Happy Valentines Day and Report Cards

I hope that everyone had a very happy Valentine's Day. I had such a wonderful day, filled with so much love from my three little boys and one big boy. Im so blessed to have so much love in my life. I appreciate it on Valentines Day as well as every day of the year.

Thank you all (Aunt Mary, Aunt Phyllis, Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Pa) so much for your cards for the boys. They enjoyed opening each and every one of them. The were very excited to add the dollars to their wallets! Nathan, of course, doesnt understand the concept of money, but, he put his in his little Cars wallet he owns, along with some Monopoly money also stuffed in there. Truth be told, he likes the Monopoly money more because it has characters on it from Disney Monopoly.

Here is a couple cute pictures of Nathan in his Spud Muffin (grin) shirt on valentine's day. I tried to teach him to make a heart with his arms and hands. This is the best we got:

Nathan loves wearing backpacks around the house. He says, "I go to school on the school bus, bye" and then runs off into another room. Then he comes back and says, "I back". Its so sweet.
Justin has been working hard on his arrow point achievements in Cub scouts to get his Gold Arrow. This weekend is the Blue and Gold ceremony where he will earn his Wolf badge and qualify him for the arrows he is working on. Tonight we completed an achievement where he had to learn how to make a cover for a book. This brought me back to my middle school days of make book covers out of paper bags at the start of a school year. Justin really enjoyed decorating his covers. Cub Scouts is such a neat program that encourages the boys to do so many fun things that ordinarily I wouldnt think to do/teach Justin.
Nathan got his first ever tattoo today. And he didnt have an allergic reaction which I was worried about. He was thrilled! He kept staring at it saying, "No a sticker, no go off. This a tattoo." And the way he says tattoo, awww, it just melts my heart. I have to try and get it on video.
The tattoo was of Lightning McQueen, only Nathan's favorite character, which made the experience all the more exciting for him. I have to go out and find a bunch more, because after his bath, it already had started getting worn off a bit.
The boys received their report cards last week. And this week we had parent teacher conferences with both their teachers. At the risk of bragging, I have to tell you how wonderful both boys are doing in school this year.

Evan has astounded us. Despite his disability, he is doing fabulous work in all his gross and fine motor areas. His writing is simply beautiful. He writes exclusively with lower case letters now, and they are all beautifully formed. He is writing sentences and learning lots of sight words. He reads at a "C" level already. (Justin started first grade on a "D" level.) He loves Mo Willems books and can read many of them on his own now. The Piggy and Elephant ones are his absolute favorite series and we have been borrowing them repeatedly from the library. For as well as Evan is doing in language arts, Math is Evan's real talent. Evan has already completed all the learning goals for kindergarten this year, (and many of the first grade goals as well). He has a real gift for math. We have always know that Evan was "good" at math but now that he can write his numbers well, it is astounding to see what he can do on paper. His teacher told us that his enthusiasm for learning is absolutely contagious, he motivates the kids around him and is a great peer model. His teacher told us what a joy he is to have in class, and this, was the best news. Evan loves school and learning and that is the most important thing we want him to take away from kindergarten.

Justin is continuing to do very well in school. He is a good friend, a hard worker and a great student. Justin has a really fabulous teacher this year. She is tough but fair, and pushes Justin to do more and work harder. I have the opportunity to go into the classroom and help with activities throughout the year because I am the classroom mom. I cannot say enough good things about his teacher. Her teaching style and Justin's learning style work perfectly together. Justin is participating in an advanced math program this year. He and one other student work together on enrichment math work independent of the second grade curriculum. The program introduces some new concepts but mostly offers Justin the opportunity to explore the math concepts that encourage higher problem solving and creative thinking. We are really happy that Justin has an outlet for his advanced math skills this year. Last year we hesitated to explore Justin's math gift because he was working so hard with his reading and written language skills. We felt that one challenge was enough. This year, Justin is reading at an "O" reading level, which the beginning of third grade level. And doing so well in reading that we felt more comfortable providing him with challenging opportunities. Im hoping to find some opportunities to better explore Justin's math aptitude this summer.

This weekend is Justin's Blue and Gold ceremony for Cub Scouts, Ill post pictures of the special event as soon as I can!!! Have a fabulous weekend!!!!