Church Carnival

Our church has a carnival each year and spends a lot of time promoting it in the surrounding neighborhoods. The intent is to get a lot of people to church that normally wouldn't attend and share the gospel with them. There is no cost to anyone attending and it's always a big success. After all the hard work, it's fun to bring our kids and watch them enjoy themselves. There is always plenty of food (best part - it's all free ;o) cotton candy machines, hot dogs, popcorn and our favorite: SNOW CONES!
They can be a bit messy, but always worth it.

We also rent several bounce house type toys and the kids absolutely LOVE it!
I LOVE Zachy's expression here... he always has so much fun.

Raymond is a great big brother and had justas much fun taking Addison on these rides as she had going on them.

And my hard-working, bus-driving husband was even able to take a few minutes and spend some time with us while we all enjoyed our second round of snow cones! Pastor told us Sunday that here were over 600 in attendance and many of those where saved and baptised. PTL!

Fair Day at Last!

Our kids asked several times a day, all during the fair when "Fair Day" was. What they were really asking was, "when do we get to buy dizzy passes and ride all the rides our stomachs can handle"?

They LOVE rides...all 3 of them!

Raymond is tall enough to go on all the midway rides, but before heading out with his dad to do that, he spent some time in Sillyville with the rest of us. There are still rides here that he enjoys!

Our school takes the entire day off to attend the fair, so we saw several people we knew. We met up with the Minges for awhile so Addison and Riley could do some rides together. They are always so cute, whatever they are doing! We were all happy to see that Riley really enjoyed all the rides!

Zachary loves to "fly", so any ride that goes up in the air is great with him, especially of it has a gun attached to it!

We rode rides from 11am until about 8pm with a few breaks now and then for food. Addison turned into a little demon at about 3pm (2 hours past her normal naptime) and the more we tried to get her to sleep, the crabbier she seemed to be. Finally, I quit trying and gave her some M &Ms and once she finished eating them, she crashed! Who would have guess...

African Exhibit

We had Fair Day at school on Thursday and, as usual, we were there shortly after 10am, when the fair opens. Our goal on Fair Day is to ride as many rides as possible, but those don't start running until 11am, so we had some time to kill.

After getting our breakfast (hot scones and coffee) we headed into the new African Exhibit. It's not too often you find something NEW at the fair ;o) We walked through and learned quite a bit about life in different African countries. Raymond was very interested in all the information.

The biggest hit, though, was the drums they had set up for everyone to play. Kevin even got in on the fun! On our way out, we stopped and tried out had at grinding corn with a stone bowl and pestel (isn't that what it's called?). Wow, that is hard work! The whole exhibit was very interesting.

My little pre-schooler

Since I had my camera at school, I had a chance to snap some pictures of Zachary waiting in line to go back to class after lunch and I thought I'd take a moment to blog about how proud I am of my little Pre-schooler. He is so excited about learning his letters and had memorized every verse they've been tested on well ahead of schedule. He loves school, although he doesn't love going to school. That is to say, he'd rather stay home when we are getting ready in the morning, but once we are actually at school, he's always having a great time with his friends. I am blessed to be able to see all my children all through out the day!

Happy First Day of Fall

I may have mentioned before that I am trying to do something different with all my classes at least one time a month. Something non-academic, just fun. I've been scouring the internet looking for odd holidays that I can celebrate for those months that don't have something obvious. Of course, September already had something I always look forward to...

THE FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN

First hour I have 9th graders for Algebra and we decided to bob for apples. It was no easy task to get everyone involved! I finally had to resort to bribery...the first to go got 5 points extra credit. That got them going.

and when they stalled, I told them if they'd all do it, I would too!

and I did ;o)

We also talked another one of the teachers, Bro. Goltiao, into giving it a try.

2nd hour I teach Geometry. They are older and slightly more responsible than the 9th graders, so I decided to have them make caramel apples. I was so busy trying to keep the caramel smooth enough to dip the apples in, I didn't get any pictures of the making. But Rachel was kind enough to pose with her apple to show the end product. It was a lot of fun and I think I'll try doing some on my own at home with all the left-over toppings!

Chapel time

We have the privilege of having a chapel service once a week where the kids have an opportunity to sing, play games and listen to a message geared for their ages.
Just some odd shots during chapel that I thought I'd share.
Ari has started helping Mrs. Denise Minge with the music this year. It's so fun to listen to them play! It really gets the kids into the spirit of chapel time!

A match made in heaven

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and more often than not, I believe that is the case. I am watching our friends' little boy today, while they are up helping with the concession fundraiser at Husky stadium (see post a few days ago). Addie is about 2 months older than him and they have been great buddies since they were just bitty babies.

Today, they are enjoying ice cream and each other as much as ever! Well, most of the time... They get into more trouble together than I think they ever do individually. This morning, for instance, I found them both fully clothed, up to their waste in VERY warm water, in the bath tub. I guess they are used to taking baths together and thought it was as good a time as ever, so they drew themselves one. Great minds obviously think alike! He's a cutie and we love his folks. I'm beginning to think there is something to the whole arranged marriage thing...

The Cutest Show on Earth

On our way out of the fair, we stopped to check out the "Cutest Show on Earth" and ended up with all three of our kids participating in it. What fun! Raymond really got into his part as a farmer and Zachary enjoyed the "jump time" when the music played and he was able to squirm around to his little heart's content.
The costumes were cute and the lady did a great job keeping us all entertained. It lasts about 30 minutes, I guess and the kids had a wonderful time.
Addison was especially cute (of course!) in her little lamb's costume and was hysterical when asked what a lamb "said". Wish I'd had a video camera. If you are at the fair, check this interactive show out. It's right inside of Sillyville. Also on the internet at www.cutestshow.com

Doing the Puyallup

For the first time in a long time, we were able to go the The Fair on opening day. I love the Fall and everything about this time of year, but I especially love the fair. When I lived elsewhere, it is one of the things I missed the most.

Now, I get to go and enjoy it with my kids and see some things through their eyes and I love it EVEN more!
This is our baby girl and her daddy... she's become quite the daddy's girls (no complaints from anyone!)

We got there around 1pm, so nobody had napped yet. It didn't take Zach long to nod off. You wouldn't believe the number of people that stopped us to see if we'd realized he was asleep and tell us how cute he was... as if we didn't already know!

Addison loves her ice cream (just like her momma!) and there is nothing that compares to fresh Wilcox chocolate soft serve on a hot day at the fair

We stayed until it got dark and went on a few more rides before heading home. We'll go back when school has fair day and we can buy bracelets and really do the rides! Ray is especially excited about that! It was a lovely way to spend a warm (actually rather hot) fall day with my family.

Crime Scene 101

Our focus at school this year is literacy across disciplines, in the hopes of helping our students with comprehension from math to science and of course literature. For the first time, I am teaching a 7-8 literature class and have the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with our 1st grade teacher and have our studnets work together once a week.

As a kick off, we decided to stage a crime scene. We wanted to have the older kids help the younger one's take notes, collect evidence, use some deductive reasoning and have a little fun as they got to know each other. What a hit! The kids, older and younger loved it!

Many of them have approached both Mrs. Miller and myself ourside of class with their "theories" of who-dun-it.

I'm really excited about the potential we have to teach these kids in a fun and engaging way. Mrs. Miller, who has been teaching over 20 years, has endless ideas about joint projects that we can do.

What a great start to a great year!

Husky Concession Fund-raiser

Kevin worked hard last year to get a football program started at our school. They play 8 man flag football and even at this level, it's expensive to get what you need. After making many, many calls, he finally got our school into a concession booth at Husky Stadium. Of course, I couldn't be happier... my Alma Mater!

Lots of people are showing their support by donating time (and LOTS of energy) to help run the booth. Our first outing (same as the Huskies) was the LSU game last night. It was an evening game and the house was PACKED! We stayed busy from the minute we opened our window until we closed down for the night.

It was quite a learning experience and we didn't get much help in figuring out what exactly we should be doing... but we made over $1,000 for our sports programs! After our first outing, we learned a few things...

1. Close before the game ends (we got home at 2am!)

2. Let everyone know EXACTLY how to get to where the shuttle is parked (a few of us walked aimlessly around in the rain looking)

3. Don't eat before coming (WAY too many hot dogs consumed!)

Thanks Kevin for taking such an interest in our school!