Video Project

It is spring break here. It's really nice to have the kids home from school. We're trying to do fun things that we never seem to have time for each day. Yesterday Allie and Luke both got to have friends over. Today, Allie, Isa and Luke made a newscast movie. It's about 5 min long, but pretty cool. Allie and Isa did the editing and writing with a little help. It was neat to see what stories they came up with and how well they could use iMovie to edit.

Scrabble

We played games after church today. I played Scrabble with Allie and thought I had her until the very end when she made a power play. She spelled "zinnia" and made 70 points with triple letter and double word bonuses. I used to beat her all the time in 2nd grade, but maybe the tables have turned. Dang!

Michael played checkers with Luke and beat him so I guess we're still okay.

"I Beat Pete" video

Here is the video that I talked about on an earlier post. It aired on the news here in Lubbock. Allie thought it was cool to be on TV. Actually, Luke is on there too in the background in some shots if you look closely. (I'm there too, but don't look for me!)

Kate's Birthday

Kate turned 2! Actually it was in February, but I am playing catch up. Here's some pictures from the day:

We thought it would be fun to wake Kate up on her birthday so we all went in to sing to her. Unfortunately it really scared her and she woke up shaking and crying. Oops!
We had to have something fun for breakfast. I didn't have much time, so we had a rare treat: cinnamon rolls from a can. Kate called them cookies. She calls everything that comes from the oven cookies, which is funny because I don't make cookies very often.

Kate LOVES to go eat lunch with the kids at school. We try to go once a week, but we had missed some weeks. When we drove by their school, she asked for Allie and Luke so we went to have lunch with them. She even got to eat their lunch out of their bags which is pretty cool. Kate is like a superstar at their school. Everyone likes her. She even got a name tag. When you come to the school, you have to check in and get name tag. Now the ladies in the office make one for Kate. When we leave, all the kids say goodbye to Kate.

For our kids' 2nd birthdays, we like to take them to do something they like. Kate likes to play at the park, but because it was so cold we had to settle for the playground at Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A will always remind us of Lubbock--it's big here. The kids really like it and they have a pretty good southwestern salad that we always get. Moments after this picture was taken, disaster struck in the shape of Luke spilling all of his chocolate milk down Allie's leg. If you know Allie you know that even though she has a wonderful temperament and is kind and loving, she does not deal with stuff like this very well. We made a "minor" scene and Michael decided we would never eat out again. We managed to eat with a very sticky floor and the kids got to play a little. We left with Kate screaming because she wanted to play more, Luke bouncing up and down with excitement and Michael carrying Allie on his back because her shoes were soaked with chocolate milk. As we left, Michael heard someone say, "Are all those theirs?"

UPDATE: We have since been out to eat, but we haven't been back to Chick-Fil-A. We may never go back.

Opening presents--Kate has finally learned what that is all about.

Playing with her kitchen for the first time.

These are fun little wooden food items that we found at a toy store here. We think they are very cool and durable too! Kate likes to stack them.

Aunt Peggy likes to spoil us with ice cream cakes.
Kate thought the cake was pretty cool.

This video is of Kate getting her kitchen set. When we were looking at kitchen sets at the store she was obsessed with putting the baby in the oven. That was the first thing she wanted to do when she got her kitchen. For everyone who hasn't seen her in a while, this is pretty good idea of what she's like now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM!

March 11th is Kim's birthday. I can't imagine my life without her. We've almost been married for 11 years. That's a long time to put up with me. Kim is absolutely wonderful. She is amazing. She is an incredible wife, mother, and friend. She serves our family daily and endlessly. She keeps everything together here. I love her to pieces. She means the world to me. I thank God for Kim. I love you Kim. I hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Love,
Michael

Lubbock-Avalanche Regional Spelling Bee

Today was the Regional Spelling Bee for West Texas. There were 21 district champs competing and the winner won a trip to Washington, DC to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. A 7th grade boy won. Allie did great and finished ahead of about half of the kids. It's kind of neat to think that only 9 kids were between her and the national spelling bee. She studied the dictionary almost every day since she won her school bee. It was impressive to see her constantly lugging her big dictionary around. Here are some photos and an account of the day:

We arrived early and had some left over pizza for lunch. (Last night we had pizza and watched "Akeelah and the Bee" to get in the mood. That's a great movie and if you haven't seen it, you should check it out.)






This was taken moments before Kate and I left to drop her off at my friend Debbie's house. It was so nice of her to take care of Kate. Spelling bees and toddlers don't mix. You may notice that her hair looks a little funny. As we were getting shoes on to run out the door, Kate snuck into the bathroom and put shampoo/conditioner in her hair. We didn't have time to wash it out, so she got to sport the "greasy" look.


Checking in and picking a number. Allie chose 18.


Sitting and waiting for the bee to begin. Look how tall some of those kids are! They ranged from 3rd to 8th grade and all of them had to spell from the same list of words.


Our champion! Her first word in the practice round was "Character". Allie survived the first round which took out 9 of the 21 spellers. Her word was "diablo". Allie went out with 3 other spellers in the next round. Her word was "yamen" and she spelled it "yamin" (Yamen is a noun, it is the residence or office of an official in the Chinese Empire in case you wanted to know) She paused at the "m" and you could tell that she was trying to decide between "i" and "e". She was so close!


We are so proud of Allie. She was great today! She has lugged a dictionary around to school and studied thousands of words. She still has 5 more years of spelling bee "eligibility". She is a hard worker and has been blessed with a great mind.


Allie's fan club. She is surrounded by Isa, Mr. Langen the vice principal, her teacher Mrs. Warren is in the blue, and Mrs. Kornely another of Allie's teachers. It meant so much that they would use their Saturday to come support Allie. She is blessed to have so many people at school who love her and help her. So many people were rooting for her and cheering her on this week.

It looks like that giant bee balloon is going to eat Allie.


Allie won the award for the youngest speller there. Even though there were a couple of other 3rd graders, she was the only 8 yr old. She also received a gift bag with goodies and a gift card to Sonic.


Allie chose Fuddruckers for the celebration dinner. We haven't been there before, but it was a pretty good hamburger joint. We sat in the Buddy Holly corner which was cool because he was from Lubbock.


Sometimes I just don't understand why this 2 year old only weighs 21.5 lbs. This was actually my hamburger, but Kate decided she wanted it. The days of just feeding her off of our plates are apparently over.


After snagging my burger, Kate went for my drink.



The Boys


We ended the day at Isa's house with a bee cake I made for Allie.