Last week of school.....yeah!

Yeah! I'm on a new roll, at least two weeks in a row. First, my family is ecstatic because this is our last week of school!! They get out a 1:00 every day this week!

I thought I'd show you a picture of Chuck's Frankenstein Foot....bless his heart...it's just always going to look funny. The iphone photo was taken at the doctor's office moments after them taking off his cast. He has 30 staples in that foot. It was so swollen that you couldn't even see his ankle nubs. He's much happier now that the plaster cast is off and he is in a walking cast/boot. He will have physical therapy this time.

As I mentioned above this is the kids last week of school. Nathan finished his comprehensive exams on Thursday. Next year Kinzi will take comprehensives as well. Their last 6 days of school are just fun projects. Nathan signed up for an engineering project. Below he is making a bridge. The teacher gave them each 6 1-ft long sticks, a box of match sticks, nylon cord, glue gun, tape, mesh and sandpaper and told them to go build a bridge. This is the beginning of Nathan's bridge.

While 6 - 12th grade are taking comprehensive exams, the 5th graders went on a couple of field trips. They went to Colossal Cave and a ranch this day. Kinzi is sluicing for minerals.

This was at the ranch, I thought it was kind of funny.

A month and a half or so ago Mackinzi competed in Latin competition at the Uof A. She won the top award in her category. She recited a story....much like Romeo and Juliet....but in Latin. These are kids from our school.

Kinzi attended her 2nd Irish dancing competition this weekend. The competition is called a Feis (pronounced a feeeesh). The next two pictures are from today's competition. She won 1 5th place medal, 3 4th place medals and a 2nd place medal. She was thrilled. It is a huge competition. There are tons of girls competing. We didn't know how popular it was but we sure know now!

The last photos are from Mackinzi class feis two weeks ago. She won 3rd place twice and honorable mention once.

Darren runs the dance academy. It was the first time any of these girls competed in a feis.

Most of the dance academy where she attend class.....see if you can find her....look in the middle.
Big hint!

Kinzi's and her friend Arica spent the day together. I got this picture of them and practiced my post-processing in Lightroom.

School Updates and Scrapbooking pages

Hi everyone! It's been a busy few weeks here at our house but I'm going to do my best to keep this blog updated.

We geocached this morning and logged our 100th find. I'll be posting a video and pictures in the next day or two.

The kids had a really great week at school this past week. They seem to be doing really well. This is such a big change from their last school but I think in the long run we will be very happy with this choice. Nathan and Kinzi both have 9 classes. Nathan's classes are Art, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, History, Algebra2/Geometry, Latin, English and Economics. It is not unusual for him to have homework in 6 of those classes a night.....sometimes I think yikes...but he's handling it really well. Kinzi's classes are: Art, Language Arts, 7/8 grade Math, Music, Kemp(Karate), Latin, Science, Classics and Geography. She has struggled with taking some of the tests but we are slowing working through that. Kinzi will be getting 5 report cards throughout the year and Nathan is on a trimester schedule so he will be getting 3 report cards.

I've re-worked some scrapbook pages of the kids soccer season last year. (They didn't want to play this year.)







Credits: Papers/elements by Lindsay Jane Design, Soccer Inc.

Slow Saturday

It's a pretty slow Saturday around here. I groomed Scruffy and have been playing around the computer and found some pictures I meant to post but forgot to. I use to catch horney toads when I was a kid....in March this little guy was on our drive way so I caught him so the kids could see him....he had been hurt. After they came home from school, they took him out to the field and set him free.

This picture is of Kinzi and her best friend Arica. In the first one they are making scrapbook pages and in the second they are just being cute.

This is Nathan after he got his bottom braces on. Can you see them?

Spring Band Concert

Mackinzi performed in the Spring Band Concert last night at her school. She has improved 1000% since Christmas. This picture is before the concert. The boy on the right side (as your looking at the picture) is my best friend, Diane's son, Gunnar.

Mackinzi is in beginning band. They played three songs but the one I've uploaded is her favorite song. It's called Smoke on the Water. (Note: if you subscribe to the news feed you'll have to go to the website to view the video.)

Kinzi's video project.

Hi all! Here is a video Mackinzi and her two best friends made for a class project. This is a big file but it's only 5/6 minutes long. Her class read Owl's in the Family and they had to act out one scene from the book. They chose to do a lake scene and then they added their bloopers and silly things at the end. The reason you see the green net in the movie is that is was very windy the day they filmed and they were unable to keep the canoe from floating away without it.

Wrestling Tournaments and Sock Hops

Wow! We have been busy lately! First of all, Nathan had two wrestling meets this week. The first was on Tuesday and he wrestled five times. The first four times he lost but fought like crazy and then he got his first pin of the season! WooHoo! Today (and yesterday) was a huge tournament here. Nathan wrestled 5 times. He lost a few...he won a few (got 2 new pins) and earned his way to 3rd place and earned an individual medal! While wrestling, he made a new friend, Lance. Lance got 4th in the tournament! Here are the fabulous pictures!

Mackinzi was also a busy girl this weekend. The 3rd annual Daddy/Daughter dinner was held by Mackinzi's school. This year the theme was a sock hop. She told me at the last minute she wanted a poodle skirt so the day before the sock hop we produced the skirt. I think it turned out great! Mackinzi looks forward to the event every year! Chuck said they both had a great time!

Let me catch you up on other things. Nathan did get all 4 teeth pulled. The second one was almost as hard as the first one. It broke off at the roots and the dentist had to dig out the roots....doesn't that sound lovely. The bottom two were much easier, so much so that when the dentist pulled one of the bottom teeth out he pulled much harder than he had to and it went sailing across the room and the assistant caught it! Nathan thought that was hysterical!

Mackinzi won her soccer game last weekend. She had a fabulous game...2 assists and almost scored on her own. She played keeper really well too!

Both mid-term progress reports look fabulous so we are expecting really good grades again!

All 4 of us were sick two weeks ago but we are feeling much better now.

Scruffy had another seizure this week....poor puppy. It breaks our heart that he has seizure ever so often. Three out of the four seizures he's had is when someone unexpected knocks on the door super loud and he get aggitated and then all the sudden he having seizures. He doesn't have one, he has 3 or 4 in a row! It's always scary.

As always, it crazy busy! This week is not any better. Nathan has another wrestling meet on Tuesday, and Chuck has surgery on Wednesday. We have dentist appointments galore and we'll start delivering our girl scout cookies!

Better go and get my beauty sleep!

Spelling Bee

Mackinzi was a participant in her school's Spelling Bee representing 4th grade. Each grade (3 - 8) had 2 class participants. She was out 5th on the word "bridge". She said "j" first instead of "g" and quickly corrected herself but you can't mis-state any part. We were very proud of her. The overall winner was an 8th grader (no surprise) and the 2nd place winner was a 6th grader (again, no suprise).

Additional pages for Mackinzi

I forgot to post these two scapbook pages for Mackinzi when I posted the others the other day!




















Credits: Template 17 by Rose McDigital Designs; Papers/Elements by Weeds and Wildflowers, "I Believe in You" Kit
























Credits: Papers and Elements by Weeds and Wildflowers; "I Believe in You" kit

Mackinzi's Messages from Other website

Kinzi has had quite an active year. She finished at the top of her class. She received an award from the River of Words contest for some art she created of a waterfall.





















This summer she attended an Art Class in Tubac, AZ. She learned about Mosaics and Enameling and Fiber Art. Her favorite by far was enameling.

This year she has gotten straight A's. She is in soccer and still likes to play goalie. She won 1st place in the Elks Soccer Shoot-out for her division. She is in band at school and plays the Trombone. She also is a girl scout and a member of the student council. That girl keeps busy.

One of her favorite things to do is write. She has a series of books she has been writing about a little girl who turns into a wolf. The character's name is Huru. Kinzi is also dressing like Huru for Halloween.

We just updated her bedroom. It has been all pink for a while and Mackinzi is definately a little girl who is tired of pink. My friend, Diane, helped me do the whole room. Check out the new look!

This silouette is actually of my kids. I got the idea out of a design book.
































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This was inspired by Pottery Barn but adjusted to fit Mackinzi. The inside that is just black is an art gallery where she clips here pictures. You'll see 2 magnetic boards, 2 white boards, 2 cork boards, 1 chalk board, 1 picture board, 2 pocket board an 2 board with holes for hanging things.