Abby's 2nd Grade Year

Well, I think starting next year I'm going to have to split up the school year blog entries between calendar years, because it seems so long ago when school started and because of how many pictures I had from school functions and activities. But for this year it'll just be two really long posts for each girl and their year at school. So we start with Abby. She completed her 2nd Grade year at yet another school, but we are happy to finally be somewhat settled so we feel like this will be their school for many years to come, so yeah for that. I still need a picture of the front of their school, so I may have to edit that in later, or get it in the blog at some point in the future, but for now we'll just start with all the pictures I already have.

Here are pictures from the first day and last day of school. One good thing about having all the pictures together from one school year is being able to see the age progression from first day to last day. She looks so much younger to me when these pictures are only nine months apart. 

 The little girls and I were able to go to school for many Wellness Walk Wednesdays where you can join your student during their PE time. In December, the Wellness Walk was on Abby's birthday, so that was fun. She mastered the hula-hoop during this school year.

 One of the major highlights of Abby's second grade year was when she won first place for the PTA Reflections Contest in the category of Musical Composition. She wrote and sang her own song for the theme of The Magic of the Moment. Her song was titled "I'm Up in the Air." She had already written the lyrics to a song before the competition began, and I helped her incorporate the theme into her chorus, but other than that she did everything on her own. I even tried to give her suggestions when she was singing, but she wanted to do it her way, so she did. And she won first place! She was recognized during a PTA meeting and because she was first place, her entry advanced to the state level. Here are all the winners from our school.

This is the plaque she was awarded from our school PTA. In May, the district honored all the entries that went on to state. They had a huge luncheon that we were able to go to and she was awarded this certificate and trophy.

 

Here are some of the kids from the entire district who had entries go to state. Abby's friend, Maddy, from our ward, but who goes to a different elementary, was also awarded at the same luncheon. It was fun to be with friends.

 We have since found out that Abby's entry at the state level was awarded an "Award of Excellence" which is the one right below the entries that advance to Nationals, so we were so proud of her. They have a state-wide recognition ceremony this summer for all the entries that receive an award at state, and we just planned the trip to be there. Luckily, it will be held in Dallas, so we're taking a week trip to visit all my family while being there for Abby's ceremony. We're so excited and happy to have this opportunity to celebrate Abby's talents.

 The end of the first half of the school year finished with Christmas parties. Abby's class got to play the Wii among other games, but she was pretty busy to even enjoy the fact that her mom and sisters were there. (We spent most of the party time with Tessa and her Kindergarten class instead.)

 

In February, Abby had her 2nd Grade Performance. Aubrey took this picture of us, while we waited for the program to begin. The 2nd Graders divided into two-class groups to sing Patriotic numbers. Abby's group sang The Fifty Nifty United States and Deep in the Heart of Texas. Unfortunately, we were too far back to get any good close-up pictures of Abby, so one of her entire class was all I had to post. Abby's in the second row in the middle wearing red, right behind the girl in light blue.

 

The Friday before Mother's Day, Abby's class did a special program for all the Moms. They sang the songs You are My Sunshine and Mama Mia. They had to bring in something special that was unique to their mom and Abby brought a crochet hook and blanket that I had made. It was a really cute program. Each student had I "heart" and the mom's name on the front and when they all turned around, they each had a letter on the back to spell out Happy Mother's Day. Abby had the "T." It was adorable.

 Abby finished off the year with their field trip to the El Paso Zoo. It was like two weeks before school was out. I was able to go and chaperone, so I had a lot of fun hanging out with Abby and her whole class. They had matching t-shirts so we could keep track of them all.

We had to take pictures at the Meerkat display. Abby was able to be in two different pictures, and I just realized she's in the same hole for both. Too funny!

Here's Abby with her teacher, Ms. Rodriguez. She loved her teacher and made many good friends from her class. Ms. Rodriguez is switching to 3rd grade at the school next year, and Abby is dying to have her again.

Here are Abby's closest friends from her class, Katherine and Hannah. They had play dates throughout the year and just loved doing stuff together in and out of school.

Here are some other pictures from the zoo with various classmates. And one of Abby's entire class. I think this is the only one I have from the entire year of just Abby's class. I'm glad I was able to get one.

 

 

 Abby had an amazing year during 2nd grade. She continued being at the top of her class in grades and conduct. Her entire class was the winner of all the 2nd grade classes with their AR reading program. She thought she was going to end up with the 3rd highest score in her class, but was passed up by someone else during the final week of testing, so she ended up 4th place, which was still amazing. She loves to read, and says she also loves math and making new friends.