1st Day of School

The kids started their new schools last week.   We were all feeling a little anxious.  Since we had lived in our previous house for 12 years, this is the first time the kids have ever gone to a new school outside of their familiar school district.

Riley is now in 8th grade.  His last year of middle school :(

Which means next year, he will go to a new school again.

Ciara is in 5th grade which is the last year of Elementary School here.  

(So new school next year for her too!)

Ella started 1st grade.

The girls are riding the bus to school for the first time.

Check out the insane amount of school supplies Riley has!

This doesn't even include the workbooks that we had to buy and pick up the weekend before school started.  All of this, as well as his textbooks has to fit in a half size locker! 

All in all they had a great first week!

Ella loves riding the bus to school and adores her teacher Ms. D  

She is going to be starting ballet in a few weeks.

Ciara is adjusting well to being in such a large school.  Her teacher Mr. R is very nice.  

She is working on the Yearbook Staff and will soon be starting a Pottery Class.  She is wonderful at taking care of Ella, making sure she gets off the bus and to class okay.  It's very comforting to me to know that they have each other.

Riley always seems to go with the flow.  He has a pretty full workload at school.  He is taking three AP classes, a Technical class that will earn him a Microsoft certification and an Honors Math class.  He is working to finish up his Eagle Scout.

Scholar Bowl Round 1

This is Riley's second year in Scholar Bowl and I love going to watch him compete.  This year he is team captain.  They compete against other schools in our district so its a lot of fun because they get meet other kids outside their own school.

I had to take Ciara to a doctor appointment so I was a little late.  One of the mom's told me that Riley seemed to be in a bad mood and boy was she right.  When I went to take his picture of him in the first round doing word problems, he looked up, saw me with the camera and well if looks could kill.........   I put the camera down!

Here he is in round 2.  This round is called The Judge.  When the question is asked they have to buzz in and the person who buzzes in the fastest has to answer the question.  If they answer correctly, their team gets a bonus question which they can discuss as a team and then the team captain has to give the answer.  If they give the wrong answer, the other team has the opportunity to answer.  This particular school was well matched and Riley's team barely squeaked in a win. 

 Thankfully Riley was in a better mood at this point.

This is Riley's reaction when he and a team mate buzzed in at the same time.  The team mate buzzed in quicker but answered incorrectly and Riley knew the answer.

I advised him this was probably not the best reaction for the team captain!

 Here he is playing Target Number.  Riley is wicked good at this game!  They give them 5 Uno cards and then they have a target number they have to reach.  The more cards they use to get the number, the more points they get.  Riley almost always uses all 5 cards.

Two of his team mates also playing Target Number

The whole team with their coach who is also Riley's teacher.

I didn't realize two of the kids had their eyes closed darn it!

They didn't end up winning overall but they did really well.  Riley's table won Target Number.  They won 8 out of 9 games of Mancala and they won The Judge.  Can't wait for Round 2.