Sunday, March 23, 2008

EASTER SUNDAY

We had Grandma, Brent, Emily, Tyler, Colton, Wesley and Dakota come for Easter dinner. And as much as I love having my family here, I do miss those that aren't here. I can't wait for all of us to be together again. (If I ever get to go on Deal or No Deal...that is what I'm playing for...enough money to take everyone of us on a really long vacation and enough money to cover everyone's bills) We missed Todd who has been our Egg Hider in the past. Brent and Emily hid the eggs and the kids had fun. I love that the cousins like being with one another! We couldn't ask for a prettier day!
Sarah along with three other from the Youth group sang Resurrection Melody as part of our worship this morning. (They were moving so the picture is a little blurry)

Coloring Eggs

I have to confess that Easter has "snuck" up on me. I don't know if it is that Easter came earlier this year or that I have just have to much else going on, but regardless, I had to take a look at myself...Do I take it for granted that Jesus died for me...that I allowed the one "season" that we celebrate His resurrection catch me by surprise!!!!

At the last moment, we did color eggs. I don't want my kids to think that we don't have time for Easter.

Resurrection Egg Hunt at Curch

Yesterday, we had a resurrection egg hunt at Church. There were several crafts that the kids made, playing in shaving cream and then an eg hunt. The eggs were hidden in water, jello, cold noodles, sand and many other places. We ended the morning with praise and the story that Jesus is alive...conquering death!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Sarah Goes to Seminole County History Fair

I am very proud of all three of our children! But this post is about Sarah.
Many are aware that she is part of the IB program (which means though she is in in 7th grade, she is actually taking 9th grade courses) And I have to say that it has been a very hard year because the subjects require so much time and studying. But one thing that I love about this program is that since 5th grade, she has had the same girlfriends with the same strong scholastic goals as she. (I know that we are still new to the teenage game, but our Sarah is sweet, loves being with the girlfriends, her family and God. Just a side detail about her though...she and I are reading a book at nights called "The Truth About Guys"...every teenage girl MUST read this book...so boys are becoming a part of her life) But back to the history fair...this was the first year that Sarah entered. Megan and her decided to do a group project together on Hiroshima. They spent hours and hours of research and then hours of hours of putting a project together...they spent a couple of weekends together...and it tuned out to be fun for them. The first edition of the project was turned into their teacher. Her advice: "Great paper, great project! I think you have a chance to win the school. But let's make a couple of corrections, like take the glitter off the backdrop...Hiroshima and glitter don't go quite so well." Their teacher also told them that regardless of how they did in the school competition, they would get a 105...if they wanted to try to win their school, she'd encourage them to go, but if they didn't want to change their project, they could try again next year...they still had the 105 grade. Sarah really wanted to move on...so again we were re-doing the backdrop...changing it to black...retyping the information and putting it on 3-d to make it "pop" of the blackboard...again Megan and Sarah spent more hours on their project.
Then came the competition at their school...they were interviewed quite extensively by those judges...and were given some hints for the interview at the county...and they won!
The Seminole County competition was held Saturday, March 1st...an all day event. Sarah spent the night at Megan's so they could get their project set up at Tuskawilla Middle School. Their interview was suppose to be at 11:50 am...but thankfully we got there early because the judges decided to interview early...at 11:30 instead...We all hung out the school for a few hours until 2:00pm when the judges made their decisions. (There were several projects to judge). Our girls didn't win (came in fourth and the 1st & 2nd moved on)and they were disappointed..they had great plans of going to State (in Tallahassee) and on to Nationals (Washington DC). This was their first year though and I know that before they are done with school...they will go to Nationals.
I was very proud of them for doing their best and going for the top and not settling for just the 105.
(My camera ran out of batteries, so Andrew took pictures with his video camera...which doesn't focus on still pictures too well)
Sarah and her best friend, Megan Yingst