Action's (aka...) School Year in Review

Action finished his last day of 7th grade. Let me tell you, this school year wasn't without some struggles and frustrations both for him and Hubby and I.  Don't get me wrong, it was full of good, fun, laughs and happiness as well! 

Let's begin as I did with Hannah yesterday ~ Nicknames.  

Action.... Action got his nickname not only on this blog, but in real life as well.  We don't really use it anymore, but we use to.  Jackson is his actual name.  Action wasn't his only nickname either, Sodbuster was his other one.  Just as the busyness the name Action implies,  Sodbuster does as well.  Technically it means a farmer or worker who plows the land.  Jackson was busy and full of life.  Some of that constant moving and busyness has faded away, but he is still full of life.

Lets begin with September 2016

School started ~ 7th Grade

Football was in full swing.  Jackson had fun working hard and learning new positions.  It is definitely a proud parenting moment when you see your child work so hard.

Football Season ran right into hunting season.  Jackson took the hunter safety course required to get a  hunting license, meaning instead of just walking along, he was able to shoot.  This was an exciting first time for him and he couldn't wait to get out in the fields.

Of course right after that came Halloween.  I'm not sure Jackson has many more years of dressing up (and trick-or-treating anyway) ahead of him but this year he decided to dress up as Robin Hood (much to his dismay, his little sister dressed up as Robin Hood's Sister ~ as we called her anyway! Pics of that in my next post) This costume seemed to carryon the hunting theme ~ bow hunting instead

January was a busy month!

First, Jackson was able to travel with Smiley and I to meet his new cousin.  We thought we were heading on a 4 hour journey to attend a baby shower.  Baby shower turned into a birthday party when this little guy decided to arrive 3 weeks early!  A surprise for sure, but wonderful as we were all there to celebrate anyway!

The next weekend, he was able to head out of town with Dad, a buddy, and a few other guys for a fun  boys weekend.  They had a lot of fun hanging out and ice fishing.

Finally, we had a big day to celebrate.  Jackson's 13th Birthday!!! We didn't just have one celebration either.  (all the details are in this post)

One with just us as a family (with his favorite chocolate cake with chocolate frosting)

Another celebration with Grandpa and Grandma when they were able to come up for a visit.  This time he picked cheesecake as his celebration dessert.

Finally, he had a small party with a couple of friends.  First things first they went and worked up an appetite at a paint ball facility. They had a blast ~ literally and each of them had a few paint ball bruises to show for it!  Afterwards, they had a cupcake (or maybe a couple) to celebrate. Again ~ chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, just in cupcake form.

Once we got through January, things slowed down a bit.  The holidays were over, his birthday was celebrated. Time to focus on school and family.  Soon enough though, spring was creeping up on us.
Easter took us to Grandpa and Grandma's house where church, good food and lots of family were just what we needed.  Of course there was time to do a little four wheeler riding'

Baseball tryouts happened, and the team is practicing and gearing up for some fun baseball.  Jackson is playing with some buddies from previous years and is excited to play.

And just like that, 7th grade is over.
Jackson isn't very organized and finds himself playing catch up a lot of times when it comes to homework which hubby and I find completely frustrating.  However he had a good 7th grade year.  He made some fun memories and ended up with good grades.  We are definitely ready for summer though (and a haircut! Sheesh!)

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7th

Now to bring you up to speed on Action.

He is 12 1/2 years old and just started 7th grade.

School is definitely not his favorite place to be and his lack of organization skills doesn't help, but we work hard to help him do his best.

He doesn't really like to read, but he did devour The Treasure Hunters series by James Patterson this summer ~ helps that it was interesting and a bit of an easy read for him!

He still has dimples that can light up a room.

Enjoys playing golf, baseball and football.

He is definitely an almost teenage boy and can find humor in the silliest things....objects and smells....I know, disgusting!

Much to his dad's chagrin, he likes to stick up for me!

He was gifted a remote control boat this summer and it has been the best thing ever!  He really enjoys driving it around the pond behind our house.  Only downer was when it ran out of battery power in the middle of the pond.  While he really wanted me to put on hubby's waders and walk in and get it,  I let him do a little brainstorming and figure it out himself.  It was fun watching him use his resources to solve the problem!

He enjoys playing with friends, going on bike rides and spending time on our actual boat.

I love his tender, loving, relaxed (although sometimes lazy) personality!

And so we say "Good Bye."

~ Goodbye ~

Last week 2 of 3 of the kids started back up at school.  Neither were terribly excited for the summer to be over, but gave me some smiles as they headed off to school for their first day back.

Sassy is beginning 7th grade.

This is the beginning of the (supposed) "dreaded" middle school years.  She started at a new school that is much larger than she is use to and she is getting up earlier than she is used to.  She gets on the bus at 6:45 am (for the previous 6 years it was 8:15am).  The thought of having to get from her class to first floor, up to second floor, back down to first and to the other side of the building (and so on) had her a bit  nervous, and for me to see this confident girl of my nervous pulled at my heart strings.  She has a full schedule, with what could be some tough classes:  S+ Math, Spanish, Woodwinds, Life Science, PE, S+ English, S+ Us Studies and FACs.

On top of that she is playing volleyball for the 9th grade team at the high school.  Meaning, everyday after school she is bused to the high school for a 2 hour practice.  Two nights a week she has matches, two nights a week she has fastpitch softball practice and every Sunday she has 2 softball games.  The girl is busy... thus making her parents busy :)  But, so far she is managing everything very well.


Action is in 4th grade at the same elementary school as previous years, but with a teacher who is new to the school.

His school also hired a new principal (thankfully!) and assistant principal.  They have been a breath of fresh air and it has only been one week.  For example,  last year the kids were "assigned" a group of kids they had to play with at recess (friends or not), then they could only pick one thing to play for the entire recess.  This year, that rule is gone.  They choose who they play with (size of groups are limited for safety) and they can play whatever they want.  So nice to see him excited about this simple change!   Anyway, week one went down as a success!  He is playing tackle football again this year.  Their first game is tomorrow night.


Smiley is once again in preschool this year.

She goes to school on Monday and Wednesday mornings.  Today is her first day back.  She was excited to get back and see some of her friends again and ready to make some new ones!  I think she was getting tired of just hanging out with me all day long now that the other two are back in school! :)


Like always, it was a bummer to say goodbye to summer ~ we tried to squeeze as much in as we could around all of the activities the kids were in.

The time they are home is fleeing and the memories we can make together are priceless (even if they don't think so now!)

Yes it can be trying to have all of the kids home all day long, every day in the summer, yes they bicker and bug each other.  Yes, I have begged for just a minute of quiet.  But before we knew it, it was already gone.  And only the memories are left.  Memories I will savor!

 I hope you are all doing well.  I am still here, and I hope you haven't written off my little blog.  I hope to get back to being more consistent again.  I have a list of blog post to write and I am looking forward to finding all of you and getting caught up.  I am so behind on my blog reading!

~ So Goodbye Summer ~

We've had a lovely time and look forward to seeing you next year and creating many many more memories.