Elise moves up to middle school!

 Elise's 5th grade class planned a party before the graduation.  It was SERIOUSLY Over the Top!!!!  I had a picnic at a park when I finished elementary school.  Do you see those giant cardboard animals in the background?  They had circus music, a ring leader, DJ, games, balloon maker, face painting, and sumo wrestling.  Just crazy~

 Here's Elise at the party with her best buddy Abby.  Sadly, she's going to a different school next year.

 Here's Elise at graduation with her friends looking super pretty in turquoise...her favorite color.

 With her teacher Mrs Papiernik.  She was mad at me for taking this picture.  Remind you of someone?

 We were so proud of Elise during graduation. She got awards for Reading, being chosen to compete in the county wide Battle of the Books competition, perfect attendance (insisted on getting that all year), Physical Fitness Award (not many girls got it) and Safety Patrol.  Here she is standing up when her name was called.

Lastly, here's her entire class on the stage.  Congrats Elise!  We're so proud of you!!

Spring Means Softball ~Anabelle & Elise's Team~

 Anabelle &Elise were on the Blue Jays this year.  There was problems with their original coach (not coaching), so the director said, "Adios".  Wouldn't you know it...that very same afternoon the director asked a very nice dad if he would "help" the team.  Well, in a nutshell, that "helper" ended up replacing the head coach with ZERO experience coaching softball.  So, their new head coach was my "I don't like sports" husband :0). 

 As soon as he took over, the Blue Jays because excited about the game and a real team.  Elise's favorite position is 2nd base.  She made some awesome plays and caught quite a few line drives.

 Anabelle's favorite position was short stop which meant LOTS of balls came to her and she had to communicate with her sister without yelling at her.  Anabelle has a fabulous arm and made some great throws to first.  She was also one of the teams biggest cheerleaders as you can see her here in the dugout while taking a rest.

 Here's Elise up to bat. 

 And Anabelle.  Their stances are as different as their personalities are.

 Here's poor Sadie on a 95 degree afternoon watching her sisters play because she was too hot to play with the other teams siblings. 

 After many ups & downs, the girls won their second playoff game!!!!!!!  They were in the runnings for the championship.  This was something no one thought would be possible!  Here's Anabelle w/ her coach :0).

 Elise wanted a home run all year.  She had some powerful hits, but hey, it's hard to hit a 60+ mph ball!!!  After an INCREDIBLE blowout championship game, they WON! 

 Happy sisters with their trophies.

 Happy Coaches!

Happy Team!!  Congrats Blue Jays!

Elise turns 11!!

 Elise wanted another sleep over for her birthday...yay (wish I had a smaller font for that).  Can you feel my enthusiasm?  We are beginning to be sick of sleepovers.  Sorry...I'm just in an honest mood.  Who wants their kids at their grumpiest possible for an entire 12 hours following 6 hours of entertaining a bunch of squealing wild girls?  Okay...that's probably not fair to say for this party because the girls were actually really good :0).  We made the party a Glow in the Dark party which was pretty fun.  I got a few black lights & a TON of glow sticks.  We made masks out of glow in the dark paint & got them glowing goodies to take home. 

 Here they are striking a pose on the trampoline.

 Making the masks.

 Enjoying ice cream sundaes on the deck.

 Pure joy! That's how I love to picture my Elise!

Wearing their glow sticks in crazy ways, but the camera wouldn't pick it up.  At least I got their smiles :0).

Happy Birthday Elise!!  Remember...we said NO sleepovers next year...haha.

Spring Means Softball ~Sadie's Team~

Batter up!

 One cute Indian!

 First base was fun, but playing catcher was the best!  She got really good at it, too.

 Next year, she'll go from machine pitch to child pitch.  She's decided she wants to be a pitcher, so she wants to pitch every morning in the summer so she's ready :0). Taking after her mama I guess!

The Indians came in 3rd which was a disappointment to Sadie because she wanted one of those BIG trophies.  Maybe next year!!!

Winterpock 5k

 Sadie asked me to run her school's 5k with her.  She prepared by running on the treadmill 2x for 5 minutes each :0).  I thought for sure we'd walk most of it, but surprisingly, we ran a lot!!  I had to encourage her to keep going, but we got a time of 37 minutes.  Not bad for her first 5k!  Here we are at the end.  I thought it was incredibly sweet that she grabbed my hand right before we crossed the finish line so we could be together :0).  Love that girl!!!

Battle of the Books!

Elise participated in the Battle of the Books at Winterpock.  She was chosen to be the team captain because she read 18 of the 25 chapter books.  You had to read 10 & pass a test on each book to be on a team.  Her team came in 4th, but I was so proud of Elise because she was a great contributor & buzzed in quite a bit with the right answers.  We also found out a few days later that the librarian & the BOB qualifiers voted her to be on the county competition team!!!!  Only 8 students were chosen for that.  WAY TO GO ELISE!  She's reading two more books to prepare for the competition that will take place in April.  Super proud of her. Her team called United Unicorns is on the left.  Here's a video of her answering a question, too.

Dian Fossey

In 2nd grade at Winterpock, the kids prepare to be a famous American in a wax museum.  I saw Elvis, lots of sports stars, Thomas Edison, three Susan B Anthonys, a Betsey Ross, a few Steve Jobs, Pocahontas, Walt Disney, and others. Sadie chose to be Dian Fossey.  Who's that you ask?  She wrote the book, 'Gorilla's in the Mist' after studying mountain gorillas in Africa for 18 years.   Sadie really wanted to be Jane Goodall, but she is English.  Can you guess why Sadie was interested in these two ladies?
Here she is:

 Notice her red button?  Here she is being very serious and reading her lines. 

She said making the jungle was hard and drawing a gorilla in the backdrop was even harder.  It's hard to see it, but she also dress her house.  I loved how she took the initiative to pick out her own unique American and I also loved how easy the outfit was.  It sure beats Elvis!!

 

 

 

Time flies...

Here's a few highlights since October~

 Pumpkin patch

 Fall bike ride in Farmville

 Sadie is October's Core Value Student!!

 Anabelle is October's Student of the Month!!

 Anabelle turns 12!

 Anabelle made it into the school play

 Last year for Tacky Light Tour...over 43,000 lights this year!

 Passing out candy canes to cars at night

 Voila!

 Our first year at Bevell's Hardware for the train display.  So cool

 My beauties before church on Christmas Eve

Made lots of cookies and hot cocoa

Christmas Spirit Team preparing for action

January trip to Wintergreen!