First Day of Kindergarten

Rylan had his first day of kindergarten at Clovercroft today!!!

Today was a half day for the kindergarten boys.  The girls went yesterday and all the kindergarteners go tomorrow.  On Monday, they will start going full time like the older grades.

There are two new teachers in kindergarten this year (in addition to four returning teachers) and Rylan got one of the new teachers.  Ms. Bledsoe graduated from UT-Martin in 2015 and taught third grade for one year in another county.  She is very young but hopefully very enthusiastic!

Rylan doesn't know any of the kids in his class but there is one boy that lives in our neighborhood. Rylan and Beckham have never played together before but have seen each other at walker pickup before.  They sit at the same table in class and Rylan said they played together a lot today.

Rylan had a great day!  He was super excited about everything and can't wait to go back tomorrow.  He was extremely proud that as a reward for being the best colorer (he stayed in the lines the best), he got to be the line leader today :)

Brothers

Rockets

Okay, I have to share two more photos now ...

We had one especially rainy day on our trip to Florida so we went to the National Naval Aviation Museum at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola.

Three Clowns

I'm slowly going through my photos from our beach trip and hope to post them soon.  This one was too cute though to wait to share!

Titans Scrimmage

We attempted to go to the Titans scrimmage/practice last night at Nissan stadium.  It was completely free and I can't pass up a deal like that :)  There were scattered thunderstorms in the area but we decided to try it anyway.  Unfortunately after waiting over an hour, the scrimmage finally got cancelled.

We did get some fun photos though!

Gray did NOT like the cheerleaders!

Here's a photo of us with the cheerleaders five years ago!

This may be our first photo ever with T-Rac.

Jen and her family met us at the stadium so at least the kids had friends to play with while we waited out the delay.

21 Months

Wow, this guy is 21 months old already!

I'm 100% biased, but what a cutie :)

HEAT Kids Triathlon

Carter did another triathlon yesterday morning.  This one was the HEAT Kids Tri and it was up in Hendersonville (about 45 minutes away).  Brian went to Chattanooga yesterday so I had all the boys and we left the house just after 5 am to get up there on time.  Thank goodness the boys are early risers so this wasn't too ridiculous!  There was a lot of lightning on our drive up to Hendersonsville but luckily it stayed away from the race site!

Carter catching the swim ahead of him.

This race was a great length for Carter because it had a longer run (his strong suit).  The swim was 50 yards, the bikes was 2 miles, and the run was 1 mile.  And Carter rocked it.  He placed 4th (out of 16) in the 8 year old boys division.

Running his bike through the transition.

Carter getting on his bike.

Here are his times:

Swim: 1:20 (Rank - 3rd)
Transition #1: 1:39 (Rank - 2nd)
Bike: 10:57 (Rank - 7th)
Transition #2: 0:23 (Rank - 2nd)
Run: 9:10 (Rank - 3rd)

Total: 23:32

Starting the run after coming out of transition.

Go, Carter!

Carter's "cheering" section!

We are so proud of this awesome triathlete!  One of these days he's going to place too (he's so disappointed every time when he doesn't but he is one of the youngest in his age group with his mid-November birthday).

Carter started sprinting when he was close to the finish.

Look at the agony on his face!

Done!

This race was run really well and we hope that Carter (and maybe Rylan?!?) can do it next year.  They also secured enough donations that all the kids got door prizes.  They did the door prizes before the awards ceremony and when a kid's name was called, they got to pick from 3 random prizes put on a table.  It took almost an hour but the kids were really happy to all get something.  Carter got a mini-basketball.

Honorable Mention

Friday night was the Grand Showcase for the art camp Carter did at O'More this summer.   Each student got to submit one piece of art from each class that they took.  Carter did the drawing styles class but there were classes on photography, fashion design, clay, paper design, architecture, jewelry making, and so much more.

Several awards were given out (I'm not sure if it was one set of awards per camp session but only a small percentage of the pieces got awards).

Carter got Honorable Mention for the piece he submitted!

His piece is the self portrait with the hat.  After explaining what honorable mention is, Carter was very excited :)

First Day of Second Grade

Carter started second grade today!  The kids have a half day so they are done at noon.  Kindergarten has a staggered start so Rylan starts on Thursday of next week.

Carter is super excited about school.  He's in Mrs. Fitch's class.  She taught first grade last year and since she got moved up a grade, she is keeping her same class from last year.  However, a couple of kids moved so a few kids got added to her class, including Carter.  Also added was Whit.  Charlie (his twin) was already in that class and his mom wanted them together.  Charlie and Whit were in Carter's kindergarten class and have played on his soccer team for four seasons now.  Clovercroft had their Meet & Greet last night and we saw that Carter is sitting across from Jett (who was in his kindergarten class).  Carter and I are both looking forward to an awesome year!

Rock Climbing

Rylan FINALLY wanted to try the rock wall at Pump It Up a couple of weeks ago.  AND he made it to the top on his first try!!!  It's not technically all that hard, but a little intimidating for a 6-year-old!