Spring Break Day Trip

Doug took the day off so we could spend a day all together during the kids' spring break. We decided to head south and tour the State Capital, something we have wanted to do with the kids for some time. The weather wasn't great, but we had the best day, thoroughly enjoying our time together.

Cherry Blossom beauty...

It really is such a pretty building!

The kids nicknamed the gold "Oregon Pioneer" statue "Golden Bro"!  They are so funny!

Waiting for our tour to begin. The tour was amazing and very imformitive.

The Governer's Formal desk

Carpet shot..ha!

This replica of our state flag went to the moon!

It was fun and interesting to sit in on a legislative session. They were even talking about education reform.

The grounds of the capital are so beautiful! 

After a lunch stop at Red Robin, we headed back north to the World of Speed Museum, a place we (as motor sports fans) have wanted to go to for a long time. This place did NOT disappoint! 

The kids didn't know we were stopping here... they were quite excited!

  The museum is full of auto racing history. From Indy car, to NASCAR to things in between. It is so cool! And they have a lot of interactive things for the entire family.

 

 The kids (and their dad) tested their drag strip "tree" skills.

This is one of the biggest motors I have even seen. Huge... from a drag boat!

Evelyn LOVED this cool chair!

They have 3 different driving simulators. Matthew REALLY wanted to drive. They technically are for older kids, but the museum was slow and the volunteers thought Matthew's enthusiasm was great, so they let him.

Tim giving Matthew tips. They had to find something to prop him up so he could see...haha!

He's really driving!

Tim and Doug helped him quite a bit but overall he did really well!

My goofy race car driver celebrating in the mock Victory Lane!

What is REALLY in here, mom? Evelyn had to get in on the photo op, too, but was a bit leery of the bottle of milk! :)

We made it home in time for dinner and an early bedtime. It was definitely the high point of the kids' spring break, and I am thankful for family time!

AWANA Grand Prix

Our AWANA Club's Grand Prix was today, and as usual we had a fun time and our proud of Evelyn and Matthew working hard to build their cars!!

They picked their designs a while ago.... Matthew wanted to make a stealth fighter and Evelyn wanted to make a whale car. Doug helped the with the bigger tools, but like in previous years, they did a lot of the work themsleves.

Working hard in Dad's shop to make their cars perfect. 

As always, the pancake breakfast was a hit with my family!

 This is Sable. And I love her!

 The raffle is always a HUGE hit! SO many amazing prizes!!

 

I was in charge of selling raffle/breakfast tickets again this year. And, as always, the early call time called for Starbucks! 

 Our amazing track, with a computer timing system and replay camera system to boot!

 The kids were ready to race. Both of them did awesome, each winning one and placing in several others. They did great!

Evelyn's cool whale car

Matthew's stealth fighter

My BIG raffle win!! I really wanted this Starbucks gift basket.. and I won it! It is worth at least $150. SO excited!!

Oregon Battle of the Books

Back in November, Evelyn signed on to be a part of Oregon Battle of the Books, a state reading competition that is held at schools across the state. Students compete in teams and "battle" against other teams on book knowledge. Evelyn was fortunate enough to have been chosen as an alternate last year as a 3rd grader (its mainly for 4th and 5th grade) and battled on a 5th grade team and did very well. Reading definitely is one of my sweet girl's loves so I was happy that she wanted to do OBOB again this year.

Her team consisted of 4 sweet, smart, energetic and silly girls whom I took under me wing to mentor for the big battle, which was TODAY! For the past 3 months or so we have meet weekly or even twice weekly to talk about the books and go over sample questions. The girls also made sure to have fun too, and we did things like make Christmas cookies, took walks around the block and took trips to the park.

During our first meeting we had back in November, I had two things for the girls to decide, the first being their team name. They chose the team name "Huckleberry Rubber Duckies", after Evelyn shared about the rock formation with the same name that she scaled up at Anthony Lakes this past summer. The second thing to decide was how serious they wanted to be. I really felt these girls had the potential to REALLY do well, but I also didn't want to push them if they just wanted to have fun. The girls were ALL IN and were committed to working as hard as they could.

This morning, they all were nervous but excited. I gave them a pep talk and off they went to their first battle.

Matching "Huckleberry Rubberduckie" socks... a little gift to them on battle day. They loved them!

Ready to go!

Cheering section.. kids from their class made them signs for support. 

First battle.. they got off to a bumpy start but once they got into a rhythm they won handedly. 

The girls kept winning battles and eventually made it to the fourth grade final... and they WON!!!! They were so excited and I was so proud of them.... they worked so hard and totally earned that title. Fourth grade champs.. and a chance to battle the 5th grade champs for the title of Fir Grove champs and earn a spot in the regional competition!

The big final battle was at the end of the day. The girls fought hard and did so great.. and lost to the 5th grade boys team by just ONE point! ONE!

Even though they didn't win that last battle, they were so happy and excited that they did so well and that the day was over! :) I have to admit, I was a bit misty eyed as they celebrated... I am so proud of them!

I took the girls to Dairy Queen after school to celebrate a job very well done. 

I will miss working with these girls but know we all will remember our time together. Proud of my Huckleberry Rubberduckies!!