes her family and she goes back home after a short while in the big city. It's told in narrative style, which is not my preferred style of books, but it was an easy read and a nice story. The book club met at Dairy Queen to discuss it!

Happy Reading!

Landscaping

On one recent weekend, my dear husband didn't have anything to do. So this is what he did.


He decided that the bushes in the front of the house were too large. Our house was built in 1992, so it's 20 years old now and they were probably original to the house.

He chopped them all done.

Once they were all out, he dug up the roots and stumps. Then he borrowed a rototiller from a friend and mixed in some new dirt.

Then we planted some annuals and perennials. We're not really good with plants and such, so it will be interesting to see how they do.

5th Grade Awards Day & 5th Grade Walk

Today was Hannah's last day of 5th grade. We went up to the school for the awards day and the 5th grade walk.


Here's Hannah with two of her friends before the awards ceremony started.

 Here's Hannah with her President's Award for Educational Excellence.

Hannah holding her class award for "most creative".

She also received an award for perfect attendance. 

Then after the awards ceremony came the 5th grade walk. The 5th graders walked down all the halls to say goodbye to the former teachers. Hannah had a dozen roses to hand out to her old teachers as she saw them.

Hannah with her kindergarten parapro, Mrs. Waymon.

Her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hooks.

1st grade teacher, Mrs. Alred

2nd grade teacher, Ms. Hahn

3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Ribeiro

4th grade teacher, Mrs. Gilbert

5th grade teacher, Mrs. Collins

Art teacher, Mrs. Glover

 
5th Grade Science teacher, Ms. Brazell

 Target teacher, Mrs. Hamilton and Speech teacher, Mrs. Gordon

The walk was pretty emotional. I teared up quite a bit and Hannah was bawling after a while. It's hard to believe that we are finished with elementary school. As of this afternoon, we have a middle schooler and a high schooler. To be honest, I'm really not old enough to have kids that old! :)

8th Grade Awards Day

Today was the 8th grade awards day at James' school. We had received a letter saying that James was going to receive an award, but we weren't told what award he would be getting. We were completely surprised (and so was James for that matter), that he received 3 awards.

Here is James with his awards.

Mom & Dad with James.

This was award was presented by the media specialist and a surprise to me. I am so happy that James has been reading this year!

We were expecting the Perfect Attendance Award.

His third award was for Business Education. I am so proud of this one because this is the career pathway that he has chosen for high school. James wants to be a video game designer.

It was an emotional morning. My eyes teared up on several occasions. He has one more day of school and then my baby boy will be in high school!

Last Band Concert in Middle School

James' last middle school band concert was this month. Both of the 8th grade bands at his school performed jointly with local high school's highest band, the Wind Symphony. The other middle school that feeds into the high school performed too.

There's our tuba player!

 James will start marching band this summer. Oh my.....

5th Grade Day

Earlier this month, Hannah's school celebrated the end of 5th grade with "5th Grade Day". It was a day of fun for the kids. The PTA rented inflatables and other fun things for the kids to do.


Here's a view of the area.

Here's Hannah with some of her classmates.

Hannah attempting the rock wall. 

She did well, but didn't make it to the top. 

 

 More friends.

Cotton candy and a snow cone.

They also had a popcorn machine, snow cone machine, and cotton candy machine with lots of yummy treats.

 After they played outside for a while, they came inside for pizza and to watch the 5th grade Slide Show that I spent hours making. I had never made one before, but it was fun.



5th grade day was exhausting for everyone! So after a good night's rest, what do we do? We have to be back at school at 5:30 am for the class trip to Tybee Island!