David's Circuit Class Elective

Emma's First Communion, April 27

I am writing this on Saturday, May 4, but I am hoping it posts on April 27th because that was the day Emma received her first holy communion.  If it works, I can blog as tardy as I like... and still have it show up in correct time order.  We'll see if it works.  Chris and David went to Emma's first communion mass.  Emily, Lia and I spent the morning at the natatorium for the Laura Wilkerson dive meet... and yes, I will blog that next!  Luckily, we finished at the dive meet in time to see Emma arrive home for her reception and to see her in her beautiful first communion dress and veil.  She was beautiful!

 

Proud family!
 

 And look at this!  My family was able to pose for a group picture with Emma.  Seriously, all family members are looking at the camera and not one of my kids is sticking out their tounge.  This is a serious accomplishment for us.  Peg said we should crop Emma out and use it as our Christmas card next year... but that is just wrong on so many levels!  And if you look carefully, you can see Emily is wearing a medal!  (more on that later)

Opening gifts...

 And I just have to brag about my sweet girls because they both worked really hard to make Emma very special 1st communion cards.

Emily's Card - Front

Emily's card inside.  We all signed it.

Emily's card, back.  It is the sacred heart of Jesus.

Lia's card front.  She did everything but the writing.  We used google images to find nice pictures of crosses.

And again, Lia's original drawing, my handwriting, and google images.  Love it!

2013 Laura Wilkinson Dive Meet

Emily got to attend her second dive meet on April 27th.  Chris took her to her last one so this was my first opportunity to see what a big dive meet was all about.  First of all, these kids are incredibly lucky to get to dive in a facility as nice as our Conroe ISD natatorium.  Everything is state of the art right down to the second story viewing deck equipped with wifi so we don't get bored.  Nice.  Anyway, Emily trains with The Woodlands Diving Flight Academy which is the same coaching staff that took Laura Wilkinson to the olympics in 2000, where she won the gold for platform diving.  Laura was supposed to be at this meet, but we didn't get to see her.  Emily competed in the first event of the first morning and we didn't stick around.  Let's just say 4 hours was enough for me and we had Emma's first communion celebration to attend afterwards.

 



 

Emily is pictured here with her 3rd place medal.  She placed 3rd for her group:  Girls 10-12, 1m, novice.  I think there were 5 girls total in her group... most of the kids are older and/or more advanced.  It is cool to bring home a medal though.  My routine for dive meets, which I will hope to perfect in the future... is to video her dive and then take a picture of the score board so we have a nice record to keep.  I did pretty well this first time but I will definetly sit closer to get better videos next time.  I'm not sure exactly how the scoring works.  I would guess 10 is a perfect score with some points scored for difficulty.  From what I saw, a 7.0 was an outstanding dive.  I only saw 7.0 on the board two times.  A really good dive got a 6.5 and a pretty poor dive got a 4.0.  These are just my amateur assumptions.  If we continue with this, I'm sure I'll learn more.  Emily is on the 1m board, the one that is furthest away from where I am videoing from... figures.

Round 5, back dive
Scores:  6.0, 5.5, 6.0

 

 



 

Round 4, front dive

Score:  5.0, 5.5, 5.0

 

 

 

Round 3, tuck jump

Score:  5.0, 4.5, 5.0

 

 

Round 1, tuck jump

Score:  5.5, 5.0, 5.5

 









David's Pinewood Derby - Video

Easter Morning!



This year we took the kids to the Easter Vigil mass on Saturday night.  It is a very long mass but I have to say that my night-owl children did great and it was really nice to avoid the crowds on Easter Sunday.  Let's remember for future reference, to arrive at the Vigil a little earlier next year so we can ensure everyone gets candles.  Unfortunately, we missed getting a candle when everyone was still outside and Emily got really upset.  Again, we were very lucky that some nice family saw we didn't have candles and offered us one of theirs once we got into the church.  I don't think they realized how much this meant to Emily but I was very grateful to see her be able to fully participate.

 

At our church, the old testament readings were read in the dark... I mean pitch dark.  Lia and Emily kind of freaked out a little bit but luckily they were able to hold my cell phone for some comforting light.  That said, the part of the mass where the lights came on and we sang all the alleiluias was really powerful and the kids were more comfortable after that.  I think we were at church till almost 11pm so everyone was ready for bed but I stayed up a little longer to put out the Easter baskets for the next day.  Several of our dear friends and family members contribute to the Easter goodies each year and I am always amazed at how great the kid's Easter baskets come together each year.  I found the pinwheels in the dollar bins at Target.  What a hit they were! 



 

 

Stacey, the fridge magnets and window decals filled out my baskets perfectly!  Thank you.

 

Oh yes, the kids made sacrifices all during Lent and filled the rectangular vase with beans each time they did something kind for each other.  They were happy to find the beans changed into Reeses Peanut Butter cups on Easter morning!

Nana and Grandpa's cookie box!

David dearly loves Mad Libs.  Thank you Stan and Peg!  Spot on, again.

Look at  all these adorable Easter cookies!  Thank you Nana and Grandpa.



Emily's Dogwood Tree

We brought home a dogwood tree from the Texas Wildlife and Woodland Expo!  Emily picked it out and wanted it to be her special tree.  They can grow to be 40 feet tall... and I hope her tree does!  My thought is to compare these pictures with the ones we take around next Easter.  And by the way, Emily is taking very good care of "her" baby tree.

The feathers are serving as tree markers so "her" tree isn't accidentally pulled as a weed... or run over with the lawn mower by accident.  She has such high hopes for this tree.  I just hope it makes it through its first summer!

Habemus Papem - Our new Pope!

When Pope Benedict the 16th resigned, as part of our homeschool, we started talking about the Papal office and how the new pope would be elected.  It was such an exciting time and one my kids may not experience again during their schooling years.  Once the conclace began to select the new pope, we were on the lookout for the news of white smoke which would indicate a new pope had been selected.  When we got that news, we anxiously turned on the TV and waited to find out who it would be!  Here is Emily when the announcement was made that Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be our next pope, Pope Francis!

 

 

Emily diligently put together this Papal lapbook that Jessica at Shower of Roses put together.  We all learned so much about the Papal office through this project.  Emily took a lot of pride in her work and I am just so proud of all her efforts.  The following pictures will give you an idea about this lapbook.  It is just a file folder used to creatively display information.  Many of the items in her lapbook are mini books which unfold to display more information.  For example, the vocabulary words are flaps that can be opened to see the definition.

The cover is the flag for Vatican City

Here is the Lap Book opened up

This is an extra page that flips up since we had so much information!

And the back... with a lovely coloring page of Jesus giving St. Peter the keys to the Church

This one is actually a pop-up book for St. Peters Basilica.

And of course, now Emily really, really wants to visit the Sistine Chapel.  And honestly, I would love to see it again too!

And this video was so entertaining and educational at the same time!  My kids kept asking to watch it over and over again!