Lauren's Birthday

Lauren turned 11 this year!  She is officially a "tween" in every way!!!  She will let you know that is has always been "be-tween" all her siblings!  Poor middle child!  On her actual birthday, we celebrated by going out to eat and having a Peanut-Butter Pie!

She wanted to have a sleepover, and I quickly threw that together at the VERY LAST MINUTE for the next weekend!  Poor middle child!  We had to squeeze her birthday sleepover "be-tween"  her siblings tennis tournaments!

Heather and Stella were both able to come celebrate with her on Friday night and most of the day Saturday, so i think she had a great time!  I treated them to manicures & pedicures down at Angel Nails.  The birthday bonus was they got to drive themselves in the golf cart--woohoo!!!!  Then they painted, crafted, swam, and watched movies until the wee hours of the night!  

ASU Forensic Tour, Science Fair, Chick-fil-A, Water Festival, Dexter Avenue Church, Starfish Dissection

April has been a busy month for homeschool projects and field trips.  It seemed like the year was passing by with very few field trips, but we are making up for it during the home stretch.
April 7th
The girls have been working on their science fair projects this week.

 Colleen wanted her own science project, so we set up a worm observation bottle to see what the worms would do to our layers of sand and dirt.

 

April 8th
Today we had the opportunity to take a backstage tour of Chick-fil-A with our homeschool group.  We could not pass it up because we all love Chick-fil-A for breakfast, lunch and dinner!!!  The guide started with a history of Mr. Cathy and Chick-fil-A.  I reminded the girls that they had been to the original Dwarf Chick-fil-A on the way the Atlanta a few times!  Then we went threw the kitchen and they showed us how they prepare on the food.  We watched how they took orders and processed large crowds.  We ended with a meal from our favorite fast food place!

April 10th
We met up with a group of homeschoolers today at the ASU Forensic Labs.  We were lead on a tour of the facility, learned about their equipment, learned the course requirements to become a CSI detective, observed a crime scene, and followed the crime scene to trial.  It was a wonderful field trip.  Doesn't everyone want to be a CSI after watching it on TV all the time?!?!

 

April 11th
The girls presented their science fair projects at the homeschool fair.  Grammy made it in from Texas to go to the science fair (and many other events over the next few days)!  The girls each placed 2nd in their age divisions.

April 17th
I took Lauren to the Prattville Water Festival today.  It was a city wide 4th-5th grade event.  We had a great time with our homeschool friends.  We learned about the water cycle,  protecting our water, and built an edible aquifer!

April 18th
Lyndsey finished reading Charlotte's Web yesterday.  She completed her goal, and now we get to celebrate!  I made spider PB&J sandwiches, Oreo & chocolate mice, pigs-in-the-mud cups, and Wilbur cupcakes.  We had fun at our County Fair.  We snacked on lunch while watching the movie!

 April 23rd
We went on a tour of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in downtown Montgomery today.  I have always wanted to go inside this historic building.  It was a simple church, but the historical significance of the place was overwhelming.  In the basement, a local artist has painted a mural of Black History which ties everything together for the younger generations.

April 25th

We met our homeschool group at the park today to dissect starfish.  It was fun and challenging!  It was not easy to cut apart, but the girls had fun and learned the parts of a starfish!

Starfish Dissection

Today we met a group of homeschoolers at the park to dissect a Starfish!  We had so much fun!  The girls shared a starfish which was a bit of a problem since Lauren tends to take over and push Lyndsey to the side!! Lauren did let Lyndsey try to dissect portions of the star when I stepped in and made her!  

 Ms. Jennifer led the kids through the dissection.  We located the central disc and eye spots before the cutting began!  The girls opened up the sea star to see the vascular system, stomachs and skeletal plates.  I was impressed with their surgeon skills!  They did a great job today!

State-by-State: Michigan

Now C is for Cherry.

Little sweet ones fill my belly.

Tart ones make me pucker,

so they're used in jam and jelly.

from M is for Mitten:  A Michigan Alphabet

The United States Cookbook had a great recipe to use those Michigan cherries!  Ice Cream with Cherry Sauce in a Tortilla Shell.

The girls worked hard to complete their scrapbook and lap book work this week!

Tyler Earns Awards

Tyler was inducted into the National Honor Society today at Trinity Presybyterian School.  He has worked really hard this year, and he has let his potential shine.  We always knew he was a smart kid who just didn't apply any effort to school!!!

Tyler also received a surprise award on April 24th.  During the year end awards ceremony, Tyler received the Honors Chemistry Award.  He received the award for the highest grade average for the Honors Chemistry class this year with a 100+ grade.  He found out after the ceremony that he missed getting the Honors Alegbra II award by hundredths of a point!!!  I think he is having a great year!

I don't have any pictures of him receiving his Honors Chemistry award because I was receiving my Parent Failure Award at the same time.  I really didn't know about the awards ceremony until Tyler came down in "chapel" dress this morning.  I asked why he was dressed up today, and he told me it was awards day.  I didn't receive a letter this year, so i just sent him off to school!  In the past years, we had received a letter that Tyler would be honored during the ceremony.  All those years the letter was sent home so I could go up there, sit for 1.5 hours, and watch him stand up for reading library books.  Seriously--I view that as a standard NOT an honor.  Justification why I did not see it necessary to go up there this morning!  Well, I was WRONG this year.  My boy is standing above the crowd this year, and I missed his day to shine.  Here is my late evening, post tennis practice picture!!!

Easter Traditions

Traditions.  We have a few in our family.  One is taking a picture with the Easter Bunny!  We have done it since Tyler was a month old, and I just can't STOP!  Tyler now has to be bribed, but I get the picture.

This year they also had live bunnies at the mall, and I could not resist getting their picture made with them!  Actually, the girls were begging and Tyler was rolling his eyes!

Tyler drove Lauren to a birthday party in Prattville right after we finished taking pictures.  Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying having an extra driver in the family!  He is very helpful when he needs gas!

Later Saturday evening, we cleared the table and decorated eggs for our hunt on Sunday.  Another tradition that Tyler indulged me for a few minutes!  He gathered all the coloring pots and dipped all his eggs as fast as he could and left!

 The girls lingered for much longer and enjoyed the artsy activity!

 On Sunday morning, the kids woke up to baskets filled with goodies.  They looked through the loot before we headed to church.

 On the way to church, we stopped by Alabama Shakespeare Festival and took a few dozen pictures of our beautiful kids!

 Tyler 16, Corynne 14, Lauren 11, Lyndsey 7, Colleen 4

State-by-State: Illinois

Now here we have a special man,

waiting in our book.

Do you wonder who it is?  Come and take a look!

L is for Lincoln,

Illinois is his land.

he was president long ago

and known to be fair and grand.

from L is for Lincoln:  An Illinois Alphabet

The girls completed their scrapbook and lap book this week on the state of Illinois.  

Lauren visited Chicago with Dad last year.  We looked through all her adventures with dad, and we discovered just what we would "cook" for Illinois.  Dad LOVES Gino's East Pizza.  We ordered a couple of their famous deep dish pizzas for dinner at the end of the week!  They ship them frozen in dry ice!  We received them on Thursday, and we kept them hidden in the freezer until Saturday night. Boy, was Dad surprised!!!!

State-by-State: Wisconsin

And D is for Dairy cow

grazing afar.

"America's Dairyland"

is what we are.

Moo! Moo!  I like milk, do you?"

from B is for Badger:  A Wisconsin Alphabet

"Wisconsin has long been referred to as "American's Dairyland" because it produces more milk than any other sate.  in addition is is the leading producer of cheese in the nation."  from B is for Badger:  A Wisconsin Alphabet   Therefore, we chose to have cheese sticks to go with our deep dish pizza from Illinois.  

The girls completed their state projects for the week on Wisconsin.  Lauren has become quite good at looking up cool state images on the internet and printing them for her scrapbook pages!  

TPS Sectional Tennis Champion

Today Tyler played in the AHSAA Sectional Tournament at O'Connor.  His section basically comes down to Trinity vs. Montgomery Academy in the finals.  Tyler played against Hunter for the second time this year.  Last week they played and Tyler lost in a 3rd set tie-breaker.  Today Tyler played an awesome first set and won 6-4.  Tyler went up 1-0 in the second set when Hunter withdrew for a minor rib injury.  Tyler walked away with the title of #1 Sectional Winner!  We were so proud of how tyler handled himself on and off the court today.  He is a champion!

 Trinity Wildcats took 2nd place in the Sectional Tournament!

Swim at Alabama

The Barracudas year around swim team has transitioned to long course for the spring.  This was our first long course meet, and Grammy arrived in Alabama just in time to go to Tuscaloosa with us!  Lauren and Lyndsey both competed at the meet, but it was definitely Lauren's day to shine.  Lyndsey really was not interested in swimming the long distances!!!

 Lauren competed well, and she improved her times on a few races.  Watching these 100 and 200 races was exhausting!!!  That is a lot of swimming, but Lauren loves swimming!

They both enjoyed Grammy being their to watch!

State-by-State: Hawaii

Aloha is our letter A.

It means so many things:

hello, good-bye, and love to you.

Fair wishes this word brings.

from A is for Aloha: A Hawaii Alphabet

This week we read about the state of Hawaii!  The girls completed their scrapbook and lap book projects.  Then on Friday, we went to World Adventure club where the topic of the week was HAWAII!!  Ms. Tina taught us what the names of each of the islands means and how each island was originally used.  One was originally a leper colony!  Then we made edible volcanos!  YUM!!

For our state cooking project, we made a pineapple upside down cake.  Lyndsey loved the assembly process!  She was very excited that She could not fit in every pineapple slice and cherry!  She ate the extras!!!!