Red Belts!

Every three months or so, they hold belt testing for Tae Kwon Do. The kids are getting so close to that black belt. They've been taking for almost 3 years and for now, they've earned their RED BELTS.

Zack doing his form...



Kammie doing her form (at the same time as Zack)...




Zack getting his new belt...
Shaking hands with Master Tammy...

Kam getting her belt...
The newly crowned red belts, Kam and Zack, with Master Tammy...

Sidnie decided to wear her cheerleader outfit to "cheer" her siblings on...
Spencer doing push ups...


Kate waiting to start...

I got so busy filming Kate's form and sparring, that I forgot to take pictures too.

Kate gettingher Red Belt...
Shaking Master Tammy's hand...
Kate doing the Tenants of TaeKwonDo at the end...
Kate with Master Tammy...

Congratulations Kiddos!

Baby Praying Mantis

Kate found this tiny praying mantis out in the back yard and brought it inside for me to see. I snapped pictures, because my dad will love this. I could only get so close without it being blurry, so I hope you can see him well enough.

Kam's RACERS long-course meet in Fayetteville, AR

On Saturday, June 2nd, Kammie had her second long course swim meet (in Fayetteville). Jordan had been working on a project to gather canned food items for the AR Food Bank, so Mom and Jordan delivered those and helped sort food while, James took Kammie to the meet.

On the blocks...
Blurry dive in...
On her mark for Backstroke...
Backstroke...
Waiting to for her turn...
On her mark...
Freestyle...



Results
50 Freestyle 36.26 Tied for 5th and earned 3.5 points
50 Backstroke 46.03 1st in her Heat 6th overall and she earned 3 points
100 Butterfly 1:50.38 (4th?)
200 Freestyle 3:11.48 (2nd?)

I am not sure of what the last times mean--if it's in the heat or overall. I'll check with James and come back and change things when I know.

All of Kammie's times are good enough for State. It just depends on what is on Sunday and what is not.

Fresh Sour dough Bread

It's been so nice to receive a sour dough starter and be able to regularly make fresh sour dough french bread loafs. They are addicting and so very yummy! [Thanks Kitty Walker.]

Head Wounds Bleed

As summer got into full swing, one morning after early swim team practice, Spencer had his friends Jonathan and Natalie come over to play. Sidnie joined them outside to play. They got big rocks that were placed around a tree and began balancing them on different ends of our teeter totter. While Sidnie was bent over underneath one side, a rock slipped off and landed on her head. The next thing I heard was crying and shouts of "She's bleeding!" It wasn't a big cut, but blood was pouring out of her head. We got ice and cleaned her up. It took a while for her to settle down, but we were grateful it wasn't a deep cut that required a trip to the emergency room.

These were taken a few days later.

James in Eureka Springs, AR

James had an AR Rural Development Conference in Eureka Springs in the Ozark Mountains near the end of May. Here are some pictures he snapped.

Christ of the Ozarks..largest statue of Christ in North America. The only one bigger is the one in Rio.


While out on a scenic overlook area, this deer came up on him.

It pays to read-Year 2

Jordan took 2nd place this year in the most words read for the school year. She read over three million words and won $50.00. Awesome to get paid for something you love to do.

Family trip to the Zoo

I checked Spencer out of school after on Friday (the 24th of May) after his little ceremony. Zack and Kammie wanted to stay a little bit longer. Kate and Jordan stayed home that day. So after lunch, we checked Kammie and Zack out too and headed to the Little Rock Zoo with our newly acquired zoo pass. [We haven't had a pass to the zoo since we had a Boon Shoft reciprcal zoo pass and the LR Zoo revoked their privledges. It urked me, so we haven't spent our money there for 3-4 years. But, at our youth fundrasier dinner, I was able to get an annual zoo pass for the family for only $50.] Sidnie has never beent to the zoo that she remembers anyway. It was hot, but we had a great time.

We began with an animal show.

This guy was out with this bird inviting people to come to the show.
Opossums.

Small owl.
Big owl.
Shy Penguin.

Zack petting the opossum.

Spencer lost his shoe down into the anteater habitat.
My shoe is a long way down. They had to radio a zoo keeper to come corral the animal and then get us his shoe.
Anteaters sure are funny looking.

Sleeping Fox.
Monkey. This one sure has a set of pipes.
Giraffe.
Otters [For some reason, these are my favorites. To get their attention we brought some carrot sticks that we threw in to them. Then we threw goldfish crakers.]





Sid on the fence trying to get a better look...
of this little guy.
Giant Tortoise.
Red eared Slider Turtles out in the sunshine. [When we bike around Lake Willastein, you can see turtles like this, but they are much more jumpy and dive into the water at the first hint of someone approaching.]

Kammie and Spencer near a Swan.
Sidnie and Kammie with the Gorilla statue.