Maggie reading her book

This was after her end of the year program. She is reading her book that she made to me.

She's a first grader

Friday was Maggie's last day of Kindergarten. Didn't I just drop her off at school for her first day of Kindergarten?

She was very excited but very sad about leaving her favorite teacher. There's a chance that she will have her teacher again next year since her teacher was moved to a Kindergarten/1st grade combination class.

I couldn't have asked for a better year or a better teacher. I prayed for her teacher and her class most of last summer. I just knew how important it was for her to have a good first impression of school.

It was beyond what I asked for. I hope that her teacher knows how much what she does for Maggie and her classmates means to them.

Science Adventure Summer Camp

Are you looking for something fun for your kids to do this summer? I know that I am always looking for ways to keep Maggie from getting "bored" during the summer.

I heard about this great science summer camp. Science is not my strong suit, so I try to encourage Maggie to explore science activities.

Here's some information about this great camp that I heard about. This year, two new exciting camps have been added, including: Mystery of the Pharaoh’s Treasure and Go Wild! In these camps, children help to solve an Egyptian mystery and investigate amazing wildlife and plants. Plus, two popular camps – Gizmo’s Robot Factory and Space and Rocketry – return.

Each camp is one-week long with half-day and full-day options. Parents can enroll online athttp://www.scienceadventures.com and have the option to register their children for all four camps, or just one program. Camp program fees and schedules vary by location.

I've included a webisode that is linked below about Champions Summer Science Adventure Camps. Here's a promotional code “summerscience10” so you can save $50 on a week of summer camp.


Go Wild Champions Adventure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvk3CsYk2B4

Convertible driving

 

 

 

Bill came to the California Brethren Conference last weekend. He "thought" he was getting a cool Mustang convertible. Guess what he got instead? A gold Sebring convertible.

Maggie thought it was awesome. It's the same kind of car that Steven and I took on our honeymoon adventure up the east coast.

I begged Bill to take Maggie on a little trip in his convertible. She thought it rocked and she was a super cool chick in a convertible.

I guess it's all in our perspective of what we think is cool!

Flat Daddy at Steven's ordination

 

 

 

 

So, my daughter got my camera on Saturday night at Steven's ordination. I downloaded the pictures tonight and I guess Maggie REALLY, REALLY thought that Noah's flat daddy was super cool. I downloaded approximately 15 pictures of a flat Noah. Here are the better ones. Enjoy.

Winner of the Marble Racer

Maggie just randomly selected between the entries listed. I gave her a choice between 1 and 4. She chose........4! Noah won the cars!

So, send me an email with your address and I'll submit it. I don't think your kids can swallow a car. Can they?!

Thanks for all the entries!

Light Up Marble Racers

We have entered a new phase of toys in our home. I never thought that I would play into gender roles and what toys my kids choose. However, our house is being overtaken by a new breed of toys.

Patrick LOVES cars. He loves things with wheels and cars. He flips over Maggie's baby doll stroller and plays with the wheels. He's obsessed.

So, I was asked to review a new kind of car and I jumped on. I knew that we had a good tester in our home for this review. They are a little old for Patrick, but it's the perfect age for Maggie.

Here's some info about them:

· Combines the racing excitement of mini-toy sports cars and the classic amusement of marbles

· Customize Marble Racers with themed racing decals

· Race on standard tracks

• Available in 6 exciting styles – Police Racer, Fire Chief Racer, Cat's Eye Racer, Cyclone Racer, Confetti Racer, and Volcano Racer Crack & peel decals are fun, promote creativity, and are easy to use

• Watch as marble rolls to keep pace with their speeding car

There is nothing like it on the market. There are racing cars. There are marbles. But nothing else that combines these 2 classic stand-bys into 1 unique, fun "do it yourself" toy. Available in 6 electrifying styles – Police Racer, Fire Racer, Cats’ Eye Racer, Cyclone Racer, Confetti Racer, and Volcano Racer – this unique, colorful, new toy makes a great birthday gift or party favor.

Light up Marble Racers are only available at CVS stores.

Here's the best part:

You could win 6-car set! Leave me a comment by Wednesday, May 19th! Here's the even better part. I won't be in charge of getting the cars to you. I suck at getting the giveaway stuff to people. I don't have to handle it this time. It's handled by MomSelect. Yippee!

So, leave me a comment. Leave me your email address if I don't have it. I will contact you after Wednesday if you win and MomSelect will mail you a 6 car set.


We tried them out last night. Maggie loved decorating them. Helpful hint: don't put the stickers on top of the marble ball because it stops them from lighting up!

Strawberry Shortcake

Memaw bought Maggie some strawberry plants.

They hung them in a hanging basket in April.

This morning, I noticed that we have one ripe strawberry in the basket.

Maggie picked it after she got home from school.

She loved it. She was amazed that she planted it and it grew to a real strawberry

It's just stuff

I've had this one in my mind for a while, but I haven't written it all out in my mind yet. Here ya go....

There is a new JoAnn's fabric store in our town. Maggie was ecstatic. She talked about it non stop for several days. She had grand plans about what she and Memaw were going to make when Memaw came back for a visit. There was some crafting to be done!

So, it opened one weekend and Maggie begged all weekend for us to go and explore the new store. We made plans to leave the boys at home after church and go have a girly date at the new store.

We walked into the new store and we wandered around for a while. We just wandered up and down a lot of aisles. She wasn't begging for stuff, but I told her that if she found a little something, I would get her a new craft.

After a while, we ended up on a kids craft aisle. They weren't awful crafts, just okay. She thought about a few options, but just wasn't satisfied with her choice. She finally bought a cute little journal from the dollar section that was pink and green (that's my girl).

On the way out to the car, she started to tear up. I asked her what was wrong, but she asked if we could wait to talk about it in the car.

We got to the car and we started talking. She said that she was disappointed by our trip to JoAnn's. She said, "it just wasn't that great".

I explained to her that I was proud of her for not just picking out a craft that she didn't like just to be getting something.

She said, "I just feel dumb. I feel dumb because I was excited about a store. A store isn't something to be happy about."

I was astounded. I couldn't believe that she put that together. I get excited about going to new stores and picking out new stuff. But, it's just stuff and it's not stuff to be excited about.

Matthew 6:19 (New International Version)

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

We talked about this for a while. I am proud of her for recognizing that stuff isn't going to make us happy.

On the way home, I bought her a Happy Meal, but that's another story.

Adoption story

As you know, fostering/adoption is something very dear to our family. Steven sent me this blog today and I thought I would share the link with y'all!

http://www.potsc.com/uncategorized/guest-post-nicole-wick-on-adoption/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+deadlyviper_blog+%28People+of+the+Second+Chance+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

P.S. If you email me, I will send you an adorable picture that Steven just sent me of Patrick in a grocery cart. He's so cute!

The dog ate my homework???

I think I have heard it all now.

I have taught community college classes/online classes for 5 years now. I have heard every variety of excuse about why a student couldn't make it to class/be there for a test/turn in an assignment.

I was SHOCKED by the amounts of grandmas that died in my first semester of teaching at a community colleges. I was getting concerned about my grandmas (and I have 5 of them right now) and their health. There must have been some kind of epidemic going around because almost all of my students had grandmas that were dying and their grandchildren couldn't turn in their work because of the funerals.

By the 2nd semester, I was pretty jaded. I asked for doctor's excuses, but never went so far as to ask for a death certificate. But, you'd better be sniffing and crying when you told me about your grandma dying.

Now that I teach online classes, it's a little harder to know what's legit. (M.C. Hammer is 2 legit to quit,but I digress). I get a lot of phone calls and emails about things that come up in the life of a student. I have gotten pretty good at deciphering what's real and what's just an excuse for extra time on an assignment.
Even in emails, you can tell if a person is telling the truth or not.

Tonight, I got my best excuse ever. It wasn't even an attempt to cover up the truth. No dying grandmas here.

Nope, this student couldn't turn in his work on time because....(let me read you the exact quote)

"my kid was away from home tonight and it was just the wife and I. Let's just say that we spent some much needed time together."

Are you serious? You are telling me you couldn't do your homework because you were um....insert whatever cliche' you want here.

Wow. This isn't even a student from my Human Sexuality class.