Where art thou Spring?

This winter is lingering!  Maybe we all say that every year, but by the end of Feb, I'm ready for warm weather.

I'll have to settle for a little Spring under my grow lamps.

Lego sweepers

Part of the Lego engineering curriculum the girls have been soon is building simple machines.  Their first task was to build a machine that would sweep up "leaves" the most thoroughly.

This was a cool task because they did the test with their machine sweeping the "leaves" and found that it didn't work as well as thy thought it should.  So the. They had to experiment with more arms in different positions at different speeds to find the design that swept the paper the best.  Now they need to make this machine for our yard!   ;)

 I came home from work one day to this.  I will use it as leverage one day when a certain young lady probably won't want it shown.  Or maybe she'll be a good sport about it.  The picture makes me smile either way.

The Hippodrome Theater

This first picture has nothing to do with the Hippodrome.  I just thought it was funny.  Gwyn was moving and so her hand ended up blurry.  The effect looks to me like she's using a certain gesture that gets blurred out during daytime TV (or did when I was young).  She was not making that gesture, but it makes me laugh.

So our field trip group got to take a tour of the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore.  This amazing building sat empty and decaying for many years and after several years of refurbishment and oodles of money, is presentin broadway productions again.

I didn't get a chance to take a lot of photos and the girls were split into two groups.  But they did get a behind the stage tour of the place.  They got to check out the stage, the lighting and curtain controls, the trap doors and orchestra pit, the dressing rooms and elevators.  It was a very interesting look at the behind-the-scenes.

They also got a lesson in improv.  The groups played games acting out different scenes and modes of transportation.

I can't wait until we can see a show at the Hippodrome.  The girls' preference would be Cats, but I don't think we should hold our breath for that one.

It Is Well

I got to go to Grace Fellowship's Women's Retreat this year.  More than that - they asked me to play the keyboard for the praise band.  Awesome!  But Scary Awesome!

We had an awesome time!  There was a very gifted speaker who spoke in an "off the cuff" type way that was quite refreshing.  I have nothing against speakers who have it all down pat and don't deviate from their script.  But it was neat to have a speaker who moved with the flow of the room.  She took questions and comments in the middle of her speaking and then spoke to align with the direction people took her message. It wasn't that she wasn't prepared.  She was very professional.  It was a very cool way to let the Holy Spirit direct her words though.

Ne Ne showed up.  It was hilarious how she took a diagram the speaker had drawn the night before and retold the story to somehow apply to football and Philly.

This was my view from the stage.  Thankfully I was hidden behind the keyboard and music stand.  Some people didn't even know I was there until the 2nd day.  Which makes me wonder where they thought the keyboard sounds were coming from.... but whatever.

These ladies are amazing musicians.  Shannon is such a gifted band leader!  Carol is an amazing cello player.  And Chana can do a little of everything very well.  I'm so thankful that I got to play with them!

Apparently Chana and I are the only ones who will strike a silly pose when asked to, so we get to be the  ones that just look weird when others look normal.

I have felt so raw and ill-equipped with playing the piano for people.  But God answered my prayers to let me play and he has supplied some amazing women to encourage and support me as I keep showing up.  In the end many women came up to me (and all of us) and told us how the music blessed them at the retreat.  So I joked that God must be changing what I play into something way more awesome that actually comes out the speakers.  In the end, I'm just glad that I got to be a part of worship that moved the women at the retreat.  

Firaxis Studio Tour

Our field trip group got to take a tour of Jason's office recently.  Firaxis usually only has tours for small groups of college or upper level high school students.  But they agreed to let our younger bunch come.  People were REALLY excited about the trip and so way more people signed up for it that we first anticipated.  Firaxis didn't give me a cap number, so we just all showed up.  All 80 of us.  I think the Firaxis people were a little nervous, but everything worked out wonderfully.
Jason got to be one of the people to give short talks to the older kids while the younger kids took a tour of the studio.  The kids were all really interested in what each guy spoke about and asked very good questions.  I had several of the adults comment later how neat it was that each person seemed genuinely excited about his job and said they each thought they had the best job at the studio.  That was part of the point through the presentations, that is takes a high level of self-motivation to be good at each discipline in the game industry.  If you don't love what you do, you won't want to do it on your own, so don't just make a "job" out of it.  Pursue what you're passionate about and you will find a level of satisfaction that just a "job" can not give.  And hopefully that passion will be rewarded with a career that pays the bills too.

It was also interesting that instead of having 80 some odd people sign NDA's, they just didn't go in part of the building, and turned artwork around backwards on the walls in some of the parts they did go in.  I am just thankful they did let us do the tour.  Like I said, it was a tour many people were excited about (one dad even took off work to come) and afterwards they felt like it was a great field trip.  I hope that there were some kids that saw the talent and at times tedious work that goes into making a game.  I hope some were challenged by what they saw and perhaps will pursue some of the things the Firaxis guys talked about like art, programming, music, management, and design.  I personally hope that the girls were especially encouraged.  I love to see girls pursue traditionally male lines of work.
So thank you Firaxis for a great field trip!

MLK parade

I do love a parade.  I love the floats.  I love the horses.  And I really love the bands and dancers.  So I took Gwyn, Celee and Natalie down to the Marin Luther King Jr. parade in the city. I don't think Gwyn is as impressed as me.   It was crazy cold, but we braved it for almost the entire parade.  Parades make me want to be in band again!  That always happens, but the drums just make me move!  I think if they'd let a middle-aged white woman join some of these troops, I'd be in!  I'm just half-way joking though.  Nobody would probably want to see that.

Celee's got her eye on you.

I had my Tinkering program at the library too.  The goal was to make scribblebots.  It was a little weird to later tell someone who asked me how it went, "Well, only two kids cried so I guess it went well."  Tinkering can be frustrating, but that's part of it.  Out of frustration we learn from our mistakes.  Everyone who couldn't get their bots to work at the program went home with the intention of trying again at home, so I think that's a success too.  Most of the kids did finish with a working scribble bot.  A few of them were really interesting designs too.  I don't know how I made it out of there with only this one picture.  Yes I do.  I was busy trying to "help" kids without touching their supplies.  That hands-off tinkering policy is really hard to keep to sometimes.  I also learned that kids need to be told not to jerk too hard on wires that are soldered into a motor.  I didn't bring a soldering gun, so if I couldn't complete the circuit with pressure, it just wasn't going to happen because I didn't have extra motors.  Ah, it's a learning experience for us all, me included.

Trampolines and Duckpins

As an epiphany present we gave the girls a jumping session at Stratosphere Trampoline Park.  And I had to go too, so I was forced to jump as well.  :)  I'm not complaining.
The pictures are all blurry - because it is super hard to get a clear picture in a room full of jumping children.  Especially on my phone.  But the blurriness is just proof of the happiness.
I must say that the trampoline park was super awesome.  I usually don't enjoy the bounce house places.  I guess I don't feel free in those to join in.  But at the trampoline place, there was totally room for a momma to jump with her girls!  They have a dodgeball room too with a referee to make sure everyone plays by the rules.  It was really neat.  I am looking forward to going back sometime!

Gwyn's youth group had a midnight bowling trip.  They went to the bowling alley in Hampstead that has duckpin lanes.  This was really cool, because I had never actually been duckpin bowling before.  The little balls were much easier to throw than the big ones at the normal lanes.

Also we discovered that middle school girls love blue icees.  They all sported blue tongues in no time. Gwyn will most probably not like me to show people this picture one day.  MWAHAHAHA!  (evil laugh)

Mardi Gras Marie-Grace

January was for Marie-Grace in my American Girl program series.  Any excuse for Mardi Gras is fun for me!  I had some extra helpers for this program.  The "big girls" manned the glue gun station for me while the little girls made the masks.  I did have some girls that attended the program try to make off with my real Mardi Gras masks.  No ma'am! Those will stay with me - that's why we're making masks you can take home.  The girls all did a great job with their masks and did take home some really nice ones!

I love that I get to "sneak" some history in on the girls that come to the AG programs.  That's the whole point (at least originally) of the American Girl Dolls right?!  So we got to learn about why people in New Orleans would speak French in Marie-Grace's time, why she and her friend Cecile couldn't go to the same balls, and what life might have been like for a girl in New Orleans in the 1850s.  And if it sparks one girls interest to find out more, then I am a happy lady.  

Snow Day!

We had our first substantial snow day.  Everything in the woods is so beautiful in the snow.  The piles here and there, the lines of snow on the tree branches, the sparkle of the frozen crystals near the river.  It reminds me to stop and look and be grateful.













The schools were closed so the kids got to play with neighbors.  If you can't tell, Tinkerbell does not like the snow.  I let her out, with her little coat on, because she acted like she wanted to join us all outside.  But she took the first opportunity to get in someone's lap and off the snow.  So we let her go back inside to her comfy bed beside the heat vent.

I have yet to figure out while children love a truck.  I know I did when I was little too.  Getting on the back of the truck in the snow seemed to be THE thing to do.  Everyone had to get up there and everyone had a turn.

We all decided to trek down to the river to see how frozen over it was.  

See what I mean about the snow on the trees? I love it!

The river wasn't as frozen as we have seen it, but it is still neat to see the parts of the back channel that are frozen.

And the snow is clean, so everyone had to taste it.  I don't think it tasted any different that it would have at the house, but they had to see anyway.

Selfie!

The kids all worked together to make this tiny snowman.  He's pretty pitiful, but they had fun making him.

And the poor chickies are braving the snow.  Maybe we should make a snowchicken next time.

Back to life...

We made the long trip home.  It wasn't too bad.  We once again missed the pool hours at the hotel in Chattanooga.  It's unfortunate, for us at least, that the time zone changes as you enter Chattanooga, so we always get there with maybe 20 min left for pool hours even though we feel like we should have plenty of time.
I think Moxie missed us.  She just came and laid on us anytime one of us was sitting still.  The neighbors said that they only saw her once because she hid the whole time.  So the poor kitty had no human attention for two weeks!  She's a sweet kitty though so I don't mind her on my lap.  It helps me keep warm!

We celebrated being back home with some milkshakes.  We decided we needed a few days to get back into the swing of things before we started school.  So we went on errands and to get a treat instead.  Also, the girls were given Chick-fil-a gift cards for Christmas and they were burning holes in their pockets.

I got a dehydrator for Christmas.  I was very excited!  So we got a bunch of fruit and got to work drying.  The girls sliced it all and put it in the trays.  The kiwi turned out super yummy, except that if you notice the skin was left on.  Next time I would definitely peel it before drying.  The apples were very yummy too.  They had more flavor than the dried apples I've bought in the store.  I don't know if it was the type of apple, or if it was just not as dry as they get in the store bought ones.  Either way, we have some yummy snacks to last us for a while.