Visitors from Kansas: Bowling

All the kids!

Best friends for 20+ years!

Mom, Dad and our baby girl, Sid!

Check out these great bowling forms!

Visitors from Kansas: flying kites in the rain!

The kids were excited to try out their new kites, so we tried them out despite the rain! Hanah was the best kite flyer, she just walked around slowly and the kite stayed high in the air!

Visitors from Kansas: the NCAA Tournament

The Lewis family came up from Kansas to visit with us last weekend. We always have a great time playing and hanging out with them! Casey and Brent started off the weekend with tickets to watch the first rounds of the NCAA tournament at the Metrodome. They watched Casey's home team, KU, and several other teams. Neither of them had ever been to the tournament and they had a great time!

Welcome to the Family!

Titan Gioannini Shaw
Born on 3-20-09 at 11:20 am
6 lbs 14 oz / 19 3/4 inches
We can't wait to meet our new nephew/cousin!

I Love These Girls!

Tonight was my last official night as Activity Days Leader, I was released on Sunday. I love these girls so much and will miss our fun activities and their enthusiasm. It has been especially fun for Jamie and I to have the chance to be in Activity Days together. They made me a wonderful book tonight with a picture and letter from each of them. I will treasure it always. Thanks Carrie and girls!

The Girls and I
(Melanie, Jamie, Audrey, Lauren, Jessica and Michelle (in front))

I will definitely remember this side of them!
This is what Sidney, Hanah and James did for the hour.

Lets Go Fly a Kite

Riley decided that it was the perfect day to fly a kite!
So, despite these facts:

• it was 6:00
• dinner was on the table
• all 7 of us had to be at the church by 7:00 (it is 15-20 min away)
• all the kids were very dirty from playing outside
• Brent and I were not ready for our evening activities
• every toy in our garage was on the driveway
• every neighborhood kid was in our backyard (even though they had all been called in to dinner)

Brent took the kids out and FLEW A KITE! They had a blast!



(We actually made it to church also, and we were only 10 minutes late!)

The BUNK BED has arrived!

James' Bunk

Riley's Bunk

Spring has Arrived! (at least for this week)

It has been warm (50s) this week and beautiful outside. The kids have taken advantage of the great weather and played every day after school! These pictures were taken on Monday, couldn't even get the kids to stand still for pictures. The snow in the cul-de-sac is almost non-existent! (This has been our sure sign that Spring is here for years now.)

Hanah's Impromptu Piano Concert

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Once There Was a Snowman



ABC's

Jamie the South African "Expert"

This is the final grade on Jamie's South Africa Expert Project! She did a great job (only missed one point on the final draft of her report for punctuation)! If you click on the image it will enlarge and you can read all the positive notes from her teacher. GREAT WORK, JAMIE!


Thanks again to Donny and LeAnne for their amazing photos and video, the class loved it!

1st Grade Program - Round 2 - SIDNEY

Sidney was thrilled for this day to finally arrive!

She had the perfect brown velvet dress for her monkey part
and she loves performing in front of an audience!

Singing the "Hello, Hello" song!

Singing the "Jack and Jill" song.

During one of the songs,
the students showed their knowledge of this song pattern:
A-B-A-C-A-D.
The A part was repeated and sung by the class.
The B, C, and D parts were improved and different.
Sidney was chosen from her class to play these improved parts
on 3 different instruments!
She did a great job, we really need to get her in piano lessons!

Singing the "Peanut Butter and Jelly" song!
(This video is better, Hanah was sitting on Uncle Brent's lap!)

Ist Grade Program - Round 1 - JAMES

James was very excited about his 1st Grade program at his new school!

In less than 2 weeks, he memorized all the songs and his part in the play.
He was a monkey, just like Sidney, a perfect part for him!

Singing the "Hello, Hello" Song

Singing "No Caps for Sale"

Singing "Peanut Butter and Jelly"
(sorry about the poor video,
it is impossible to hold still with a 2 yr old on your lap!)

Sneaky Sandwich

Tonight at dinner,
Hanah did not want to eat her Grilled Cheese Sandwich,
so we creatively fed it to her!

It has been 10 years...

since I have taught Junior High Math, but I received my MN teaching license in the mail this week! I applied for the license at the beginning of this year. I wasn't sure what to expect or if MN would even consider my credentials, but was thrilled to find out that I have been granted a temporary license. It is good for 1 1/2 years during which time I have to take one class (can do on-line) and also take a few standardized tests. I am thrilled and excited! I am not sure I will pursue teaching anytime soon, and it will be a challenge to complete these requirements. But, I am looking forward to the prospects and will be grateful for the security my license and ability to work will provide for our family if ever necessary.

Expert Project: South Africa

Jamie has been working very hard on her 4th grade Expert Project the past couple months. After our friends Donny and LeAnne went to South Africa in November, Jamie quickly picked this fascinating country as the topic for her project. She wrote (in cursive) a 6-7 page paper on South Africa after doing tons of research on the country. The paper was due about a week ago and she has her presentation on Monday. Thanks to Donny and LeAnne's great photography and video skills, Jamie's presentation will be wonderful. This is the display board she will share with her class along with a clip from the video Donny produced. Jamie is such a hard worker and her teacher often writes this on her papers "Fantastic Job Jamie, everything you do, you do well!". We are very proud of Jamie and her determination to do well in school.

Spending our day off of school at the new Library!

Daddy and Baby Snowman

The kids built these great snowmen earlier in the week. Sidney took these great pictures of them. All that was left of them today was the snowman parts, snow was all melted. But, there is more snow in the forecast tomorrow....will Spring ever come to MN??

Where a Kid Can Be a Kid

It has been a tradition for Grandma and Papa to take us all to Chuck E Cheese when they visit. After all, where else can they take 9 grandchildren, spend only a small fortune on tokens and mediocre pizza, and generate some very happy smiles! The kids look forward to it and Grandma loves the hundreds of kisses she gets in exchange for tokens. Hanah has told me about 10 times each day this week that Chuck E Cheese is FUN!

The Price of Beauty

While Grandma was in town,
we took Lydia to the mall to get her ears pierced.
She had no idea what was coming!
Ramona had to hold her down and she cried big alligator tears after wards,
which meant lots of comfort from Grandma! She looks adorable with her new pink daisy earrings and a sucker made it all better.

James' first day at Shannon Park Elementary

James started school at Shannon Park Elementary last Monday. So far, he loves his new school, his new teacher and his new friends. He has adjusted very well, now we just need to get him to eat his lunch faster so he can actually get to play at recess! Here he is on his first day with his dad! (they were looking right into the sun)