Awards, Walks, and Books

Our week as a list:

1. Thursday morning Collier and I went to Claire's school for her awards ceremony for the second nine weeks. Yes, "second" means there was a first, and there will be two more awards ceremonies this school year. The teachers and administrators give out SO many awards, which makes the certificate or button and recognition seem insignificant.

Claire received awards for A/B honor roll, perfect attendance, and highest average in keyboarding. And lots of kids received this many awards. By the time they started handing out perfect attendance awards (for one nine-week period mind you), I was wishing some of the classes weren't sitting right next to me because I would totally have been reading or playing or texting on my phone. Instead, I decided to set a good example for those sixth-graders by trying to pay attention or look like it at least.

I was looking forward to talking to Claire for a few minutes following the ceremony, but the principal dismissed the parents first to avoid confusion and traffic jams. So all we could say was hello and congrats on our way past her. Here's the only shot I took (with my iPhone) at the event when Claire was being recognized for A/B honor roll; she's standing on the far left beside the lectern.

2. Because of the fabulous weather we've had, the boys and I have taken a few walks on days we're able to eat lunch early. Usually I push Collier in the stroller and Hamilton walks on the sidewalk beside me as we go around our neighborhood loop. He stops every few houses to play on the utility boxes or look at some yard art. It's a leisurely stroll for me. Since we don't have a playground within walking distance, he improvises with crawling on and jumping off every utility box in our neighborhood. I also took these shots with my iPhone, and some are improved using Instagram.

Collier waits patiently in his stroller for Hamilton to finish climbing. Hamilton also likes to pick up litter along the way, so the big gulp in our stroller bag is destined for our trash can.

Since I was putting on my sunglasses before we started our walk, finding these sunglasses Hamilton holds was imperative for him. He surprised me and wore them for some of the walk.

On our first walk this week, Hamilton insisted on pushing the baby.

3. Mr. Morgan has given me several early birthday presents. One was the Kindle version of Catching Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games series. I just finished it last night after several late nights of reading this week. Just as good as the first, though now I'm itching to read the third. I'm also excited about the movie based on the first book that's coming out in March. Claire's read the first book too, so she wants to see the movie. However, since it's rated PG-13, I think I'll probably see the movie first to decide if it's appropriate for our 12-year-old.