Caitie: The dog ate my computer

That's why it's taken me so long to post about Caitie's third grade experience... really. (if only i had a dog)... Actually, I deserve an F for failing to post in a timely manner. Anyhoo, movin' on now...

This is the kind of post where you might want to grab a cup of hot coffee, find a comfy chair, and plan to spend some time with because it's a LOOONG post!

I already wrote about Caitie's first day of third grade (see the 'rounding third and heading for fourth' post), now here is the rest of her third grade experience (what i can remember, anyway, it's been a while).

Some pics she wanted to pose for, some pics, not so much. Having 3,251,923 pics taken of her since birth might have something to do with that. ha Then there were times I wanted to get pics but my battery needed charging or I ran out of space on an SD card, or I forgot my good camera, etc., so I didn't get pics for some things/events, unfortunately. But here is what I do have...

After the first day of school, things got rolling... Caitie settled into a routine, and once that was established, she signed up for a drawing class that was offered. She started in August and went every Monday after school for most of the school year; all but the last quarter of school. She likes to draw and enjoyed the classes. I took pics of some of my favorite drawings that she did (some she finished, some she didn't).

This one is my favorite (it's a dog wrapped in Christmas lights)

She looks really tired in this pic; this was around the time she got sick with the stomach flu.

The two below aren't from her after-school art class, they're from her school art class. I really like them, so decided to include them here.

Can you see the chameleon in this one?

She wrote in Chinese on this one. I think she did a good job on both pieces.

She was also in cheer. We went to Costco around the time she started school and looked at the halloween costumes they had out. The girls picked cheer costumes. After that, Caitie was interested in what being a cheerleader was like. When the school offered cheer lessons, she decided to sign up. She ended up having both drawing and cheer on the same day. Mondays were really busy. I didn't get many pics of her cheer classes, just a few with my cell phone, but here is one I took of her with my regular camera before heading into class...

Here are some pics of her in her cheer practice outfit and pom-poms. I took these pics a few weeks ago. I kept meaning to take pics of her way before now, you know, like back when it was actually going on (ha), but kept forgetting or didn't have time. She started out with the maroon and silver pom-poms, the teal pom-pom was given to her at her cheer performance when cheer was over. It's given to those who move up to the next level. I have a few pics from that night that I will be putting a little later in this post. I'm trying to add things in the order they happened, for the most part.

I got brownie bites for Caitie's birthday celebration in class.

School pics. Caitie had the usual school portrait and class pics taken last October.

Here is her school portrait...

You know how Caitie and I like to embellish them. ha

Here are some pics I took of her on the same day; this one was before I took her to school.

I took these two pics after school. I put her hair up for some of the pics.

Her curls didn't last long. ha

Here is her class pic (i always take last names out, and i take out the name of her school for privacy reasons). Caitie is in the first row on the right, standing next to her teacher.

End of the first quarter. Caitie got all A's in subjects (math, reading, writing, social studies, and science), and all E's (exceeds the standards) in specials (music, art, and p.e.) She did really well. She was on the Principal's List, which is the same as the Honor Roll. Here she is with the Principal's List Certificate for the first quarter (i took out the school name and last names for privacy reasons).

Remember Caitie doing the 'fun run' way back in Kindergarten? The school didn't do it again until last year. I'm not sure why they waited so long to do it again. She ran, and sometimes walked, all the laps this time. That's my girl. :) It was in October so it wasn't too terribly hot, which was nice. She's in the middle of the pic looking at the camera.

Her sister enjoyed watching her and gave her a hug for doing such a good job. :)

She enjoyed her first class party of the year, which was the fall party towards the end of October. Sweet treats and cute crafts made it fun.

In mid-November of last year Caitie sang, along with all the third graders, during flagpole. Their music teacher taught them the song 'We Are Family'. They were told to dress in clothes that resembled the 60's and 70's. Caitie wore a tie-dye t-shirt and jeans. They did a good job. Here are a few pics:

This dance move by Bailey reminds me of Michael Jackson. You know, the standing on toes move he did when dancing and singing? Or not. ha We were waiting for the kids to start singing.

Here are all the third graders and their music teacher, in blue and black, singing.

If you look hard, you can see Caitie in her tie-dye t-shirt and jeans, standing next to the girl in sunglasses.

Here she is in her tie-dye t-shirt.

We traveled on Thanksgiving break. We did the usual Thanksgiving dinner at Michael's brother's house and the next day, Friday, we headed out of town for a couple of days. Here are a couple of pics. Can you figure out where we went?

Hotel pic...

Do you know who the bearded man is? If you do, then you know where we went. I'll tell more about it in an upcoming post.

It wasn't long before the next holiday came along. Caitie received candy cane grams from some friends in class. The candy cane grams were sold to students who wanted to get a special something for friends in class. I wish we had thought to reciprocate to her sweet friends. We'll try and remember to do so this year.

Here is what Caitie gave her teacher for Christmas.

Caitie had a class winter party before winter break started. Here are a couple of crafts the kids made at the party.

Then it was time for winter break, which is towards the end of December, it starts before Christmas.

Her break started the same weekend as her daddy's birthday, so we celebrated his special day. He got some cool stuff. See that huge, cool, remote control helicopter in the background? See his cool shades and hat? See his cool leather jacket? It was cool outside too, so suffice it to say... it was a cool day. ha

The girls went to see someone right before Christmas to make sure their lengthy Christmas wish lists were received. Any guesses on whom they went to see? That's a toughy, I know. The actual pics with that 'someone' will be in an upcoming post.

After Christmas we took a day trip to see snow. These pics don't show snow, but we did see some snow.

We also went to see the movie 'Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb'. We've seen all the 'Night at the Museum' movies. This one was all right. My favorite is the first movie. If you look really hard, you can see the girls in the middle towards the bottom of the pic below. As you can see, we went to a late showing, we're the only ones in the area.

The girls also put in a lot of playtime in one of their bigger Christmas gifts from Santa... a bounce house. This is in our living room. That's Bailey's 'behind' sticking out of the entrance to the bounce house; she loves to be silly. Caitie is bouncin' around inside.

End of the second quarter. Caitie got all A's and E's, and was on the Principal's List again.

Caitie had her last cheer class in mid-January. There was a cheer performance the same week. She didn't have a cheer uniform to wear because I didn't think it was worth the expense since she only went to class, not to the events that happened on weekends occasionally (the events cost money; i didn't feel they were worth it). So on performance night, she wore pants and a top. I've done similar things in the past when it comes to 'wardrobe'... remember her wearing a sleeper on pj day in Kindergarten? Yeah, I'm that mom. ha Here are a couple of pics of the cheer performance...

I took a quick pic of her daddy getting his 'go pro' camera ready for the performance. Bailey is sitting next to him.

Can you see Caitie? Yeah... she's the one in the bright red shirt on the right, at the top of the pyramid. You can't miss her. ha

Here she is with her cheer coach. She received a cheer certificate, medal, and teal pom-pom to add to the pom-poms she already had. She moved up to the next level, but she decided to pass on it. She started to do it, but it was a bit stressful having two things to attend on Mondays and have homework to do as well. I was glad she decided to pass on it; it wasn't easy getting her from one place to the other with hardly any time in between.

We went to our usual place, IHOP, after the cheer performance.

I got a quick pic of the girls when we got home.

Caitie's class had a Valentine's party.

The third graders went on a couple of field trips. They went to the Arizona Science Center in February, and then to the Arizona Broadway Theater in March. I don't remember what they saw at the theater. Caitie's favorite was the Arizona Science Center.

Caitie learned to play the violin in music class. We went to her violin concert in March.

Caitie is to the right of the pic, she's wearing a pink skirt.

She's in the middle of this pic.

Bailey enjoyed the concert. Her daddy is in the background.

I got a quick pic of Caitie when leaving. I was going to get a pic before she went in for the concert, but we got there right before starting time and she had to run inside.

I took this pic when she started learning the violin. She brought it home to practice, so I decided to get a few pics. I'll post more pics from that 'photo session' in a later post.

End of the third quarter. Caitie got all A's and E's, and was on the Principal's List again.

Caitie had field day the Thursday before spring break. She's in a red t-shirt standing next to her teacher, who is also wearing a red t-shirt. This is the only pic I took of her with her teacher.

The water relay. Caitie is in the middle of the pic carrying a big cup of water.

Spring Break was the last week of March. We did crafts...

Played... which included colorful pedicures. Caitie did my toenails. I'll not comment any further on those things called my feet. ha

We also went up north to our property. We had a nice spring break.

Caitie had quite a bit of homework... for all subjects. One of her homework assignments was to make up a story each week for reading class. This was the one homework assignment I enjoyed helping her with the most; we enjoyed working on it together. We made up some pretty silly and funny stories, as well as some cute stories. I helped her with all her homework, but there was one assignment I called her daddy in to help with... it was a science project; he helped her make an earth layers globe. I think it turned out pretty cool...

Painting the earth...

All finished. (guess who had fun cleaning up the mess. ha)

So cool.

Teacher Appreciation Week was in May.

The kids took in special gifts to their teacher each day of the week.

The kids in Caitie's class were to take in a flower to be put in a vase on their teacher's desk, but we didn't get a real flower, and at the last minute I made one for Caitie to take in. At least hers will last forever, and the stem is a pencil, so it can be used as well. ha

I also made a card for her teacher. As you can see, I don't believe in spending much money on these things. At least there's more of a personal touch in the gifts. ha

Usually the school year ends the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend, but this time the last day was the Thursday after Memorial Day. We thought about making Caitie's last day of school the same as always, the Thursday before Memorial Day due to us going to Disneyland over Memorial Day Weekend, but I decided to go ahead and have her go back to school when we returned from out trip. She ended up missing a couple of days of school during that time due to being in California, but it was no big deal since there wasn't that much going on at the time anyway. More about our California trip in an upcoming post.