International Festival

The big 3rd grade project at the boys' school is International Festival. They each chose a country from their heritage and researched it for weeks, wrote a paper on it and came in costume, with a food and presented it to all of the 3rd grade families before performing their International music program twice that day. Brady enjoyed learning about Wales (my mom's side of the family) and making Welsh cakes with her. He knew a little about Wales because my mom and Aunt make Welsh cakes every March and put on a tea for our entire community each St. David's Day in March. They are yummy!

3rd graders from Brady's class in costume -

With his teacher, Miss Thompson -

With another "Brady" -

With Colin, another boy that chose Wales - Brady was wearing a Welsh Rugby jersey.

Two of the custest 3rd graders in costume :)

The music program consisted of songs and dances from different countries. It was great!

They had a couple entertainers perform during the program and Marcela & her cousin, Mariana, performed and did a great job.

Last Weekend

It's been so long that I won't even try to catch up. Things have been crazy busy with the boys playing basketball, Brady's baseball practices, watching high school basketball games and of course, spending time with Marcela, our exhange student from Brazil :)

Last weekend our church had a special day for 3rd graders - they got their own Bibles during church on Sunday. On Saturday, we walked through the ceremony and they spent time doing activities with their Bibles and having fun with the group.

I love our minister, Ron King. His message to the kids Saturday morning was very special. I loved that he took the time to look up the meaning of each child's name and include it on the message within each Bible.
Brady's name means "wide expansion" and he explained why that was important. He had something special to mention about each kid and talked about how Brady had taught him "all about music" - which was amazing because I didn't realize he really knew the kids that well. For the next 5 weeks, the 3rd graders are having a special class to learn how to use their Bibles. I hope they enjoy it!

Brady has spent a lot of time practicing basketball with his team this season. They are almost through the season and although they have won a tournament game, they haven't won A game in league play. They are playing in the top level of the 4th grade league - they are 3rd graders. That has been a big change, since I believe they had just lost 1 game the entire 2 seasons prior playing boys their age.

It was a decision the team made (not to play the top level, but to play in 4th grade league) and I see glimpses of them getting better (you HAVE to protect the ball when everyone else is a foot taller :) but it's been hard. Not because they have lost so much, but to see the boys get down on themselves. They are so darn talented.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving Day at Grandma and Grandpa Jones. It was really nice and the kiddos were able to enjoy playing tag and "discovering" everything around the farm. Their neighbors saved a doe and have been feeding her for almost 3 months. Now she acts just like a dog and is very friendly towards humans so they have her locked inside their barn until deer season ends. She wanted out so bad - she'll be glad to be free shortly! The kids (and myself) thought it was unbelieveable to be able to pet a deer and have it act SO calm.

Starting Early

My parents came up and we went to see "A Christmas Carol" at the high school. It did seem a bit early for this play, but the music got us into the holiday spirit. The kids did a great job! (and Brady saw the owner of the StrikeZone - the baseball facility we recently joined - and walked all the way around to talk to him which was nice/surprising to see).

Ed said people weren't allowed to take pictures, but all I heard was video ;)

Strykers

Very proud of the team and how much they improved this season. Go Strykers!

Pumpkin faces

I love Halloween. I LOVE pumpkins. Sure wish it would have stayed 80 degrees, but it worked out well (at least for me!) for Ed to carve the pumpkins while we fixed/ate dinner tonight. The boys looked at some pictures and gave their final requests. Ed did a great job!

Not sure why Brady thought this was such a great pose with his pumpkin. . .whatever :)

Where's the Beef?

Ed's company's fall event this year was having a tent/party (they even competed in the contest on Sunday) at the American Royal BBQ - we had never been before and it was a lot of fun. The food was amazing - they took 18th in the Brisket contest.