Spelling Bee CHAMPION!!!!!

Christian has always been an excellent speller. In first grade, his teacher quickly noticed it and began to give him extra challenge words. His average in spelling is usually 100 or 101!

He won his class spelling bee which meant he got to compete in the school spelling bee. He won the school spelling bee, which meant he got to compete in the County Spelling Bee.

There were about 18 4th & 5th graders who competed in the County Spelling Bee. We studied for the Bee, but if you've read any of my previous blog posts, you'll see that he was also very busy with his Wax Museum project and the 4-H Clover Bowl. I told Christian that I just hoped he wouldn't get out in the first round... :-)

He didn't and he continued to spell words correctly until it was him and one ot

her boy. Christian spelled his word correctly (gardenia). Then the boy misspelled his word (guage). Then Christian had to spell one other word correctly and he would win. He was given the word "gazpacho." He spelled it with an "s" which was wrong, so it started over again with this boy. Christian spelled his next word correctly (gemstone), then the boy misspelled his word (genealogy) and Christian was given "generate." He spelled it correctly and WON the county spelling be. We were so excited for him. The neatest thing about the evening was that 2 of his 3 teachers were there to watch it and saw him win and were so proud of him.

They messed up on the medal so he got his certificate and we should get his medal in the mail in the next week or so. The lighting in the building is bad but I posted the pictures I got so you can see.

Also, for whatever reason, the county is not sending the winners on to the next level. I don't now if it's a money thing or what, but we're fine with that.

See how he's pulling his shirt? He's nervous!

Down to the final two boys

Christian receiving his first place medal

Christian with his certificate

The celebrity host (who I can't remember who it was) asked him a couple of questions and I missed it on the video but this is the tale end and it's cute!

5th Grade Wax Museum

The fifth graders at GES have come up with a very creative way to have the students do a history report and make a little money on the side. Each 5th grader is allowed to choose who they want to do a report on and they are to study their life, make a board about them, come up with a costume and write a 1-2 minute report to present.

Then at the school, they will become wax and the other grades will come by and give them coins to "come alive" and give their presentation. The money raised will go to the 5th grade teachers to use for computers, etc. The last I heard, they raised over $960 this year. That amount will be higher because during the day they did this, there was a tornado warning and they had to do the drill and so the 1st grade class didn't come through so they actually did an encore presentation the next week for the kindergarteners and first graders!!!

Christian was Jonathan Edwards. He (and his Dad) did a great job and they both learned a lot about this famous American preacher. Here are some pictures of him and then some of his friends from school. I thought you might enjoy seeing them, too. At the bottom, you'll see his presentation. If you have a minute, please take the time to watch it. You'll be proud of him, too!

Christian as Jonathan Edwards

Christian during his presentation at school

Babe Ruth & Hank Aaron

Ruth Handler - the creator of Barbie dolls

Muhammad Ali

Queen Elizabeth

Alvin C York

Martha Washington

Ronald Rea

gan

Sakajowia

Neil Armstrong

One of the Wright brothers - we couldn't find the other one!

Christian giving his presentation as Jonathan Edwards

Fieldtrip to Travellers Rest Plantation

The fourth graders went to Travellers Rest Plantation and Museum as their end of the year fieldtrip. I was asked to go as a chapperone and accepted. Julianna was as school so that made it easier for me.

I was given a group of 8 students from Rebecca's class to stay with. The Plantation is set up where there are stations outside all around the actual house of John Overton and you can see pottery being made, a bee keeper, civil war soldiers, etc. It's really a neat place and I enjoyed the trip.

I took some pictures of her group. They were such a fun group of kids. The girls loved all the stations - the boys tended to be a bit more bored throughout the day but usually found things to keep them entertained.... and me to keep my eyes on them.

Thought you might enjoy seeing these pictures, too!

Using real quills and ink to write

Washing laundry by hand and hanging it out to dry


This was one of the more "creative" boys in the groups!! :-)

Getting instructions on how to weave a chair

Taking a break at the gift shop - what funny kids

Making soap

Getting in structions from an Civil War Soldier

Making baby dolls (this was definitely the girls favorite station and the boys least favorite)

Rebecca trying to hoola hoop with a wooden circle - that's the game where you roll the circle along and push it with a stick (you've seen it in the movies). She was much more successful with using it as a hoola hoop

4-H Clover Bowl

The Clover Bowl for 4-H is their version of a Knowledge Bowl. Each class picked teams of 4 people and had competitions in their own classroom to determine a winning team for each class. Both Christian & Rebecca won in their own classroom and competed in the school Clover Bowl. Rebecca's team from Mrs. Henderson's class was eliminated, but Christian's team won out of all the other 5th grade classes which means they get to compete in the County 4-H Clover Bowl.

That happened on Thursday night. I think that there are over 98 pages of 4H questions you can study. We didn't receive all of those, but Christian worked pretty hard on the ones that he had.

Our team got out in the first round. I think they were a little disappointed, but the team they lost to won the whole thing. Somehow, that always makes me feel better. This team was awesome. They would ring the buzzer before the question was hardly asked. We did hear that they actually start studying for the Clover Bowl right after Christmas break, so if that's true, they are hard core.

But our kids had fun and learned a lot and it was a fun experience.

Cameron, Christian, Emma & Rachel

It was very dark in there so these pictures didn't turn out great but you can see their team up there

During the competition

The final score. :-(

"Family Reunion"

Larry & Debbie Sykes were at our first "real" church as a married couple in Ministry. Matthew took a part time youth pastor job at Lake Forest Baptist Church in Walls, MS while he was in seminary. We loved the church and our friends there.

We keep up with some of our friends there, mostly through Christmas cards and Facebook, but as everyone knows, it's hard to keep up.

Matthew called Debbie and asked if she would come and speak to our Ladies Minitry at our Spring Luncheon. Of course she was happy to do it. We had a crazy weekend ourselves, but we were able to meet them for breakfast with the kids prior to the luncheon. As with so many special friends in our lives, even though it's been YEARS since we've seen them, everything picks right up like it's just been weeks. It's just like family.

Larry & Debbie were huge influences in our young married and ministry lives. We thank God for them and I just wanted to post this picture of the four of us together.

More soggy, muddy soccer

It seems to be the theme this spring that all soccer tournaments are to be played in the rain and mud. Well, that remained consistent when we went to Bowling Green, Kentucky for another soccer tournament. Our first game was scheduled at 4:00. It was misting on and off during the game, but not rain. However, it had been raining and the fields were awfully muddy. Our second game was at 7:30pm and again, we escaped a downpour of rain but still had mist and mud.

It rained that night and our first game was at 8:00am, so half the team was on their way back to Kentucky when the tournament director cancelled the rest of the tourament. We had won one game and lost one and based on how they calculate points, we were in second place. I was hoping we'd get a trophy anyway and get a picture to attach to this blog, but as of yet, we have not received anything. I've never been to a tournament where they've cancelled it so I'm not sure if we'll get anything based on our standings when they cancelled it.

Anyway, I got some picture you might enjoy seeing the conditions they played in!

I like this picture - you can see the mud on Christian's hand - he'd already fallen

We actually got one of the better fields on the first game

Dakota displays one of his teammates "congratulations"

It's Art Fair Time

It's that time again - the Art Fair. The schools have their own Art Fair and then the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in each category in each grade get taken to the County Art Fair. Here's my first set of pictures....

Christian took a picture while we were at the lake on Spring Break and entered it into the school fair. He won 2nd place (sorry about the glare)

The bottom two pictures are Rebecca's. The flower picture won 1st place. The tree piture didn't win anything. We were surprised but the good parent answer was that they wanted other kids to win, too! :-)

So this Saturday, you could go to The Center in Springfield and see the County Art Fair - you could see all the winning art from the schools and then who won on the county level. We got there and found the 5th grade photography and Christian didn't win anything there.

Then we found the 4th grade drawing division and saw Rebecca's flower picture and it hadn't won anything. Each year, as we drive to the County Art Fair, we explain to Rebecca to remember that art is subjective and that the winners can be based on who the judges were, what they were looking for and even their moods at the time of judging. She seemed fine that her picture didn't place and we were pleased with that. We were confused because we coldn't find the first place in that category. The 2nd and 3rd place winners were there with their ribbons on the pictures (a friend of hers in her art class won 2nd and we were excited about that).

So I decided to walk to the front and ask about the category (it seemed they combined all the mediums in drawings rather than separated which they'd done before) and ask where the first place in the division was. As I walked to the table, something caught my eye up front on an easel and you wouldn't believe what I saw..... there was Rebecca's tree picture....the one that didn't win at the school (and as far as we knew wouldn't even be entered into the county fair).......I've got to show you the picture now...

First place..... she got first place in the 4th grade drawing division......BUT, there was something else. There on the corner was an Honorable Mention ribbon. Well, after talking to the lady, we figured it out. This year, they gave a "Best of Show" - the judges favorite of everything. And they gave an Honorable Mention, meaning their 2nd favorite overall art piece. Well, you guessed it. It went to Rebecca for her tree picture!!! Does she ROCK or what? We are SO PROUD of her.


Our little artist

Julianna had to have her picture taken too and so we took it in front of this. This won Best of Show in the Middle School Sculpture division. It was very cool and Julianna loved it, too!

Static!!!!

Too cute not to share

Gotta love staticky hair

Nashville Sounds Game

At the kid's school, they are encouraged to read and participate in the AR (Accelerated Readers) Program. They read books, take tests on those stories and earn points. This begins in the 2nd grade/ Each year, Christian has easily met the amount of points needed to go to the game. This year, the 5th graders had to have 100 points. Fifth grade has been a big adjustment for him so he quickly realized his focus was more on regular school than AR. We encouraged him throughout the year to read extra when he could, but he was pretty resolved that he just wasn't going to make it.

Well, about one week before the deadline for the points to be turned in, he decided he wanted to go so he read frantically to get to the deadline. The deadline was on Friday and the librarian allowed a few kids who were close to have through the weekend to finish up their reading and take the test on Monday. Christian took his final 2 tests on Monday and finished with 100.6 points! Whew - talk about cutting it close.

This past Tuesday, Matt & I went to the Sounds game with him. We had a fun time, saw a great baseball game and enjoyed our last (sniff, sniff) Sounds game with Christian (unless they do this in the middle school and we aren't aware of it). Anyway, I took a couple of pictures and thought I'd share them with you.

Before the game begins, they let the kids walk around the field as an AR Readers parade. Christian enjoyed seeing in the Sounds dugout.

Love this picture - Christian & Matthew

Christian & Tristan enjoy the Sounds game (and funnel cakes!)