New Belts

Nathan earned his black belt in Taekwondo!! We are so proud of him. There were so many times he begged me to let him quit and yet he persevered and got through it. He wants to train to be an instructor now and will hopefully test for that in June.

Alanna earned her yellow belt and Savannah earned her red/black belt!! Savannah may be testing in June for her black belt! I'm so proud of their hard work.

Sea World Field Trip

Being this close to Sea World, my youngest children are always asking to go. We haven't gone to Sea World in almost five years! Arya was so excited! This is her watching the Sea Lion.

The last time we watched the Shamu show a swarm of bees invaded the stadium! Nothing that exciting happened on this visit.

Nathan LOVES sea horses, so we had to visit this little guy.

Alanna and Arya were so scared of these ice caves. Every so often a bear will roar and it scared them to death!

By the end of the day the kids were exhausted. I thought they were getting over a cold, but by the time we got home three of the kids had fevers and I got it really bad two days later. They were troopers through the day and we really want to go back on a day they are feeling better!

Above: Nathan and Alanna just trying to get through the day. They just laid in this tube for about ten minutes hoping to feel better. It didn't work. We left very soon after this.

Savannah, Alanna, and Arya bouncing.

Arya and Elmo and Zoe! Arya was so excited!!

It was so hard to get a good picture of all of the kids. I like this one below the best even though they are facing the wrong direction and Alyssa is almost hidden. It is fun to see how tall they are together and their hairdos from the back! This is a view that I normally don't capture. I love Arya's "twirly kirt," tights and boots!

Shirley Temple Wax Museum

In third grade at our school the children get to participate in a Wax Museum. They all choose a person from history and do a research report on the person. They turn their report into a 3 minute speech and memorize it. They also decorate a large backdrop that represents something from this person's life. Savannah chose to be Shirley Temple. On Wax Museum day they dress up as their 'character' and recite their speech for the people who come to see them. I think they say their speech around 30 times during the hour and a half presentation! It is wonderful to see the imaginations of these children come to life in their character. Savannah was a perfect Shirley Temple.
This little video shows Savannah doing her speech. It is at the end of the museum, so she is pretty tired, but still really cute!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaiLz3u1cm4

History Alive!

We have an event at our school called History Alive. This is an optional activity (which I really don't encourage because we are so busy as it is!) and Alyssa really wanted to do it this year. She chose to do a live report on the fashion from the 1920s.

Isn't she gorgeous??!!! It was interesting to get her looooong hair into a bob!

Here she is with the fabulous poster she made (the pink and black thing behind her) and also some great dresses from the time. The green dress is a vintage dress from the 1920s that a very sweet mom loaned to us. Since hats were very popular at the time, and also very distinct, Alyssa set up her booth so the participants could come and design their own hat. She did this all on her own and did a great job!

Black Belt

Alyssa earned her Black Belt in taekwondo back in December. She also certified to be an instructor at the same testing period. I was so impressed with all of her hard work, her grace as she displays the forms, and her skill! She had to show the judges white belt through red-black belt and all of the defenses in order to certify as an instructor. Congratulations to my girl!

Nathan turns 10

Happy Birthday to my adorable boy.

The 10 year old!! What a handsome guy!

Nathan invited 20 of his closest friends to help celebrate. They sang to the karaoke, danced to the Wii, and at all they could eat ice cream. Surprisingly, they didn't eat very much! Nathan has such a great group of friends. It was so much fun watching them play these games. I wish every day was a party day! (Without the clean up though.)

We didn't get a photo of him blowing out his candles, it was too dark, but we will do that on his actual birthday.

Bike Ramp

Alanna trying out our 'bike ramp.' Notice that her eyes are closed almost the whole time!