Posted by Michelle on Oct 12, 2008 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle
The bags are backed and we are almost out the door for the beach for the week. Hayley and I leave today, then Jeff will come down mid-week with the dogs.
We’ve got an awesome house two lots back from the beach with a hot tub and four bedrooms. Three decks with a great view of the beach and the sound! Every room as a TV so the Wii is packed up to bring! Books, notebooks, scrabble and DVDs too – all you need for a good week at the beach!
The weather should be mid to high 70s so it’ll be pleasant but we have no illusion of sunny beach skies. However Hayley is dying to see lighthouses so we are off to explore for them! Our plans also include seeing the Wright Brothers memorial, breakfast at the aquarium to help feed the rays, hearing the red wolves howl at night, jeep rides on the beach to see the wild horses that live there, riding the ferry and trying to see if the dolphins or sea turtles are around at all, the maritime museum, the dunes at Jockey Ridge and then maybe a few forays down to the beach for walks, especially fun with the pups. Can you tell I’ve been there tons of times already?
Tags: beach, fun, travel
Posted by Michelle on Oct 11, 2008 in Hayley, Michelle
My next door neighbor Jen and I took the kids to Marbles on Friday since we are all tracked out from school. It was a good time – I think we enjoyed the international section most and really got into the Marrakesh part. We did henna designs on our hands and made ‘plates’ to sell at the market. We haggled on the prices at our market too and they had a Moroccan tea party! They also loved making hieroglyphics with the stamp set.
Marbles is fun but at ten year old Hayley is definitely at the max end of the range there.
See more photos from this set:
Regular view (easiest to find one in particular or print)
Slideshow view (easiest to see them all)
Tags: friends, fun, photos
Posted by Michelle on Oct 9, 2008 in Hayley
To get in the Halloween spirit, Hayley and I made a Halloween wreath that we just adore. Then we set off for the pumpkin patch with our next-door neighbors where we bought many pumpkins (and pretended to eat them where I taught Ethan to fake throw up, lol).
See more photos from this set:
Regular view (easiest to find one in particular or print)
Slideshow view (easiest to see them all)
Tags: crafts & cooking, friends, fun, halloween, holiday
Posted by Michelle on Oct 5, 2008 in Hayley, More Family
Hayley went over to my folks and had a blast. They went fishing on a friend’s farm and Hayley got eight fish! The next day they took a train ride!
See more photos from this set:
Regular view (easiest to find one in particular or print)
Slideshow view (easiest to see them all)
Tags: family, fun, travel
Posted by Michelle on Oct 1, 2008 in Hayley
Hayley had some photos taken recently by a wonderful photographer Kelly Murphy. I bought a few of the photos as instant download digital images before I get the rest in print and on a CD.
Tags: photos
Posted by Michelle on Sep 29, 2008 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle
Tonight we went to Chili’s because they were giving all the profits to St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital. A very good cause of course!
We all went to celebrate Hayley’s awesome report card as well as ‘Nice to meet you day’, the anniversary of the first day we ever met Hayley. We had such fun – silly toasts, sharing a gooey dessert, sharing our feelings of love and happiness over our family. It was one of those nights all is right with our world. I won’t forget it for a long time.
Tags: family
Posted by Michelle on Sep 27, 2008 in Hayley
Another win for the Rockets, undefeated and a 3-1 winner. Hayley played really well! These photos are just Hayley ones.
To see the rest of the set:
Regular view
Slideshow
Tags: photos, sports
Posted by Michelle on Sep 27, 2008 in Hayley
A few photos from Hayley’s second soccer game of the season. She is playing for the U11 Rockets this season.
They won this game – they are undefeated actually. I’ll post photos from the game today (3-1 win) tomorrow probably. These galleries here will be just the ones of Hayley.
To see the rest:
Regular view
Slideshow view
Tags: photos, sports
Posted by Michelle on Sep 27, 2008 in Hayley
The last night of July, we piled up everyone for the nearly sold out massive Avril Lavigne & Jonas Brothers concert. It was INSANE but the girls had so much fun. We found their friends and had a group of ten girls from our neighborhood mostly of them on the swim team together. Great concert and such well-behaved kids.
I had posted a few photos right after the concert but here are all of them:
To see the rest of the set:
regular view
slideshow view
Tags: concerts & shows, fun, music, photos
Posted by Michelle on Sep 26, 2008 in Hayley
In Hayley’s school, their grading scale is 4 – 1. It’s very odd but the grades go 1, 2, 3, 3* or 4. Scores of 1 or 2 indicate performance below grade level. 3 indicates performance at grade level and 3* means performance at grade level with evidence of application and 4 indicates performance above grade level. The 3 means you are right where you are supposed to be and doing fine, 3* means you did really well but 4 means WOW.
For the first time ever on a report card, Hayley got a 4!! Overall she got 4, 3*, 3, 3, and 3. We are SO proud of her. It’s been great to see her not just learn but share and get excited over things.
On the conduct/work habits (ie behavior) section – all checks. She’s normally got a few missing there, haha. And under ‘interventions’ which are extra things the school will do/offer to help her, for the first time ever there is nothing listed.
Please don’t think I’m being a braggart over this. She’s just never done this well and it took a lot of work from all of us to get to this point (mostly her of course!). We made some tough decisions about her academics a few years ago and we finally are getting some real confirmation we made the right moves.
And YES, my political science/history major self is thrilled the 4 came in social studies!
Tags: school
