Half Birthday, Parent Teacher Conferences, Valentines Days

This past Tuesday we celebrated Rubie's half birthday at school.  Because she has a summer birthday Mrs. Soderstrom let's us choose a day around her half birthday to celebrate.  So after a did the volunteer work in the classroom I went out and bought some cupcakes and went back to the classroom.  We shared Rubie's birthday book which is a little book that we put some pictures in and answer some questions about Rubie like her favorite color, favorite food, some she is afraid of and something she is thankful for.  We share that with the class,  Then I get to brag on her and say what I love about Rubie.  Then every child in the class comes up and says what he/she likes about Rubie and then Mrs. Soderstrom takes a minute to share what she likes.  Then we went outside and ate cupcakes and the kids got to play for a minute.  Rubie was loving it.  As shy as she acts around others, she really does like to have something all about her and make it special to her.

After picking up Eric and Rubie from school on Tuesday, Sam was at the Tulett's so we went to get him.  Carlee had just had their carpets cleaned so I brought all her boys home with us to play.

Wednesday I had YW.  We had class activities so with the Laurel class we went to Sister Fox's house and decorated valentine day cookies.  We ate some there, the girls took some home and we delivered some to others in the ward.

Thursday I had parent/teacher conference.  I'm so glad that I enjoy it.  Eric and Rubie have both been such great student's so far.  Mrs. Davis loves Eric and says she has a special place in her heart for him.  She seems to have a really good feel for Eric.  One experience she had recently with him was that she was teaching the class to write paragraphs with a topic sentence and then some supporting paragraphs.  Eric did not want to do it.  For whatever reason.  Mrs. Davis had him stay back from PE and she sat with him and explained again about the topic sentence and supporting sentences.  She talked to him about just trying it her way and seeing how it goes.  He wrote such a nice paragraph about how our family helps each other and the different roles each of us has in our family.  Eric does really good work for her.  He is ahead of his grade level in reading and spelling and math.

Mrs. Soderstrom loves Rubie and I'm so grateful for that as well.  Rubie has a quiet voice in class but is a good contributor.  She is right on grade level with her reading, spelling, and math.  She is also the youngest in her class by a couple months.  That does make a difference.  I wonder when the teacher's will quit looking at her as the youngest in the class.  Probably by 5th or 6th grade it won't be so noticeable any more.  But Rubie's class as a whole struggles with staying focused and paying attention, they struggle with not talking to each other.  It is hard for Mrs. Soderstrom and I think they aren't as far in their curriculum as she would like them to be.  But she loves Rubie's smile.  Rubie is really good to help others with their reading.  Mrs. Soderstrom will often pair her up with other students to read together.  Rubie is friendly and all the students like her.

Thursday the kids had Valentine parties in their classrooms.  Then Friday there was no school.  Scott and I went out Friday night for our valentine date.  I got Brooke Ashton to babysit.  She is by far the kids' favorite babysitter.  Scott and I went to a sushi dinner and to a movie.  Saturday Brock was with us all day.  His sisters had the sweethearts dance and his mom had a valentine date.  Scott and Rubie went to help the Harrisons with their move.  I had the boys here.  I tried to get some chores done but we also went to Costco.  Then we (including Brock) went to Kaysville to have dinner and spend time at Ben and Cassie's.  My mom and dad and grandma were there too.  Ben's friend Justin and his son were there also.  The kids had a great time and we totally enjoy hanging out with them.  Ben continues to improve their yard and home.  He was working on building planting boxes to have a raised garden.  They have a really big lot up there in Kaysville.  There are already grapes and fruit trees.  He had a lot more plans for building on to their home but there ended up being a gas line running through their property that has messed up his plans.  It's just going to cost him a lot more money to do what he wanted to do.  I'm sure he will make it nice though, he is good at that.  We love that they are here in Utah and we get to spend time with them.