Kickball Rules

Ben came home from school the other day talking about how chaotic a game of kickball was during recess.  I suggested that he could try to come up with some basic rules to bring order to the game.  He ran with this idea and came up with the following list which he then took to school and implemented successfully:

E's Art in Westminster's Permanent Art Collection & Selected for Art Show

Last Friday, I attended a reception honoring the middle school students whose art was selected to become a part of the school's permanent art collection.  The invitation below arrived in the mail, with pictures of each of the pieces that were selected to be added.  

The school selected Eleanor's 3D piece that can be seen in the bottom row below.

Here it is displayed in an exhibit case at the front of the school.

This recognition comes after another one of her pieces was chosen last winter for a middle school art exhibit in the school's performing arts center.  She was not exactly thrilled be in the photo but her Matisse-like piece is to her right.  

H Birthday Celebration

With Hayes's birthday falling the week of July 4th, we always struggle with finding a date to celebrate his birthday with friends. This year, we finally put something on the calendar for early September!  He invited some of his "old" friends and some of his "new" friends from Westminster to his celebration at the Main Event.  The boys started with an hour of bowling and lunch, 

then an energy surge provided by a sugary cake (with a basketball theme in case you were curious)

before heading to play laser tag before it was all over.  It was a very sweet group of boys and Hayes had a ball with all of them!

Hayes and Eleanor's First Days of School

Though I'm nearly a month late, here are Eleanor's and Hayes' first day of school pics.  Eleanor started on Monday, August 15, 

and Hayes began his first year at Westminster on Tuesday, August 16.  His first day was a "spirit day" so they were allowed to wear Westminster t-shirts instead of the usual dress code of collared shirts and dress shorts or pants.

I know they will both have great years!

Beltline Annual Lantern Parade

On Saturday night, Thomas, Hayes, Ben and I (Eleanor stayed home to do some homework) met up with some of Hayes' fellow fifth graders to walk in the 6th Annual Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade. Last Tuesday after school, the kids met in the art classroom to construct their individual lanterns. Hayes elected to create a basketball lantern to no surprise of his family.

We gathered a block or two down from the official parade starting point to take pictures

before we headed over to join the parade.

With last year's parade attendance hitting 60,000 people, we knew this year's crowd would be just as big. Hayes kept getting ahead of us in the parade, but we were comforted once we would spot his raised basketball lantern!

The scene was Mardi-Gras-like which I loved, but Ben found it a bit overwhelming and crowded, especially since we were walking a few miles after 8:30pm on an action-packed Saturday.  We jumped out of the parade around 9:30pm, once we hit the skate park, as both Ben and Hayes were exhausted.  Most of us agreed that it was a fun experience but next year we might just want to go down to the parade as viewers, not participants.  :-)