Good Days and Bad Days... They All Happen

Last Friday was the Math Blaster Assembly at the boys' school and I am very proud to announce OTG Boy made it into the Math Blaster Club! At the school each child is tested every month - grade level determines how hard your test is (number of problems, type of problem and how much time). OTG Boy was very excited because last year was the first year he made it into the club and he didn't make it until the very last test of the school year. This year he's been working hard and set the goal for himself to make it in on his first try and he did! His test - 50 addition problems, 50 subtraction problems, 50 multiplication problems and 50 division problems in 4 1/2 minutes and you have to get 100%. The kids do not get to know how they did on the test.

So last Friday morning was the assembly - it's a very "rock star" assembly. Music blasting, lights flashing and the "coolest" guy teacher at the school announcing (yelling) the new club members (who have no idea if they've made it or not). The kids jump up and run to the stage while the whole school cheers them on. Honestly, if they'd made math that exciting when I was in school I might have enjoyed it more!

OTG Boy was ecstatic when he heard his name - and he proudly showed off his awards when he came home - the certificate, water bottle and dog tag you see in the picture above.

So now I'm sure your question is - where's the motivation for the rest of the year? Well, now he'll be working on the 6th grade math level and keep moving up from there.

Great Job OTG Boy!

Now on to the sad news...

Our last goldfish, Mr. M (short for Mr. Mustachie - because he had a little black mustache when we bought him), died this morning. All the boys are feeling pretty sad.

Here's The Professor in happier times - the day we bought Mr. M and his friend Goldie (who's been gone for a while now).

Lastly, my sister asked a few questions so I'll answer them here. First, my code name is HaHa - if you want an explanation I'll let you know next time we're talking :) She also wondered how we were able to get pictures of our whole family. The family picture in my first post was actually taken by our dad - I'll call him Grandpa Florida - he takes the greatest pictures! The scouting family pic we actually took ourselves. Handsome Hubby gave me a tripod, for Christmas or my Birthday - it kind of blends together. The main purpose of the tripod is to be able to take photos of my scrapbooks so we can have digital copies in case anything happens to the originals (not quite the same, but better than nothing). Unfortunately, I haven't had time to get going on that project yet - but hopefully sometime soon. Anyway, we have a tripod which comes in handy for those whole family pics.