How nice is it that I have a soundtrack to go along with the week of Taks Testing. Thank you Fiddler on the Roof!
TAKS Testing Traditions will go down on my list of "What in the world were you thinking???" Oh sure, it was so cute and inviting to start all of our traditions when the boys took their first State Standardized Tests in third grade. They come home all excited and nervous to take their tests. Their teachers assign us homework to feed them a good dinner, play with them and keep them relaxed, and make them a hearty breakfast. What fun is what I thought! And then of course blew it up to being even more exciting and wonderful!
Fast Forward 3 years and I am all tangled up in a massive TRADITION that my boys hold very near and dear to their hearts.
So here is our tradition:
* No Homework, means lots of extra fun playing time and no chores!
* Make them a favorite meal for dinner.
* More fun playing games together as a family to keep them relaxed and cool (after 3 years they are kind of pros now so they don't really get nervous).
* Have a special treat for dessert.
* Go to bed earlier. This didn't quite happen though:-)
* Be woken up really nicely by mom or dad. Then have breakfast in Bed!
* Off to school with a yummy, special lunch!
* After school celebrate their hard work with a trip to get ice cream or more fun and games.
That's the whole tradition for each and every single TAKS day. Except now instead of being a once a year event, it is 3 times a year. And instead of them taking their tests on the same days, they test on separate days.
This week, it was 4 nights/3 days back to back. Aye-Aye-Aie! Ken was out of town, of course. Never mind he didn't travel the week before or the three weeks after, but he was gone that week. It was especially painful for me to keep up with TRADITION without him since he normally handles the breakfast in bed.
The first night was Spaghetti Casserole with Salad. Remember this is their fav meals not my best and greatest:-)
We had fun playing Sorry together and eating brownie/fudge sundaes.
Ooh doesn't he look menacing. Yeah, not so much. I sorried him right back to his starting base!
1st Morning was Biscuits and Gravy with Hot Chocolate. Can I just say I am proud of myself that I woke-up to do this every single morning. I really thought I would wimp out.
After the boys were at school and I took Rose to school I went into the office to do my normal Workroom stuff. Ginger was talking too loudly and they kicked us out! I LOVED it! Sure other Taks days I still worked in the workroom, but you don't have to ask me twice to leave.
Ginger had her Mommy all to herself. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to play Sorry. She never has played it before.
Ginger did a great job playing with me. She is getting to know her number super well for a 2 1/2 year old. It really brought me back to memories of playing uno with the boys while we waited for Ken to get out of class.
Plus, I just loved spending that one on one alone time with Ginger! She is so much fun!
The next night was chicken wings, veggies, and cantaloupe.
The boys had neighborhood friends play in the afternoon and then they stayed over for dinner too.
Can I say feeding kids outside in the grass is the best invention ever. My house stays so much cleaner!
These two pretty girls are worth the mess though!
Dessert was brownies. The girls devoured those more then the boys though.
Since the boys were busy trying to beat their dad at BZ Flag. It's like a tank game that he plays with them on the computer while he is traveling.
Day Two was Cinnamon Rolls, Hot Chocolate, and Scrambled Eggs.
Rose even woke up for this one.
But she was a pretty tired girl.
We did a whole other 2 night of favorite dinners and games, and another breakfast in bed. But, my camera got stolen at Sea World and I lost all of those pics.
Anyway, I didn't wimp out once even though I was running myself ragged with these TRADITIONS! I hope Darin and Nathan know how much I love them to keep it up for them. Who knows what we are going to do when Rose and Ginger start in with this tradition:-)
As for TAKS Test, I know all the results since it's two months later. I don't think our traditions have anything to say about the results since they would have easily passed the TAKS test at the beginning of the year...But they did awesome. Between the two of them they got 4- 100% and 2- Commended (that is better then average or something), but really one missed one question, and the other missed two. They totally rocked it!
3 comments:
What a super nice mom you are! My girlie is lucky if she gets breakfast! Half the time I don't even know it's TAKS until she tells me that morning!
Ok, I'm proud of you too. I totally would have whimped out if it was me! Especially because they were asking for big meals - not just your typical cereal w/ toast or pancakes etc etc. ;-) You are such a good Mom! Your kids are so lucky!
Your girls are just SOOOO cute. Gorgeous!
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