Fabulous Army Life

He's got a class schedule and a locker, folks!  It's time for 8th grade to begin!  Trey was playing the role of 'been there, done that' as he cruised through his Open House, getting his class schedule, locating his new locker, and checking all the blocks of getting ready for 8th grade.  He's ready for a great year!

The cast of "Guys and Dolls" put on two magnificent performances today. The 3:00 matinee was only topped by the grand finale performance at 7:30 tonight. These kids have worked so hard and put so much into this show ... and it was evident by the consistently fantastic acting, singing, and dancing.  Trey says he's not sure what to do without the myriad of rehearsals and performances and he cannot wait to audition for next year's musical, announced tonight. Seussical the Musical will be the Spring 2014 performance at Thoreau Middle School!

Trey had a fantastic second performance tonight!

Tonight was opening night for the Thoreau Middle School Theater Department's production of "Guys and Dolls."  The cast was FABULOUS and Trey was absolutely spot-on with his impression of the NYPD cop, LT Brannigan.  So proud of these kids for all of their hard work!

The cast of Guys and Dolls enjoys a quick pasta dinner before another dress rehearsal, thanks to some really cool parent volunteers.  The students are working hard on this and I cannot wait to see the live production!

I snuck into Trey's rehearsal for "Guys and Dolls" today to take some photos for the director. Here are just a couple with Trey in them ... I cannot wait to see the full production!

My teenager lives by the mantra, "If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute."  This creates some stressful moments in our lives ("oh -- I have a project that was due today but I'll do it now and turn it in tomorrow") ... but it all works out in the end. Fortunately, my teenager is also brilliant and talented so he turns last-minute work into beautifully completed projects.  For this project, he read The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (a book he had chosen on his own before the assignment was given) and created a storyboard from it.  He artfully illustrated six cards, skillfully chose quotes for each to explain the action, and quickly wrote a paragraph about his choices for the storyboard. His completed work is fantastic and I'm so proud of his many amazing abilities and talents.  Now, I'm off to create an assignment calendar to help us track deadlines ...

I am so proud of my teenager today. I love him with my whole heart but, like most teen boys, his organizational skills can, at times, be somewhat ... lacking. So when we were at the grocery store earlier this week and he asked me if he could please get a few ingredients so he could complete a Science project, I was more than happy to oblige. He didn't ask on the morning it was due or at midnight after spending the evening at the store ... he asked WHILE WE WERE IN THE STORE. But wait! It gets even better. This child of mine read the instructions on how to make cookies from the chocolate chip bag he purchased, gathered all the ingredients, correctly measured all items, followed all the directions, and made a really perfect 13 x 9" pan cookie. He even cleaned up afterwards! This was magnificent! He then gathered extraneous icing packets, cereals, and snacks, and created the plant cell then neatly wrote all the titles of the parts of the cell on cardstock, taped it to ...

Tonight, we were super proud to view art on display created by our boys at their respective schools.  Trey loved his Art class with Ms. Physioc and Joshua always looks forward to Fridays with Mr. Woodard.  Great work, my boys!