Happy Birthday Aunt Tiffanie! Those boys better behave or we will have to come out there and straighten them out…  =)

We hope Aunt Tiffanie has a good day today, and thought this was a good time to share about this past Saturday, the day of Caleb’s birthday party. We started the day with Ashley’s karate class. She decided to try karate this spring, and so she has attended around 7 classes so far. She is going to continue into the summer as well. Here is a picture of her from across the gym.

She is practicing her kata with a brown belt instructor. Here is a video showing her doing the kata. She was still figuring out the moves in the video, but she has them all ironed out now!

As soon as karate ended, we changed clothes and went to Caleb’s birthday party at the forest preserve. It was a nice preserve with a pretty path. I just wish it had been a little warmer! It was about 52 degrees with a bitter wind, so Grandma and I were popsicles.

This is such a cute picture of cousins.

And pinata fun.

Caleb did pinata too.

We sang and had cake.

Grandma had cake too.

We end our post the way we began, by wishing a happy birthday to someone! We send Caleb his real birthday wish tomorrow! Happy 2 years old little guy!

Last Thursday was Kayla’s band concert. She played in many numbers with her Advanced Band. She was also acknowleged for her Honors Band membership and gold medal at Solo Fest. I will save you all listening to a middle school band play because you really can’t hear just Kayla, so I am linking only one video.

Band is changing next year and is going to be part of Kayla’s school day. Nice because she will get band every other day; not nice because it means she will have a new director and may not get to do things like Solo Fest or Honors Band. Ashley has decided she wants to try flute as well, so we will have two in band next year!

Today was a very special and emotional day for Kayla (and us!). Unbeknownst to Kayla (but knownst to us), she (and another boy) had been selected by her teachers AND peers as an example of a 6th grader who demonstrated all of the good characteristics taught (the 6 pillars) at school. These are: respect, responsibility, caring, citizenship, trustworthiness, and fairness. We got a call from her principal inviting us to be at school this afternoon for the assembly. The recognition came in the form of a special award given by the Lancaster family (her friend Alex), called the “AWL That Award”.  The family did not have a hand in choosing the award recipients. This next video is Kristina Lancaster explaining the award.

Then the names were read by Emma, Alex’s sister and Kayla’s “co-conspirator” in making the dragon books memorial and Lego contest back in winter. This next video is the reading of the names. If you watch when Kayla’s name is read, she does this little hand flapping thing. It’s what she does when she has super happy emotions going on.

They presented Kayla with a special capital A with her name engraved on it, a certificate, and $100 cash.

Kayla saw us and came right over after receiving the award, in tears (along with me and Kevin fighting it!). She said she wanted to cry and smile all at the same time. No kidding! We got some photos afterward.

Kids Kayla hardly know came up to her to say “I voted for you”. Kayla is getting a glimmer that being good and kind and nice does get noticed after all. I just brought her home from her friend’s house, and she is still a little overwhelmed =). 

She gets to decide what to do with her money. It gets to be her choice completely! I hope Kayla knows how special it is that this award came from her peers and teachers, and that the Lancasters were just thrilled that she was one of the two winners. This will become an award given to a 6th grader every year, with the prize coming from the fund in Alex’s name. Kayla and the other boy are the first recipients.

She’s had a very memorable 6th grade that will end next Friday. Tomorrow, the girls have no school for a teacher inservice day, so they are heading to Six Flags with their passes and friends. It’s only going to be 63 degrees, so hopefully the park won’t be too crowded. Kayla will get to ride backwards Batman and Ashley will ride Viper and Eagle.