Ocean Theme Classroom

My good friend Brooke is going to be teaching Kindergarten this year for the first time. She asked me to help her paint her walls in an ocean theme. As you can see from these pictures I got a little carried away! And believe it or not, there are other things on the walls I didn't get pictures of. We did a big wave on one wall that is not pictured and have added some pretty hibiscus flowers to another corner of the room! I drew each of these pictures free handed with chalk by looking at a picture. Was really nice to use the chalk because I could just wipe it off if I messed up! I have to look at a picture to draw something. Lots of people helped paint the walls. It took us about 5 full days. I hope her kids love it!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southeast District Championships!

We had our last swim meet of the season this past Saturday. It was actually the championships for the southeast region. The kids did great and Mallory actually won her heat in the 50 meter freestyle. We were so thrilled. She hadn't won a race all season and finally on the last day in her last race of the day she won! She might as well have been winning  Olympic gold! What a way to finish out the season! Way to go Mallory! Michael competed well too. We had a lot of fun being a part of the swim team community. It's different from most other sports our kids have ever participated in. I don't know if they will ever do it again but it was an awesome experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanna soak up the sun

The kids' swim meet this past Saturday was held in Kennett MO. I had texted the parent who heads up the swim team to ask her the name if the place where they would be swimming so I could get the directions all sorted out. She wrote back "it's at the Sheryl Crow Aquatic Center". What?! Is she from there? I had no idea. Too fun. Apparently she donated a vast majority of the money to build the pool. An article I pulled up said she had been on the swim team growing up. Her family is all still there and I was told she visits often. Kennett is about an hour south of us here in East Prairie. I talked to one of the moms working the meet who said she went to school with Sheryl and that her husband had been in Sheryl's brother's wedding. We had a nice day there. All we wanted to do was have some fun. And we did. 

Farm Living is the Life for Me

This was the view out of our back door the other day. When we first got here I was totally ignorant to life in a farming community. I picked up the local paper and saw the headline "Crop Update" and I thought, "Oh neat, they have a scrapbooking club." Well I am picking up bits and pieces now. The field behind our house has been soybeans, corn and wheat in the two years since we got here. Apparently they rotate the crops like that. We often have crop dusters flying low overhead. It's neat but at the same time sometimes I think, "if that guy has a heart attack that plane is coming right down on top of us!"

 

 

 

 

Both gone!

Michael pulled his snaggle tooth this afternoon after church. So cute!

Snaggle Tooth Matte-revisited!

Michael just lost the first of his top front teeth. Makes me a bit sad as he will soon lose that baby boy look:( But it has to happen so I'll be ok! I started calling him snaggle tooth Matte and remembered doing a post with that title when he was two and broke one of his caps on his crib rail. Click here to see ol' Snaggle Tooth at age 2!. 

Canoe Class

Everyone laughed outloud when I told them I would be teaching the canoeing class at camp last week. I understand that, I laughed myself! I ended up really enjoying it. Being on the lake first thing every morning was really nice and the kids were great. We had pleasant weather all week as well so that made it much more bearable than if it had been blazing hot. The last day we had canoe wars during our rec time in the afternoon. Talk about fun! Every canoe and one paddle boat were armed with water balloons, cups to fill with water, buckets. etc. It was a blast!!!