School Days: Second Grade Second Nine Weeks {Riley}

These posts really are getting very tiring to do, but I know I’ll appreciate having them later. Here we go!

Riley continued to chug along in the second nine weeks of second grade. He did very well in ELA, spelling, math, and religion. He still struggled with handwriting and math facts, but he’s been making great progress in both lately. He just needs to continue to focus and believe that he CAN do it!

He also crushed his second quarter AR requirement: he got 16.1 points!

They had a fun Halloween art project on October 18. They painted bags to use when they went trick-or-treating at Sunrise on October 25.

They celebrated SCR Week October 23-27. They got to wear sunglasses on Monday, Saints shirts on Tuesday, and SCR shirts, fun socks, and tennis shoes on Thursday.

They celebrated their class mass on October 25. Riley sang in the choir and did very well.

They had a fun orange and black spirit day on Halloween!

They took class pictures on November 8.

Their class elf Jingles arrived once they went back to school after the Thanksgiving break. They also met their elf’s pet reindeer, Coco, who Riley loved. They even got to take turns having Coco at their desks for half a day each.

They had a fun pajama day on December 11.

They read their first chapter book as a class, Weird Stories from the Lonesome Cafe. They celebrated finishing the book with a fun party at school on December 15.

 

They had another fun art project on December 18. They made super cute glittery Christmas ornaments. Ms. Paulin made one too!

 

 

 

They went Christmas caroling at Sunrise on December 19. They did such a great job; the residents really enjoyed their performance!

Riley also participated in an after-school program called Thinkerkids for 12 weeks; it ended in December. They did lots of cool experiments, including simulating a hurricane in a bowl, using popsicle sticks to show the difference between having one finger bone versus multiple, designing and flying airplanes, making goo, building a maze with straws and paper, using balloons to show static electricity, making sea urchins using play-doh and toothpicks, constructing a straw magic flute, determining if cotton balls float in different temperatures of water, building a seesaw out of Legos, making snow, and making marshmallow snowflakes. He enjoyed it!

 

Rory’s up next. He’s much harder to recap: they do SO. MUCH. in PK4!

2018 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, Part Two

This post is up much later than I had intended, but my blogging program had some issues for the past week or so. All fixed now! Thank you for your patience.

A shower had never felt so good after running 13.1 miles. Once everyone was clean, we all laid down for a much needed and well deserved rest. However, Laurie got back up less than an hour later to meet Lisa and Finnie. They all decided to spend the afternoon at Universal Islands of Adventure. Ashley and I said “NO. WAY.” and continued to sleep for another couple of hours. We got up around 1:30pm, got dressed, and went to catch a bus to Disney Springs, wearing our medals proudly.

We shopped, got some drinks and snacks, and took our time wandering. Once we were done, we took a taxi over to the Swan and had dinner at Il Mulino, a really great Italian restaurant that Ashley recommended. Wine, bread, calamari, beef carpaccio, mushroom and truffle risotto, flourless chocolate cake, and limoncello. We had a lot to celebrate and we certainly did. So much so that I didn’t take a single picture at dinner!

 

 

Lisa and Finnie went home the next day, but the rest of us spent Sunday in Magic Kingdom. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and not nearly as cold.

We had such a great time. We walked all over, rode lots of rides, had lunch in the Beast’s castle, and ate dinner at the Skipper Canteen.

  

  

  

 

After dinner, we went back over to Main Street and secured a decent spot for the evening projection and fireworks shows, which were both awesome. We also continuously checked the Saints playoff game score and were all elated when we won against the Panthers. (The subsequent loss to the Vikings the next weekend was heartbreaking.)

  

I happened to check wait times right after the shows ended and realized that Peter Pan was only 25 minutes. So we ran over and got on. Then Ashley and I decided to do one last ride on Big Thunder before the park closed. We made it just in time and it was SO. FUN.

We had an easy flight home the next day and I was able to get the boys from school that afternoon. They were excited to see me, and my medal. But I had to break it to Riley that he could absolutely not have it for his treasure chest. Mama earned that, buddy!

It was such an amazing trip. I still can’t believe I actually did an official Disney race. FINALLY!