Bird Museum

Second grade does a wonderful unit on birds every Spring. It includes a field trip to the World Bird Sanctuary as well as a research poster and culminates in dressing up as your bird and doing a "museum" consisting of a 30 second presentation to parents and other classes at CCS.

Sam chose the Atlantic Puffin as his bird. It is in the arctic bird family! Ask him about his bird and he can tell you a myriad of interesting facts! Making the costume was fairly easy because we at least only had 3 basic colors unlike Emma's painted bunting choice last year!

We, meaning I, got a late start on the costume. Sam was getting sort of stressed out that it wasn't going to be done on time and I kept assuring him that I would get it done. He was more than grateful when he saw the finished product yesterday. It was no the most elaborate costume by any means, but he loved it and that made me happy :)

Here is his research poster:
Here is Bradley, the king penguin, next to Sam. Bradley, "Where is your face?"
I am so proud of Sam and really of the entire second grade for pulling this off. I drove on Tuesday to the bird sanctuary and all 5 of the kids in my van would not stop talking about their birds. They really learned a lot through this unit and it was a joy to see them so excited about learning.

Now off to bed. The bird museum is an exhausting week for the parents.

Some new things

I feel the need to ramble this morning so here goes...

We have a house! I am excited about that and fearful all at the same time. I am excited enough to tell you, but fearful enough to not give you the address!! It will be great for our family and most of all my boys, who are making plans for the vast amount of green space. We will be there in 2 months and so the visual furniture arranging has begun in my head. Scott and I are giving a face lift to our kitchen table which I will proudly post another time. But overall there is a feeling of anticipation and a great feeling of closure in finding a place to land and live for a LONG time!

I am also struggling with change. Change of moving outside 270. I feel that I am moving very far away. I know it is for the best, but I am sad. I fear that my friendships will change and that my running schedule will suffer and that my kids will be late EVERY day. There is also a lot of staff changes going on at my church and that is always hard. You love the people who serve you weekly in a weird way and when they leave, although it is happy for them, there is a feeling of great loss.

I am also excited about my recent auction win! Scott and I won the raffle type drawing on Saturday night at the CCS auction and chose the trip to Naples! I have never ever won anything like that! It seems that God knows we will need another vacation after all of this "transition" stuff!

Our dear friends, The Ellisons, had baby #6 last week. It was a great joy to rejoice with them in having another, long awaited, little GIRL (this should help balance out the 4 boys). Emmaline was a full term baby but within the first 48 hours she was in the NICU and is still in the hospital. They are full of faith and trust that God will take care of her, but they still do not know what is wrong and why she is failing to breathe, at times. Just another reminder of joy and struggle all mixed together, which draws us closer to God, even if it is just to ask, "Why?"

Our Emma was diagnosed with Dyslexia a couple of weeks ago and is undergoing a special reading program at school. She is aware and has a great attitude which I am very thankful for! I feel so loved by everyone involved at our school. While I am not necessarily rejoicing in this diagnosis, I am thankful that we know what if "OFF" about her and that we can rejoice in her strengths. She has learned to adapt her learning to compensate for this visual lag and is therefore really smart everywhere else! And as always she is an inquisitive little thing!

It is spring her in St. Louis which is a beautiful combination with daylight savings time! My kids are tired and can't awake on time, but the weather was great for eating our tacos outside last night! And Claire got a new bike yesterday which she has been riding around the loop here at our rental...I do take joy in how God has provided for us in all the little details :)