Our Kindergartener "Star Of The Week!"

One of the most exciting things for a kindergartener is to be the "Star of the Week" for the class.  Hailey has been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting ... for this week ever since school started.  Finally, this last week it was her turn and she was so excited! 

As the Star of the Week, she gets to do a bunch of fun things like being the line leader, the paper passer, and even going out to recess first.  She was even able to bring her favorite snack to share one day and a bag of things that represent her another.  But one of the most exciting things is they get to decorate a poster all about themselves to share with the class and have hung up all week long. 

Hailey came home with instruction about it on Thursday and didn't rest until we had it all put together the next morning (yes, I held out for a whopping 18 hours before I gave in and just did it).  I admit it was mostly so she would just be satisfied - she was relentless in asking me every 5 minutes when we would do it!  And I was glad to have it done because I don't think I could have went the whole weekend with her bothering me about it every few minutes (she wasn't supposed to bring it until Tuesday).  But it was fun to put together and have her tell me all about her favorite things.  We had nearly everything in the house to use so it went together fairly quickly.

Tate and I went to school with her on her special day and helped her present her poster to the class.  She was so cute explaining all of her favorite things and loved having the chance to call on each member of the class to have them ask her a question or tell her something that they liked that was the same as hers.

She was all smiles and even paused for a quick second for me to snap a picture of her actually looking at me.

Here's a close up of the finished product so that you can see all of her fun favorite things.

Her time as the "Star of the Week" went by very fast, but she enjoyed every minute of it.  She still wears her Star of the Week crown and necklace that she got and contiunally talks about all the fun things she was able to do.  Way to go Hailey - you are always a star to us!

Zach Basketball 2012

January and February tend to be a little long and boring, unless you have someone who plays basketball.  Then those months are full of practices and very exciting games!  We absolutely LOVE watching Zach play basketball - it's so fun to watch him enjoy it so much and do so well at it.  It seems like from year to year he just picks back up where the previous season left off and he just gets better and learns more.

Here's his team finishing up practice before one of the games.

He looks so great with a ball in his hands - he gets that from his Dad.  

An action shot - see him heading in right there for the rebound?

Ready for another rebound.  I swear he had more rebounds that anyone on his team and more than any of his baskets - he really is good at anticipating where the ball is going to come down and he's there 90% of the time to get it.

I know he's 9 and I shouldn't say it, but I just can't help myself - isn't he so CUTE?

Of course we can't forget about the cheerleaders on the sidelines - Tate was so cute.  He would always be yelling - go Zach or go Brother!  It was darling and he loved watching his brother play.

Hailey was a good little cheerleader too!  She was funny this year, her big thing was sitting two or three rows in front of us - funny girl!

I got some pretty good video this season, so thought I'd include a couple of those as well - just to show off what a great player he is (I'm his mom so I can brag a little bit right?).

He's really doing well with defense - there were several times when the player he was guarding just couldn't get the ball because Zach was doing such a terrific job at it.

He's gotten phenomenally better at dribbling as well.  This isn't the best video but the best one I had of him dribbling down the court.  He's been doing great at switching hands and even going around people while dribbling.

And of course I had to include one of him making a basket!  He's gotten better at this as well - he still takes a few from a bit back on the court, but he improved on that during the season and got a lot closer before putting up a shot.

We had a blast watching him play this year and although we're sad the season is over, we're excited for the next time it rolls around.  And we have spring soccer to look forward to in just another little bit, so that will be fun!