Reese's 2nd Grade Open House

We had the pleasure of attending open house for Reese last month.  2nd grade is proving to be quite enjoyable for her as she achieves great success, adding yet another year to our list of good experiences in the public schools in our area.

Reese excels in all subjects.  She maintains all A's and loves the extras, like special projects, where she has the opportunity to use her art skills.

Here is a self portrait that she made when her hair was dyed brown.

 loved this one.  It says "I am thankful to have been born in the Underwood family!"

It is fun to watch Reese as she learns and grows.  I could not be more proud of her.  How blessed I am by my kids!

Great 8 for Sweet Reese

We had the privilege of celebrating Reese's 8th birthday last week.  What a pleasure she is to us.  I cannot express what a delight it is to be her mother. 

This year, she chose to take a few friends for an afternoon of go-cart riding, mini golf, food and fun followed by a sleepover.

These girls are literally just a hair too short to be able to drive the big go-carts by themselves, so they took turns riding with Pete and I and then rode some on the smaller ones they could drive on their own.  We spent two hours playing and then headed to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner and birthday dessert before heading to the casa for a night of 8 year old girl fun.  It was a good group and we survived the night without any drama (that's pretty amazing for a group of 8 year old girls!).

Happy Birthday Reese!

birthday morning donuts

 birthday cake at Nana's house with the cousins

 driving with Nana

 Soren, dreaming of the day when this go-cart is a real car!



Track

Another season, another sport.  Track season is upon us and Soren has taken off full throdle.

Thanks to Pops we have these awesome pictures to go along with 4 gold medals and 1 bronze from her meet this week.

Soren's day started at 6:00am.  Shower, dress, breakfast, chores and out the door at 7:15 for morning track practice.  The meet started at 4pm with the long jump as her first event.

With a jump of 13ft. 5in. Soren walked away with the gold.

Pole Vault, a completely new adventure for Soren, was next.  The 7th graders were introduced to this exercise for the first time only 3 days before the meet, so it was a learning experience for all.

Clearing 6ft. 6in., Soren secured the gold for this event.

Moving on to running.  Soren competed in 2 individual events and one relay.  Her first run was the 400 meter sprint and with a time of 1:05 she crossed the finish line in first place.

The Mile.  This is a fun one to watch Soren do.  It is 4 times around the track and Soren will hang with the crowd for the first three laps and then take off for the final round leaving a significant distance between herself and the 2nd place girl.  This week, they had the boys and girls run together so the track was quite crowded making it a little more difficult to be able to run your pace.  If you notice in the pictures, the wind was gusting fiercly and hit them like a wall heading down the east side of the track.  Soren finished in the lead (of the girls) with a 6:20 mile.

In the 4 X 400 relay, Soren ran the last leg and was able to move her team from 5th place to 3rd place allowing them to bring home the bronze medal.

When the last finish line was crossed, Soren walked in the house at 10:30pm; just in time to start homework...  :(

Not a bad start to the season.  Congratulations on a great meet, Soren!  Thanks to Pops and Nana for braving the long, cold meet and especially for the great pictures!

mom, dad and reese watch intently!

lined up for the start of the mile

Soren's 13th Birthday!

I only have a few pictures to post here, and they do not begin to tell of the joy that was experienced in the celebration of Soren's 13th Birthday!

Soren was able to start her birthday celebration the day before with a cousin day at Nana's complete with cake and games followed by a sleepover.  On the morning of her birthday, Pete picked her up along with her friend Kirsten and Reese and they headed for Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park!  I was able to join that afternoon and took over for the evening and following day.  It was an incredibly fun and exhausting trip.  The girls played until the hotel curfew (midnight) brought them back to the room for a short rest and then they were right back at it in the morning.

I cannot put into words how proud I am of Soren.  She is a sweet, kind, generous, loving young woman who is not afraid to be herself and knows how to work hard.  I am so blessed to have a daughter like her and cannot wait to see what the future holds for her.  Love you, Soren!  Happy Birthday!