"You Shine" Star

Alex's school has a special bulletin board that is set aside for the "You Shine" students.  The teachers each pick one student from each Pre-K through 5th grade class to be their student of the week and they send their nominations to the office.  The office then goes through the 15 children who were "nominated" and they decide which child gets to be the "You Shine" student.  Alex came home from school yesterday and pulled a huge yellow star out of his back pack--across the top of the star was his name.  He was so excited and talking so fast that I couldn't really understand what he was saying.  I finally said, "Wait, slow down."  Alex rolled his eyes and handed a piece of paper to me.  "Here," he said, "Read this!"  So, I did.  It was a letter from his teacher stating that Alex had been picked to be the "You Shine" student.  She instructed me to cover the star with pictures of Alex and to put a caption under each picture.  His teacher went on to say in the letter that Alex was chosen because of his friendly nature, his willingness to help, his improvement in listening and following rules while at school, and also because she feels Alex is such a hard worker. 
Alex and I sat down yesterday evening and went through a lot of pictures.  He picked out a few that he wanted on his star and then I picked some.  He was very excited about it and very proud of himself.  This morning when I took him to school his teacher asked me if I found Alex's star in his back pack. I told her that Alex was so excited about it he pulled it out and showed it to me the second we got home.  She said, "I'm really glad to hear he is so excited about it.  He has earned it!"  She said that Alex has to work harder than the other students in some areas and he doesn't let that slow him down and he just "keeps on truckin'." I was very happy to hear his teacher say such wonderful things about him. 

So, today we put the pictures on his star and I wrote a small caption under each picture explaining what the picture represented.  Alex is very proud of it and excited to take it to school on Monday so it can hang on the special bulletin board for the entire school to see.  We are very proud of him and all of his hard work.

 

We found a lot of pictures that we wanted to use, but there was no way to fit them all on the star.  Alex said he wanted the picture of him and Jacob having breakfast together, the picture of him dressed as Ben Tennyson (Ben 10), and the picture of him from his 5th birthday party on his star.  I made sure to include those since it is his star.  I also included a picture of Alex eating cake at his first birthday party, a picture of him with Logan when Logan was about a week old, a picture of him on his skateboard, a picture of him hugging Logan, a picture of him and Logan laying on the grass looking at the clouds, a picture of Alex "reading" to Logan and Caison, and a picture of Alex with me--so people know he does have a mother. Ha. 

We took a picture of Alex and Logan together with Alex's "You Shine" star--Logan was excited about it, too!  He didn't believe me when I told him the baby pictures were of him and Alex.  He said, "No, it's baby Kyler!"  They aren't babies anymore, but they have become really good "big boys."  We are very proud of both of them!