School Events and other things

Hannah and her friend Vivien running the 50 yard dash on field day

photo by Jen Hoffman

Hannah and Taylor at field day

Normally the school bus comes down to our house and turns around in the circle.  One rainy day there were half a dozen cars parked in the circle which would have made it almost impossible for the bus to turn around.  Matthew, Hannah, and I walked down to the end of the street to catch the bus before it came down our street.  They were very excited to be out in the rain.

The school's annual Try-a-thon fundraiser was last weekend.  Micah had a conflicting soccer game, and Hannah's stitches were a little too sore for putting on a bike helmet.  We just went to the picnic and did our biking miles the following weekend.

posing by the sign of a corporate sponsor who is a friend of ours

Scott and Micah started from home and biked to the path, doing a total of 12 miles.

Hannah completed her goal of 5 miles.  Matthew got to ride his bike for a mile and a half, then rode in the trailer for the rest.

Matthew and McKinley enjoying the sunshine one afternoon

 A Cornerstone parent, Dr. Ferdig, is a professor at Kent State who works with educational technologies.   The students have been very fortunate to get to participate in several of his programs.  For this field trip, the 3rd and 4th graders got to try out a new app that works in conjunction with the National Park and metroparks nearby.  Besides having Dr. Ferdig to help, we also had with us students who created the app and a scientist to answer questions.  Although the app had some issues, it was still a lot of fun and educational.

I really lucked out being assigned to Micah and his buddy Owen.  They were really excited to explore nature, try to use the app correctly, and learn.  It was a great day.

I led games for Fantastic Friday - this was an entertaining game of crab soccer.

Saturday morning soccer!  Hannah scored another goal this day!

Hannah and our next-door neighbor Maia raked in the cash at their lemonade and cookie stand.  Apparently everyone wants to give money to two cute little girls.

Memorial Day Run

Warning: this post contains more parental bragging than usual.

Today was the annual Tallmadge Memorial 5K and fun run which is a family tradition for us.

2009

2012

2015 - they look so much smaller!

From youngest to oldest: 

Matthew ran the fun run with me.  He slowed to a walk a couple of times, but mostly ran the whole mile! His time was 14:27, and he was adorable.

Hannah requested that we both wear our pink shirts so we could match. I told her she could run with Matthew and I, or she could run ahead on her own.  She immediately ditched us and ended up running with Sarah Hay.  (Ally finished the mile in 7:41 taking 3rd place, and Aaron finished at 8:41 in 8th place.  I think Sarah was happy to have someone a little slower to run with. :) )  Hannah did a great job, ran without stopping, and finished with a time of 9:48.

Micah wanted to run the 5k again.  Last year he blew us away with how well he did.  However, this year we really didn't have time to train.  He runs a ton in soccer, but sprinting and stopping isn't quite the same as running three miles straight.  We suggested he make it a goal to run the whole thing without stopping, and I would run next to him for support and encouragement.

Once again, we underestimated him.  After a mile, it became clear that I was not going to keep up with him.  After 2 miles, I was pretty sure I was not going to catch up with him again.  By the time we got to the home stretch, I couldn't even see him.  He finished the race in 24:43!!  That's a pace just under an 8-minute mile!!

Out of 234 runners (male and female), Micah placed 67th. He was 5th in his age group and was disappointed that he didn't get a prize.  Unfortunately it was 14-and-under group, and there were three 14-year-olds (and an 11-year-old) ahead of him.  We are so proud of how he continues to amaze us!

He also decided to hop in the fun run.  Since he wasn't officially registered, it didn't count, but his time was somewhere around 8:30.  He fell halfway through and scraped up he knee, but he didn't stop.

dramatic reenactment of me trying to catch up with Micah

Spring!

Despite some setbacks with rain and muddy fields, we are well into soccer season.  Micah is playing on a competitive team for the first time and really enjoying it.  So far, his team is 3-0-1.

The picture may not do it justice, but trust me he is filthy!  This game had a huge mud puddle in front of one of the goals.  Before the game even started, the coach just had them lie down and get nice and wet and muddy.  That way it wouldn't be a distraction during the game.  :) 

 Hannah is doing the same program as Micah, but she is in the "academy" group.  They practice on Friday nights and scrimmage on Saturday mornings.  Her first two games she was following the directions of the coach and running alongside the action, but never really going for the ball.  Today, though, we got to see the speed and aggression that she played with last year!  She really did a good job of playing her position, but battling for the ball when it came her way.  And she scored a goal!!!  Go Hannah!!!

 Matthew finally has long enough legs to ride a bicycle!  He quickly figured out pedaling and is enjoying riding around and around the circle.

He has been sleeping in the closet lately.  He prefers the door closed, but I always open it after he falls asleep.

We got a basketball hoop!  There have already been many games of P-I-G and H-O-R-S-E.

I love this picture of me and Meghan from a family day at church last week.

Last weekend Gramme and Poppa were here for a visit.  Sadly, it rained almost the whole time, but we had lots of games and puzzles to keep us busy.  Here's a video of Micah playing his recital piece on the piano with Gramme playing the duet part. (Somebody tell me if the link doesn't work!)  

Micah's recital was last night.  I picked him up from the camp out, and he changed clothes and ate a burger while I drove.  He did a great job playing his piece, stayed for a cupcake, then Scott got him back to the camp out just in time for a big game of "Amazing Race".

Farm Field Trip and Other Animals

Matthew and I got to go on the latest field trip to the farm.

Hannah also has a bit of farm life in her classroom.  They've been keeping track of eggs in an incubator, and the chicks hatched this week!

The butterflies also emerged from their chrysalises in Hannah's classroom. 

On Friday, the 3rd and 4th graders got to leave school early and have a camp out (at the same farm where kindergarten had the field trip).  I haven't seen any pictures yet, but it sounds like they had a fantastic time.  Since Hannah has half days on Fridays and Micah wasn't coming home, I took the younger two to have lunch with Daddy then to the zoo.