I've got a Golden Bear

 We have been thoroughly enjoying our summer.  It has gone by way to fast and I've got lots of fun stuff to share, but before I can get to that, I have to play catch up...again. 
Towards the end of the school year, the principal of the boys' school approached me to tell me that Micah had been nominated for the "Golden Bear" award.  Being fairly new to the school, I wasn't quite sure what a golden bear exactly was.  So in the car on the way home from school, I casually asked the boys what it was.  Micah responded, "Someone who is awesome.  They have to do awesome at all their school stuff and be nice to people."  Sweet.  I wasn't sure if he knew about the award, so I didn't say anything.  The next day though, he came home and told me that he got the Golden bear for 4th grade (one from every grade).  So at the end of the year program, he was recognized for getting the 4th grade Golden bear, all A's, and being a Gold Belt recorder player (the highest group). 

We are so proud of Micah and what a good student he is!  He IS a golden bear:)

Micah turns 10

Micah turned 10 in January.  Yes, 10-double digits!

He's always been my low key child when it comes to birthdays.  Not big on parties, just a day to do whatever he wants.  So....

 this is how he looked for most of the day.

Homemade ice cream brownie cake-his favorite.  And, this is the best picture I could get of him. 

10 things I love about Micah

1.He is funny and has a great sense of humor

2.  He is passionate about soccer.

3.  smart, smart boy

4. very dependable

5. Hard worker

6. I've said it before, he has a great laugh

7. A good friend and a good brother

8. still loves to snuggle with me (but don't tell his friends)

9.  tries so hard to be good

10. helpful

Way to go, Micah!

At the beginning of the school year Micah set two goals for himself:  placing in the Fun Run race and winning the spelling bee.  I'm not sure if I posted this last year, but as a 3rd grader he tied for 3rd place out of 36 kids.  He made it 24 rounds and lost to 2 fifth graders.  This year he wanted to do better.

So he placed in the Fun run and then we moved right before the spelling bee.  We were really excited to learn that our new school in Germany was holding their school spelling bee the week after we got here...

Guess who won?!

He will be competing in the European regional spelling bee in March.  We are so proud of him!

Another season...

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Both the boys played another season of soccer.  Micah moved up in age brackets, now play in the under 11 group.  It was a lot more challenging and so much fun to watch!  He has been really practicing his footwork and it paid off.  He was the high scorer for his team and was in charge of taking all corner and penalty shots.  It has been fun to see him excel and grow over the last few years.  He's a great forward!

Asher's team was undefeated and blew out all their opponents.  He has surprised me. He's so fast, he steals the ball and dribbles down the field, and takes great shots.  It's so different from his first year when he would just stand on the field.  It's cute to see his reaction after he scores.  He had an awesome coach again this year (Dudi), and I'll miss watching all my guys on the soccer field!

Way to go Cobras and Dragons!

fun run 2010

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Well, we survived another year of the Fun Run.

This was Asher's first year and he did so good! He ran the whole mile and finished in great time!  He really enjoyed it and even asked me to run with him next year.  I should probably start training now so I can keep up with him!  It was so much fun to see him out there running.

The following day was Micah's run.  It was exciting, yet heart wrenching to watch Micah get 5th place...for the 4th year in a row!  He was so bummed, but he had a great attitude (the top 4 get ribbons).  Something has to be done.  Really, getting 5th all 4 years!!!! I think he did so awesome, but the poor kid is so set on getting one of those ribbons.  He was disappointed at first, but then he looked at me and said, "There's always next year."  

'Til then... 

A proud mom

For those of you who don't like to read stuff about how some mom thinks her kid is soooo great at___, stop reading this now.
I
will
be
saying
how
awesome
my
son
is!!
So, here goes.
Micah has been playing soccer for about 8 seasons (spring and fall, 2 seasons a year, just so you're not confused at how an 8 year old could be playing for 8 seasons). He has always done well and has had a great coach that has taught him a lot.  His position has mainly been sweeper and he has always been happy with that.  This year his coach decided that he wanted Micah to play middle.  Now middle is ALL over the field ALL the time.  Micah usually gets tired running a lot, so I was a little worried.
OH My GOODNESS!
He did so awesome. I am not just saying that...seriously.
After watching the world cup with us, something struck a chord and the boy is really good.  He was all over the field, doing footwork that I don't know where it came from, and he ended up being the highest scoring player on his team.
 It is great to see him love something he is doing and excel at it as he puts for the time and effort.  I was sad to see the season end.  That had a great little team.

Dudi and I left almost all the games looking at each other and wondering where this kid came from.

You could say I'm a proud mom.

Way to go Hawks!

Invasion of the weirdos

Micah:  Mom, there are basically three types of kids that go to my school.  Nice ones, mean ones, and weirdos...and I'd say about 90% are wierdos.





I wonder which category he considers himself a part of.

Help wanted/needed

I've got a problem and I'm lookin' for some advice.

Micah is my school boy.  He was so sad at the end of last year, he didn't' want summer break to come, crazy right?  I kinda took it personal.  Anyways, he's always loved school and is an excellent student.  I was worried about Asher starting, but it turns out he's liking it pretty well (thankfully), but not worried about Micah cause he's always loved it.  You know where I'm going with this... Micah HATES school this year.  None of his friends are in his class (or the class that he goes to recess with), but what he really is having trouble with is his teachers.  He says they are both mean and always yell and get onto the kids.  I'm willing to help in anyway, believe me I'm already tired of hearing, "School stinks,"  "This is the worst year," "I wish I could get sick and stay home from school," "I'm not going to school, mom!"

Help!

Does anyone have any advice for making it better.  There are a lot of things I can do, but I can't change a teacher's personality.  It makes me sad, I really want him to love school again.  Suggestions anyone?

field day

Micah had his field day and end of school party.

I always enjoy those events and this year was no different. They had fun games set up for the kids and they were able to go outside instead of wasting the last week watching movies and have some fun.

Spectators.

These games are intense.

The end of the year party was a luau. They had congo lines going, hula hoops, and some good food. All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.
Micah had an awesome teacher this year. He is actually pretty sad to be leaving the 2nd grade. A lot of his friends were in his class too. He had a great year and we are so proud of how well he did. Next year I'll have a 3rd grader and a kindergartner!

Cubs and wolves and bears...oh my!

When Micah turned 8, we entered a whole new world- the world of scouting. It has been really fun for him. He LOVES it. A few weeks ago was the scout birthday party. It was his first pack meeting and everyone was asked to bring a cake.
Micah won "most thematic."

Micah got his cub and is now working on his Wolf. He also received the behavior award for his age group. They give out behavior beads each scout night for the boy who listened/behaved the best (I guess whatever incentive works to get a bunch of rowdy boys to settle down) . Micah had received the most for his age group. I was really proud of him for that.

What pack meeting would be complete without scout skits?

I sure think he looks cute in his uniform and hope he keeps up the motivation to do scouts!

Basketball 2010

Micah finished up another fun season of basketball. He has really improved and had a fun team with a few of his friends on it.

He always tries so hard.

The excited spectators.

They had a really good season.

Dudi was the coach again. He really enjoys working with the kids and Micah loves having him coach!

(New snow post (finally) after the St. Pat. Day post. Don't know why it did that out of order.)

Birthday x's 4

Wow! This year we reallllly drug out the whole birthday deal. I think Micah ended up celebrating his birthday 4 times.

The first time we celebrated was a week before his birthday at Disneyworld.

The second was on his birthday with just our family.

The third time was over his baptism weekend with his grandparents and other family members that came in.

And finally, the FOURTH time was his actual birthday party with friends. We didn't have a free weekend till the middle of Feb., so that's when we did it.

Of course it was Star Wars themed (His cake was a star wars lego guy. At some point I will draw the line as far as cake requests go).

It was a lot of fun and we had star wars food and games! Thankfully I can just reuse ideas from previous years!

Baptism day

In January Micah turned eight. So at the beginning of February he was baptized. We were lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents, his great-grandma, his Uncle James, and cousin Luke come in town for this special event.

I still can't believe he's this old.

Luke, Micah, and Dudi

Dudi with his dad and mine

Grandma Marica, Grandpa Dan, and Micah

Our family

Micah, Grandma, and Grandpa

The gang with my grandma (the kids refer to her as GGma-short for great grandma) and grandma and Grandpa.

All the family that was there.

We had a lot of friends and family there. It was really special to have all those people that Micah knows and loves there.

We are so proud of Micah and the choice he made to be baptised. I know his Heavenly Father is too!

Great 8

I can't believe he is eight-I'm not old enough to have an eight year old, right?

He is such a good boy.

Eight things I love about Micah...

1. His sense of humor.

2. His desire to be good.

3. That he loves to play games and do puzzles.

4. Hearing his American Idol critiques.

5. He is a good student and is super smart (if I do say so myself).

6. He loves to read.

7. He is kind to everyone (with some exceptions to his brother).

8. That he takes more showers than anyone else I know-he loves them.

I brought cookies for his school class today and got to eat lunch with him.

Tonight he picked his favorite resturant "Red Lobster" to eat at.

We are excited for him to be baptized next weekend.

We love you so much Micah!

Fun Run 2009

The Fun Run is a big event around our house. Micah placed 5th in the mile last year (one place shy of getting a medal) and was determined to get one this year. We were bummed to find out that the run would take place while we were on our trip, so Micah opted to do the one mile relay with some friends instead of the solo run.

We were super excited that the race was rained out and we were actually back in time for it!

I can't tell you how excited Micah has been. The school starts practicing about a month before the race. After every practice we got a report from Micah.

Their relay team was destined for a medal.

They placed 2nd at each practice-it was money in the bank.

I tried to prepare Micah for the chance they wouldn't get a medal, but he was pretty optimistic.

Well, the big day came and here is how it went down (fingers crossed).

Introducing...


the cheering section.


Micah and Dudi.

You may think Micah looks in pain. Well, it wasn't just an untimely photo, he was in pain. Micah was the last leg of his relay (he wanted to be the one to run across the line) but when the kids started coming around the corner, no Micah. I finally saw him walk around the corner of the school.

My heart sunk.

Micah can run an entire mile, so 1/3rd of a mile was nothing- something was wrong.

I admit, I had to hold back the tears. I know how much this race meant to him and I was so crushed for him. He did run across the finish line though and then I found him. He was super sick. He looked at me and said he just wanted to go home.

Dudi filled me in that when it was their turn they took of running and then Micah just stopped. He couldn't breath and his stomach was hurting really bad. He wanted to finish the race though, so they walked it. I'm so proud of the little guy.

On the way home I told him he still had next year.

He told me that a year was a long time to wait.

What do you say to that...it is.

The relay team.

We found out that there was a good reason he couldn't run...
Pneumonia.