Mikayla's End of 4th Grade Luau Party

For Mikayla's class  party myself, along with her teacher, and the other 4th grade class teacher, planned a Luau party.   The two classes were separated into groups and rotated around to various games and activities.  They had a pizza lunch with fruit, carrot's,  a cookie, and raspberry slushies for a cool treat.  I wish I would have got more of a variety of pictures, but that's hard to do when your having to run the party (Mikayla's teacher was on maternity leave and could not be there to help).

 Blow up a balloon sit on it,  pop it, and run back to tag the next person in line.  Mikayla was still under doctors care for her fractured foot, so she could not play.  She got to pass out the balloons and then we had someone run in her place, so she got to blow up a balloon and pop it.

Allison 

Allison

Jordan

Mr. Newell (the long term substitute)

 Water balloon toss.

Mikayla on right, Allison on left

The last half of the school year has been a long one.  Between Mikayla's foot injury, having a long term substitute, and drama from several of her classmates, it's been a long year.  We are glad it is over with and we can catch a break from it all.  We hope to have a better school year next year!

6th Grade Camp -Ashlee's Photos

Ashlee returned home from 6th grade camp at Foothill Horizons today.  She seemed ok with it.  It was not something she would like to do again.  She liked the experience, but hated the food.  She said they kept them very busy, they barely had time to take a little break.  Here are some of the pictures she took.  They got to go to Calaveras Big Tree's and Moaning Caverns while they were there.

Alyssa

Mykaela , Brianna, Mariah, Surpreet, Ashlee and Sarah

6th Grade Camp-Foothill Horizons

Ashlee left this morning for a 3 night 4 day experience at Foothill Horizons Outdoor School in Sonora.  While at camp she will get to go to Calaveras Big Trees and Moaning Caverns.  At the beginning of the school year Ashlee did not want to go to 6th grade camp, but after a while, she decided she would go.  We are glad she made the choice to go, and we hope she has a great time there.  She was not thrilled about the menu though.  She put in her dinner request before she left.  When she returns home on Thursday she wants tacos and nachos for dinner, and cookie cups for dessert.  I think I can fulfill that request!  Cannot wait to hear about her experience and see the pictures she took when she returns home on Thursday!

Lauren, Sarah, Ashlee and Alyssa

Margaret Thatcher

Our school started this new project last year called a Living History Museum.  The project is completed by all 6-8th grade students and it is a 6 month project!  Every couple of weeks students have to turn in a different piece of the project.  At the end of the 6 months, they assemble all the pieces on to a tri-fold poster board, make or do some sort of extension piece, dress as their person (if they choose),  display and share their project at the Living History Museum.
Ashlee has done great with the whole project.  Yes there were times when she was stressed, yes she shedded some tears over the project, yes it was very, very time consuming, but she did a great job.  She took the initiative to jump into the project on her own, she required very little help, she knew what she needed to do and she did it.  Her teachers have made more than one comment to me about her and her ability to get her work done early and accurately, and how they wished all students were like her.
Here is her finished project.  She chose to do Margaret Thatcher, although Margaret Thatcher was not her first choice, but since she is in 6th grade, they had last choice over who they got to choose.  All her other choices were taken by older kids.  For her extension piece John and Ashlee built a model of 10 Downing Street (the Prime Ministers House and head quarters).

Love Turlock-Community Service

As a requirement for one of Ashlee's classes at school, she had to do a minimum of 10 hours of community service.  Ashlee's teacher was a bit of a stickler on what would and would not qualify as community service so it was bit of a struggle, but she was able to do it all.
Today, Ashlee and John (we would have all helped, but since Mikayla is in a cast, we could not) participated in a combined event through the community of Turlock and Mormon Helping Hands called Love Turlock.  They completed a 4 hour community service project at an elderly persons home, cleaning up their yard and removing debris.  Some of the volunteers commented on how hard of worker she is.  She did a great job, came home with some scrapes, but she got up early and went to help and serve in her community.
Some other things Ashlee did for community service were:
Make brownies for the homeless
Serve food at a homeless shelter
Visit the elderly
Attend Interact Meetings (a community service club on campus)
Read books to Kindergarten Students
Work
Help others with homework (tutoring)

Mikayla AR Award

One of the requirements every year at school is that the student's have to read a book and take at least 1 AR (accelerated reader) test a week.  Mikayla loves to read books, but she hates to take the test.  Mikayla will read chapter books, not take a test on them, read a little story book, and take a test on that instead of a chapter book (out of fear that she will get a bad score on a chapter book).  I spoke with her teacher about the issue at the beginning of the school year and she made a deal with Mikayla.  If she read chapter books, took a test on them, and got to 30AR points she would take her to lunch.  I also made a deal with Mikayla, the deal was, she had to read 10 chapter books, take a test, and she could do something fun.  Mikayla met her end of both deals.  She read more books than required, took more tests than she needed to and reached 50 AR points by April.  By the end of the school year she will be well into the 70's or further.  Mikayla received and award at a school assembly for her reading accomplishments.  Although, her teacher went on maternity leave before she got to have lunch with the teacher, and she is still waiting to do a fun activity.  Great job Mikayla!

Cast

After nearly four weeks of being on crutches and seeing a PA at an Orthopedist office, we finally were able to go see an actual orthopedist and found out that Mikayla's foot is fractured.  We had got nothing but the run around at the office we were going to.  I was getting fed up, and Mikayla was in pain and fed up too. 

On March 7th Mikayla was playing soccer during recess at school.  A kid (just happens to be the biggest kid in the class) was running to kick the soccer ball, missed the ball and hit Mikayla in the side of her right foot.  I didn't think much of it, just thought it was bruised or sprained. 

On March 11th when she was getting ready for school, she started complaining and saying it hurt to get her foot into her shoe.  That afternoon we went to the pediatrician and he sent her for an x-ray.  The next day the pediatrician called and said that they could not rule out if the foot was fractured or not, so he wanted us to see an orthopedist.  The pediatrician referred us to an orthopedist in town, but the only way she could be seen right away was if she saw the PA at the orthopedist office so that's what we did.  Mikayla and I both liked the PA.  He spent time with us, examined her foot, went over the x-ray with us and explained the treatment to us.  He said" we are going to treat it as if it's broke, but not cast it and put you on crutches for three weeks". 

At the end of three weeks, Mikayla went off the crutches.  We went shopping, she went to two soccer practices, she went bike riding, she was walking, playing and having fun. 

On April 8th Mikayla returned to the PA to see how her foot was doing.  He manipulated her foot and Mikayla said it hurt, he turned her foot the other way and Mikayla said it hurt.  The PA said,"well you seem to be doing fine on it, so if you have any more problems contact us".  When we walked out of the PA office, I knew something was not right, but Mikayla was not saying much.  A few hours later she went to soccer practice and about 30 minutes after soccer practice was over she was crying because the pain was so bad. 

The next morning I called the doctors office and long story short, got nothing but the run around for two days, they would not schedule her for an appointment.  I asked for them to order another x-ray which they finally did after a couple more phone calls (I was taking her to another doctor and I wanted the x-ray in hand, but I did not want them to know that), in the meantime, Mikayla was back on crutches and could not walk on her foot.  A friend, and neighbor of ours when we lived in Hughson, responded to a post on Facebook, telling me that her daughter worked for an orthopedist in Modesto.  I made sure the orthopedist was covered under our insurance, and got an appointment for the next day. 

The new orthopedist took a quick look at the x-ray, pointed out where the fracture was, looked at the knot on Mikayla's foot and said we are putting her in a cast, the lady will be right in to take care of it.  Why couldn't the PA see that?  Why could Mikayla walk fine for 5 days, walk into the PA office and come out in pain?  Why did we get such a run around from them when we tried to schedule another appointment?  I don't know.  It really makes you wonder how some doctors are able to stay practicing.  I wish I would have listened to my instincts sooner and took her for a second opinion, but I didn't.  Now something that could have and should have only taken 3-4 weeks to heal is going to take at least 10.  And she is missing out on playing soccer in the spring league with her two friends, on top of missing the dance rectial last week, on top of being miserable on crutches and having a leg that won't stop itching from the cast.  The list goes on and on....  What has happened has happened, so we cannot look back, we can only look forward right?   Hopefully she is on the road to recovery now and her foot will heal well.