A Week of Ben

This was Ben's first full week of 5th grade.  While I spent significantly more time with Mollie Grace and Annie this week, all the pictures on my phone were of Ben.  The girls start CC on Tuesday so we'll have some back to school pics next week.

 Last Friday night was Meet the Trojans.  Since Ben is running cross country, he got to run out during a football scrimmage and be introduced as a student athlete.

 The cross country team stays after school every day for an hour to run so we are picking Ben up an hour later this year.

 Sunday afternoon Ben's soccer team had a car wash in the Chick-fil-a parking lot.  It was hilarious how many people pulled into Chick-fil-a thinking they could get chicken.
 

 This is what little sisters do during a car wash.

 Today the team played in a 3 v 3 tournament in Hernando.  Check out their new uniforms.  The shorts aren't in yet, but they got their jerseys because they were divided into two teams today. 3 v 3 teams can only have 6 players max.  Our two teams played each other for the first game of the day.  Blue (Ben's team) won. 

 The Blue Predator team won first place in their age group winning all four games.

 Anthony, Jacob, Dani, Ben, and Leland.

 The orange team is missing someone and we always have random little brothers in team pics.

Marcie playing fetch with a frisbee nearly as big as her.

First Day of School

 First day of 5th grade.  He said Thursday morning that this was his first day of school with front teeth. 

He has the teacher he wanted for homeroom, Mrs. Burton.  There are three 5th grade teachers and the students change classes.  They stay with the same classmates all day.  Each teacher teaches reading to their homeroom class, Mrs. Burton teaches English, Mrs. Cox teaches Math, and Mrs. Morris teaches science and social studies.  They have other teachers for special classes like art, Spanish, computer, Bible, and PE. 

 Custom Kyle Busch locker shelf.  There is a former student who is now in college and makes these for extra money.

 There were several photo ops available for the first day but Ben said he was good with the front door pic.  I wasn't surprised.

The girls wanted their picture taken with the balloons when we picked Ben up at 11:45.  The first day was a half day.  Today is their first full day.

End of Summer Break

Public school started here Monday but Ben's school didn't start until Thursday.  That meant that the zoo was practically empty on Monday.  We had a great time feeding the birds, riding rides, seeing the baby seals and the new elephants, and playing in the fountains.  

 Making microwave S'mores was on our bucket list.  The only major item we didn't get to on our bucket list was going to Shelby Farms.  We intended to go on Wednesday but it was rainy.

 On Tuesday afternoon we went to see Christopher Robin at the movie theater.  We don't go see movies very often, but we love Winnie the Pooh.

Wednesday turned out to be a much busier day than I intended.  Marcie got shots at the vet, then we hurried to pick John up from work so that he could get his black Corvette from the shop (having an oil leak repaired before he gets ready to sell it) so Marcie came to soccer practice with us. 

Finishing July

We finished up July and are nearing the end of Ben's summer break.  He goes back to school this Thursday.

 On Saturday we went to a soccer birthday party.  Ben has played soccer with some of the same kids for two years.  Since they practice three days a week year around these are people that we spend a lot of time with.  Water balloon war against their coach.

 Saturday night Ben lost a tooth that was still attached to his braces with a bracket and wire!  We couldn't get in touch with the orthodontist office, so he tucked it back in place and continued on until Monday.  He said it didn't bother him.  He was able to eat without any problem. (We had a backup plan if there was a problem.  We have a friend who is a dentist who said he would cut the wire.)

 After a quick trip to the orthodontist Monday morning, we went school shoe shopping.  Last week Ben told me he didn't want new school shoes.  He liked the ones he already had.  Thankfully it occurred to me Monday to ask if he had tried them on.  I hadn't seen them since May.  When he tried to put them on, he couldn't even get his foot in one shoe.

  On Tuesday afternoon we picked John up from work and took him to buy this 2002 Z06.  He plans to sell his black Corvette and the Durango and make this his every day driver.

Ben got to ride home with John.

 Wednesday we checked off one more item on our summer bucket list -- the planetarium.  Annie looks concerned in the picture because she was very worried about what was going to happen.  She loved the show.  We learned all about the constellations that we can see in summer.  It was very cool.

 Quick picnic in the park after the planetarium.  Thursday afternoon we swam at the DAC.  Friday we planned to go to the zoo, but Wednesday when we got home from the planetarium, it was 94 degrees in Ben's room.  We spent Friday waiting for the A/C repairman.

 Silly dog.

 Mollie Grace thought this strawberry was too funny to eat without taking a picture of it.

Friday afternoon we attended a meeting at Northpoint about cross country.  Ben is planning on running.  I took this picture at soccer practice because it shows how much Ben loves to run.  He passed all the kids his age and was running up front with Will, who is 15 and at least a foot taller than Ben.