Valedictorian 2013

This girl, named Speedy Cheetah, walked across the stage at her 8th grade awards night 7 times! She received an award in Science, English, History, Outstanding Citizenship, Presidential Excellence, Principal's High Honor Roll and Valedictorian! She had a perfect report card for all her 6 semesters at Pacoima Middle School! It was so cute to see her have to walk in her heels across the stage and shake everyone's hand. When they announced the criteria for Valedictorian, she whispered to herself that she thought she had all A's in all her report cards and then they called her name! She has had an awesome year in 8th grade! She was an officer (assistant director) in Musical Production, she had a solo in every show and in the big show she had 5 solos, a monologue and danced in all the other numbers. She also won a poetry contest and numerous prizes from various teachers. (Especially Dr. Nurnan) She is such a great girl and we are so proud of her! Many people came up to congratulate her father and I  which was so sweet! I don't take credit for her except that she came out of my womb. She has been a firecracker since she was born and I hope she keeps the momentum going. She has already decided where she wants to go to college and what she will major in. I will do what it takes to make sure her dreams come true! Love you Speedy Cheetah!

Vancouver, Canada Day 2

 Day 2 started bright and early! The kids had to have their daypack packed with their jazz shoes, black socks and jazz pants and anything else they were going to need for the day by 7:45 AM. We were ready too! The kids really respect and listen to Dr. M. Our first stop was Capilano and the suspension bridge. Okay, I am afraid of heights, but I conquered my fear and did it as well as the treetop bridges and the rim walk.  It was very beautiful, but I didn't look down much. Speedy spent most of the time with her friends and didn't really pay attention to me. I was with the other moms and we had a good time. We got to go shopping a little there, but I didn't find anything for me to buy for myself. I found a little something for my mom, Squiggler, my honey and Nessa.

 They call their "Indians" First Nations and there was a lot of history there. It was really cool and I would gladly go back.

 Dr. M and his wife Melodie, they are the cutest couple! She is the sweetest thing and I think she really balances him out. I really got to know him this weekend and he really loves what he does! He really cares about the kids and how he handles the kids is really top rate! He yells a lot, but he wouldn't if he didn't love them so much. This I am sure of!

 The group picture! I know I have a lot of pictures, but it really was an amazing place. I can't decide if I like this place better then Grouse Mountain. I wish we would have been able to explore this place a little more.

 This is the tram that took us up to Grouse Mountain. We went straight there after we left Capilano. They are really close to each other and we were able to get on the tram as a group. I had no idea what we would see over the mountain and trees, but it really reminded of me of where Heaven and Earth meet.

 I had the pleasure of sitting in the front thanks to my new friend Lynne. She was so funny and I could see us being really good friends if we worked in the same place. She was the official photographer of the weekend and has passed the job on to me for next year.  The company makes a video for all the kids of all the pictures she took of the weekend. I think she took close to 600 pictures and she was very good about getting everyone and everything.

 The kids couldn't believe that there was snow up there! Some of the kids had never seen snow and they had a ball throwing it at each other!

 Dr. M does this everytime he visit Grouse Mountain. He tells the 8th graders to get into this tree stump statue so that they can take a group picture. He then whispers to the 7th graders  to pelt them with snowballs. The 8th graders are kind of trapped in there and it is hilarious to watch. It's funny because he tells them to do it and they always do and fall for it.

 There were two grizzly bears that have been raised at Grouse Mountian and they are sooooo cute! They put on a great show for the kids of wrestling with each other.

 This is as we were leaving on the tram. I had the pleasure of sitting in the back so we could see how far we had been. It was cool.

 Our bus was the blue one and said Noah's Ark on it. We were next to a red one that said Where Heaven Meets Earth. I thought that was so cool because it was Dr. M's description.

 Speedy and her friend Tiana, her mom was my roommate Teresa, and she is also a kindergarten teacher. T is kind of a free spirit and keeps everyone entertained.

 After Grouse Mountain we went to the University to get ready for the competition. The kids had to change and had an hour to prepare themselves. Dr. M had them do warm ups and gave them a pep talk. He had me almost crying.  I was very sentimental this whole weekend and had been the week before because of Weegie. (That's another story for another time.)

 The kids did awesome even though they were really tired from the morning activities. They did very well and Speedy did an amazing job on her solo. She really gets into it and often people tell me that you would never guess she has the voice that she does.

 After the performance one of the judges gave them commentary and feedback on how they did. He was so positive and singled my baby girl out to congratulate her and he said that if he didn't know better he would easily mistake her for one of the actresses on Glee. She was beaming from ear to ear! She was so happy about all the nice things he said to her.

 They won Gold and had the highest scores. We don't attend the real awards ceremony because we are traveling and aren't able to stay for it. They understand and gave us our own little awards assembly.

 Afterwards we went to the Science Center in Vancouver.  It was very similar to the Science Center that we have in Los Angeles and the kids had fun. They had a really good exhibit on DaVinci and I found it to be fascinating. The kids liked playing with all the different stuff and didn't even bother to go to the exhibit.

 For dinner we went to Granville Island Market which is like a smaller version the Grove's Farmers Market. There were a lot of little booths and places to eat. I wasn't impressed with the food, but it was fun to walk around and see all the cool things they had.

 From there we went to an Improv Comedy show and we were asked not to take pictures there so I don't have any, but I did snag a pamphlet.  It was so funny and they had audience participation. They had a lot of the kids and Dr. M come up in different parts of the show. For one skit they had everyone come up and it was hilarious because the kids were suppose to be in the way and they were, just like in real life.

After the show we were supposed to go to Stanley Park, but Dr. M decided to take everyone out for ice cream because of their success. The kids are not allowed to have dairy up to a week before their performances because it causes flem and it 's not good for singing. The kids really enjoyed their ice cream and the adults got some too! We then went back to the hotel to pack up and get some sleep. We were going to have another early morning for our journey home. Dr. M keeps them really busy and they definitely get their moneys worth.  I think he keeps them so busy so they never have down time and can't get into mischief. We never stayed at one place too long either for the same reason. Dr. M has been doing these trips for a long time and really knows what he is doing. Day 3 tomorrow!

First day of Middle School!

My Speedy Cheetah started middle school today at my alma mater! I can't believe how time flies! She is in the Magnet for performing arts which is a school within a school. She has the same teacher for 3 periods and another teacher for 3 periods and 1 other teacher. She has 7 classes with just 3 teachers! She also has 3 of her friends from elementary in most of her classes.

I'm happy about that because she was very nervous about going to middle school, but I knew she would be just fine!! She is very social and makes friends easy. The funny thing is that from her elementary school these are the only 4 girls going to her middle school and they are in all the same classes. What are the chances!

They have to wear uniforms and she was not sure how she felt about that, but all the middle schools around here wear uniforms so she had no choice! They can wear red, white or black polos and only black bottoms. She decided to go with red because it looks good on her. She was also determined to have a messenger bag and not a backpack. I can not tell you how hard it was to find a messenger bag and one she liked too!

I'm so proud of this beautiful little girl and I know she is going to do great things!!! I think this is the perfect school for her and she will find things that she will really enjoy!! I love her so much and can't believe she is already in 6th grade. It was just yesterday that I took her to preschool and she told me to leave and go back to work! LOL! She also got braces this summer and her teeth are already straight!!! She has only had them on for 4 weeks. I think this will boost her confidence because she is such a pretty girl and her smile will only enhance it! Love you Speedy Cheetah!

First Day of High School

Our oldest Princess has officially started high school. Today was her first day and I had the pleasure of taking her to school and picking her up. Thankfully she doesn't mind that I bug her to take pictures!

I dropped her off at around 7:30 and she quickly found her friends. She is taking Geography, Spanish, Biology, PE, English and Algebra. She has all Honor classes and will have a pretty heavy workload because she is in SAS.

She said her day was good and has some of her friends in her classes. We picked her up and took her for a treat. She picked Menchie's. She said that she got all her books today and stored them in her locker. She told her dad that he would like the Biology teacher because he likes Jazz like him. She also told us a funny story about his name. Tommy Thomas or something like that?

I can't believe that this day is here and my baby is in high school. I remember taking her to pre-school and she cried!!!! I felt so guilty! She didn't cry, but I shed some tears. She was excited and is very happy to be back at school. Go Highlanders!

Busy Times at Our House!

Well we have busy around here and I've been wanting to blog so I don't forget! On Friday, our Speedy Cheetah, met her Aunt Flo. If your not sure what I 'm talking about well then...I don't want my blog to be too much, but I know what it means. She was excited and had me cracking up all day, asking questions, going to Target to shop for necessities and I know she was feeling special. We even went out and got her a little treat to celebrate. Weegie made me laugh because she said she didn't remembering getting a treat. I'm sure she did, but I asked her if she remembered not getting a treat and she couldn't remember that either, so I'm pretty sure she did, she just doesn't remember anything because she is my blond child. LOL!

On Saturday, we attended a graduation party for our dear friends, Connie and Joey's oldest daughter. Connie and Joey have been our friends for about 14 years and we love them dearly. This year has been especially hard for them, Connie was diagnosed with cancer and Joey's kidney's failed and he now receives dialysis 3x a week. They are great people with 3 daughter just like us. So if you have a prayer to send their way, I know they would appreciate it. They also throw great parties and the food was soooo good! The party was at Connie's brother's house and he has a pool. Squiggler went swimming with her daddy and she loved it! We could not get her out of the pool! I forgot my camera so these were takend with my phone's camera and are not to good, but oh well!

On another big news tidbit from our house is that on Friday we bought the Squiggler a Dora potty seat and today she used it!!!! We are so proud of her and she knew she had done something special because we were all clapping for her! I hope this leads to full time potty training, but only time will tell. She hates to have a dirty diaper and always tells us when she has, but today she told us before hand!!! Go Squiggler! She will be our earliest! We have all summer to practice. Weegie was 2 and I thought that was early, and Speedy Cheetah waited until one week before her 3rd birthday. I thought she was never going to be trained. LOL!

And last, but not least, our Weegie girl started high school today!! Oh my! I can not believe that we dropped her off at high school this morning. It was just like yesterday that we were taking her to nursery school and she cried. She didn't cry this morning, but she was nervous and quickly found some girls to walk in with. Her daddy wanted to walk in with her, but I told him no because that was not cool. He was so funny, because he really wanted to go see where her class was going to be, but she was looking at him all mortified! LOL! He didn't go after all, but we did go pick her up and met her at Carl's Jr. (It's down the street from her school.) She saw us and wanted to jump in the car, but we wanted to eat. LOL! We made her go in with us and eat, but I told her she could go sit by the cute boy she knows from middle school. She went over to talk to him, but she didn't sit with him, she sat with us. So those are just some of the happenings around here! Things I want to remember! I love my life and I love my girls!! Oh yeah and my honey too! Thank you God for all our Blessings!

Speedy Cheetah's Graduation Day

Today our Speedy Cheetah graduated! We are so proud of her! She truly is an amazing child and all her teachers tell us so! The graduation was held at the nearby middle school. (Nearby to her school.) It was indoors and all the students had to wear the same shirt and black bottoms. We went out and bought her new shoes for the occasion. (LOL some sneakers because they had to walk there.) The above picture is of her and her principal. It so happens that her principal and I have a lot of mutual friends so she knows us pretty well. I'm so glad that she posed for this picture for us because the lighting was terrible in the auditorium and Squiggler fell asleep on my lap so I didn't get any good shots.

Here she is with some of her friends. The young lady with the red hair will be attending the same program with Speedy next year. I'm so happy she will have some familar faces next year. Speedy even had a part in the ceremony to introduce someone. She was in student council and that is how she got picked. They sang Fifty Nifty States and a really good song by Rascall Flats. (I have to get the name and lyrics.) The principal also read a great poem that I had heard before, but now I need to get a copy of that too!) I'm going to include them in her book and post them here on the blog too.

These two girls have been her friends since she went to Sunland. They are also girl scouts and hang out often together. They are like the 3 muskateers! The shorter of the two girls has a wonderful family that has often helped us out when we had issues with getting Speedy to school. They are the nicest people and we will miss them next year because their daughter is going to a different middle school. I hope that Speedy and her keep in touch through girl scouts.

Here is a family pix that my mom took. We had to wake Squiggler up when it was over. She still looks tired. Afterwards we went to eat lunch at Soup Plantation which is Speedy's favorite restaurant. My hubby and I both took the whole day off since the graduation was at 10 am.

Here she is with her wonderful teacher. We really were so glad that Speedy had her as a teacher!Speedy is such a special girl and we are so proud of her! She is incredibly smart and we are so honored to be her parents. Everyone that meets her always comments on how sweet she is. I call her our Bubbly girl. She has a heart of gold and remembers everything. She loves to read and find out things. I think her favorite subject is History. (Hopefully next week I will remember to interview her on what she liked best about Elementary school.) I can't wait to hear her answers! We love you Speedy!