Gymanstics meet

We recently had a local gymnastics meet.
I made 80 cupcakes for the bake sale.  I was very exhausted.
This was our oldest daughter's first competition.
She did great!


While our younger daughter is also on the team, she was a little nervous, and decided to opt this one out so that she could watch.  Once she realized that even the big girls several levels ahead of her also made mistakes, she decided that she wanted to compete too.

Last weekend, they both competed, and both did great.  While our oldest daughter came out 3rd over all in her age division, her best friend took first.
Our younger daughter nailed the vault with a 9.5!  She and one of her team mates tied with the highest vault score from the entire meet!
Once I find the camera I can load some of their pictures.  

The waiting game

Just before we were to head into the planetarium, a couple of kids have to go to the bathroom.
We got locked out and had to wait in the hall.
We kept the kids busy doing cartwheels, sit ups, pushups and hand stands.

The student teacher who was with us, began demontrating how to do proper push ups just as the security guard came through. We asked him to demonstrate his push ups. He showed us army style, and normal.
Check out that straight back!

I'm prettu sure that after this point, I lost the zeal of photo taking.

We ended up heading to bed around 11:20, and waited until after 12:00 for them to turn off the lights.
The next day we watched an IMAX film in 3D (Is that what Imax means?), then breakfasted, and had free run of the museum.
Afterwards, we headed over to the local zoo.

My group headed to the gift shop and took care of all of their purchases first. Then the kids wanted lunch (at 10:30 in the morning), and we wandered around for a couple of hours before the bus ride home.

My bed never felt so nice!

Electricity

We learned about electricity and how static is formed.

We made a human chain and one person passed the shock to the next.
The teacher at the end got shocked after the electricity went through approximately 30 bodies!

Playing with a little static electricity

Night at the museum - the heart

While it really sounds so cliche, we really did spend the night in the museum.
They did SUCH a great job with their organization and activities. There were somewhere between 500-1000 kids in that museum that night...and everything went SO smoothly.
Pizza for dinner


After dinner, we got to do some activities.
Here the kids got to learn about the heart and circuitlatory system.
Then they got to disect a sheep's heart.
That's my girl..just jump in and poke it while the other girls are 'ewwing'

Here's the brave one - she grabbed those scissors and went to work!

State Capital

Right after returning home from South Carolina (we didn't accept the job offer by the way),
I got to accompany my daughter on a field trip to the state capital, the nature and science museum, and the zoo. It was quite the whirlwind! Here are all of the kids and a few teachers on the steps of the state capital.

Because I ended up helping a kid who had some fear of height issues, I let my daughter loose with the camera.
She did a pretty good job!

Looking up

Picturesque staircase

Looking down

Exhibition, and misc photos

Within the past couple of months, we celebrated my birthday...
I love it when my kids create a masterpiece for me!


Our daughter's somehow got hold of the camera and decided to take a few shots of themselves - including everything around the house as well.
She has a purple tongue...kind of like a giraffe.
Pretty flexible eh?

Our oldest daughter got to participate in a cumulative project she's been working on for several months.
Her group explored shelter as it relates to poverty.
She performed some community service, and then helped put together a very compelling presentation.
Part of the presentation was to have people take a crack at sleeping on some newspapers on a concrete floor.
They did such a great job!!

Easter weekend 2011

It looks like I'm going backwards in time! I've missed so much lately!
Our cousins came to visit.
We took the kids to an easter egg hunt. UNDER WATER

They had a blast.
They had to dive for their loot!

After lunch, we pulled out the sugar egg molds and the kids went to work decorating their own panoramic eggs!

The fabric counter

I don't know where this photo came from...it just magically appeared.
Our daughter is getting baptized in a couple of weeks, and I decided to make her a dress.
This lady was crazy. I don't know why they stuck her in the sewing department. She knew nothing about sewing - and only had boys.
She also was working at one side of the counter. There was a sign right in front of her saying that we had to go to the other counter.
We did. There, we found a bell. She totally knew we were there, because I'd been asking questions all along.
She refused to help us until we rang the bell to request her service.??

While I had every intention of sewing a brand new baptism dress for my daughter, due to the scary lady and her lack of help, I didn't get enough material. I had to order it online, and it got here too late.
I'll be adding that to the summer projects list.

If I lived in South Carolina

If I lived in South Carolina, this is the neighborhood I would live in.
It is in perfect proximity to our church, the best schools, and it is beautiful and very peaceful.
I spent an entire day with a realtor, and this was my favorite area.
We'd definitely have to put in a swimming pool though.


And of course - I'd have to have several magnolia trees in my yard. I heart magnolia trees!

After church on Sunday (we went to a couple of different wards to check them out) we
drove over to a nearby lake. We had a little picnic on the side of the road while killing some time before our flight left.

Here's my awesome view of the earth from my airlplane window. I'm sure the fellow passengers thought I was a nut, but how can you go up that high and not think about what things must look like to Heavenly Father, and how different his perspective must be. The things that seem so important usually aren't.  Or maybe this picture just reminded me of home.  Lots of fluffy white snow and a crystal blue sky!

Boats and plantations

This struck my curiosity as we drove past. So - how do the boats get up there?
How do they get back down?


We decided to head out and sight see. Here's a country lane.
Off to the right is the Dreyton plantation.
We drove through a couple of plantations, but in the end decided not to take any tours due to the lateness of the hour.

Check out the spanish moss on this cool tree!

I met a local woman named Mary Morgan while in South Carolina. She mentioned to me that all of her friends (southerners) refer to the Civil war as "The great waah of no-then agression" (you really have to say that with the correct southern accent to get the full impact).
Guess this sign sort of tells it like that too.

Another Ocean!

We decided to spend a day exploring near the coast. We headed to Folly Beach, and watched someone fishing off the pier pull this fish in while we waited for lunch on the pier.

I know, enough with the pictures of food. This was my ALL time favorite food of the trip. It was a breakfast entree, but the waitress recommended it. Poached eggs with grits and a creamy mushroom spicy sauce served with corn fritters with tomato jam. It was SO amazing!

Our beach photos.

Unfortunately, after spending an hour or so at lunch on the pier, and after getting the kids some souvenirs, we headed out to the water. After about 10-15 minutes, we decided that beaches are just SO much more fun with our kids.
We decided to check out some other features of the area and headed out.

More South Carolina

On Friday we spent the day driving around, orienting ourselves with the area, and in the afternoon we headed to the nearby temple.  We had a great experience there, and then headed out for some grub.

On our way there, we got completely stuck in a raging rain storm and ended up pulling off the road to wait it out.

We ended up at a barbecue place that had been recommended.

I ordered the buffet so that I could try out everything and then some.  It was so fun.  I ended up trying out grits with shrimp gravy (you kind of mix it together - good thing the kitchen helper guy was there to explain how to put everything together!), shrimp, squash casserole, broccoli casserole, okra, hash, bbq pork, mac'n'cheese (with pimentos - which is all the rage apparently).  Just a taste of everything.  My husband went for the ribs.  We loved trying to figure out what the side dishes actually were - when my husband ordered okra, the waitress said 'oh yeah, something normal'...we laughed since okra isn't really normal for us.  

Hash & Rice, Collards, Rice & Gravy Okra, Sweet Potato French Fries, Succatash, Okra & Tomatoes...yep..those were all of the foreign foods.  And, it just seems weird to have cabbage on a menu at a restaurant - unless it is in sauerkraut on a hot dog!