Strikers fundraiser

Tonight the boys on Jayden's Strikers soccer team stood outside the Neighborhood Walmart and sold Papa Murphy's coupon cards. They are trying to earn money for equipment and extra training. Jayden surprised me and went right to work. He confidently approached everyone as they were about to enter the store. When his assigned hour was up, he surprised me again. He did not want to leave. He wanted to keep selling. Tonight's experience just supports my "Jayden theory". I am always telling people that he is not shy. He is just confidently quiet. He says what he needs to and in his logical mind he completed his task. Tonight he did just that. He was not uncomfortable. He had a job to do, so it was time to speak up. It was really fun to watch him in action tonight. I also enjoyed getting to chat with some of the boys on his team. I am usually cheering from the sidelines during the games. Not much time for interaction. It was nice to get to know some of the boys off of the field too.

I would also like to send out a big thank you to our family and friends for supporting us in this fundraiser. It is very appreciated!!!

Looking back

I just went back and looked at my old Spaces page. The kids have grown up so much. Way too fast I might add. Heres a look at February 2005 through October 2006...

www.herwray4martin.spaces.live.com/

First Day of School 8/25/08

Makenna's first day of kindergarten.
Jayden's first day of 4th grade.
Devon's first day of 3rd grade.
The kids were so patient today. It seemed as though everywhere we asked them for a picture they were looking into the sun. Whether it was in front of our house or on the school playground.
Meeting up with friends before school....

Makenna found her cubbie.
Devon in his classroom.
Jayden ready for class to start.
Makenna coming out after her first day of kindergarten. She said it was a lot of fun, but the three hours felt long.

Back to School BBQ

I forgot my camera, but lucky for us Jayden had his. Too bad we got home and realized that it was on the wrong setting. Oh well, the night was fun and relaxing.

Club Star: Photography 8/21/08

For the final week of photography, hosted by the Martins, all of the kids tinted their own black and white pictures.
Every great picture needs a cool frame.
Devon painted his like a Pokeball.
Makenna's was a rainbow of colors.

With the exception of Makenna, the kids all presented pictures that they took. Makenna's camera has been a little bit disappointing. The pictures have been blurry. We turned the lemons into lemonade and let her show her latest dance pictures.
Our final Club STAR activity for the summer of 2008 is complete. Yeah, we did it! Time to start planning themes for next summer!

Khyla's 9th birthday party

We celebrated Khyla's birthday with miniature golf, batting cages, and rice crispy treats. The kids had .a blast. After seeing their batting skills, we debated on whether we should form our own baseball team.





This kids chose a Chocolate Lab Webkinz and a puppy coat for Khyla.

Club Star BBQ

No, that is not Devon's beer!

Pizza by Design

The kids like to top their own pizza. Most of the time they top English muffins or French bread. This time I gave them each a dough ball and had them stretch and shape their own personal pizza. I pictured round (maybe oval) pizzas. In our house, they were shaped like Pikachu!

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics has brought back many memories in our house. The kids brought out some of their memorabilia from the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. They watched this years events while holding onto the past.

Last Day and Year of Book Club 8/11/08

For the past four years (three for Makenna), the kids have been a part of a summer book club. They would spend about five or six Mondays out of the summer, listening to books, discussing them and then focusing on the new vocabulary they heard. The lady who organizes and leads this group has been amazing. She had amazing prizes for the kids each week and spent an enormous amount of time and money to develop a love of reading in the children. This was her seventh year and she has decided it would be her last. She accomplished her goal, which was to encourage reading in the lives of her sons. She succeeded and touched many families along the way. Thank you Miss Carolyn! We'll miss this special part of our summers.

Club Star: Photography 8/7/08

The next two weeks of Club Star lessons are being presented by our family. We chose photography. Just to shake things up, we went on our field trip the first week. We visited a darkroom at the Ogden Arts Center, had a lesson given to us by a high school photography teacher and set out to take pictures in downtown Ogden. The kids looked took pictures while laying on the grown, up close, and/or with reflections (just to name a few approaches). It was an eye opening, scorching hot day!

August 2008 Karate Parent Viewing Day