Field Day 2009

Today was the annual track and field day for our home school field trip group. It's always an exciting day! After a thunderstorm early this morning, I wasn't sure we'd get to have it, but the Lord held off any bad weather until just after finishing the mile run (which is the last event of the day). We were home literally less than ten minutes when the thunderstorm arrived.

I had the pleasure of being the group leader for all the 9 year olds, Grace's age level. I was, however, able to run around to capture some pictures of Megs during some of my group's "down" time. After a short devotion and prayer, the first event was the 400 m run. Here, Grace and Moriah have just crossed the finish line from running the 400. Grace's time was 1.43 mins. and it qualified for 1st place. At the ball throw, Grace received 3rd place with a throw of 33 feet.
She also received a 3rd place at the high jump.
All the 9 year olds lining up at the starting line for the 50 m, then the 100 m runs.

Grace came in 2nd in both the 50 m ...

... and the 100 m.

Even after running the mile, Grace had a smile on her face! She earned 1st place with a time of 10.21 mins. After running a mile, she asked if she could run some more, so she ran the mile again when Megan's group did it. I'd be pooped, but not her!
On to Megan~~ She took 1st place in both the 50 m ...

... and the 100 m runs.She tied for 3rd at the high jump.

And here she is at the ball throw.With the finish line just in front of her, here is Megan finishing up her mile run. She had a 1st place finish with a time of 10.25 mins.Good job, girls!!!!

~Wee

End of the Year

Last night was the girls' last class in Tap and Ballet for this school year. It, sadly, was also the last night with their teacher, who is moving to the west coast in July.
Since the main performance this year was The Polar Express back in December, they had a special parents' night to celebrate the end of the year. Their ballet class put on a short rendition of The Beauty and the Beast. Megan and Grace both acted as "plates."

Here is their ballet class. Both are in the front row; Grace is third in from the left and Megan is second in from the right.

Sitting like ballerinas before class.

~Wee

Mother's Day 2009

The weather was beautiful today! After returning from church, we had the following photo session....Our lilacs are in full bloom and are so thick this year. I love lilacs and have been cutting some every day to have fresh flowers on my counter!

~Megan~

~Grace~

~Leah~

Alex and the girls took care of dinner. When it was time to eat, I was instructed to go out the sliding glass door and walk around to the front door, where a sign was posted that read, Welcome to the Mother's Day Restaurant." Megan greeted me at the door and escorted me through the house and back out onto the deck. One lone table was set up and adorned with fresh cut flowers on top. There I sat and waited to be served. (I wanted to get a picture, but unfortunately was uploading pictures at the time :( )

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

~Wee

JA BizTown

For the past ten weeks, Megan has participated in a program that is put on by Junior Achievement. She was in class with other 4th thru 7th graders, all homeschoolers. They basically learn how to run a business, manage a checkbook, etc. About a month ago, she had a job interview and was "hired" as the Health Care Manager at the JA BizTown Wellness Center. Once she received her job placement, the last four class periods were spent with her future co-workers of the Wellness Center learning more specifics about their particular business. Today was the big day, the day when they report to work and run their business.

Here she is doing some paperwork. Her job duties included providing health vouchers for employees of the other JA BizTown businesses and recording that information on her charts (what she's doing in the pic below), issuing insurance cards after performing wellness screenings, and familiarizing the public with healthy living practices. Before the end of the day, she had to collect the health insurance payments from each business.

Assisting a customer.

Taking her job seriously, she performs the wellness screenings.

Grace also had a class today with other 3rd graders, and I volunteered in the Professional Office, where we had eight individual businesses - a CFO, Rental Agent, CPA, Attorney, Insurance Agent, Investment Advisor, Non-Profit Director, and a Property Appraiser. I served only as a "coach" or to answer any questions they had. This is the place where I hung out for the morning.

I was able to take my lunch break when Megan had hers.Before leaving for lunch, however, she had to delegate the responsibilities of her job to her co-workers to ensure the "public's" wellness screenings, etc., were taken care of in her absence. I was impressed (and I admit, I swelled up with pride) as I watched her fulfill her duties.

During her second break, she was able to do some shopping. Her first stop was at the bank to cash her paycheck.

From there, she went to the Savings Officer, who happened to be her friend, Beau, to open up a savings account.

Then she went to the general store and purchased a JA BizTown briefcase. Finally, before returning back to work, she had time to stop by the Professional Office and purchase some shares of stock from the Investment Advisor in my locale.

At the end of the day, she enjoyed showing Grace and Kayla where she worked and demonstrated some of her job duties on them.

She did a great job, and I am really proud of her! It was a wonderful experience and one we'd do again!

~Wee

Four New Pets

Martha, Freddy, Henry, and Spot-Eye are the names of our four new pets. Yesterday we became the proud owners of four bullfrog tadpoles. We pulled our fish tank off the shelf in the garage, put in some water, and that is where our changing friends will abide.

The girls shared the responsibility of transferring the tadpoles from the bag to the tank.

After releasing them from their temporary plastic dwelling, Megan ran inside to fetch some lettuce, which was broken into little pieces and dropped into the water. Then they gathered some rocks to spruce up the new home.
Meet Martha, Freddy, Henry, and Spot-Eye.
After an hour or so in their new surroundings, the girls ran out to check on the four, to make sure they were all "still simming" (in Leah's language). This is the view I saw from the kitchen window, and it was at this time that each tadpole received it's name.

We look forward to watching the metamorphosis process. Spot-Eye is already getting his hind legs, so it will be fun to watch the rest of them as they all change into the adult stage of their life.

~Wee

Introduced to the World of Ice Skating

Yesterday, on a warm day, Megan and Grace were invited to a birthday party at an indoor ice arena. I got to go along to provide support to the one other adult chaperon! The last time I was on ice skates was before we were married, so it's been 15+ years! I was really looking forward to the opportunity to skate again and to do it with our girls. Besides our group, there were only eight other people on the rink.

Megan, Grace and Kayla - the Birthday Girl.

Girls, girls, and more girls.This was the first time Megan and Grace experienced ice skating. They both learned how to roller blade this spring, and I told them that "ice skating is like roller blading." Well, once on the ice, Grace informed me that "ice skating is nothing like roller blading." They did a great job learning the sport and really enjoyed it. And, there weren't too many wipe outs either. The only time I fell was when one of the girls (not mine :) ) accidentally plowed into me.

Megan enters the ice rink for the first time.
It wasn't long, and here she is.

Grace steps onto the ice.It didn't take long either and she was skating away from the wall and with friends.

Grace twirls with Moriah.

All the girls getting ready to skate as a connected chain. Looks good now......

but it was short lived. Sadly, their chain broke apart shortly after take-off.

It was a fun 3 hours!

~Wee

News Channel 15

Tonight a rescheduled field trip took us to our local News Channel 15 TV station. There we received a tour of the control room, news room, and studio. During the broadcasting of the 6:00 news, we were able to sit in the studio, about 15 feet in front of the news desk (behind cameras, of course) and watch as they put on the news. AWESOME is the word we would use to describe this field trip! It was fantastic!! Our field trip group was fortunate because the station just announced that they will no longer be offering tours of the station.

Our tour guide was one of the main anchors for the station. He was so personable and welcomed any questions we had, even during the commercial breaks between the broadcast segments. Before they went on air, I asked if they get nervous. Both anchors replied that they don't get nervous from being on camera, but get more "on edge" that everything runs as planned.

It was amazing to watch the weather being broadcasted! The meteorologist stands in front of a plain blue wall, and all her broadcasting is done off the top of her head (without a scroll screen).

Here Grace is sitting at the news desk trying out the pedal that controls the speed of the script on the screens that they read from. It's tricky to maintain the speed that's just right.

Megan takes her turn at the control pedal.

At 6:30, after the news was over, the meteorologist told the girls to "go ahead and sit up at the news desk" so that I could get their picture. Notice the mirror on the desk? During commercial breaks, the newscasters check their hair, make-up (even the men), ties, etc., before going back on air. It was fun to see all the activity in the studio during those 30 minutes!

Maybe being an anchorwoman is in her future......we'll see.....

Before leaving the station, we got to pose for a picture with Mark Mellinger, our tour guide.

~Wee