Of course, this violence is on purpose. The actors of Roundtable Productions made a special trip out to perform for my seventh graders when our Medieval Faire was rained out. They put on a fabulous show, as always. I got some great pictures capturing the action this year.
Kairi did a great job at recital, as always. What we didn't expect was her cousin's reaction to her.
She loved all of Kai's costumes, and loved watching her dance. Especially the dance with the Disney princesses.
But most of all, she loved Kairi's ballet costume. She was afraid to even touch her, but once Kai said it was okay, she seemed to think of Kai as a giant ballerina doll, just for her.
In fact, everyone liked that outfit so much, I completely forgot to take any pictures at all of Kai in her competition jazz outfit! Oh well!
Looks like all that hard work on school projects does have some rewards. We went into Kairi's school to talk to the principal about a medical excuse from gym after Kai tore ligaments in her finger during gym class. Boy, were we surprised to look into the 6th grade display case and see three of Kai's projects featured! We're always proud of her, but it's nice to see her teachers are proud of her, too!
What's so exciting about this picture, you ask??? It's taken in my hometown. It's my niece. And the reason she's here is: she moved here!!!!!! YAY!! Cyndy, Barry, Faith and Juli moved down to Pennsylvania. Hannah will join them for various school vacations. I'm sad that they will see Hannah less, but so very glad they'll be close to us. We're going to have so much fun having close relatives so close!
So I repeat: WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!
No sooner did I get back to school after being sick than we set off on our field trip to the Franklin Institute. I was a bit jaded, having seen everything so often and so recently. But the kids were so excited it rubbed off on me. Plus, I was able to help my group with insider information and get them all on the Sky Bike for free, so I was Miss Popular Teacher for the day. I missed my kids at school while I was sick, and it was nice to be doing something fun with them.
A picture I took of campaigners at the polls for Tuesday's primaries was shown on CNN by Soledad O'Brian and Wolf Blitzer, and was published on the CNN website, too!
It's dorky, but what can you say - I was excited, and my kids at school thought it was cool, too - especially since I mentioned them in the caption. The picture was to illustrate civil politics to my overly argumentative students. It also ended up illustrating that journalism is exciting, which is never a bad deal for an English teacher.
Meanwhile, Scott got to vote in the primaries as a Democrat. I'm independent, so I didn't count. We were both backing Obama, but Clinton took Pennsylvania. Oh well! Since I'm updating this blog after the fact, I know we win eventually! Scott took the kids in the booth with him to show them the voting process. You can see the three pairs of feet sticking out below the curtain. I told them to make sure he voted right!
Whew. I don't know what's scarier - crazy face boy or the legless tiger. Yet another school project, and 3-D papercraft to the rescue again. This time it's the dreaded.... I mean much beloved... second grade animal project.
Nicky worked really hard writing his report. School work doesn't come easily to him, but he completely stepped up this year and rocked second grade. He got top marks in all of his subjects, and worked really hard. He's still a little inconsistent, getting bad grades on worksheets and tests when he doesn't pay attention, but generally, he's made huge strides, especially in reading.
Then he helped cut out and assemble all the little tiger bits, which took a long time.
Finally, he helped build a diorama of the tiger's habitat. He was so proud of his project, and his teacher Mrs. Weikert really liked it! She even asked where we found the tiger pattern.
Best of all - Nicky is our last second grader! No more 3-D animal models!!! Woohoo!
When Kairi went on a camping trip with good friend Amanda, and Nicky was at a playdate with Kaan, Scott and I decided to do something fun. We headed for Lake Nockamixon with the intention of renting a canoe. Alas, they don't allow canoe rentals that early in the season because if you capsize, it's very cold water. (We wouldn't have capsized. I've never tipped a canoe, and I've logged hundreds of paddling miles. Okay, I've never tipped a canoe unless I MEANT to.)
I discovered that having three cats and being bedridden for two weeks is a short step away from being a crazy cat lady.
With my usual photography addiction limited by my stay on the couch, or maybe a slow walk to the mailbox, I ended up taking a lot of pictures of the cats.
But then, they are REALLY great cats.
Images of my yard - it's going to be a 30+ year work in progress, I know, but I'm getting a little more in place each year. Eventually, it'll be a showplace. Someday.
We were so proud when Kairi was chosen to be in the PMEA District 10 Elementary Band Festival. Only three other sixth graders were chosen, and it's an honor to be selected. So a little thing like abdominal surgery was NOT going to keep me from watching her play! I just borrowed the wheelchair from church. Granted, that was the full extent of the exertion I could manage all week, but I was there! (And so was Grandma, since she was there to watch me, and Grammy, since she was planning on going... it actually worked out pretty well for Kai, audience wise.)
The kids did a fabulous job. You would never believe they were 5th and 6th graders. They really were the best of the best! We hope Kai will go far with her horn playing - she certainly seems to be on the right track.
Normal, happy family gathering, right? Got your ice cream cake, got your crazy faced little boy, smiling grandfather. All's sailing along smoothly in our little world.
Looking at that photo, you'd never guess that the person who took it was in imminent danger. By nine o'clock that night, I was in agonizing pain. By midnight I was writhing on the bathroom floor. By one, I was actually begging Scott to take me to the ER. And less than 24 hours after this photo was taken, I was in surgery.
Turns out, I had acute appendicitis. Really nasty case, too. I ended up out from work for two full weeks. I had never had surgery before and it scared the life out of me - not to mention a few years off Scott's life. Mom even came down to take care of me for the first week. Everyone was very supportive, and I got help, gifts and cards from everywhere. My surgeon was wonderful (which, I guess everyone would say who survived an emergency operation, but he was very nice) and the hospital people were great.
But that doesn't discount that it was quite probably the most frightening moments of my life lying in the pre-op room on April 7th holding Scotty's hand, reciting the 23rd Psalm over and over.
Also, for the record - I DO NOT like drugs!!! I had some seriously scary reactions to more than one of the drugs they pumped me full of - just before surgery, I felt like my heart and lungs stopped when one of the drugs kicked in. Not nice. Not nice at all!
Anyway, by the grace of God and the skill of the doctors, here I sit, typing. Most people don't think of appendicitis as life-threatening, but it sure as heck can be, and I'm so grateful to be here with my family - even the crazy faced boy.
When you were a kid, did you ever get just what you wanted for your birthday? Even though it was probably a waste of money? And you would probably outgrow it or hardly play with it? None of that would have mattered to you, because you got JUST what you wanted. That face above is Nicky's I-got-it! face. He saw this really expensive R2 at the Franklin Institute and wanted it so much. It's voice activated and does all sorts of cool things. The logical part of me says he won't get enough use out of it to make it worthwhile. The I know my kid part went on Ebay and made it happen. I think the face is my reward.
He loved all his other presents, too, which was great. Then, he LEFT! His friend was having a slumber party on Nicky's birthday... I wanted Nicky at home, but it was his birthday, and he wanted to go - how do you say no to that?
When we got him back, we took him to Red Robin. He doesn't like cake that much, so the sundae made him happy, and we figured we'd have cake with Pop-pop on the weekend, since we missed Pop-pop's birthday during our Easter flu bout.
And hey, he did play with R2 - at least for a while!
So there you are, bopping along, minding your own business. Go to see the Easter Bunny while out shopping, planning to have a nice Easter. And then....
Your son spikes a fever and acts not at all Nickylike. You take him to the ER. The doctor says "We've been seeing a lot of this. He has the flu. It's very contagious. You'll probably all get it too."
Enter high fever, inability to breathe, aches, pains, shakes, congestion, coughing, weakness to the point of tears... well, in short, I barely pulled together the Children's Program and Easter Egg hunt, with lots of help from Nicky (who was feeling better after playing the role of Typhoid Mary). We had spent all week sewing costumes and making giant puppets, so SOMEONE had to do it. Kairi and Scott were too sick to even get out of bed. By Easter morning, I had the worst of it. I sat in my pew in church and just shook and cried with sick and miserable the entire time. I couldn't even make Easter dinner. Kairi and Scott were somewhat better by this time, but it was quite frankly the worst Easter I've ever had.
I only managed to take a single picture of each kid in their Easter outfits. I think they looked cute, although I bet they gave the flu to every kid at church.
When we went to the Star Wars exhibit, we ended up getting a membership at the Franklin Institute because a full year of access cost less than the passes for just the day. Lucky for us, the DaVinci Center in Allentown is reciprocal with the Franklin. The kids and I spent some of our Easter break exploring the exhibits. Nicky loved the weather station, where he could be blue screened into various backgrounds. 
He also got brave enough to actually touch a starfish - and had me take a picture so that Daddy would believe him.
I'm still not sure why you need goggles to dig for fossils, but it sure looks scientific.
And the highlight for Kairi was seeing this little tropical frog, of course.
The DaVinci center is nowhere near as cool as the Franklin Institute, but hey, hard to argue with free!
We had to check out the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute. We're all Star Wars geeks (some of us geekier than others) and we like the Franklin anyway. It was pretty cool - we got to see real props from the movies, try some hands-on experiments with the science of hovercrafts and droids, and see costumed characters, too. We even had time to run up to the Sports Challenge. It was definitely a fun way to spend a Saturday!
Yup, you guessed it - another school project! This time, Kai had to calculate to the third decimal place the exact dimensions of her room and then "purchase" the precise amount of paint and flooring and bedding and furniture and accessories to get her closest to $1000. She came within $.02 - we thought she was exactly there, but there was a calculation error, which we caught before she turned it in. At least she got a 98% on the project! And, she got to decorate it with frogs, which is always a bonus!
