Halloween 2012 edition
Posted by Michelle on Dec 3, 2012 in Hayley
Wyatt visit
Posted by Michelle on Dec 3, 2012 in Hayley
Again catching up on old stuff… Hayley hung out with her brothers and birth/firstdad’s family in Winston-Salem for a fun afternoon at a trampoline park in Winston.
jumping…
sweaty siblings…
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Visiting with Rachel
Posted by Michelle on Dec 2, 2012 in Hayley
Again catching up on old stuff… Hayley hung out with her sister Rachel in Greensboro for a fun afternoon in July.
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UNC vs Duke, Senior Night and ball kid duty
Posted by Michelle on Dec 2, 2012 in Hayley
I’m so behind on this but Hayley had ballkid duty for Senior Night at UNC against Duke.
rushing to clean up a mess
hanging out with John Henson afterwards
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Jumping
Posted by Michelle on Dec 2, 2012 in Hayley
Hayley made her first real jump over cross bars in July but I just got around to posting it.
Boston!
Posted by Michelle on Oct 17, 2012 in Hayley
I’ve got tons of photos to post in general including a huge pile from our week in Boston but I thought I’d get one very cool photo up now… Hayley at the NE Aquarium taking a dip with Reggae, a Harbor Seal.
Kestrel Heights School
Posted by Michelle on Oct 7, 2012 in Hayley
With Hayley in 8th grade, we knew we had some choices to make about HS for her coming up soon. We didn’t feel like the super big Apex or Green Hope high schools were a good fit for her so we had already begun looking at other options. While Salem Middle had a lot of things going for it, we never thought it was a great fit for her. Hayley worked very hard for (mostly) honor roll grades and had some wonderful relationships with a few teachers but it took a lot of effort for her to do well there in their more rigid system. Her learning style is different and we felt like a more flexible, smaller environment would work better for her – one that was more open to creative expression and stressed participation (in classes and activities/sports). We had applied to other schools before but ended back at Salem anyway. However two weeks into 8th grade at the year-round Salem, I reached my limit with some issues there and when a space opened up at a school she had been wait-listed at before, we made the decision to switch schools.
All that means that Hayley now attends the Kestrel Heights School, a K-12 school with about 100 kids a grade that is right over the Wake County border in Durham. Their HS was high on our list of schools we liked and by moving now she is guaranteed a slot for there. This was tough on her, she’s been with her friends a very long time. But the chance for a better academic fit for her was too good to pass up. We felt like Kestrel’s philosophies, curriculum pacing and varied teaching styles work better for her.
So far her grades are great, they moved her up a year in math to Algebra and she’s on the cross country team. She’s getting better about wearing uniforms and making friends. She’s even admiting she likes the new school a lot!
Wild Sky and puppy
Posted by Michelle on Oct 3, 2012 in Hayley, pups & other pets
The sky was wild and Hayley went outside to take a few photo with her assistant Annabelle along for the photos.
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Summer and start of school
Posted by Michelle on Aug 14, 2012 in Hayley, Jeff, Michelle, More Family
Since Hayley is in a year-round school, our summer was short and she’s been back at Salem for two weeks now – her last year there! This year Mason from next door has joined her.
First day!
With Mason
It was a good summer though. Hayley was at moviemaking camp again and we await their premiere on the big screen later this month. She’s been doing great at riding, we love this barn and she’s got a new saddle now. I need to bring the good camera out and shoot her jumping, even if watching her jump terrifies me.
We took a fabulous cooking class with our dear friend Sara at the always amazing Southern Season. Their store gets bigger every time I’m there, it’s 60,000 square feet now! The cooking school was state of the art and fantastic. I’m so stoked she is old enough to take the adult stuff with me!
Amazing setup – the flat screens could show you what was inside the mixing bowl
With Sara
We went up to Blacksburg VA for the 4th again to spend it with Jeff’s family. I’ll post more photos from that later but I never have my camera out there, I’ve got to do better. Jeff did the 5k again and shaved a bunch of time off – he’s awesome.
Hayley took a ton of photos at the art museum there – looks like Grandma Sharen posed in one with some interesting stuff!
We stopped at Pilot Mountain on the way back and went up to the top.
Right before she went back to school, we got to see Rachel and her family, I’ll post more photos from that later too.
Onward to eighth grade!
Posted by Michelle on Jun 28, 2012 in Hayley
It was a tough but really good year for Hayley. She made honor roll both the third and fourth quarter (so 2nd semester too), she had her science fair wins and she got a Math award for having the 2nd highest math EOG improvement in her grade/track.
She’s having friends over tomorrow (the final day of school) and we are headed to Frankie’s Fun Park for them to celebrate the end of the year.
We are really proud of her and hope 8th grade is successful too. Time to start researching at high schools for the year after next as the application windows are normally start midway through the 8th grade year. (oh who am I kidding, I’ve been researching them for awhile)
