Last Day of School!

Summer has officially begun in the Givens household!!!

The kids' last day was Wednesday and they were oh so excited for a half day of fun with their friends. Plus, they were looking forward to cleaning out their desks, having treats, and Abby's class had a dance party!

Abby

Abby's hair grew and she has 6 less teeth!

 I always ask the kids the same questions every year, and

here are Abby's answers about all of her "favorites":

TV Show - "Pat & Jen" (on YouTube)

Movie - "Moana"

Song – "Cheerleader"

Color – Baby blue

Subject - Reading

Toy - Pippy (stuffed animal dog)

Activity - Doing crafts

Game – Monopoly

Food – Grits

Outfit - Noodle strap dresses with boots :)

Treat - Insomnia Cookies

Book - Eerie Elementary series

Best Friend – Mia

 I am good at…singing & dancing

I am not very good at….football

My favorite thing about school is….music class

My least favorite thing about school is…science

Three words that describe me…..beautiful, fun, good friend

Nate

Nate's neck & legs grew, and so did his shorts, thankfully :)

TV Show - "Log, Dot, and Zip" (on YouTube)

Movie - All the Harry Potter movies

Song – "Don't Let Me Down"

Color – Red

Subject - Math

Toys - iPad

Activity - Playing on iPad

Game – Scattergories

Food – Pizza

Outfit - Dry fit shirt & comfy shorts

Treat - Summer Snow

Book - Harry Potter series

Best Friend – Evers

 I am good at…math

I am not very good at….the catwalk

My favorite thing about school is….learning new stuff in math

My least favorite thing about school is…history

Three words that describe me…..awesome, nice, smart

I can't believe I now have a SECOND grader and FOURTH grader!! Makes me sad....

Nate the Triathlete!

On Saturday, Nate competed in the Tuscaloosa Kids' Triathlon for the second year in a row! He had so much fun last year that he even convinced his buddy Chandler to race too. Abby's good friend Cate competed as well! (Her older brother, Jake, raced last year with Nate.)

First up, a 50 yard swim in the lake. This is Nate's weakest event but he improved a good bit from last year's swim.

The transition from swim to bike is always tricky, because he has to dry himself off - quickly! - and then put on shirt, socks, and shoes. Then he runs his bike to the top of the hill and takes off!

Abby wanted to make signs to encourage Nate, Chandler, Cate & Jake, so she recruited Nanny to help her on Friday. They did a great job!!

The bike portion of the race is 2 miles and Nate kicked some serious butt!!!!! He was third in his age group at this point.

He quickly parked his bike, and then took off on the last leg - a half mile run. He trained *really* hard over the past month, so we knew the run would be a piece of cake for him. He did not disappoint!! He easily passed the boy in front of him and never looked back....

#eatmydust

He beat his time from last year!

Part of Nate's fan club :)

His buddies, Jake & Chandler, did a great job too!

He deserved that sno-cone!

Miss Priss LOVED all the new activities this year....poster making station, sandcastle building, and face painting!

And Poppy loved all the freebies! T-shirts, pom-poms, hats, sunglasses, koozies, cookies, chips, water bottles, bubbles......he got it all!

Modeling some of Poppy's finds

We had to wait for all of the other/older races to finish, and then finally the awards ceremony was at 11 am. Nate was super pumped to not only get a finishing medal but a trophy for 2nd place!!!!! To say we are proud of him is a huge understatement. He worked so hard! And next year, he moves up to the 11-13 year old age group, and the distances double. So this was his year to get on the podium and he did it :)

He also won a door prize - $15 gift card for BBQ plus 2 movie tickets!

It was so fun to have Nanny & Poppy there to support Nate and cheer him on!

#proudgrandparents

Spring Sing & Author Celebration

On Friday, the kids' school held their annual Spring Sing, where each class sings one song.

Nate & Abby always love this day (because it's free dress too!), but Nate was especially excited because this is when the 3rd graders finally get to showcase their recorder skills :)

The 3rd graders opened the show, and performed 9 songs on the recorder.

 Click here to hear the final song.

During the school year, every time they mastered a new song on the recorder, they got a colored belt for their recorder, similar to the belt system in karate. You start at white and move up to black. Well, Nate and 1 other boy in the class were the first two kids EVER to make it all the up to double black belt!! We were so proud of his hard work and impressed that he was able to learn to read music so fast. We credit his amazing music teacher at school!

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Next up, both 1st grade classes collaborated with the 5th graders to perform "Can't Stop the Feelin." It was so cute! Click here to watch that.

Each child had to come up with an "ending pose" and this was Abby's! She just wanted to hug Indya :)

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Then, it was time for the 3rd graders to return to the stage to sing "Brave." They did a great job, and I was surprised that all the boys especially were really into it, hand motions and everything. They are still so cute & innocent! :) Click here to watch them sing.

Chandler, Nate, Mason, Jake C, Andrew

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After Spring Sing, we headed to Abby's classroom for her "Author Celebration." Earlier in the year, each student had written & illustrated their own book. Additionally, they each contributed one page to the class book. The Author Celebration was a chance for each child to read aloud their book, and show off their drawings. Abby's teachers had refreshments for the all the parents as well. It was so nice!

Abby's book was titled "The Things That Make Me Laugh," and she chose to read her favorite page aloud. It was all about how she loves family game night and how once, when she played Reverse Charades at her grandparents' house, her Nanny was really, really bad at the game!! (So funny, especially since Nanny was in the audience listening!)

 Then, Abby read her contribution to the class book, titled "I Wish I Had a Pet." Click here to hear that. She talks about her mean ole parents who "do not like pets." Ha!

After all the students read their books, they got to have lunch in the classroom. And a few treats from the teachers.

 Such a fun morning, and Abby was thrilled to have Nanny & Poppy in town!

Abby's Spring Choir Concert

The choir had their Spring Concert on Friday, and they all did such a great job singing 6 songs!! They had been practicing for months, and Abby was super excited to participate in the concert.

Click here to watch/listen to "Today My Spirit Sings."

The last song of the concert was Abby's favorite! Click here to watch/listen to "Old Dan Tucker."

 This was the first year that 1st graders were allowed in the choir (normally, it's just 2nd-6th graders). But, Mrs. McClendon took a chance and welcomed the 1st graders this year. I'm so happy she did! She asked them "Who is a first grader?" and Abby proudly raised her hand :)

So proud of our little singer!

Happy girls after the concert :)

Nate's Field Day

Nate had been looking forward to Field Day even more than Abby, if that was possible! Because once you hit 3rd grade, there are a few new events you get to do. You know, "big kid" stuff :)

Greg spent the morning with Nate's class. He helped with the potato sack race and the tire roll (a new event). Greg said Nate was the only one who listened to the rules for the tire roll, and therefore, he did the best. No surprise there!

 I was actually on the backfield with Abby's class when Nate's class did the 3-legged race (also a new event). This was soooooooooo funny to watch! The kids got so excited and twisted and could not stop laughing. Nate was a great partner both times he raced, and I honestly don't think his smile could have gotten any bigger :)

 Then, they got to play on the ginormous bounce house/obstacle course for the first time! In years past, they could only play on the 2 smaller units on the front field. Yay for being a 3rd grader!

 After a snack, they had a few more events on the back field before their allotted Splash Dash time....

Tug-of-war

100 yard dash

Front field bounce houses

Mrs. Smith's 3rd grade class!

 Finally, it was time for the Splash Dash!!!! They were *SO* excited to get wet since it was really hot outside.

Water blaster station

Nate's buds loved it too

Very serious runner :)

Spray tunnel

Greg spared no one at the water blaster station; even poor Chan with a cast on his arm!!

 After the Splash Dash, the class got sno-cones and poor Nate was still wet when we inside to eat lunch. He was shivering once inside with the A/C blasting!! Next year, I need to bring him a change of clothes for sure. The class had lunch in their room, and watched half of a movie.

Then, it was time to head out for more activities. They did the shoe change relay in the gym (a new event), plus "Bump" which is a basketball-type game they play in P.E. all the time.

Last up was the soccer challenge and then kickball!!

Soccer Challenge

Kickball

 I ended up playing kickball for a bit because one of the teams was short-sided, and it was SO much fun! I haven't played that game in 20+ years! At one point, it was just me and 2 other adults against the kids. I think they were impressed at how good we were :)

It was a great way to end the day, and then I checked the kids out early around 2:30 because both classes had skipped their last events. Everyone was pooped!

(Including me!)