The BEE

After three written tests at the school site, Karly scored within the top 11 4th graders in County thus sending her to the Placer County Spelling Bee. We were a little nervous, we had never been to an oral spelling bee before and had no idea what to expect. We found nervous children, a few with over zealous parents (laptops in their laps and dictionaries in hand) and yet Karly was all smiles and made a new friend the moment she sat down in her place. While other kids took advantage of a last chance to study, Karly met her competitors and chatted away.

The competition was single word elimination. They did however offer a practice round and the pronouncer (an English professor) was a sweetheart as he was fabulous to balance the grace for nerves with assuring the integrity of the event. Karly correctly spelled: balloon, buffalo, mosquito and bleat ("the sound a sheep makes") but met her demise with "twelfth", forgetting the F. She went out in 4th place but was all smiles and even cheered the kids she was competing against. We found such to be some of our especially proud moments.
Another amazing observation I'd like to share is in regards to race and it's relevance. We, as older generations noticed the stage was full mostly of non-Caucasian kiddos. Karly, never mentioned it, seemed to completely be unaware of it and wrote down the name and address of the little girl in one of these pictures who is her new pal. We will likely never see this little girl again, but it was obvious to me and hopeful as well that my children do not see color/race the way generations of the past did. REALLY, I'm not sure my kids even "see" it--the differences. A cool life lesson I never expected to find in the Placer County Board of Education meeting room.
We are proud of our little speller. Proud she is smart, but even prouder that she sees beyond herself to encourage her very competitors and sees potential in all people!

Goofballs!

There is nothing like a Spring evening and good old family time! The sun was beginning to set and the kids were giggling mad playing tag with Kent. Then it was off to the front yard for baseball, basketball and scooter time. Open evenings are hard to come by in such a busy time of year, but oh how refreshing they are! I love seeing the kids have that time with Kent and pestering them with the camera-though I'm not sure when we graduated from "cheesy" smiles to goofy annoyed ones! I guess they are growing up! Next time I'll demand the perfect shot, for this night, I went with the giggles and the natural flow of a beautiful, commitment free evening.

Stepping Together!

Once again, the Blue Oaks Bears were in step to raise funds for the PTC and charity. This year we raised funds for the Children's Miracle Network and their local participating hospitals.The students came in with over $8600 -a pleasant surprise to us as we were anticipating a smaller number due to the economy. The weather was perfect, right about 75 and I had an amazing group of volutneers! Wahoo! Teachers, students and a ton of parents all working together, fueled by vita water, oranges and good will! Very cool! Kyle's classroom had the highest total funds raised, near $600, and will be rewarded with a class pizza party! The Kindergarten classrooms worked especially hard as well as one of their cuties just finished his last round of Chemo for Leukemia. Before the walk the school chanted encouraging him and celebrating, "No more Chemo!"


A special treat for Karly and Kyle was to have Daddy show up. He took a half-day off to join the fun (okay, I did put him to work a little too)....

Lastly, here's a pic of Casey, in picture with Kyle's teacher, Jeni Chadbourne-Casey was a big part of the school motivation in working with CMN. His mother is one of our Kindergarten teachers and Casey has received I believe now two heart surgeries at CMN hospitals. After the walk, little Casey took center stage and shared his story as best his little voice could. Totally impromptu he talked and showed the students the scar on his chest and told about how it hurt when they pulled the last tubes out. He was super cute and you could have heard a pin drop, the students were so attentive to his sweet toddler words.

No Luck!

Sunday evening, a hopeful Kyle dressed in jammies peers over the stairway and asks, "do we get Tuesday off?" "Tuesday off", we replied. "Yeah, it's a holiday, St. Patrick's Day". Kent and I giggled out a "no". Anything to get out of a day of routine and school this one will try to find!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! No luck for Kyle. He went to school and now to baseball practice. Same old same old here!

Kyle's Play

Reminded We Are....

Tragedy has struck our kids school with the sudden death of a our PTC Vice President's husband in a small aircraft plane crash. Their son is in Karly's class and the family being so involved is a standard weekly within the classroom. Our Blue Oaks community has been rocked by such a loss of a friends husband, dedicated father, community member and all around good guy. Please remember the Maack family and specifically Tammy and young Brandon who are shuffling through details and trying to climb out from under the shock. We are also mindful of the classroom of children who care for Brandon and are trying to make sense of death. The students will have some counseling this week to help them understand loss and to assist them in their friendship and response to Brandon as he grieves.

Such a reminder that life is ever changing and so unknown one day to the next. The Kerns are giving extra loves and enjoying life together to the fullest -things can change so quickly. We have another day together and for that we are grateful!

The Five Dollar Coupon

Over the weekend we went to find Kyle some new shoes-the kid seriously wears through his Nike shoes to the point his toes are coming out the side or bottom. After a few misses at other stores, we end up at Kohls and he finds a new pair of Nikes that meet his standards. So, we go to buy them.....and.....get this:

The lady in front of me has a pile of coupons. $5 coupons. She uses them all (like 8) and then has one left over. The cashier says, "you have an extra-I can just offer it to the lady behind you" and he places the coupon on his register. Her reply was in my view quite shameful and poor representation of any American in today's economy, she extended her hand to the cashier and says, "NO, I'll take it and throw it away." WHAT???? WHAT????? She looked right at me, I admittedly gave her a glare. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! The cashier was embarrassed for her I think. Why would anyone throw away a coupon and not want to just be kind and pass along a little savings?

I expected to pay full price for Kyle's shoes....I wasn't even expecting a coupon, but the fact that someone would have it and would prefer to throw it away rather than pass it along to another family FLOORS me. UNBELIEVABLE. My instinct tells me that this gal thought I was a little too put together (dressed a little too nice) that night to seem worthy of her $5 savings coupon. A little reverse discrimination--my guess at least by weight of the obvious differences between us.

Funny though, it's likely we're both just moms who love our families and take care of our kids, too bad she couldn't see how alike we probably are!

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

p.s. did you notice whose face is on the $5?