Tuesday Tidbits

--Friday, June 15th was Derek's last day of clinic & he spent all last week outprocessing, which meant he was home every day before lunch! And this week, he only has to go in on Thursday. Hooray for lots of Daddy time!

--Derek was even able to sneak away one day last week to hike Mount Charleston one last time before we move! 8.4 miles up & 8.4 miles down!

--We had Shelby's eyes checked in November after her pediatrician recommended it after her seven year well visit in September. She checked out okay at the optometrist visit in the fall, but in the last few months we have noticed Shelby squinting incessantly. So we took her back in for another eye exam with a different optometrist, and sure enough she needs glasses! I'm so glad her squinting days will soon be over! And all three kiddos enjoyed trying on glasses after Shelby's eye exam! ;)

--Some of our sweet friends from Keesler were passing through Las Vegas as they were PCSing across the country. Erin used to babysit Shelby when she was a baby, and I helped host her baby shower for her first-born. Now there are five BIG kids between us! It was so, so good to see them. Military friends are just so precious.

--We were scheduled to have packers here at our house today & tomorrow, and then everything loaded on the truck on Thursday. I was feeling apprehensive at best about how this move would go b/c we had the WORST packers ever for our last move! We were told they'd show up between 8-10am, and we never saw anyone before noon both days! Then when they were loading everything on the truck on the last day, they couldn't fit the rest of our stuff on the truck. So they had to send another crew the next to finish loading up our stuff--this time they showed up after dinner time and didn't leave our house until after 9:30! Then once we got to Las Vegas, our delivery was split up into two separate shipments. Anyhow, I say all of that to give you some perspective before sharing our experience from today. We had super low expectations, but our packers here in Vegas were AMAZING!! They showed up ON TIME (we were told between 8-11, and they were at our door around 8:30ish) with the biggest crew of packers we've ever seen. They started packing a little before 9, and they were out the door by 1:30 with our entire house packed out!!!! Seriously unbelievable! We are still so amazed and grateful! Here's a few snippets of our fun today while they were packing away inside.

 

 

 

 

--And we'll wrap up these random Tuesday Tidbits with some other random pictures from my phone..this is how we've been spending our summer days! First up, hole digging at the park! We will miss having so many amazing parks within walking distance of our home!

 

{a boy & his cars} 

{first taste of chocolate pudding!} 

{Sticker collages in progress...aka enjoy these stickers one last time before they're getting purged! Most of these stickers are leftover from my scrapbooking days, and they have moved with me from GA to VA to MS to TX to NV...this is their last stop with us!} 



{This is what we call a puzzle party! Shelby is working on some puzzles on the floor & Hadley was had hers set up on the table behind the couch}

 

 Happy Tuesday to you!! :)



Summer Fun!

The month of May was a blur with the end of the school year mayhem--it felt like we were going a mile a minute up until the last day of school. Then as soon as school let out, we were in Disney mayhem! And our lives are going to turn upside down at the end of the month as we prepare for our upcoming move to San Antonio, but we're currently enjoying a few low-key weeks of summertime fun sandwiched in between these two bouts of craziness! Here are a bunch of random pictures to prove it:

The picture below is one of my favorites b/c it perfectly captures Hadley at this stage of her life. Shelby, Brady, and I were all still in our PJs, and Hadley came out of her room already dressed, jewelry and crown on, and purse in hand. This is every single day!

The picture below needs a few words to go along with it. We put water beads in our water table for the girls to play with during Brady's naptime. They happily & busily played together here for over NINETY MINUTES before I made them come inside to cool off and rehydrate {they were in the shade, but it was still plenty hot with temps over 100 degrees!}. I sat outside with them reading for about the first 20 minutes before I got too hot and went inside while they continued playing. I felt like I was winning at parenting with this activity!

And what would summer be without a few Target runs? The girls love looking at cards {and books} as much as I do, and Brady is content with his bowl of snacks.

And last but not least, one last picture with Shelby's roller coaster named "Ghostie Coastie" she built during GATE this year. It's the last picture b/c we are in full-on purge mode as we prepare for the move at the end of the month! Nothing is safe. ;)

Shelby

I wanted to do a quick post on Shelby & how first grade went for her. So hard to believe she'll be a second grader in the fall--eek!! Shelby was in the O'Datts class this year, which is a class co-taught by the best teaching duo Mrs. Gravatt & Mrs. O'Donnell. Shelby was actually in a reading group with Mrs. O'Donnell in Kindergarten, so she was so excited to be in the O'Datts class this year for first grade! Shelby absolutely adored the O'Datts, and the feeling was clearly mutual. Mrs. Gravatt took Shelby on a "date night" in the Spring to a paint night fundraiser for the school & then out to dinner. Shelby loved every minute of this special time with her teacher!

 

 

I was disappointed that I wasn't able to volunteer as a chaperone for one of Shelby's field trips earlier in the year, but I don't think Shelby missed me too much that day. This is a message I got from her teachers as they were boarding the bus for the field trip:





 

 

 

In Las Vegas, "gifted" and "highly gifted" services are only offered for grades 3-5 in the elementary school setting. Because Shelby obviously isn't in grades 3-5, I was kind of taken aback around Christmastime when Shelby's teachers casually mentioned they were referring her for gifted testing. Shelby's teachers have gone above & beyond for everything throughout the entire school year, so it really shouldn't have surprised me that they were going to find a way to get her into the program even though she technically wasn't eligible. Shelby had to be observed by a school psychologist before the district agreed to administer her IQ test. I actually had no idea it was an IQ test she was being given until the scores came to us in the mail & I was reading the numbers aloud to Derek and he quickly shot back: "I think genius level starts around 140." Forgive me for bragging about Shelby--but if your mother can't brag about you, who will?! Here's how her scores broke down:

• Verbal Comprehension: 133 {99th percentile}
• Visual Spatial: 122 {93rd percentile}
• Fluid Reasoning: 144 {99.8 percentile}
• General Ability Index (GAI): 141 {99.7 percentile}

To be eligible for "highly gifted" in our district, a score at or above 138 on the GAI is required as well as a score at or above 140 in one or more of the three other areas of the test. As you can tell, it's not easy to qualify for this! We are so proud of Shelby for doing so well on the test and for holding her own when she joined a group of 3rd & 4th grade students for GATE for the second semester of the school year. It was a great experience for her!

 

{End of Year 1st Grade Award Ceremony}

 

{1st grade family picnic}

 

As excited as we are for our next adventure in San Antonio, we are so sad to say goodbye to a phenomenal school where our girls are known and loved so well. I'm a little broken-hearted thinking abut the first day of Kindergarten & Second Grade & how our girls be nervously walking into a strange school instead of excitedly rejoining their friends at their old school. But I know this bittersweet feeling all too well b/c I felt the exact same way as we said goodbye to an amazing preschool in Biloxi and then bid adieu to our beloved Marvelously Made two years ago. And each time the Air Force has sent us to a new place, it has become "home" and we have found the best schools and teachers. So I know that will happen again for us this fall, but it doesn't make the transition any easier. But we are so, so thankful for our time here in Las Vegas! It has been such a sweet season for our entire family!