Zoo Field Trip

I also had the pleasure of chaperoning Christopher's 3rd grade trip to the Cincinnati Zoo. Although we had been there many times, it had an entirely new vibe when Christopher's friends were all there. A few of his classmates got together for a joint pic, above. That would be my son, Joe Cool, in the center.

Castle Field Trip

John's 1st grade class took a field trip to the Lebanon Castle, which was pretty cool. This life-size, 20th Century, replica Medieval castle was the life-long project of a man who not only built the structure by himself, by hand, but also made every single one of the bricks by himself, by hand. The man who built the castle was extremely intelligent: his IQ was higher than that of Albert Einstein. He started working on his castle in his 20's, when he asked the love of his life to marry him, but she said 'no' and married another man. The man never dated again, and never married, only greived for the woman he had lost. I guess he needed something to get his mind off his sorrows, so he set-out on the project of building this castle....

When the man was jilted, his love didn't cut him off; infact, she stayed in touch with him all her life. They remained good friends. When they were in their 80's, the woman's husband died. The castle builder asked his true love....again...if she would marry him. She turned him down once again, claiming she had 'had enough of married life.' Tragic.

Now that the man is dead, his castle is owned and kept-up by a group of "knights" who use it for tours, teaching people about medieval life. The kids learned that castles were not made for comfort, but for defense. For example, the narrow, circular staircases that wind up and down through the castle are an attempt to foil would-be attackers who break in. The skinny, narrow windows that you see were perfect for shooting arrows out of, but were hard to shoot arrows into.

(Below) John and his friend Aryan pose infront of a real-life metal coat suit of armor. Those were all over the castle.

Laney Sharp (below) was absolutely terrified in the dungeon. She was braver than some of the girls, though, who wouldn't even come down the stairs to see it!

After the tour of the castle, we went outside and were given a lesson in sword fighting. Miss Richardson, John's teacher, did a knock-out job! Then the kids were given "swords" made of pvc pipe and pool noodles, and were paired-up to joust.

Besides visiting the castle, the children also traveled to the Clermont Nursing Home that day to sing to the residents. They sang over 20 songs by heart, including motions, and did a SUPER job!

 

Celebrating Christopher

We had a blast celebrating Christopher's 9th birthday Sunday! He brought his best buddy Jake home from church with him and we spent the day doing whatever Christopher wanted. I teased Christopher that I was going to make his birthday theme "My Little Pony." In the end, though, he was thrilled with our house looking like a shrine to Spiderman!

Jake, Christopher, John, and Anna had NEVER been bowling. Christopher had wanted to try it, so we headed to Cherry Grove Lanes, pulled down the bumpers, and had a ball (literally!).

How I Spent My Mother's Day

I probably had my best Mother's Day ever this year! Here's how I celebrated...

First, Mom and Dad came for a visit the weekend before Mother's Day, staying Friday and Saturday. We took Mom to her favorite restaurant (and mine!) on Friday evening, Carraba's Italian Grill. Then on Saturday morning, I cooked everyone a big Mother's Day breakfast: scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, mango, cantalope, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and grits.

Once we were plenty full, Mom and I headed to our favorite store to shop... Dillard's! I had the pleasure of buying Mom a MD gift there. And I snapped her picture, in which she was thrilled, as you can tell. (Sarcasm.)

Then, on the Friday before Mother's Day, my family took me to my favorite Chinese restaurant, the Hibachi Grill. And guess what? I tried SUSHI!!!! It was absolute DISGUSTING. I have no idea how people stand that stuff - ick! I didn't even get to the raw fish: the green seaweed stuff on the outside was too inedible for me. John tried it with me, too. He concurred that it was gross.

On the Saturday of Mother's Day, my kids helped me plant my flowers and bushes for the year.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, my children showered me with wonderful crafts and flowers from church, and gave me a beautiful corsage to wear to church.

It's good to be queen!

In Memory of Grover Beaver (or was it Mr. Hopper???)

We unfortunately recently lost one of the boys' pets, which are two aquatic frogs. I thought you would enjoy a good laugh... Each of the boys was given a frog in the fall, and the frogs were named "Grover Beaver" and "Mr. Hopper." One of them died, but they looked so much alike that we don't know whose frog it was that passed away. Christopher immediately claimed that it was John's frog that died, while John claimed it was Christopher's. Nonetheless, we had a small burial service in our backyard, pictured above. Note that John wore his F.R.O.G. (Fully Relying on God) shirt in honor of the occassion. Note also that Tim chose to use my good Pampered Chef glass prep bowl for a coffin (uuggghh!), and that he is holding a Bible on his hand for the funeral sermon that he couldn't help but preach. The Trustees at Clough have no idea that we've turned the field behind the parsonage into a pet cemetary, where our dog Lacy, a dead bird we found in the driveway, and now Mr. Hopper (or is it Grover Beaver?) rest peacefully.

Our fears that the boys would be upset by the passing of their beloved frog were put to rest when Christopher blurted-out at the end of the froggy funeral, "Can we get a dog now???"

Good times.

Kara