Run Like A Girl

Morgan, Caroline & I got up early this morning to drive to Pocahontas State Park for the Run Like A Girl 8K. Morgan ran it last year and had such a fun race that we all decided we should run it this year. The plan was for Morgan to run her own quicker pace, and for us to follow at our own slower pace!

At the start we realized that the field had grown from last year's 400 runners to over a 1,000! The runners were divided into waves by age! The girls were in the second wave, and I was in the third! Morgan beat her time from last year by several minutes. Caroline enjoyed her run, running up the hills and walking down. I walked up most of the hills and ran the downhills! This was a trail run, which brought back fond memories of running cross-country back in high school!We didn't win any age group awards (last year Morgan placed second in her age group!), but we did come away with a gift certificate for BRMS and a cool Montrail cap!

The downside of running a race with the girls is that I couldn't take pictures of them running. We settled for pictures of our post-run sweaty selves!

We're definitely running this one again next year!

A Day at the Lake

We spent the day at Smith Mountain Lake with friends. The kids had a blast playing in the water and flying over the water! Even Will got in and had a great time -by the end of the day he was traveling around the boat in search of ducks! Only Jake rode the tube and three tried to water ski! Six kids on the tube is the current record.












For lunch we had pizza - if you ask the youngest, he'll tell you we had pizza the Chinese restaurant. He's a bit confused! We saved all of the crusts to feed the fish!












We came off the water and headed back to Edwin & Jen's cabin, where the kids made a campfire (Olivia made the fire - just like we taught her at girl scout camp!) and roasted fruit on the fire. Apparently all fruit cooked in foil on the campfire is good - pineapple, grapes, and even strawberries!

David climbed up the side of the cabin to clear out the clogged gutters, sending me into mild panic!* Then we ate a wonderful dinner! We also had s'mores! The best marshmallows were the ones that were totally burnt! Edwin was the S'more King, carefully doling out chocolate on the kids' s'mores and Reese's cups on the adults' s'mores! Awesome!

*No broken necks or legs today. Only two broken wrists!

Sharks and Ladders?

Sharks and Minnows

Chutes and Ladders

Winding Down

As we near the end of the school year there are lots of end-of-year activities. Stopping for ice cream at Chandler's is a favorite one!

End-of-season athletic banquet and awards ceremony...
The annual K1 Sing-a-long......with cookies, of course!

Will Swimming With His Friends and Family*

Will is swimming with his friends and he likes it. It's cool because he just loves it. He loves and likes swimming. He just loves it. He just loves it. He just loves it. HE JUST LOVES SWIMMING!

Will and his friend Gabe are playing in the pool. Well, actually they are playing the water in the pool with floaties.

Gabe is playing with a shark! Aaaaaaaaah!!

Katherine is the shark-rider!!

**By now you've figured out that Will wrote this post!

K1 Picnic

Once upon a time Teacher C and Teacher D took their classes to Teacher C's house for a day of fun. The kids quickly ate their picnic lunches and then were off to investigate and explore!

There was a playhouse full of toys and outside games galore! There was a cow named Mack (as in truck) and a horse named Fyreflii. There were even three goats and some chickens! The kids played baseball, badminton and frisbee, blew bubbles and hoolahooped! Teacher C and her daughter launched a soda bottle rocket with mentos!

After all that fun, there was more!! The kids were divided into color teams and had to find 8 eggs of their color. Once they found all eight eggs, the team got popsicles!

Soon it was time to head back across the field to catch the bus back to school!

The Independent Study

Tonight was the high school's independent study open house. Every student who had an independent study this year was required to present his project tonight. Some took up new instruments or perfected their skills on ones they'd already learned. Some learned new things like sign language, digital photography, or farrier science. One even trained a service dog! Lindsey did hers on horseback riding. Morgan's was quiltmaking.

This is Morgan's mentor, Lynn. Thankfully, a parent is not permitted to be the student's mentor!

Morgan learned a lot under Lynn's tutelage. She planned and pieced her first two quilts with Lynn, and now has serious sewing machine envy.

Lynn showed her how to machine quilt and how to hand quilt.

Here's Quilt #1 - Around the World - Morgan picked these fabrics out at Burkholder's in PA last November when we went there with my mom! This one is complete! It is totally quilted and even has a label on the back!

Quilt top #2 - Morgan also picked these fabrics out at Burkholder's. This one still needs to be quilted.

Quilt top #3 - This quilt is made from fabrics in our stash - some of the fabrics have been around since before Morgan herself! Morgan made this one at home - it was a true test in patience for both of us! At one point we had to tear out more than half of the pinwheel blocks because they'd been sewn the wrong way! Now it just needs to be sandwiched and quilted.

Her's the girl and her poster. That's a lot of work for a pass/fail class!

Kite Flying

With no rockets ready to shoot into the sky, Will decided he would fly his kite. He worked very hard and had it flying all over the front yard!

Model Rocketry

So, way back in February we won a model rocketry building & launching session with one of the middle school science teachers. Once soccer and lacrosse were over we were finally able to schedule the session.

Katherine and Caroline worked together with Mr. Barber to build the rocket.

They learned how the engine would work and how to launch their rocket.

Now, they just have to wait 4 or 5 days for the glue to dry completely before they can launch their rocket!