Rock Climbing

One of Hannah's friends whom she's gone to school with since Kindergarten, had a birthday party this evening. It was at an indoor rock climbing facility just up the street from home. I'm not sure how many kids she invited, but sadly, Hannah was the ONLY kid to show up. I felt bad for the little girl, but Hannah admitted it was nice to just have the time to play with her and not have a lot of drama, like there would be if other girls had shown.

The place was pretty cool. The highest rock wall you could climb was about 33 feet. There were all sorts of walls mimicking what could possibly be found out in the 'real world' of rock climbing. It was amazing. The girls were given rock climbing shoes and harnesses and each given a guy who held the ropes tight from the bottom as they climbed. The wall Hannah climbed and made it to the very top was 30 feet!!! She attempted another wall that had some edges jetting out and had to be climbed over, but she just couldn't make it over the hump. But at least she tried. This was when she'd made it half way and couldn't make it any further and was left hanging, literally. She loved it!!!Hannah had a great time! She attempted a rock wall a couple years ago when we were in Mammoth and didn't even make it a 1/3 of the way up. So today was a great accomplishment and she had a blast!

There's a New Driver in Town...

Talent Show

Hannah belongs to a girls club that a friend started. It's a group of about fifteen young girls, all Christian. The name of the group is 'Jesus Chicks'.

Every month they do something different. One month I went and taught them all how to decorate a cake, a few months back they made their own strawberry jam, last month they had a Prairie Life Sleepover - one of the Grandmas came and talked about growing up on a farm, they made butter, and ate stew. This month's activity was a Talent Show.

Every girl was encouraged to take part in some way. Hannah was strongly encouraged to do a Karate demonstration by the Mommy Leader as she knew it would be interesting to the other girls and would be something different from what the other girls would be doing.

Hannah practiced her Senior Brown Belt form all week. And coordinated the moves to the music of the Pirates of the Carribbean movie. It looked awesome when she and Daddy practiced it.

Last night was the big night and as expected Hannah was nervous. She is with any performance she must participate in. But she did a great job! She talked a little bit about how long she's been doing Tae Kwon Do, the different belts, the tournaments, showed a couple of her trophies and then did her form. I'm hoping to get the form imported into my computer and onto YouTube in then near future and then will share it here on her blog.

Collecting Box Tops

Due to the budget cuts to education here in the State of California, our school is reliant on all the money we can get. Last year, we raised over $3000 just in Box Tops! We're hoping to earn even more this year.

Saving Box Tops doesn't require buying anything special, chances are, they are on alot of the items you already buy - snack bars, cereals, Ziploc bags, Kleenex boxes, and the list goes on.

In order to spark the competition amongst our classes, a contest is held amongst the lower grades and higher grades. I would LOVE to see our 4th grade class and our Kindergarten class win this current contest. Not to mention the amount of money our school can bring in.

So I'm asking if you wouldn't mind saving your Box Tops for Hannah and Rachel. When you get a bunch, I'd be happy to send you a self addressed stamped envelope to mail them to us! Not only would the girls love getting Box Tops to take to school, but they LOVE getting mail!!!

Indiana Hannah

First Day of 4th Grade

The first day of the new school year has officially come and gone and the verdict is that it's going to be a great year!Hannah came home with all the school supplies her teacher wanted her to have: a 3 ring binder already with dividers, an agenda book, and a pencil pouch. This teacher is going to teach organization and preparing and I already love it! Here is her teacher explaining how she runs a tight ship and she's the captain! All year long she literally runs her class like a ship using terms like "starboard" and "port" and their table groups are "crews", etc, etc. At the end of the year their big field trip is an overnight trip on a Tall Ship where they literally become the crew and work it!!! Hannah's class size jumps from having had 20 kids the last four years to 32 kids today, with the anticipation of possibly two more! We know about ten of the kids really, really well. And know of some of the other kids. But from the looks of the class, we're going to have a very good year. Hannah was excited to be back with some of her friends she's known since Kindergarten. Their third grade year was the first year they all had been separated and this year, they are back together! Not only is she happy, I'm happy to be back with some good friends!

Here's to the 2009-2010 school year!

Looking Back

We've been watching Home Movies over the course of the last week. To say we took a lot of video when Hannah was a baby would be a complete understatement. LOL.

We had quite a few tapes that weren't labeled and have been watching them and labeling along the way. It's been a lot of fun to look back at the life of Hannah thus far. It's funny to see her personality develop through the years and watch her grow into the young girl she is today.

One of the movies we stumbled upon today was the first day of Kindergarten. She was so little. She looked so young. As did the three little boys from church we knew and were embarking on Kindergarten together. And now, all four of those kids who posed for pictures together start the 4th grade tomorrow!! I can't believe it.

Class Lists Posted!

The class lists for the new school year starting tomorrow were posted this afternoon at 4:30.

We were very excited to learn that Hannah got the teacher we had requested. And she was even happier to be back with some of the kids she's known since Kindergarten.

I think this year is going to be a good year for Hannah. This particular class is half GATE students and the teacher teaches outside the box and mixes things up from time to time. She also does some really cool educational field trips. I'm really excited for the school year ahead.