Volleyball and Pioneer Day

Emerson stepped out of her comfort zone and tried something new, volleyball.  She had 8 practices with the VolleyCubs camp at Nappanee Elementary with Kati Andrews.  She learned a lot (she'd never played before) and had fun with some new friends. I don't know if she'll stick with it or not, but I'm glad she tried something new.

Then, this week, the fourth graders celebrated their annual Pioneer Day.  All the students could dress up as Pioneers.  They made butter, did tin punching, had a guest speaker, a spelling bee, and square danced.  The kids had a lot of fun and learned that tin punching isn't the best way to spend their time (those poor pioneer children! 😜)

Honor Roll and State Robotics

This year in 4th grade was the first opportunity for Landon and Emmy to earn Honor Roll for getting good grades.  We are so proud to say that both trimesters so far, Emerson has been on the Honor Roll and Landon has been on the High Honor Roll.  I can see their dedication and all the hard work Emmy puts into doing her best.  She asks her teacher, Mrs. Taylor for help when she doesn't understand.  

Congratulations!

The weekend of March 9th, we traveled to Indianapolis for the State Robotics Tournament.  We arrived Friday night for the Pizza and Pool party at the hotel.  Then spent all day Saturday at the Tournament.  It was a long day, but Nate and Sara came up from Evansville, so we got to spend the day with them.  It was neat being able to see all the robots from other schools and watch Woodview compete.

Landon in his Eaglebots gear.  The only thing you can't see are his red light up shoes!

The Red and Blue teams made it to the finals.  Neither won State, but they BOTH won the Excellence Award which is given to teams whose STEM research award, teamwork, interviews, notebook, and skills scores are the best.  This is a great honor (with a ginormous trophy!) and qualifies both teams to be entered to win the Excellence Award at World's too in April.

These kids and coaches work so hard and it shows!  Congrats on a great day!

We finished off the day with a yummy dinner with Nate and Sara, spent the night again and went shopping before heading home.  It was a busy, fun weekend!

Daddy/Daughter Dance and Mystery Dinner

So, every year around Valentine's Day, the parks department puts on a dance for dads and daughters.  Every year, Emmy looks forward to it for weeks.  She talks about it, picks out her dress and how she wants her hair.  She just loves being able to spend time one on one with her dad at this special event.  Kenna and John come too and they have a blast together!  

Her hair is so pretty!

These girls have been loving their American Girl Dolls.  And what a surprise, they both picked out the same shoes to wear!

I decided to do something different for Valentine's Day this year.  Matt and I try to go out for dinner. (This year we went to Jesus Latin Grill...yummy!  I didn't take any pictures!)  But we wanted to make it special for the kids too.  I found on Pinterest a Mystery Dinner.  You assign all aspects of the meal a number and then everybody randomly chooses numbers and they are given what they order.  It was a lot of fun and we had some interesting appetizer, main meal, and dessert options.  Luckily we had a snow day on Feb. 12th so we had extra time to put into making the meal.

3 of us ended up with a hamburger as an appetizer and no drinks.

Everyone had plates for the main course, but Landon was still waiting on his drink.  Em and I both got cookies and raspberries for our main meal.

Here is our dessert course. 

It was a fun way to spend the evening, but it took a lot longer than a traditional dinner.  I love making memories with these guys.

Gingerbread Houses and Friend's Christmas

These gingerbread houses kept the kiddos occupied for a few hours during our first day of Christmas Break.  I was so thankful to have the Friday before Christmas off.  It's a great day to get any last minute things done before the craziness begins.

Last year, we got the kids separate houses and that seemed to work out better!  Much less arguing this way!

Then, that night, we celebrated Christmas with the Davis, Frye, and Faller families.  We had a yummy meal of prime rib and the kids got to decorate cookies for Santa.  This is always such a fun memory!

Another Eaglebots Win, Matt's Birthday, and Christmas Concerts

The Eaglebots did it again!  Got 1st and 2nd place in their second tournament on Dec. 1 with a combined high score in the state!  It is so fun to watch all their hard work pay off.  Congrats!

We also celebrated Matt's 41st birthday!  He is so special to our family so we were happy to celebrate him!

We have been going to Nappanee Missionary Church since August, but the kids REALLY wanted to take part in the Christmas Play at Union Center.  So, for most of October and November they had practices on Wednesday and Saturday.  They both played the part of toy farmers in a toy shop.

The kiddos did a great job and the set was amazing as always!

They didn't have big parts, but they enjoyed being a part of the production.

2 days after the church performance was the school concert.  Emerson had several lines that she had auditioned for.  She did a great job speaking.  This will probably be her area of expertise!  She's a great performer!

After the concert

Honor's Assembly, Snow Day, and Robotics

 I got to sneak out of class for a few minutes to see Landon and Emmy get their awards at the Honor's Assembly.  Landon earned Perfect Attendance and High Honor Roll.   Emerson earned Honor Roll.  We are so proud of both of our fourth graders for their hard work so far this year!

Landon caught me before I went back to class and said, "Aren't you going to take my picture mom?" 😘

 We had our first Snow Day of the year on November 15th, which is so early!  It was also the night if Parent/Teacher Conferences so those had to be rescheduled for another night.  But we had a grand day at home.  The kids played outside for HOURS together in the snow.  It was a 30 degree day and a lot of snow,  perfect for playing in!

 Landon had his first Robotics Tournament in North Liberty.  He had to be at the school at 6:45 am and we didn't really have any idea what to expect.  We learned a lot about the scoring and how things worked.  Landon's job is to check with the team we are working with to see what their robot can do so the kids can make a plan to try to get as many points as possible.   He loves it and loves practice.  Woodview's teams did great!  Red team got 1st and Blue team got 2nd.  They qualified for the State Competition in March.  They also won the teamwork, design, and excellence awards!  Their hard work and dedication was so apparent!  Way to go!

Purdue Kids Club Game and Tailgating

When I heard that the Purdue Kid's Club football game was November 3rd, I was NOT excited (remember the weather over Fall Break a few weeks earlier?).  Well, we ended up with a beautiful, sunny day to cheer on the Boilers vs Iowa.  We went down early to tailgate.  Todd and Cathy drove down with us and we met up with the Bergers and some of their friends.

The game was packed and the Boilers pulled out a last second field goal to win the game.

It was so exciting!  The crowd rushed onto the field.

Then we went back to spend the night at the Bergers.  The next day when they headed off to church, we went to campus to walk around, showing these future Boilermakers around! :)

We had a great weekend and although it was cold, we made some great memories!