Honor's Day

 The school year is coming to a close.  Today was the kids' Honor's Day.  Both kids have worked really hard this year and both received awards for "A" honor roll.  They were also recognized for the various clubs and activities that they participated in, and Owen got a t-shirt for having perfect attendance.  Cassie was visiting, so she and the boys were able to attend as were Gigi and Granny Mel.

End-of-Year Church Activities

The kids have been doing such wonderful ministry through the Wednesday night BLAST program all year. Each month, the kids complete a mission project.  This year's projects included a canned food drive, Christmas cards/ goodies to troops stationed overseas, projects supporting our Honduras mission team, and visiting the nursing home residents.  The kids also laid the foundation for a YouTube channel by creating and recording two original performances (one of those being a mime performance as seen in the picture).  To celebrate all of their hard work, the church rented an inflatable waterslide.  The kids spent four hours (!) on the slide.  I am so grateful for the Blast program and its leaders.  They work so tirelessly to teach our kids the value of giving back.

The kids aren't the only ones at the church who are having fun at the end of the year.  The ladies of the church had our first annual retreat on St. Simon's Island.  We rented a house and had a great time doing a Bible study, eating out, shopping, and sitting on the beach.  

Baseball / Softball

The kids have just wrapped up their softball/baseball season.  Olivia played catcher in the 10u girls division again this year.  She loves playing catcher, so I was glad that she was given an opportunity to play this position.  I thought that she had improved a lot since last year.  Her throwing was stronger, and she only struck out once all season.  The highlight for her was the game where she tagged two runners out at home.  She was so excited.

 Owen moved up to the 10u boys division this year.  In 10u baseball, they play live pitch.  This was a big change for Owen.  Even so, he did hit a couple of balls this year (and one ball hit him).  He played in the outfield, so he didn't see a lot of action on the defensive end.  But, he did what he was suppose to when the ball did make its way to him.  Both kids had fun playing, and that is the important thing.

Theme Park Field Trips

 Both of the kids had end-of-the-year field trips to theme parks this year.  I chaperoned Owen's field trip to Wild Adventures.  We always have a good time here.  One of Owen's buddies walked around with us, and the boys got along so well.  We rode a lot of rides, but none so much as the bumper cars.  I bet the boys rode those things five or six different times.  We had a fun day.

Brian chaperoned Olivia's class field trip.  They went to Sea World.  She also was paired up with one of her buddies, and they saw many shows and rode all of the rides- including the new "Mako" coaster.  This was a day trip, and it was a looooong day.  But, everyone had a great time so that makes it worth it.

Battle of the Books

 Olivia and Owen both competed on the Battle of the Books team this year.  For this competition, students receive a list of 10 books that they must read during the school year and then they compete on teams to answer questions about the books that they've read. Olivia was on the "A" team this year, and they finished sixth out of 14 teams.  Owen was on the "B" team, which finished eleventh.

Competition is always fierce, but it makes it a little more fun when your cousins also participate.  I liked to see that they were all encouraging of each other even though they were on five different teams.  Claire's team ended up placing third, and we were all so tickled for her.

Intra-Squad Robotics Competition

 Olivia's Robotics team held an intra-squad competition to wrap up the year.  The kids drew straws to determine who their partner would be for the competition.  Olivia and her partner ended up winning third place.  I cannot tell you how much Olivia has enjoyed robotics this year.  She is really looking forward to next year. Her sponsors have been  fantastic and have really brought the team so far this year.  I hear next year they are going to have four competition robots instead of two.  This program is growing by leaps and bounds.  Now if we could just get some competitions that are further south than Atlanta...

Olivia's Art

One of Olivia's drawings was chosen to be in a local art show.  We made a point to go by and see her work while it was being displayed.

Academic Awards

 The kids both participated in various academic clubs and activities this year, and their participation was recognized at the annual Academic Boosters Award Ceremony.  The way this works is that students earn time units for participation and points for achievement in academic competitions each school year.  These points and time units accumulate from year-to-year and eventually students who earn enough get an academic letterman jacket.  Olivia has already earned enough points to receive her academic letter (just the letter- not the jacket).  We are keeping her letter on her bulletin board until she qualifies for a jacket.  At that point we can turn in the letter and it will be sewn onto the jacket.  I don't think she can qualify for that until she is older, though. In addition to earning the letter, Olivia received time units for participating in math team, robotics, battle of the books, technology club, and science fair.  She also received points for placing in math competitions and in the stock market game.

 This was Owen's first year to be recognized at this ceremony.  He received time units for participation in battle of the books, math team, and two different technology clubs.  He also received points for placing in one of the math competitions.  Brian and I are proud of how hard the kids have worked this year.

Stock Market Game

Olivia's WINGS class competed in The Stock Market Game this year.  In this game teams are given a hypothetical portfolio of $100,000 that they invest over a 10-week period. The team from each public school district or geographic region with the highest portfolio value at the end of the 10-week trading session wins.  Olivia was part of the winning team for our region and was invited to a celebratory luncheon in Atlanta.  I don't know if she and her teammates were more excited about attending the luncheon or about the fact that they got to miss a day of school to do so.  I think that this is such a great activity to be involved in.  I know very little about the stock market, so I'm glad that Olivia has the opportunity to participate in something that will teach her how it works.  I asked her what her team did that caused them to win, and she said that their best investment was in "Buffalo Wild Wings".  Who knew?  

Baby-palooza

We recently welcomed two new additions to our family.  My sister, Cassie, gave birth to her second son at the end of last month.  His name is John Daniel, and he is just precious.  I am excited that I will get to meet him in about two weeks.  I can't wait to hold my sweet nephew.  

My cousin Jessica also has a new edition.  Her daughter Elyse was born two months ago. I have met her and I can certify that she is a pretty and sweet baby.  

The birth of John Daniel and Elyse causes James and Riley Quinn become older siblings.  There are certainly enough little ones to go around, and that's a good thing because everyone wants to be around the babies.