More field trips, galore

Well, to keep my last post from being forever long I thought I'd break up my field trips into two posts.

3rd grade went to Red Rock Canyon...after a solid day of rain. Yes, we were not excited. The moms that is. The students were all fired up!

Here's what we saw everywhere we turned!

And this.
We were so busy looking down that we were actually missing some beautiful scenery!

We saw some beautiful bird nests on the side of a cliff.

And some interesting trees!

And these two natural wonders were quite beautiful:C)

She makes mud look cute!

Then off to the Art Museum with the middle school Art class.
This is a 5 story glass work of art.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of it!

Can you see the person in here? Looks kind of like a cherub.

There he is! This piece of artwork has 1400 pieces and was shipped in 1400 boxes from Seattle and assembled on sight. The artist has made some other amazing pieces that are on display right here in OKC.

This was the ceiling! The artist has this same thing on the bottom of his pool!

Kind of made me think I was in a Dr. Suess book.

And then there was this amazing work of art sitting right next to another:C)

So ends the crazy 12 days of field trips. Only 8 more days of school. Of course, there's something to do every single one of those 8 days. It just happens at school, not on a field trip.

Field Trips, galore

Well, it's that time of year...May Madness. In the last 12 days my 3 children have had 8 field trips. Of course, at times there were two on the same day, at the same time. I can't be two places at once, as I'm sure most of you know. To add insult to injury we also had a piano contest and recital during all of that. Just to name a few I've been to a florist, hiking at Red Rock Canyon, an art museum, and the zoo. Twice. Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from my 12 days of chaos.
Of course you have to see the anteater. What was God thinking? He most definitely had a sense of humor.

We got to see the Albino Peacock!

Speaking of that sense of humor. Anyone ever seen a Frogmouthed bird?

How perfect is this shirt for a LEAP field trip? LEAP is the gifted and talented program. Thanks Becca for the shirt!

I just love the Bat House. We have a bat in our neighborhood. When we swim after dark he drinks from the pool. Freaky, yet cool.

Can you see the Red Panda in this picture? Look hard, he's in there somewhere.

Then there were these animals. It took almost 15 minutes to buy two drinks.

We saw two gorillas holding feet. How sweet is that?
And then there were these two gorillas.

As always, the misters were a highlight.

We found a male Peacock without tail feathers. I felt so sorry for him.

We took pictures on every possible statue.

Sometimes it was hard to see what the animal underneath them was.

Did you all know that my pet Turkey Tom saved my life once? Interesting story. If I survive all these field trips and ever blog again maybe I'll share it.

This got quite a few laughs.

I think this grizzly was embarrassed that we caught him relaxing in the tub.

This was just too funny to pass up!

The elephant getting a bath was HIGHLY entertaining! Thank goodness for digital, I took 25 pictures!

The flowers were beautiful! The massive amounts of rain we had the morning of this trip probably helped!

These aren't animals but they sure were cute. He had a habit of wandering. When all 90 students are wearing the same shirt it made him a little hard to keep up with! Reagan helped me with that.

I think these are animals!

I also had a pet peacock. Her name was Peachick and she would knock on the door every morning and I'd come out with two pieces of toast. I'd sit on the front step and we'd eat together.
And so the week ended. This picture was taken about 6 hours before we had a piano recital. She was not amused!

Awards Ceremony

McKinley is my first born, the most like me. That's good and bad.

She has always been a straight A student...until last year. She had a teacher and student (the teacher's daughter) that made her life pure hell. Sorry Grandma, but it was hell. There was physical abuse and verbal abuse and some very underhanded things that were done. We were thrilled that she finished the year with B's and C's.

This year, she's not putting up with the girls abuse and the mother/teacher is in another building and doesn't have much control over anything. The last thing the teacher did though before McKinley left elementary was put her in regular math instead of advanced. I called the counselor when I found out and he told me the criteria to be in it were #1. to be in LEAP, and #2. to have scored a certain amount on the standardized testing. She met both those requirements. The final thing it came down to, the team teacher made the final decision. Yep, you guessed it, she kept McKinley out of it.

I got a call two weeks ago saying McKinley was getting an award at the ceremony. During the first semester she had gotten the 'Purple Broncho Award'. Straight A's, less then 3 tardies, and no office referrals. On her last report card she had one B so I guessed that she was going to get the 'White Broncho Award'. Almost like the Purple but not straight A's. Imagine our surprise when her name was called for the top student in English!

Then she was asked to stay on stage....

and she was given the award for top Math student!

I was bursting with pride at this point and thought the 'White Broncho' would round out the evening for us. But that award came and she wasn't called. Yep, she got the 'Purple Broncho'!! She brought her B up to an A and got the top award!

So....the way I see it is...if she had been in Advanced Math she would have been in the middle of the class. But since she is in regular old 6th grade Math she's the top student. We're slowly proving to that teacher that she can't mess with us anymore!

Fasting

Who would have guessed that me, little old Stephanie, would have survived 5 days without chewing? Certainly not me! I have truly shocked and amazed myself. I am officially down 14 pounds since Monday. 5 days. 14 pounds in 5 days. I have to keep saying it or it might not be true! I have not only survived cooking for my family but eating out with friends and taking my girls out for fast food twice! I even dipped onion rings in ketchup and handed them out and didn't even want a bite. Me, the onion ring fanatic!! I've stopped using the recipes I found and I'm just making my own. Putting in what sounds good. I haven't been disappointed yet. They're all good. This mornings was 3 apples, 2 oranges, a beet, baby carrots, a mango, and some spinach. The color is amazing! Shawn has decided, because of my amazing success, that he wants to juice one meal a day. It was so good that it was hard to share it with him but... he is the love of my life... so I did. I have one friend that's buying a juicer today and another who is researching it. I hope they'll do it. It's amazing how good you can feel!