Explorer Day

Friday, September 29th - Explorer Day for 5th grade. Each student spent weeks researching an explorer and writing a paper. Today, each student gave a presentation (complete with costume) in class. Jenna's explorer was Jacques Marquette - French Jesuit Priest and explorer of Michigan and the Mississippi River. (She insisted on the beard - love her!) I am so proud of her for doing this entire project on her own! (See video 5791 in Jenna 5th Grade 2017-2018)

After the presentations, the class split into groups and went with an adult or two on a treasure hunt all around the school grounds. There were 20 clues and locations - first they had to answer a question about an explorer and then they had to solve a location clue to find the treasure.

There were pirates (aka teachers) along the way to slow them down!

At the end of the hunt, they traded their treasure for "goods" (Jenna got a couple "befuzzles" (aka porcupine balls) and a morning work pass. And then the class gathered for a feast. It was so much fun! I love our school!

Game #2

A little colder this time. 

My favorite quotes of the night:
Kellen: "It's too cold to dance."
Jenna: "If it weren't homecoming, I'd go home right now." (7 minutes left in the first quarter.)
Kellen: (As he saw someone pass by with a burrito) "'It's another burrito.' Can you sing me that song? I need a lullaby."
Funny kids, those two.

Archaeological Dig

Friday, September 22nd - Archaeological Dig day for 1st grade. The dig site was divided into four quadrants and the class was divided into four groups to dig through their quadrant.

Kellen found a piece of pottery. 

There were all kinds of finds - antlers, bones, jewelry, more pottery and other artifacts. It was fun for them to be archaeologists for the morning!

19 Years in the Making

Thanks to my convalescence and both kids being at school full days, I was able to make my college t-shirts into a quilt. I've been wanting to do this for YEARS! Ok, maybe not 19 years (I learned how to sew 7 years ago), but I graduated from college 19 years ago, so the shirts are that old. 

I used a rag-style quilt concept and adapted it to include the front chest logos, too. Top picture is the front of the quilt, bottom picture is the back or vice versa. I needed 3 more shirts, so for the last 3 shirts, I used the 3 shirts from the marching band shows that Kevin designed when he was a teacher at ACU. I really love how it turned out and am so glad to have finally been able to get it made.

My sewing machine has received quite a bit of other use lately as well. When your kids bust holes in the knees of their pants, you make shorts! So far this fall, each kid has 2 new pair of shorts! Jenna's have turned out to be most useful because the pants she busted were leggings - shorts from leggings make great under-skirt shorts. Hopefully, they won't continue to go through their pants so quickly!!

Catch Up Post

 

Thursday, August 24th - After just 4 1/2 days of school, the kids had a day and a half off for literacy testing. We spent some of Thursday trying on fall clothes to see what fits an what doesn't. Both kids REALLY don't like doing this, but at least Kellen had a sense of humor - for a while anyway.

Friday morning, August 25th - We celebrated getting through the drudgery of trying on clothes by meeting up with some school friends at the new splash park and having a picnic lunch. Then we were off to piano (well, Jenna was off to piano - Kellen had a migraine-like headache and didn't make it for piano).

While we were splashing and picnicking, Kevin and his biking buddies went to ride the Monarch Crest Trail - known as one of the top ten mountain bike trails in the US.

Beautiful!

Saturday evening, August 26th - The cousins and their parents had tickets to see Tim Hawkins, a Christian comedian. But, one cousin was sick and needed one parent to stay home, so they offered two tickets to us. Kevin and Jenna went and had a great time! Jenna has loved showing us little clips of his online and we might have to check out his video from the library. So funny!!

Sunday, August 27th - We tried to squeeze a little more out of summer by having some fun in the sprinkler!

Friday, September 1st - First game of the season!

Jenna put a pom pom through her pony tail!

Saturday, September 2nd - First Air Force home game. The past few years, Kevin's band has earned portions of all program sales, by selling programs at each home game. Jenna went to help sell this time and loved it!

Monday, September 4th - We tried to squeeze some more out of summer by going up to Rampart Reservoir for a cook out.

But, as soon as the coals were hot and we put some burgers on, it started raining! We packed up and ended up grilling at Papa and Mima's instead.

One great thing about my foot recovery is that Jenna and Kellen have started making their own breakfasts and packing their own lunches. Kellen is still not quite tall enough - I love how he climbs up on top of the counter!!

Thursday, September 7th - These four got into a crazy game of Twister after Thursday night dinner.

One of the gifts in the bag at the Adventures in Odyssey event the kids and Kevin went to this summer was an Adventures in Odyssey Bible. Kellen didn't have a "real" Bible yet, so he's latched on to this one. The past couple nights, he's taken it upon himself to lead us in a Bible study. So far, he's read the first paragraph of Isaiah 23 and 2 Kings 11. Obscure passages that he randomly picked, but I love his heart and initiative! It will be interesting to see how long he continues with this and where he'll go from here.