In between my trips this month I was able to catch another one of Angela's volleyball games.
Angela's serving improved alot over the four games.
Next term she is going to try out for the basketball team.
The Arts teacher at Claudia's school organized a Christmas Concert for the primary grades. It was a good show.
Claudia was one of the angels and she had to lead the SK/JK's across the stage.
Before the show started, Claudia was accidently whacked in the eye by the innkeepers cane. Here is Claudia after the show and you can see her eye is a little puffy.
Today the girls received their first term awards for their hard work. It was also Santa Hat day if you couldn't tell.
Both Claudia and Angela received awards for "Living The Virtues" for having demonstrated one or more of Faith, Empathy and Conscience. Only three students per class were given the award. Here is Claudia after receiving her award.
Here is Angela after receiving her Virtues award.
The girls with their certificates. Angela and Gillian received the Academic Award.
Angela's homework tonight was to watch the gold medal game of the World Junior Championship. I don't remember getting homework assignments like that. Back in the fall she had to watch the Grey Cup game. Angela and Gillian getting ready for the game.
Go Canada!
A victory lap after another goal.
After the final buzzer.
Angela showing how many in a row.
Both Angela and Gillian made it out of their classes for the speech competition and have moved onto the gym to compete in their respective divisons, Ang in the Juniors and Gillian in the Intermediates. Angela's speech topic is "Peanut and Nut Allergies" and Gil's is "How Media Influences Teens".
Here is a flash video of Angela's speech.
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Here is a flash video of Gillian's speech.
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Here is a flash video of Winner of the Junior competition.
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Susan and I are very proud of both Angela and Gillian, they both did an excellent job.Angela moved on to the Mississauga North Family of Schools speech competition this afternoon. She was up against 15 other students, she drew the number 8 position. The first 8 were very good and in the end the 1st, 2nd and 3rd went to the early speakers. Angela did not place but still did an excellent job. Here she is with her medal and certificate from the school and her certificate and pin for the Family competition.
Friday was Sports Day at school. There was an outdoor ball hockey game between the teachers and students from Grade 7 and 8. To get in the spirit students were suppose to wear a sports jersey. Gillian is wearing her soccer jersey from when she played 9 years ago.
On Friday it was the Awards Assembly for second term, all three girls were receiving awards. They split the awards up by grades, so Claudia had her's first. She received an Academic award and here she is receiving her Arts Award for Dance.
Hre is Claudia with the principal.
After the primary assembly was the junior and intermediate assembly. Both Angela and Gillian received the Academic Award. Here is Angela receiving her Athletic Award.
Here is Claudia with her academic award.
And her Arts award.
Angela with both her awards.
Today was Gillian's graduation from Grade 8, in the fall she will be off to Mt Carmel for high school. It just seemed like yesterday, well maybe not yesterday, but it wasn't too long ago her and Sarah were waiting for the school bus on their first day of junior kindergarten.
Now here they were getting ready to graduate from Grade 8.
Each of the students made the globe, cap and books that hung on the wall.
Gillian with Vee, another of her good friends since junior kindergarten.
It started with the Graduation Mass, followed by the Ceremony and Awards. Angela was singing in the Graduation Choir and did an excellent job.
Gillian receiving her certificate. I managed to sneak into her photo.
Actually as Chair of the School Council, I had a role in the ceremony, I was handing out a St Richard pin to each student.
Gillian surprised us and herself as she was presented with the French Excellence Award. Since I was on the stage, I wasn't able to get a picture of Gillian accepting her award. Here she is with Mme Bozzo her french teacher who had presented the award.
Gillian with her plaque. This year they had to replace the big plaques that hang in the school, so her name is the first to go on it, I told her she'll be on the wall for at least 15 more years.
Of all the awards presented there were only two that came with something extra. She also receive a gift bag with her award. When she got home, she open it to find a nice French-English dictionary. Way to go Gillian!
The librarian put together a slideshow of all the kids, first there was a baby picture and followed by their grad photo. Last year they ran into some technical difficulties, so this year she was a little panicked that it would happen again. It turned just fine and evryone enjoyed the show.
There was a surprise guest speaker at the graduation. About half way through Mayor McCallion came into the church and headed to the front. They paused the ceremony and Hazel addressed the students. As usual she gave a great speech to the students. Every year they invite her, but it isn't often that she shows up due to her busy schedule. Although the last time was only two years ago. What a treat!
Some of the chaos after the ceremony.
Gillian with her friends.
Gillian with Mrs. Jordan, Mrs. Mountjoy (her grade 8 teachers) and Mr. Carnevale (principal).
The girls with Mrs. Kelly. Each of the girls had her for grade two. She leads the choir as well and all three have been involved with that since grade three.
Here is Gillian with her Grade One teacher Mrs Foster.
We kind of forgot to take family pictures at the church, so we took some when we got back to the house. Gillian with Grandpa and Grandma. Did you notice that Gillian is taller than someone else.
Gillian and her sisters.
Gillian with Susan and I.
We are very proud of everything Gillian accomplished this year and for the past 10 years at St. Richard. She has worked hard and has turned into a fine young lady. Thank you Gillian!
Today was Gillian's eleventh First Day of School. Everyone got off to school on time, Gillian got a ride with Sarah and Angela and Claudia walked with Madyson. I met the girls at school, just to see that they found their teachers and check the school council mailbox. Here are the girls out in front of the house. (Grades 9, 4, 6)
Here is the girls first day of school from 2004. It was the first time all three were in school, Gillian was in Grade 4, Angela was in Grade 1 and Claudia started JK.
And a Chloe picture from the first day of school.
It is junior girl volleyball season, both Angela and Claudia tried out for the team. Claudia didn't make the team, but she got some good experience for the next two years. There were no grade fours who made the team. This is Angela's last year as a junior.
This was their first game of their four game season.
Unfortunately they lost the first game of the season, 2 sets to 1. Angela played well and enjoys the game.
Angela and Claudia brought home their report cards this week, they both did well. I went in for the interviews with their teachers today. Claudia's teacher was filling in for a mat leave, so he is finished in a week and then Claudia will have a new teacher. Angela's teacher was Gillian's teacher in grade one, that was her first fulltime teaching gig. Gillian is on semester so she received her mid-term report and her highest mark was in gym, go figure. She is doing good and has adjusted well to high school.
There hasn't been much activity on the blog this month. We have been busy with the usual things, work, school and more work and school. Gillian had her first set of exams last week and she is confident she did well. Angela and Claudia have been working on their speeches for speech arts. It is Claudia's first time doing a speech, her topic is "The World's Fastest Things" and Angela is doing "Genetically Modified Foods".
It would be nice if we had some snow, at least the girls would be out there playing, that's usually good for a few photos.
I have been busy at work with a hiring process, we have been trying to get everything done and offer letters out before the pro-rogued government comes back and puts on a hiring freeze as part of their deficit cutting. An indication of the job market, for an entry level technician position, we had multiple candidates with their Masters degree, one with a double Masters, a PhD, and a double Bachelor's degree . One of the abilities we test is "the ability to assemble and disassemble equipment". This might be the test we use next time.
A reminder that Takao Tanabe: A Work of Art is on Bravo tonight at 8:00 EST.
Today we started round two of braces. I took Angela this morning to get braces on her top teeth. She was pretty excited about getting them on. Here she is before we left.
And here she is with them on. She gets her bottom ones on at the beginning of April.
Tonight all three girls were going to Gillian's Pathfinder meeting. Gillian's group was putting on a play for all the area Sparks, Brownie and Guide groups. Gillian and the other third year Pathfinders put the show together as part of ther Canada Cord requirements. That's Gillian in the middle. Their play was called "Fractured Fairy Tales".
It was a good show and they put a lot of hard work into organizing it for the past couple of months.
Guide, Pathfinder, Guide
What's the chair about? At the school we were at, they had boxes of new folding chairs. As Chair of our school council, one of my goals is to do a fundraiser to help purchase new chairs for our school. Our school still has the wood seat and metal leg chairs that most will remember from their days at grade school. They are wobbly, they have cracks and are all round uncomfortable. My idea is to have families donate a chair and then recognize them by creating a plaque with names. Originally I thought we could put the plaque right on the chair, but it probably wouldn't last that long. I'll let you know this goes.
Claudia was one of two kids in her class who were chosen to go on to the gym for the speech competition. Her speech was on the World's Fastest Things. She has some time to practice and memorize her speech.
Gillian got her report card today for her first semester and she did great. She worked hard and it paid off with a 90 average. She has started second semester and has English, Science, Geography and Business.
Angela is also going on to the gym for the speech arts competition. Her and Claudia will be in the same division. Angela's speech is on genetically modified foods. Unfortunately I'm in Newfoundland next week and will miss them. Their speeches are on Thursday morning. Good Luck to both of them.
While I was away, the flu was going through the girls, and I caught the tail end when I got home. Angela was off early in the week followed by Claudia. Unfortunately this was also the week for the speech competition at school. Both were able to go to school that day and do their speeches in the gym, but they weren't 100%. Neither Claudia or Angela placed, but Susan said they did an excellent job, and Susan was the only parent there who had two kids in the gym.
Angela's most recent project was to build a kite and fly it. She had the choice of making a Scott Sled kite or a Diamond kite. She was being marked not on the actual making of the kite, but the scientific journal documenting the building process and the test trials and her presentation. We started last night cutting out the shape and putting it together.
We used some vapour barrier plastic for the kite, some wooden dowels and some yellow duct tape.
Angela decorated it this afternoon with paint and Sharpies. After dinner we headed over to the test field (school yard) for our flight trials. Here is Angela with her decorated kite.
On the first trial, it got up in the air briefly.
But it needed some adjustments.
Claudia was flying a store bought kite that Susan picked up at Zellers today. It worked pretty well for $6.
After some tweaks, it was on to trial two.
It was staying up a little longer.
It was up in the air and going pretty good.
Angela discovered afterwards that our vent was upside down, the text book instructions were wrong, but I don't think it would make much difference.
I don't think it was as high in the sky as it looks in the picture.
A nice picture of Gillian.
Gillian and her friend Sarah jumping.
Angela is also playing soccer this summer. Her season has started, but it is the same night as Guides. She only has one more meeting and then she will start. She tried out and made the Intermediate Co-ed soccer team at school. They didn't have enough grade 7/8 girls, so they opened it up to the sixes. They had their one-day family of schools tournament on Thursday and they made it to the semi-finals before bowing out. They ended up tied for third out of 12 teams. Congratulations Angela!
A blog to share memorable or not so memorable moments of life with our
family. 
Wow, great work at school. Keep it up.
love Shanna