Happy Spring!

I know I have been a little missing lately. Don't worry, don't panic! It happens every year about this time. I have crazy Destination Imagination prep to do. It takes up a crazy amount of my time, but it is worth it when the kids do their best and are so proud of all of their accomplishments. I'm a little nervous, I have one kid out with the contagious pneumonia, and 3 other kids in that same class also have it. Most of my team is from that class (including my son) I'm really hoping I don't have a team full of pneumonia (or a houseful to be honest,) during competition. Send healthy vibes our way please.
So I will be sporadic, but here I promise!

Hey, it's spring! Does it look like spring at your house? Mine doesn't really. The only thing I know is I have literally 32+ squirrels in my backyard picking up my walnuts that we didn't get picked up before winter. They are chasing each other and eating and having a great time. I tried to catch it on video, but it was so dark and dull outside you couldn't pick out much of the squirrels.

I thought since there hasn't been much content to this blog lately, I'd re mention a website I go to frequently to find out about the child appropriateness of different movies, games, books, TV, music, etc... Many of you probably know about it, but I have found it invaluable. I can't read every book my kids want to read to see if they are appropriate. I wish I could. Also, my oldest was reading at an 8th grade level in 2nd grade, so I needed to see which books would engage him, but weren't wrong for him. So anyway, I love Common Sense Media, you get kids ratings, adult ratings, and the actual web site's ratings. You can read comments on the language, sex, violence, product placement, drinking/drugs/smoking, and the moral/message. It's great. Check it out, bookmark it. I go back to it a lot. I even have convinced my kids they won't like certain movies/books by the ratings, so we didn't have to go see a stinker movie at movie theater prices.

**Not affiliated, just like it, and use it**

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

DI weekend

We had our first Saturday meeting/practice this past weekend for DI. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good, so many members were unable to attend. We had 3 out of 7. It was sad that not too many could come, but there is always the ability to do many things that are difficult to do with 1 adult and 7 2nd-3rd graders. I gave them a quick lesson in sewing on a sewing machine. We really weren't out to make anything special, so they cut out quick and dirty rectangles. But then they ended up making pencil pouches out of them.

We also always try to do at least one Instant Challenge type item. This week we did one from Think! . I love Think!, if you haven't checked it out and you have kids who like to do creative little challenges, you really need to check it out! This week's challenge was to give them a deck of playing cards and tell them to build a village. I gave them 10 minutes, (Instant Challenges always have time limitations,) and off they went. This is what they built.

Our Weekend

We had lots of fun this weekend. Liam competed at State for DI. He did really well. His team faced a lot of problems during their competition, but you wouldn't have known it by watching them. I'm very very proud of them.

Here they are with their team manager in the middle. They are a bit goofy because they just finished their Instant Challenge and were pretty much done with the brain work for the day.

They didn't finish in the top 3 so they won't be advancing to globals, but they did so brilliantly. I am hoping to find out the overall place tonight.

On Saturday we were lucky enough that all of the cousins on my side were able to come watch Liam and see us. We had a lovely time at the park together after lunch and before the awards ceremony.

Here is a very rare picture. They are all together, all relatively happy, and all looking in the same direction.

After the awards ceremony on Saturday, the boys and us spent the night at a hotel, where they got wet and wild and had a really fun time. On our way home the next day we stopped at one of our favorite parks in Oshkosh and had lots of fun by the beach.

It was a wonderful way to end a perfect weekend!

DI Weekend

Well, I've been a little MIA since we had our DI regionals this weekend. We had practice everyday last week, and I got a touch overwhelmed. Absolutely no crafting on my part really, only supervising.


When it was all said and done, Liam's team had some major issues, however still ended up taking 1st! We didn't think they had a shot after all of the problems they encountered, but it was a really hard challenge, so not many teams signed up, and the ones that did all had difficulties. Also they kicked some butt (as I've been told) on their Instant Challenge. So they are going to State in April. I will now be co-managing their team to help out their main coach.

Here's half of Liam's team with their trophy. I am so proud of them, mine is the second from the left.

Lore's team did amazing. (I coach this one) It was their first year for all of them. They kicked butt as far as acting is concerned. No one knew that they missed a very large portion of their skit. The covered so well. Their costumes and etc... was all quite amazing too. The 2 biggest problems that they had were that part that they skipped was REALLY important. Like, all of their points were pretty much in that area. And they didn't understand the Instant Challenge at all. It wasn't explained very well, and the person doing the explaining had a TERRIBLE cold and was near impossible to understand. Also they couldn't retell the kids the challenge, but they left them the paper, which is fine for the 5th graders they are against, but doesn't help the 1st graders who really can't read that well that were on my team. Oh well, it was great experience and they learned a lot to take with them next year. They ended up taking 6th out of 6. But they were the only first year team, and they were really against mainly 5th graders who have been in it for years. I'm super proud, and I need to get a party planned for them soon!




Here's a (bad) picture of Lore in the Jester costume he made. He recycled tshirts to make it. He designed and cut and sewed the hat, collar, waist thing. And he made the sceptre which is a doll head (he cut off of an old doll) glued onto a bamboo stick. Made a hat and collar for. He's in 1st grade did I mention. I'm so proud of him!


Then we had my niece's Dedication at church the next morning, so it's been very busy. Hopefully we'll get back to a routine soon.