teeth and potatoes

I've been a bit lax here about getting photos posted...combination of laziness and forgetfulness. Here's a few from last week:

First, we've got Annie doing a mammal skull lab in which she is examining mammal skulls and trying to determine the animal's diet:





No surprise that Annie is really enjoying our mammals unit. We're using David Attenborough's Life of Mammals as our unofficial textbook, and we've been watching the series on DVD as well. And though we've done it before, we'll probably do some live small mammal trapping in the yard, and head out to somewhere to make some plaster casts of mammal tracks. I'm personally looking forward to Annie's power point presentation, where she can teach me a bit about one of her favorite mammals, the Canadian lynx. A field trip the American Museum of Natural History sure would be a fun culminating activity, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to swing it.
















And here she is cooking up a recipe, potato pancakes, for Idaho:



They were quite yummy, but not nearly as much as that apple pie! Annie and I are a tad jealous...we'll soon be moving on to New Mexico, but while we're reading and watching videos and cooking, Jean will actually be there in person! Not a chance we can fit in her luggage either.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that Annie had her first soccer game of the season last night, but her frazzled old mom had forgotten to take the camera.

just keeps getting better

I don't think Annie ever could have imagined that today would be even more exciting than yesterday, but it has definitely proved to be just that!

First off, today is Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day. Rich's school always puts together all kinds of great things for the kids. Annie has always had a ball, and this year was no exception. Gray was finally old enough to go as well, so we also had one very happy little boy on our hands. Gray actually spent the morning with Rich as he was doing a fun animal lab with his students that he figured Gray would really enjoy.

But Annie went off with the other kids to do the "planned activities" for the morning. One of these was "classes" was on recycling. And each kid had to make a poster on recycling. The posters were later judged...and Miss Annie won first place! I wish I could post of photo of the poster, but they're keeping it hanging on campus for now (and Rich had forgotten to take the camera with him to school). But here's a picture of Annie with her prize:



(Rich is more than a little jealous...he really wants one of these hoodies, but they cost $40 at the bookstore.)

But that's not the most exciting part of Miss Annie's day...no, that would involve something she received in the mail. She was invited to the Awards Ceremony for being among the top-scoring students on the John Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth's SCAT test. Way to go, Annie! (And Jean--I'm sure you've been through this, so maybe you can give us a heads up of what it will be like...you know, like is she supposed to dress up? will she receive her certificate during the ceremony, or do they just hand them out afterwards?...that kind of stuff.)

Anyway, we will be taking her out to dinner to celebrate shortly...after she and Rich get home from a talk being given by retired Army Major General Batiste.

making friends

Sometimes the highlight of a day is making friends and learning to lean on others. Yesterday was another Camp Arrowhead day for Miss Annie. And I think she had more fun there than she ever has before...and believe me, that's really saying something!

"Working Dogs" and "Community Cooperation" made up the schedule. Annie was most excited about "Working Dogs"...anything involving animals always gets a big thumbs up with her. Yep, she's a typical kid on that one. But it turned out to be the "Community Cooperation" class that left her full of excitement for the rest of the day. It simply involved solving problems as a group. This was not only a great life exercise, but it allowed Annie to finally feel a part of this group. Since her birthday, she was moved up to the older class and just really hadn't felt like she belonged yet. Now she most definitely does. She talked a mile a minute all the way home and for the next hour or so after. I think she may also have gained a little admirer...we'll have to wait and see on that one. But he made of point of getting Annie a chair at lunch and then asked for her phone number at the end of the day. (It was really sort of cute, though Annie might kill me for saying so.)

And then last night, the kids had their final swimming lesson of the current session. Annie wasn't so sure she would "graduate" and get to move up to Level 4, but she did. It's truly amazing to see how well she's swimming these days, after refusing to put her face in the water for so many years. :)



We were so proud of Gray as well...he "graduated" and gets to move to Level 2. He was so worried that Max would get to move up and he wouldn't. (No amount of reassurance from us could convince him that that wasn't going to happen.)



Max didn't "pass"...he won't jump into the pool, which is one of the requirements for moving up to Level 2. Luckily, he was not upset in the slightest...Whew. He just has a ball while he's there. And he's learning water safety and how to keep himself afloat, and that's all we really care about.



And to celebrate everyone's success, we went out afterward to the local ice cream shop!