Duke's Talent Search

Last year, Savannah was invited to participate in Duke's Talent Search. The Duke University Talent Identification Program has conducted a "talent search" each year since 1980. TIP's major identification activity, the Talent Search, identifies academically talented 7th graders based on standardized test scores achieved while attending elementary school. Candidates are invited to complete either the SAT or ACT college entrance examination. Savannah was asked to take the ACT. The ACT test administrations for 7th grade talent search participants are exactly the same as that of high school juniors and seniors preparing for college admission. This year, five 7th graders from Magnolia Junior High were invited to recognition ceremonies for achieving high scores on at least one area of the ACT exam. Savannah was one of the students invited to the State Recognition Ceremony at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock! A student qualifying for State Recognition is in the top 25 percent of the Talent Search pool. We are so proud of your achievements Savannah! Can't wait to see what future you choose for yourself.

Update:
Savannah attended the awards ceremony with Oma. We are so grateful that Oma could take her!

Baseball tourney!

Today Payton played for his ElDorado travel team in a pitching machine tournament hosted in Magnolia. They played 3 games and sadly lost all three games, but the team got better each game. After they gain some experience, they should have a really great tournament team! We were very proud of all of the boys. They ended up winning 5th place and getting a medal.

My "sillypop"

Reynolds had so much fun at the ballpark tonight. One of his friends from school has a brother on Payton's team and Reynolds was excited to see her! They were so cute playing together. They played "ring around the rosey", tag, and an imaginary game where they jumped over snakes! :) so sweet to see him making friends and using his imagination. He also put on quite a show turning somersaults for everyone at the ballgame! He is such a character. I love what an individual he is becoming!

Just some pictures and bragging.....

Do the....potty dance!

In preparation for Baby Sadie's birth and Reynolds upcoming preschool this fall, we decided to put Reynolds through "potty training bootcamp" this weekend! Basically, this means we stayed at home as much as possible and plopped Reyn on the potty every 15-20  minutes. He woke up Friday pretty sick. His right ear was draining fluid from his tube and his nose was pouring. I thought that since we were stuck inside, we may as well begin. It started off rocky to say the least. In the first hour that he was awake, he went through four pairs of underwear and managed to pee through my clothing while he sat in my lap. Josh kept me encouraged via text message from his work and I stayed persistent. By lunchtime it seemed like he was starting to get it. Every time he had a successful attempt, his esteem went higher and higher. It was so cute to see him get so excited when he made it to the potty! He would jump up and down screaming "I DID IT, I DID IT MOMMA"! Then, he would take the insert to the potty to the toilet, dump it, flush it, and scream again! I have to admit that I cried a couple times because I was so filled with pride for my "baby" who is becoming a big boy. Of course, we've had our fair share of accidents (like the poop in the middle of the play room floor), but he's doing surprisingly well!
Today, the real world began again. We made our trek to Ruston to his dad's house for visitation. We stopped twice on the way to potty and he arrived at his dad's house dry. Let's hope and pray they keep it up today.

Yes, I plopped the potty right down in the middle of the living room....don't judge! Who wouldn't want to potty while watching cartoons?!

Home Run!

Last night we had Payton's first Magnolia club game. He did so great! He went 3 for 3 on first base and hit an in park HOME RUN!! He was so proud (and I think daddy was even prouder). Great start to the season!

NWA Lightning Dial Classic

This weekend Savannah had her last tournament with the ElDorado Shock travel soccer team. The team has been playing together for 5 years so it was a bittersweet weekend for her. I think she's been ready to move on to a new sport (she wants to try volleyball), but she's grown to be friends with her teammates and now that we are living in Magnolia, the only time she sees them is for soccer.
They started the weekend with a Saturday morning 2-1 victory over the NWA Strikers and a Saturday afternoon 3-2 victory over the Fort Smith Express. We were on a soccer high! Savannah's team is a travel team and these teams were classic teams, which means they tried out and were hand picked for their specific teams/positions. It was predicted to be tough competition and they advised us to be prepared to lose.
Onto tournament day 2....didn't start out great. The weather was really nasty when we arrived at the field. Savannah's team went out there like troopers to play anyway. They played against the Ft. Smith Express again and after Express got the first goal the game was called for a tornado warning. It was 2 minutes until half-time and the ref called the game in favor of Ft. Smith Express (even though that's technically illegal because it wasn't half-time yet). Game #2 was against the NWA Strikers again. Our girls put up a good fight, but the game unfortunately ended 1-0 Strikers.
The last game (to determine who won first, second, & third place) was the NWA Strikers & the Fort Smith Express. The teams mutually agreed to call the game before half-time (due to lightning) 1-0 Fort Smith. This ensured that our team could not take first place.
Long story short, we left with second place. The girls had a good last weekend together....and I guess that's all that really matters!
Way to go Shock!! Thanks for teaching our daughter about the world of competitive sports and teamwork. I will actually miss these tournament weekends, even if they are grueling!

Baseball!

It's time for baseball! Payton is playing baseball on two teams this season. The Wildcat travel team in ElDorado and the Murphy's Jewelers boy's club team in Magnolia. Payton had his baseball jamboree at the boy's club today and Oma was kind enough to take him for the weekend since we are with Savannah at a soccer tournament. She sent us some pretty cute pics of our little ball player.









I'll add some pics of Savannah's soccer tourney tomorrow after we know the outcome!

Little Einstein

Our Payton is a SMART boy! He always brings home all A's on his report card (in fact, all 100s) and he is always being recognized in class by his teacher, Mrs. Ray, for his great work. She recently entered an essay he wrote in the Southern Arkansas University Youth Writing Festival and HE WON! He also came home from school the same week with an outstanding student award for his work in math. We are so proud of all of his achievements! It makes our hearts happy to know that he loves learning and loves school. He will no doubt go very far in whatever he chooses to do!

Here is some more information from the SAU website about the writing contest:

The Department of English and Foreign Languages of Southern Arkansas University hosted the annual Creative Writing Festival on Saturday, April 7, and several local students took home awards.

The Festival, which is held every spring, has grown from 345 entries in 1995 to more than 1,100 entries. Students from schools across south Arkansas submit poems, short stories, and creative non-fiction essays, which are then judged good, excellent or superior. Out of the entries judged superior, three are chosen in each category and grade level to receive special recognition consisting of a cash prize for first, second, and third place winners, and a trophy for the first place winners.

The annual festival was developed from a summer writing class for public school teachers taught by Dr. Kathleen Mallory, associate professor of English at SAU.  The event is co-sponsored by the Gerald F. and Betty Fincher Scott Academic Endowment, made available through the generosity of Harold and D.J. Fincher and Peoples Bank.

Elementary Creative Non-fiction: Gerald F. Scott Award

Payton “Austin” Willeford

Title: My Soccer Tournament

School: East Side Elementary, Magnolia

Teacher: Rachel Ray

Baby duckies!

I got a rare morning alone with Reynolds today and decided we should take advantage of it! We walked down to the duck pond by our house and had lots of fun climbing trees (him, not me) and feeding the new baby ducks!












He needed to eat the "duck food" too!

HE is risen!!

A summary in pictures of Easter 2012!