Happy Birthday Kolten!

Kolty turned 11 on Saturday, October 25th.  I can't believe how the time flies by.  It seems like I just had him yesterday.  He has been the best kid anyone could ever ask for!  He is very polite most of the time and has such a mild manner to him.  He gets really good grades in school and is trying to hit the honor roll this year so that he can earn some money from us.  We told him that for every A he gets on his report card, we will give him $5 and if he gets straight A's, we will give him $10 an A.  So this means the difference of anywhere from $5-25 for a report card with 1 B or more and $60 if he gets all A's.  This strategy has really worked for us to encourage him to get good grades.  Last year, he missed getting $60 by 1 B and got $25 instead.  He was a little upset that he didn't quite make it and this year at the beginning of the year, he told me, "I'm going to make sure I get $60 this report card."  We are proud of him no matter what his grades are and are excited that he wants to try so hard to succeed.  It seems that this has helped in his learning abilities also.  I need to give alot of credit to his school as well but, he took his ability test the beginning of this year and is in the 80th percentile for children his age in all the nation.  This means he is smarter (in school subjects) than 8 out of every 10 kids in the nation.  Also he is in advanced math and reading.  I think this must come from Rick's side of the family.  Not because my side isn't smart but because I sucked in School!  I had the worst grades and had a hard time paying attention... the boosing probably didn't help either.

Kolten was so excited over the weekend.  We took him to Blast Off, which for those of you who have no idea what this is, it is a place where kids can go and play on these huge "McDonald Toys" and they have an arcade, mini golf, rock climbing and laser tag.  Kolten took about 6 of his friends and cousins and had a blast.  Plus this whole weekend has been filled with junk candy.  Because his birthday is so close to Halloween, a lot of the Halloween candy I bought to pass out to the trick or treaters got gobbled up over the weekend.  He was also excited to play with the new presents he got.  For everyone that gave him a gift card to Walmart - Thank you!  We had to take him to Walmart that night he got the cards and he bought a new Xbox game.  He also got another XBox game as a gift from one of the relatives that he said is the best game he has ever had next to Halo!  Thanks!  Rick and I gave him a new electric guitar that he wanted so bad and thanks to the Xbox games, Rick has got to play it more than Kolten has, was this a coincidence you say, I don't thinks so.