Choir Babes

Maddie sang with these lovely ladies (friends since 3rd grade!) and the Varsity Choir at their Annual Christmas Concert. We love these girls!

Music, maestro?

This Fall Maddie has played her french horn for Pep Rallys

and sang in the Fall Choir with the middle school Varsity Choir

We love to see her perform and especially enjoy that she likes it so much.

2nd Grade Poetry Slam

As an avid reader and Humanities (major) Lover, I was thrilled to be invited to a Poetry Day at Nick's school. Just two 2nd grade classes participated and I loved every minute of it. Nick was super jazzed to have me read all the stories and poetry he wrote this year -- each story was dedicated to someone and bound, so they consider it "published work."

We were hosted by Nick's teacher in the library and after seeing all the "published" stories our kids had written this year, we read all the types of poetry they had learned about and written; then we had lemonade and cookies while we listed to our child recite his/her poems.

Nick reads his poem, whose subject is his best classmate, Malik!

Some of Nick's classmates and buddies, Alaura and Malik.

We love his class, his teacher, and his school!

Nick's Poetry Slam

Band Concert

While we were in Washington DC, we missed Maddie's band concert

Accolades & Awards

Today was CTMS' Awards' Ceremony

and Maddie received a medal for her work as 6th grade student council representative. As such, she met with 7th and 8th grade officers to plan spirit events and dances. They made posters and sold tickets at lunch-time and talked about ways to make the school better.

She ran for Student Council VP for next year and won, so she is super excited!

This is Maddie and Ben D., whose dad took these photos for me (dead battery) of our kids. They are friends and Ben won 2 awards for Top Band Student. Many awards were given for all classes. So, at then end, after giving out about 50 medals to Most Improved Student and All Around Top Students (in Math, Language Arts, Choir, Band, Science & Social Studies), the principal said they had 3 Principal's Awards to give to the very top students in 3 areas: Academic, Outstanding, and Most Improved. He said that these were the most prestigious awards given by C.T. Middle School and that one boy and one girl would receive one for each category; that out of 350 sixth graders, these 6 were discussed by all the sixth grade teachers (about 20 in total) and decided upon by the entire 6th grade faculty. He began to read this paragraph: The next young lady we would like to recognize approaches academic subjects, like she approaches everything that she does, with enthusiasm and a quiet determination to succeed. She combines her full extra-curricular schedule which includes acting in the school’s UIL plays and student council with the high standards she sets for her school work and completes it all with a smile on her face! This year’s Outstanding 6th Grade girl is Miss Maddie Buckwalter.

My chin and lip started quivering half way through as I realized it was Maddie! I've cried at much less, so this was like the floodgates were about to be torn down! Tears ran to my eyes and I was brimming with pride, love, gratitude, and joy. I was so surprised!

Proudest mom ever and bright, shining daughter. Happiness exudes through her and blesses us at home and others at school. Way to go, Maddie!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! KEEP UP THE BEAUTIFUL ATTITUDE AND LOVE FOR LIFE!

Passionate about Health

This is one thing I am passionate about: serving real food, adding veggies and fruit (purees often) to foods we eat, and making sure we all eat lots of anti-oxidants (cell healers: they keep our cells young and functioning at top ability) and vitamins and immune boosting foods/supplements.

This is whole wheat French bread (Albertson's has a few now and again) dipped in eggs, soy milk (or organic milk) and 1/2 cup of butternut squash (pureed). We add cinnamon and nutmeg and sometimes a little bit of orange juice. It is so tasty! So sweet and has a slightly pumpkin-y flavor; just slightly. I got the idea from my most favorite cookbook written by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife). She sneaks pureed veggies and fruits into breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Actually, her kids and Jerry know about it and love what she does. She uses fresh ingredients, egg whites, butter substitutes, some sugars less refined than white, etc. I love that she tells you how to prepare the purees (easy and quick both) and about labeling them in freezer bags and storing them; then you get out what you need, heat it up and mix it in.

These are our whole wheat (1/2 white flour) pancakes made with 1/2 c. of butternut squash, flax seed, chopped walnuts or pecans or almonds, frozen (thawed or fresh when in season) blueberries and a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg. They are delicious! The kids eat them without syrup most of the time.

The other things I routinely put purees in are:

• pizza (spinach puree)
• banana/zucchini bread (squash puree)
• pastas (cauliflower or summer squash purees)
• cakes/cookies (squash or zucchini or carrot or pumpkin, depending on what type of cookie)
• sauces (varied purees: cauliflower, squash...)
• smoothies (full of fruit; can add pureed spinach and not taste difference)
• chocolate cake (beet puree)

Our kids love to brag about what I have put into our food when friends are over; I don't want to turn off their friends from eating, so I plead with the kids to not mention it til we are done eating. So far, I have only had compliments to the food, even to the zucchini-banana-craisin cookies and the spinach laden whole wheat bagel pizzas.

The kids feel good, are rarely sick and I hope we are establishing life long traditions of eating to live, not living to eat! Health, wellness, vitality, wisdom and freedom from addictions, skin problems, organ issues, overweight, immune disfunction and depression to name a few.

A couple of fabulous websites by others who are actually physicians who support preventative medicine (as opposed to most MDs who treat disease with drugs and don't work on preventing disease) and integrated medicine (and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy which I am following) are these:

http://www.stangardnermd.com/ MD who now looks to prevent disease and writes a lot about sugar addiction, food cravings, poisonous sugar substitutes (Splenda and Aspertame) and healthy, natural sugar substitutes. I am loving his website!

http://www.realage.com/ Dr. Oz and Dr. Rozien's website if FULL of awesome recipes, facts, ideas, etc. You can see how "old" you really are by taking a detailed health self-analysis which covers mental, social, emotional and physical health. I was thrilled to be told I am living 5 years younger than I really am, though after the quiz, it told me specifically where I could improve and knock more years off (live younger and longer) by doing a few things differently than I do now.

Excellent health of body gives me a happy mind, an upbeat disposition, ability to work, serve, and play. It keeps my spirit up and lets me do all the things I want to do. Exercise, which I didn't mention is my 'drug' of choice and without it I feel lethargic, prone to eat poorly, and a bit down. Weights, walking, yoga, pilates, kick-boxing and zumba get me fired up! What is really blessing my life now is yoga with it's emphasis on breathing, focusing on the breath, mind, thoughts, and body and getting in tune with the divinity within me and the potential within myself for good; I move so fast all the time, I breath shallowly and don't take time to nurture myself. This year, at age 40 I am determined to live fully: healthfully, mindfully, quietly, introspectively, honestly, gracefully, and to Stand Up for My Life (favorite title I'm reading now by Cheryl Richardson).

Wow, that is my most personal entry of all time. As this is a family journal, I want to record and remember this. Much, much more is in my personal notebook/journal.

Quotes from Stand Up For Your Life:

"When you make a conscious commitment to your own inner development, you take a giant step toward making a greater contribution to others."

"Think of self-discipline as an act of love. When you engage in any behavior that honors yourself, you automatically raise yourself-esteem--the ability to hold yourself in high regard."

"Your thoughts are like magnets. What you think about and focus your attention on shows up in your life."

Pledging with the Superintendent

Ted's brother, Mark and his wife Ashley and son, Noah (the Nink) came to see us again! (last visit was Thanksgiving) In actuality, they came for a wedding in Dallas and we are lucky enough to live nearby...so they stayed with us.

Writings By Nick

All About Me "My name is Nicolas, but you can call me Nick. My favirote color is blue. My favirote sport is football. I have 1 sister only. She is eleven. She loves Joe Jonas. I love Math, writeing and being kind. I love the song burning up. I love megalodons and cheetahs. I am a mormon. I'm a child of God. I am good at math. 5 X 5 = 25 7 X 5 = 35. I also like basketball and soccer. I am very skinny. I love to read espesilly Magic Tree House! I liek the college team BYU cougars. In 2nd grade I had a freind named Malik in my class. I like Tech Decks. I love running!"

What do I want to be when I grow up

?.....................

Artist,football player,dog sit,

Poet,basketball player!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Creativity Awards' Weekend

Awards' Weekend!!

Not the Oscars...

but, Destination Imagination's Greater Fort Worth Tournament 2009!

Six months of hard work, creativity, research, imagination...

among approx. 12 school districts and hundreds of kids. Nick's team won a very special award, The DaVinci Award

Let me start from the beginning by explaining what D.I. is from their own website, as well as how I got involved 3 years ago...

Imagine a clubhouse without doors, a recess with a purpose, a classroom on the stage... "This is Destination ImagiNation, where imagination becomes a reality. DI is a community-based, non-profit, volunteer-driven educational organization that teaches young people from kindergarten through university-level the critical and creative thinking skills needed for success in the 21st Century. DI works with more than 250,000 children and young adults in all 50 states and more than 40 countries each season. DI teaches the processes of Creative Problem Solving and teamwork."

quoted from http://www.idodi.org/

I Do DI (abbrev. name is DI)

This is an amazing program out there that you can do with schools, home-schools, community/church kids, anybody! The website has lots of wonderful information, even if you just want ideas to give your kids opportunities in the summer (or whenever they are bored) that are really fun and require some serious thinking and creativity. Search "Instant Challenge" on that website, or simply google it and you'll come up with a bunch of activities that you can do at home with materials that you already have on hand.

Here are the goals of this global organization:

Destination ImagiNation® seeks to be the world’s foremost non-profit membership organization dedicated to promoting three critical life skills among learners at all levels: Creativity, Teamwork, and Problem Solving.

These three life skills form the core of our organization’s value system. We strive to encourage, teach, and celebrate Creativity in our Global Community. We will develop programs that provide a positive and fun environment for participants to explore their own unlimited Creativity and to take Creative risks, and we will recognize outstanding Creativity in our programs and in our world. We will provide parents, educators, and others with tools for encouraging and developing Creativity in their children and in themselves. We will work to promote the value of Creativity in all facets of the community.

We believe that Teamwork is necessary for success in our world, and that people working as a Team can achieve extraordinary things. We will design programs that encourage students and adults to work productively as Teams , and we will recognize Team accomplishments. We will develop tools to assist parents, educators, and others in promoting the Teamwork value among our children. Both in our organization and in our programs, our Teams will embrace cooperation and mutual respect in all their activities.

We believe that our world requires successful Problem-Solving strategies, thus we will develop Problem-Solving skills among children and adults who participate in our programs. We will celebrate the Problem-Solving process and the accomplishments of our members and participants, and we will recognize those who demonstrate outstanding achievement in Problem-Solving. (from http://www.idodi.org/ with some editting for space sake)

This is my second year as a coach or manager of a D.I. team. I was Maddie's 4th/5th grade team manager two years ago and I knew nothing about D.I. but I knew it looked fascinating and rewarding for the kids. So I jumped in. Our team worked weekly from October to February 'meeting our challenge': doing teamwork activities, instant challenges (building something or impromptu skits), preparing costumes, props, devices/gadgets, skit lines, etc. The kids have to do all the work, by the way. The manager can only ask questions and help provide opportunities to learn about their topic/challenge; provide them with a sewing class, or a stage-make-up class, what can you make out of newspaper-class, and MUCH more!

It was so challenging for me, that I said I would not do it again; then we got to Tournament day (all day/evening event) and the energy was enormous; the positive compliments given by the appraisers, the crazy hats and shirts and pins; the creativity we saw and enjoyed in other skits; the excitement my team had for their own 8 minute skit about life inside a volcano...and the fabulous excitement in the air during the awards' ceremony, the slideshow of all the teams, the cheering, the real encouragement and acknowledgement given to the kids. I decided that night I would do it again...

TWO YEARS LATER~

I spent the last 6 months with Nick and my D.I. team of 4 boys helping them open up all their creative skills, teamwork skills, and research skills to meet this challenge: create a play that takes place in a HIDDEN place. Show us what goes on; make a simple machine to help the characters in your play solve a problem. Here is our team brainstorming in my living room:

In Destination ImagiNation, two- to seven-member teams focus on finding solutions to two separate types of Challenges: Team Challenges and Instant Challenges. Then they present their solutions to Appraisers in Tournament-style settings. By working together to develop solutions, participants push the limits of their imaginations to better themselves and best their competition.

Here is our first prop, or set piece, made by these three boys:

The boys chose "the sea floor" or "the seabed" as their HIDDEN place after much brainstorming on their part. Then we looked in books and picture encyclopedias for what kinds of things are on the bottom of the ocean floor. All of the boys had read books on the Titanic and 3 of the 4 had been to the Titanic museum in Branson, MO, so of course, the Titanic became a set-piece for the play. The boys had to tell me what colors, what materials they would need; the did all the cutting and taping and made this...

This shows the "simple machine" they made with help only in the drilling of the lever (on left) from one boy's father. This father has some experience in construction so I asked him to teach a Saturday morning class on Simple Machines (luckily the D.I. guidebook gave me a list of simple machines...did I know what they were??? a screw, a wedge, a lever, a pulley, an inclined plane). So this class taught the boys what each one was, the dad had hands' on work and they talked about how each machine could help make your life easier in specific ways. This is them right after their performance in front of a big audience and appraisers. I could not help them in any way with lines, nor with stage set-up. They had to put all their set pieces on (which included a "chasm" of black paper, 2 hermit crab "shells" or boxes for 2 boys who played hermit crabs, and a blanket to cover the simple machine/lever). Notice the Titanic has only 2 smoke stacks because one boy told me, "Hey, two of them came off when it went down; we need to take two of them off." We had put 4 on there after looking at photos pre-iceburg of the ship.

The boys did an amazing job!!! A few got nerves and forgot a line, but the others knew whose turn it was and helped their teammates. They wrote the entire thing themselves. It could be no longer than 7 minutes. Plot: Two hermit crabs and a sand crab discover oil in the seabed and realize they need to get away quickly. A slow starfish hears them and asks for help; the crabs say they will help but need to get something to help them cross a deep chasm to safety; the sand crab suggests going to the Titanic to get some possible supplies. The 3 crabs go and bring back a wooden lifeboat. They use their claws and tear it up, making a "sea lever to jump over the chasm" (a simple machine that was required to help the characters in the skit). The biggest crab sends everyone over with his jump onto the lever (like a teter-totter) and then throws (an imaginary) boulder onto the other side of the "sea lever" to send himself over to chasm. When they get there, they see a hydrothermal vent and decide to spend their lives there as there are minerals (all researched...) and possible new sea friends.

Oh, and these are three 2nd graders and one 1st grader, who happen to like research and could really remember the details they discovered. The judges were wowed and gave the boys very high marks in every category. We were so psyched!!!

Here we are waiting for that night's award's ceremony in a high school auditorium. There were about 45 teams of kids in Nick's age group (K-2).

They had that many teams or more of grades 3-5, then middle school 6-8, and then high school teams, which were not as many; but their skits & challenges were tough and amazingly met.

Oh, our matching shirts say our team name and on the back the boys' names and then these two requested phrases and looked like this:

The Ocean Really Rocks!

NICK Ocean Peeps

In Nick's level, D.I. Rising Stars, each team gets a medal. The boys loved hearing their team name called, "The Awesome Imaginers from Sendera Ranch Elementary!" (When I was Maddie's coach they only gave medals to 1st through 6th place and our team got a 6th place medal; there were about 13 teams in our division and it was our first year so we were thrilled!!)

Then they were called up again for Destination ImagiNation's most prestigious award (according to the paper I received explaining it) called the DaVinci award. This medal went to 3 teams of the 45 Rising Stars' Teams. We were SOOOO excited. I, of course, got choked up to tears, so happy and proud of their hardwork (and my patience!)

Explaining to the auditorium why our team got this award:

"This team used in-depth research and understanding of oceanography and marine biology to create a unique solution along with a clever and understandable storyline. They demonstrated outstanding creativity with the use of their simple machine."

Let me say that the hard work of the manager is the weekly DI practices/meetings where I am trying to keep 4 hyper, laughing boys focused on our objectives; the patience it took, the organization to plan the meetings, the Instant Challenges we did weekly, the coaching without directing...do you know how hard it is to coach, to guide, but not to direct? I couldn't tell them to talk louder when the rehearsed, to move this way or say it that way...that is a huge NO-NO in D.I. and it's called Interference. Parents could not help with costumes or props or ideas. It was all the boys and my fine (could be finer) art of questioning them in such a way as to get them to notice how they were talking, moving, dressing, designing, etc. It is so exhausting by the end that I know I'll take a year off and not coach again til Nick is in 4th grade. I have a parent to co-manage with me who is willing to do what I'm weak in: organizing, getting materials, doing the paperwork and checking D.I emails.

Anyway, the top teams (of the 3rd graders up through high school) go on to state tournament and then the top teams go to Global Tournament! How's that for impressive! I love to travel--I could handle that... this year the Globals are in Tennessee I think, so I'm not missing out on Germany or Costa Rica. :) That would be some major fundraising...

I know this a VERY lengthy entry; it is for Nick's benefit (our blog journal by slurp.com) and it did take up a nice chunk of my free time since last OCTOBER--so it deserves this attention. Now we are done, tournament was last Saturday and I slept most of Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. Whew.

Can you do the hand-jive?

Nick's school had a sock-hop during PE on Friday, Feb 13th.

Being a dance lover, I had to go, too. I partnered up with Nick for a few then led some kids in the dances like hand-jive and the Macarena...which they played at the end of all the 50s music.

I was getting sweaty, along with kids, and was reminded how much I love old music and dancing. I have been wanting to do a separate entry on the music stations I found on Dish TV: Groovy tunes and 70s stations, as well as the Salsa stations are really spicing up my life around the house!!!

Nick surrounded by our 2 next door neighbors, both in 2nd grade (and another girl who jumped in the photo) :)

Nick was spinning the hula hoop around his neck...

Doing the hand-jive...

which I don't mind saying I can still whip out a strong hand-jive...

I went and wore my 50s Halloween costume, so I fit right in. The teachers all had poodle skirts on and the music teacher and PE teachers had taught the kids the hand-jive, the twist, and I tried to show Nick a bit of basic swing. One funny note: when he heard about the sock hop from his PE teachers, he asked them if they would be learning "the pretzel" (from country moves I have taught him) and they said, "What?" So of course, we did the pretzel!

Nick's basketball season finale

Here is Nick...this is too blurry!

Ted as an assistant coach and loved being part of the Raptors this year.

Nick had his best year so far in any sport, as he has improved so much, he was able to greatly contribute the team's success: he made almost half of his teams' points this season!

He got a hoop for Christmas and shoots every day. He has improved so much since 2 seasons ago when he started playing basketball. He is the little guy who has a lot of moves and moves real quick in and out of the other players. He loves basketball! He watches any team on TV and gets into every game, even if he has never seen that team play.

We were so proud of this: One team member was awarded the Sportsmanship Award for always being respectful on and off the court, for fair play, for kindness, for not losing his cool. We had that deep feeling of happiness that comes when kids make great choices. We are so proud of Nick, but more than that we feel blessed to have a child like him who is often (not always) all of those things.

Trophy time!

We all went to the one (of 4 places) to eat in Haslet, Mr. Jim's Pizza, for our team party. The kids had a great season, in spite of losing more games than they won, they all really worked hard, put up a good fight, and improved in the game.

Nick's class party

I went to Nick's 2nd grade class to help with the holiday 'stations' set up for the kids. He has 15 kids in his class (nice size!!) and his teacher is wonderful! He has learned how to write stories, give feedback, graph, do a survey, publish a book, rocks (igneous, metamorphic...), historical persons & their achievements, use quotations in written dialogue; that is off the top of my head. His teacher sends home a weekly sheet with questions we can ask him about each subject to help him tell us and explain what he has learned that day. She is awesome!

Making a giant cotton-ball snowman. Pin the nose on the snowman.

This is goofy of me, but I love hugs from this kid! Notice the troll Santa earrings I have. I LOVE them and they drive Ted crazy. He has a fear/creep-me-out feeling about trolls and gnomes. So I always get them out in early December and set them up in the bathroom by his sink to greet him. :)

Nick frosting his sugar (3 circles=snowman) cookies

Crazy, typical Nickel face...

Even in the crowd of his class, Nick will hug and kiss me. Ahhh, I'm treasuring every moment of it.