Take Me Out to the Ballpark

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I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. ~Walt Whitman

For the Grandparents . . . .

Fun photos of the babies!

Science Experiments

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We are currently studying acids and bases in chemistry. Today was the fun part, the experiments. We used red cabbage ‘juice’ as an indicator and tested various liquids including, milk, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, antacid, mineral mater, white grape juice etc. We recorded our hypothesis and tested them.

Belated Easter Celebrations

Our family postponed our Easter celebrations until this weekend. Jon treated us to lunch at Bob Luby's Seafood Grill. It is a new restaurant owned by the Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.

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After our yummy lunch, Frankie and I hid Easter eggs for the little kids. Later we microwaved marshmallow Peeps to watch them expand! Jon celebrated by rotating my brakes! What a good honey!

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For dinner we met several families in our Care Group and enjoyed good company!

Take Me Out to the Ball Park

Ball season is in full force! Caleb had his second game last night! He had three at bats with a single, a walk and an out. He had a couple of good plays at third base.
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Abigail brought her roller skates to the ballpark, and skated with some of the other younger team siblings. Padme' came to the ballpark too. We are quite the parade heading to the game, three kids, 100+ lb. dog, snacks, blankets, bat bag, bag chairs, whew!

Back to Normal

Now that Nationals and LTC are over, our lives return to normal! One of the things I'm glad for us to have time to play chess again! Abigail is getting good enough that she has beat Caleb twice. Caleb has beat Frankie only a handful of times, but Jon remains the Chess Champion at our house!

LTC Awards Night

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Tonight was our special LTC awards assembly following evening services. Mr. Sam toook this opportunity to acknowledge all 60+ McDermott LTC participants.

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Abigail achieved a gold individual in Bible Bowl, a gold team in Bible Bowl, a gold in Drama and a gold in Sign Language.

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Caleb achieved a gold individual in Bible Bowl, a gold team in Bible Bowl, a gold in Drama, a gold in Sign Language, a gold in Song Leading, a Gold in Daily Devotional, a gold in Outreach challenge, a gold in Service challenge and a gold in Teaching Challenge.

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Mr. Sam also gave out the Bible Excellenge Award to the participant with the highest Bible Bowl score. This year Caleb and Richard tied with 98 out of 100 questions correct!

LTC Drama

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Our last event was Drama! Ms. Teri put together a great skit with prepared and unprepared scouts. In this division the kids are graded as a team based on delivery, message, expression, relativity to the theme, etc. This year Caleb played the part of the lumber jack who was the narrator. and Abigail was a knight in shinning armor. They were really cute!

LTC Sign Language

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Caleb and Abigail both participated in Sign Language. Ms. Donna prepared them well! Participants walk into the room when their name is announced, they hand the judges thier ID badge. They will then sign 'Hello, my name is' and finger spell their name. Next the sign, 'My scripture is John chapter 1 verse 1 thru 3'. At this point the judge will hit play on the CD box and the kids will sign their scripture to the announcer reading the passage. They are judged on being able to keep up with announcer, their signs, and physical expression of the passage.

LTC Song Leading

Caleb and his friends all participated in song leading again this year. Caleb chose the song Freely, Freely to lead before the group. Each participant announces their song, pitches it, and leads the group. Even though it is a 'competition' the main purpose is to encourage these young men to continue in church leadership roles.

LTC Chorus

One of Caleb's favorite events at LTC is chorus. Each year Ms. Vyneta puts together three songs that the kids will perform. This year they performed God is Good, Firm Foundation & My Life. What this photo doesn't show is the kids were up Friday night until 10pm with Bible Bowl, and then are back up at 7:30am to sing. LTC is for kids 3rd-12th grade. This year in school Abigail is in the 3rd grade, but at church I have kept her with her age group which is 2nd grade. So despite her objections, I limited her LTC participation for this year. Chorus was one that she really wanted, but I told her she could only do 3 events until her Bible class participates next year. She selected, Bible Bowl, Drama & Sign Language, but she really wanted to do chorus.

Click HERE to see their performance.

LTC Bible Bowl

With months of preparation, this was the evening we have all been preparing for, LTC Bible Bowl! Jon and I have been teaching the 3rd thru 6th graders since December for this one event. This year's competition was over the book of John. The kids answer four rounds of twenty-five questions. It is so cool to see all of these kids in one room that have all voluntarily decided to spend time studying scripture and to sit through this test. Even more impressive is there are two other large hotels in Dallas that are simultaneously hosting LTC events.

National Bible Bowl at ACU

Last weekend was the National Bible Bowl competition at Abilene Christian University! Since November these eight kids have prepared for two to three hours every Sunday in addition to their personal study. My big kids team were 6th grade boys Caleb, Richard, Blake and Hannah who is 5th grade. My little kids team was Ryan & Andrew, both 4th graders and Abigail and Baylor, both 2nd graders.

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In the competition 6th grade and under are considered the Elementary division. The Elementary kids are not included in the team competition. Only 7th grade and up can compete in the Team competition. With that in mind, both the 'big kids' and 'little kids' played up to the 7th-9th grade Jr Division Team Competition. In this division Abigail's 'little kids' team took 4th place and Caleb's 'big kids' team took 1st place again this year!.

In the Individual Competition, the 'big kids' played up again to the 7th-9th grade division. Blake took 11th place, Richard took 5th, Hannah, took 3rd and Caleb took 2nd place!

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In the Individual Elementary Division Baylor took 11th, Andrew took 3rd, Ryan took 2nd and Abigail took first place! When they announced that Abigail was only a 2nd grader, the entire audience gave her a standing ovation! There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd, it was amazing! Then I look up and she is taking the pocket camera out of her pocket and takes a photo of everyone clapping for her! Everyone cracked up!

Audie Murphy Museum

Today's field trip with our church home school group was to the Audie Murphy Museum. During Audie Murphy's 3 years of active service (1942 - 945) he received every decoration of valor that the United States had to offer, some of them more than once, including five decorations by France and Belgium. Among his 33 awards and decorations is the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for bravery that can be given to any individual in the United States of America, for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”

Puddin Hill

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One of the stops on was at Mary of Puddin Hill. First made famous for their fruit cakes in 1848. The Puddin Hill tradition began in 1839 when James and Mary Horton came to the heart of the Blackland Prairie region of northeast Texas. James Horton had received 620 acres of land as payment for his services to the Republic of Texas. As his descendants like to tell it, the new country was short on money, but long on land, so that's how James Horton was paid.

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It had rained the day the Horton’s arrived at their new home. Rainwater makes any patch of Texas blackland soil a soggy, gummy mess. While his wife Mary struggled through the thick, black mud. "This is like walking through pudding," she said. It was inspiration enough. Horton spread his arms wide and proudly shouted, "Well then, welcome to Puddin Hill!"

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That Mary Horton was the first "Mary" on Puddin Hill, and it was her recipe for pecan fruit cake that has been passed on from generation to generation as a holiday tradition.

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Caleb and Abigail's favorite part of the tour was the quest where they had to find certain items in the museum portion of the factory, like what were the giant eggs made of? Not styrofoam but sugar!

April Fools

We love April Fools jokes at our house. Each year I pull of some prank on the kids. It is getting tougher to pull off pranks as they get older. They love this day and know that Mom will do something! This year I asked Jon to pull off all the vowels on Caleb and Abigail's keyboards and re-arrange them. Both keyboards needed to be identical so they would not suspect foul play.

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After Ancient Civilizations class the kid do keyboarding class. I sent them to their computers like usual. Pretty soon you start hearing 'hey!' & 'when I push the A it makes an E and when I push the E it make an I!' I play along for awhile before you hear, 'Moooommmmm, you did this!' To which I gleefully reply, 'April Fools!' It's good to be the Mom!