Science Expo!

Last night, Our Lady of Mercy hosted it's 3rd Annual Science Expo.

The middle school kids have been hard at work on their projects since October.  They formed groups, chose a research project, formed a hypothesis, researched their topics, wrote a project report, created a project board, came up with a game relating to their project, showed their results to all the elementary grades (and played the game with them), and were interviewed by the judges.  And they all showed off their work to all their parents last night to finish out the Expo.

Whew!

And after all of that, Peter's group won 1st Place in the 6th grade!  I'm so excited for this group of boys.  They really took the project and ran with it. All the moms did were buy the supplies and frantically text when the boys were available to meet and work on the project (which is no small feat with 4 very active boys!).  We had to get creative and meet after school, after basketball games, over Spring Break, etc.

The boy's goal all along has been to win 1st place in their grade.  I didn't think it was possible because we did not help them at all.  They did the entire thing: the report, the project board, the reaseach, develop the game, etc.  And it all appeared as if it was completed by a band of rogue 6th grade boys.  In other words, some of the other project boards looked pretty slick and while theirs looked good, it looked like they did it with no parental help.  So, I was a little worried for them...

BUT!!!!!  And here's the kicker...a very large portion of the judge's criteria was the interview.  And from what I heard from the judges after the fact, these boys rocked it out.  I was told that they all knew their research and their statistics and that they all equally participated in the interview. And best of all, they did not sound rehearsed, did not stutter, were excited about their project, and were happy to tell anyone who asked them all about it.

I'm so very happy for these boys!

And on that note, I should add that all of the projects were really, really good!  You can tell each group put a lot of time and effort into their projects.  Now to start scheduling for next year when I'll have to coordinate  two middle schooler's schedules!  That should be interesting...

At school preparing to show their project to all the elementary kids!

At the Expo last night showing their project to all the parents!

On the stage with their 1st place trophies!

Their project board, research paper, and game!

And just in case you were wondering who has the dirtiest mouth out of human, cat, dog, and guinea pig...The clear winner of dirtiest mouth goes to HUMAN! 

Sunday at the track!

The conference track meet was on Sunday.  Our school raced against 5 other area Catholic elementary schools.  Here are a few pictures that Dan took.  I help out with the track team so I was working but luckily managed to catch (at least from a distance) Peter and Sarah's races.

We got 2nd place!!! Go Mustangs!

And now she has extra holes in her head!

Sarah has been begging me since was 8 to get her ears pierced. I told her that 8 was too young but she could get them done when she turned 10. And true to my word, last June I reminded her that she could get her ears pierced for her birthday.  But she had changed her mind and her ears have remained hole free until this past weekend.

Earlier in the week she told me that she had decided that wanted her ears pierced now and reminded me that I had said she could get them done when she was 10.  I told her that she should wait a few weeks until her birthday and that could be one of her presents.  But she was adamant that she get it done as soon as possible and she didn't mind paying for it herself.

So, on Saturday, we hoped in the car, picked up her best friend, Cheyanne, for moral support and headed to the mall.

She spent last week vacillating between excitement and fear.  She asked me at least 100 times if it hurt.  She watched numerous You Tube videos of people getting their ears pierced to gauge their pain levels.  And then she asked me a few 100 more times if it hurt.

It was raining on Saturday and the mall was packed.  And Claire's was like an ear piercing factory.  She had to wait behind two other people and then there were two other people behind Sarah.

I filled out the forms, Sarah picked out the earrings she wanted and she climbed into the chair.

She chose to have both ears done at the same time, which was probably a wise choice.  And here's a few pictures I snapped of the process:

A little nervous.

 A lot nervous.

Wait! Is that it? 

Checking herself out in the mirror.

That wasn't so bad!  (Although I think her ears were stinging just a bit here.  That smile looks pretty forced!)

Gratuitous photo of me and my girl!

What's Dan going to do with all of his free time on Saturdays?

A couple of Saturdays ago, Dan started teaching Peter how to mow the yard.

We have an acre so we have a riding mower.  And we have lots of stuff to mow around: the garden, the swing set, the trampoline, the patio, the flower beds, trees, etc.  You know - all the normal obstacles.  And even though we have a riding mower, it's not a fancy zero turn mower so it makes navigating these obstacles ,while still ensuring that the grows gets mowed well, a little more difficult.

Dan is beginning Peter with the edges of the back yard because this is where most of the obstacles reside.  He has been going behind the mower and yelling directions to Peter.  It has been funny to watch but he's getting the hang of it, slowly but surely.

Here are a few picture:

With more practice, he'll be able to do the whole thing and that's going to leave Dan with a lot of free time on his hands on Saturdays!

Girl Scouts at the beach!

The weekend before last, Sarah went to the beach with her Girl Scout Troop.  They spent Saturday touring the aquarium and even got a behind the scenes tour.  After that, they did a service project by cleaning up the beach.  They had lots of girl time, playing in the water, braiding each other's hair and giggling. They even celebrated Cheyanne's 10th birthday.  Sarah had a fabulous time!

Sometimes you just have to do it your way....

Thanks for all of your kind words and prayers after my last two posts.

I have to admit I've been dreading Rebecca's anniversaries for about two months now.  I'm not sure why but I guess I felt like I should do something to commemorate them but I knew I didn't want to celebrate them, if that makes sense. 

I know some people like to do that sort of thing but butterfly releases, balloon releases, 5ks established and run in memory of, etc. just didn't feel right to me.  Perhaps if she had been here longer something like that may have felt more appropriate.

On her birthday, we visited her grave and took flowers.  Sarah was away on a Girl Scout beach trip so she didn't join us.  She was upset about this at first but when she remembered that Rebecca's birthday was also her BFF, Cheyanne's bithday, it made the decision to go easier.  And I don't think she regrets it and I certainly don't regret encouraging her to go. 

And yesterday after dinner, we went back to her grave.  It was a cold and rainy evening which Sarah said was very appropriate for the occasion. 

On our way home, Dan said, "Was that a car off the road back there?  Should I turn around?"

I hadn't seen anything but told him he needed to turn around just to make sure. 

So we did and sure enough, there was a car that had gone off the road and up an embankment and into the woods.

Dan pulled over and got out.  He went up the hill and opened the car door.  This lady had apparently had the presence of mind to call 911 already but I think shock was starting to set in.  Dan said she kept asking him to call her brother but couldn't remember his number.  I could hear her moaning about the pain in her leg.  Dan said she was laying in the passenger side of the car and that her leg was twisted at a very unnatural looking angle.

A few minutes later two fire trucks got there.  In a matter of seconds they had put up a giant spot light, gotten out saws to start cutting the trees down (this woman must have been going fast because she plowed up and over several trees), and were bringing out back boards.  And then the ambulance arrived. We stood in the midst of the chaos and decided we weren't adding any value so we left.

When we got home, Peter ran next door to tell my parents about our adventure.  My dad has a police scanner and always listens to the calls that come through. He heard the call on the scanner and said that at one point the call mentioned a 4 year old who was trapped in the car.

Dan was surprised to hear this because he said the woman never mentioned a child and  the car was empty as far as he could tell.

Anyway, it made for an exciting end to our day.

I think that writing about the day she died was very freeing for me.  I have wanted to write about it for a while now but I just kept putting it off knowing that I would never be able to properly or accurately describe what it was like.  However, I also felt in some odd way that I was doing Rebecca a disservice by not writing about it. 

After I got all those words out, I felt such a huge relief. 

And so in my own way, I celebrated her birthday and the anniversary of her death - not with a party, or butterflies or a memorial 5k - but with words.  And it felt right. 

I think Rebecca would be pleased.