Claire's Baptism

On Sunday, Claire got baptized!  It was something she'd been asking for, and one of our greatest joys is when our children walk in Truth.

Here we were checking out the hot tub before the service began.  Claire was relieved that the water was warm. :)  There were 5 people baptized-- 2 of which were the deaf couple behind Claire in the photo.  The interpretation situation was interesting-- and very well handled.  A blessing to see all.

And we were very pleased to have Chad's parents and my parents there for the special occasion!  Mom, if you got any good photos of this, can you send them?

Poetry Contest Winner

A month or two ago, Claire entered 2 poems in the Washington County Library contest, and she won honorable mention!  She was invited to a special dinner where they got to hear an author speak and Claire read her poem.  Congrats, Creative Claire!

The author, Marc Nobleman, autographed a copy of his book for Claire, and she got an anthology of all the poems and short stories that won.

The winners that attended the dinner

Papa and Grammy rolled in... just in time for the dinner!

And here is the poem...

The Funkiest Flower Ever

I always wanted to plant a flower,

My very own gorgeous plant!

Finally, after two years straight

I got a seed from my eerie aunt.

I planted it right away

And then waited for it to sprout.

Then, one day, I saw a seedling!

I proclaimed it with a shout!

Mother said, “It’s not a pretty flower!”

I replied, “You have no faith!

It is not a pretty thing just yet.

It’s only March the eighth!”

But as it grew so very high,

I doubted the same as she.

I finally realized that this was no flower

-But a tall, evergreen tree!

Spelling Success

Last week was a biggie for Claire!  This post is about her class spelling bee.  She won!  She is a fantastic speller, but she suffers with a bit of a case of nerves.  She did great for this, tho, and maybe having a success like this will help the nerves in the future. :)  Congrats, Claire!

Garden

After 8 years, we're restarting a garden.  Might be an interesting experiment.  Might be a nice meal for deer...

Micah's Trip to Baltimore

Last week, I went with Micah's class to the Maryland Science Center.  Perfect place for him, and lovely weather, and fun company!

Loved this ball roller, of course.  One of the best things about this museum is that almost everything is hands-on.

Tornado... kids could observe how air currents they create affect the tornado

Micah on a bed of nails-- why doesn't it hurt?  Because the pressure is spread out.  Funny, this same lady has been here for years.  She was there the past 2 times I've been to the science center.  After Micah got up, she told him not to drink anything for 3 hours because it would flow right out the holes!

Micah tries to balance.  Of course, he had more fun watching the digital timer on the wall, so he circumvented the proper way to use the exhibit in order to watch the numbers go higher.

Lovely lunch spot by the inner harbor.  Wish we could have traded this weather for the Gettysburg day... I would have given up our comfortable Baltimore lunch for a lovely day at the battlefield!

Micah and some classmates make a circuit

This was a ball roller in a maze-- had something to do with illustrating how many Maryland blue crabs make it to adulthood.  That made no impression on the 1st graders.  Micah happily sat on the left putting more balls in the maze while his friend controlled the maze part.

Micah and Kingston, my two charges for the day.  Since there were so many parents along, it worked out each to only have 2 kids-- perfect for a hands-on place where the kids are moving all over the place.

Magnetic walls with moveable magnetic pieces of track-- put on a golf ball and see how it works

You can't see it well, but under that welcome sign is a large display of those pin-type things.  You know how you can put your hand on it and it pushes the pins through so it leaves the impression of your hand?  

And this was Micah's favorite part of the day-- water play.  He said he really liked how he could experiment with the water.  

I'm quite sure he could happily spend 3 or 4 days in this museum!

Diorama

Micah's first diorama-- it's meant to depict a partly sunny day. He worked really hard on this one Saturday-- this was his E-learning project for the day.

Ping Pong. Watch out Krols!

Chad got our ping pong table together (Christmas gift from my parents!) and we have been enjoying it lots.  Here, Chad and Jenna are playing the first game.  When it gets hotter, I suppose we'll be in the garage with it more.

And this is how Micah enjoyed the first game... he ran to get paper and pencil, and he kept a running tally of the score.

Beautiful Claire watching ping pong

Duck

Look what's been roosting on the playground at Grace-- sits there all thru many recesses.

Claire's Gettysburg Trip

I went on Claire's field trip to Gettysburg with her.  It was on the last day of cold we had, and, boy, was it cold.  It was misty and windy and probably not above 45.  Gettysburg can be so much prettier!  However, the kids enjoyed it, and I think we all learned a lot.

The theme for the day was Care of the Wounded, and Ranger Barb did a FANTASTIC job.  When we were walking together once, I asked her about her education.  She started as a history major and switched to communications because... what can you do as a history major?  Then she went on to get her masters in museum science or something like that.  She was great with the kids and such a clear speaker. 

Here Claire and her friend, Faith, are erecting a hospital flag.  

Some classmates carry a stretcher.  Others had to erect the tent you see.  Some had to make an operating table-- out of sawhorses and an old door.  Very typical to use doors, Barb said. 

And here was the best memory of the day-- Jenna Evans had to get up on the operating table and Ranger Barb showed the tools and explained an amputation!  Earlier the kids had shared skits that they had prepared (provided by Gettysburg)... in the skit, Jenna had gotten a minie ball to the leg, so the dr had to amputate.  Wish I had gotten a pic of the saw Barb showed us.  Yikes . And, contrary to what many say, anaesthesia was used during the Civil War.  It was just a bit hit or miss-- had to be careful that the patient was all the way under but not so far under that he wouldn't wake up.

Seven

Micah turned 7 this month.  Wow!  How time flies.  Doesn't seem that long ago that we held our 10 lb 7 oz newborn. :) He sure is a great addition to this family of girls!  We love his sense of humor, his funny faces, his love of numbers, and his big hugs. 

Wingert Williamsburg Trip-- Part 3

On Saturday, we enjoyed a lovely day at Colonial Williamsburg.  So much to see!  It made me wish I knew more about history.  I'm so ignorant. 

Lots of colonial guns around, so, of course, Micah had to try one out. 

Katie checks out a colonial tree :)

Fife and drum band marching down the street

Micah's favorite mode of travel

This is funny-- Micah and Katie and Claire sitting on a low tree branch, and Jenna worrying about holding them up!

We went to a session of court-- Chad got to be one of the judges and Jeremy was one of the defendants.  

And these 2 definitely needed some punishment...

Wingert Williamsburg Trip-- Part 2

We went to Busch Gardens on Friday and Monday.  It was really nice to not feel rushed either day, and to know what we were going when we got there the 2nd day.

Busch Gardens has some great roller coasters, and it has quite a few kiddie rides that Micah and Claire enjoyed, but I think I like it mostly for the flowers and music.

If we were to change a few things, we'd put a few different operators on some of the rides :) and we'd make it a little less confusing to find our way around, but we really had a nice time.  Katie, esp, LOVES the roller coasters.  Jenna mostly does, but Chad was on almost every coaster with Katie.  Claire and Micah still prefer the in-between stuff (like the nasty teacup-type rides that turn your stomach).   

One of Micah's favorite parts of Busch Gardens... the turnstiles.  This one was at the entrance to the train.  We had to wait here for a bit, and he happily watched the numbers increase as people went thru the entrance. 

This coaster is the Griffon.  Nasty, huh?  There are 3 rows of 8? people across.  They stop the coaster at the top and let everyone hang over nothing for a few seconds before zooming straight down.  Chad and Katie loved this one!

Thank you very much to Don and Anita for making it all possible!

Wingert Williamsburg Trip-- Part 1

On Thursday, after a half day of school, we headed down to Williamsburg, VA, for a wonderful Wingert weekend.  We arrived in time for a delicious meal at iHop, and then we got to see around the lovely condo where we stayed. 

This post has general pics about the weekend.  Next 2 posts will have pics of Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg.

We celebrated Micah's 7th birthday at the condo.  Wish we had turned on the lights for this photo... can't exactly see the people or the cake too well.  Sorry!

Jer and Dani were there for Fri pm thru Sun afternoon (before heading home for her new job!).  Sadly, we didn't get them in many photos... but here's one of the whole group after we took a lovely walk around Wyndham Kingsgate.

One of Micah's gifts was this bug playground--he's fascinated to watch what the bugs do in there.  You can also see Mrs. Peck, one of the Easter things he got, with a line of her eggs.

One of the best parts about the trip was not having to cook.  The kids ate a lot of pancakes, since that's one of their favorite things to order in restaurants!  We ate at iHop, Denny's, Golden Corral, Cracker Barrel and a wonderful Southern pancake house.

Tennis under blue skies!  Another great thing about the trip was the awesome weather!  We were so itching for spring... and colors.

Our condo-- building 42.

Some beautiful photos of around the condo (taken by Jenna)

We left for home before noon on Tues.  (K had to miss 1 1/2 days of school last week and J, C, M missed 2 days this week)  Our trip home was a bit eventful.  Van was overheating, so we stopped a few times until Chad got out our large water jug and dumped much of it in.  Then it worked fine.  Also, the passenger window got stuck down.  This was not a huge deal, but it's relatively uncomfortable in DC traffic.  The last 15 min, it started raining, so then we were very glad to get home. (Note-- window was easily fixed by our mechanic, but Chad had to do some duct tape/plastic repair to get thru yesterday's rain.  Lovely)  And, yes, we ended up going on the DC beltway, because with the other things going on, we somehow missed our turn for Rt. 17.  We did make it home in time to get the laundry done and J packed for Outdoor School, etc, so all turned out fine. 

And we were thankful for a lovely vacation!