A Night at the Gover's

I can't believe I did not blog this last week, but remembering what that week was like, I can! Last Thursday night we joined Phi Kappa Alpha at Don and Linda Sue Gover's house for Grill and Chill with Chi Beta Chi (another club on campus). Phi Kappa has been going to the Gover's every Thursday at 4:00 for almost 8 years. It started with the club going to see the Gover's son, Brandon. Mrs. Gover laughs and says that Brandon told her that if she made sweet tea and cookies they would come back - and they have. Even after Brandon passed on into Heaven, every Thursday, the kids go see the Govers and are served sweet tea and cookies. On special occasions, Phi Kappa will grill out or get BBQ for supper and will eat out there. This is what we did last Thursday night to celebrate the end of the year. Here are just a few pictures that captured the evening - according to my children. They love going out to the Govers and they adore the "Kappa Kids." Needless to say, they enjoyed their time immensely.
Playing tag with Tyler. Tyler is asking them if they would tag him when he got down out of the tree. Carter replied immediatly, "Yes!!"

Laura Beth loves and will miss senior Chris Foshee but his sister Carissa will be here in the fall!!
This year Laura Beth has formed a bond with Eric Russell. I don't know who adores who more!!
A family picture - thanks, Ashley!
Our true sides!!

The kids with Ashley Blocker and Tyler Hughes - 2 more favorites of theirs.

We love Mrs. Kim

This week has been Teacher Appreciation Week and East Chester Elementary School has let its teachers know how much we love and appreciate them. Mrs. Kim always has great centers and a lot of parents are able to come help with the centers. For teacher appreciation week, we surprised Mrs. Kim with centers that highlight her loves and special interests. Parents showed up and a lot of fun was had by parents, students and Mrs. Kim. She is a very special lady.
The quilt the class made for Mrs. Kim with their handprints and signatures.

Mrs. Kim's Special Centers

Mrs. Kim loves Snoopy. For us to work on our sequencing skills, we took Charlie Brown comics and put them in order.

Mrs. Kim loves Disney and everything about it. We played Disney games to review letters, their sounds and words that start with those letters as we enjoyed Disney characters.
Mrs. Kim is a huge Braves fan so we played baseball games to review rhyming words and number words.

Mrs. Kim loves Sonic. We practiced our short vowel words by placing french fries with words in the right french fry holder (each was labeled short a, e, i, o and u). We also separated and counted money by placing different coins in the right large Sonic cup. We took 5 cups - 1 for pennies, 1 for nickels, 1 for dimes, 1 for quarters and 1 for all the money.
We made a book entitled Mrs. Kim is . . . . Each child made a page telling what Mrs. Kim is to them. They wrote the sentence and drew a picture.
We had special snacks of Mrs. Kim's snacks - Golden Flake potato chips and Coke.Mrs. Kim loves Alabama football. We made a class quilt with Alabama fabric and each child's handprint and signature.
Then they played a football game reviewing sight words and simple words they had learned.

Gran and the Scientist of the Day

Today Laura Beth was the Scientist of the Day in her Kindergarten class. Being the mother who waited until her junior and senior year to take any sciences in college, I asked Gran if she would like to do this with Laura Beth. Of course, Gran (being the biology college teacher) jumped at that chance!!! The experiment they chose to do was "Dancing Raisins." How to do it you might ask? Well, here you go . . . .
Mix 1/3 c. water and 1 t. baking soda together for solution A.
Pour this into a clear plastic cup.
Add 1/8 c. of vinegar (Solution B) to solution A.
Immediately place 3-4 raisins (small ones work the best) into the solution.
After a few minutes you will see the raisins begin to dance around the solution.

The kids loved being scientists and using their sense of sight to see what would happen. Laura Beth and Gran demonstrated the experiment and then each table got to do their own. Thanks, Gran, for sharing your love of science!!

I have also seen this used in Bible class while teaching about the resurrection of Jesus - "We serve a 'raisin' Savior!"

Bits and Pieces

Bits and pieces

Bits and pieces

People.

People important to you, people unimportant to you cross your life, touch it with love and carelessness and move on. There are people who leave you and you breathe a sign of relief and wonder why you ever came into contact with them. There are people who leave you and breathe a sign of remorse and wonder why they had to go away and leave such a gaping hole. Children leave parents; friends leave friends. Acquaintances move on. People change homes.

People grow apart. Enemies hate and move on. Friends love and move on. You think on the many who have moved into your hazy memory. You look on those present and wonder.

I believe in God's master plan in lives. He moves people in and out of each other's lives, and each leaves his mark on the other. You find you are made up of bits and pieces of all who ever touched your life, and you are more because of it, and you would be less if they had not touched you.Pray God that you accept the bits and pieces in humility and wonder, and never question,and never regret.

Bits and pieces

Bits and pieces

by Lois Cheney from his book GOD IS NO FOOL.

I ran into this while on Facebook tonight. I needed to read it at this time of year when so many people are going in and out of our lives here in small town Henderson. Being a child of an Air Force pilot, this poem really hits home as I think of all the special people of left part of them in my life. Each one of you - ones I have known since elementary school to ones I have just met blogging - have made an impact in my life for good. I need to not look at what I am losing, but what I have gained from all those with whom I have been blessed to spend time. How they have blessed my life and, Lord willing, how I have blessed theirs.

Thank you, God, for each person whose path I have crossed and for the bit or piece they have left to make my life better.

A Tradition

Each December and May the going out officers and coming in officers for Phi Kappa Alpha come over a meal at the house. We use this time to say thanks for all their hard work in making PKA a great club on campus. They use the time to not eat Gano (the cafeteria food), to give advice and to begin planning the new semester. Yesterday was the night 35 college students crowded into the house and began working on next fall. The picture is of the officers for the fall 2008 semester. As tradition, I let the incoming president chose the menu. Tyler was quick to choose chicken enchiladas and tacos. This has become a favorite among the presidents. Some of the other sponsors made the tacos and deserts while I made the enchiladas. The recipe is very easy and even freezer friendly, so I thought I would share it with you. It is easy to double - or in my case quadrouple. Next year, I am making 5-6 pans of it. They inhaled it!!! Thanks to Jana Lyons of Montgomery, AL, for the recipe!!

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

8 oz. sour cream

1/2 envelope of taco seasoning

flour tortillas

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz Mexican blend cheese

1 jar of salsa

Mix chicken, sour cream, tack seasoning, soup and cheese together. Place in tortillas. Place in pan. Pour salsa and sprinkle a little cheese over the top. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

** I spread the tortillas on the bottom of the pan, poured the chicken mixture over it, and, then, placed more tortillas on top.

** If you are wanting to freeze this, make up the chicken mixture and place it in a freezer bag to freeze. Thaw when you want to use it and then place it in the tortillas when time comes to cook it.

Laura Beth's Awards Day

Today was Laura Beth's Awards Day for her Kindergarten class. They did a great job singing patriotic songs and telling us what they wanted to be. Her teacher had told me what she had wanted to be - a pilot!! There is some of her grandad in her!! We always tell the kids that they can be whatever they want to be as long as they are a Christian first and foremost. So, it looks like we will have our own personal pilot to fly us to wherever we would like to go. She was also given the award of Best Girl Reader. Mrs. Kim had not told me this, but I am not surprised. She has always had a love for books - any and every kind. I hope that she always carries that love of reading and learning with her.

Victorian Tea Party

Laura Beth and Sasha Gott
Gran and Laura Beth
Me and Laura Beth

The first Saturday in May is now a special day for our family. The Freed-Hardeman Associates (a group of ladies who raise money for scholarships) host a Victorian Tea Party at the historic Hardeman House. There are events for all ages and it has proven to be a huge success. This year as you made your way through the house an FHU student played classic piano pieces in the parlor. From the parlor, you could move into the sitting room where older girls and ladies learned to shadow stitch. In the past, we have learned to smock and quilt in this room as well. From the sitting room, we moved to the dining room where we were able to see and experiment with different ways to set a table. They did a great job showing how to use things you have around your house to set a beautiful table. In the main room, a tea boutique was there for you to buy tea related items. They had the tea we would be sipping on, different tea goodies, tea cozies, miniature tea sets and tea jewelry you could purchase. Upstairs little girls could decorate Victorian fashion dolls, have their silhouette made and dress up for their own princess tea party. Off the back porch, we were seated under a tent where we tasted cucumber sandwiches, three cheese tea sandwhiches, apricot cream scones, cinnamon honey butter, high tea lemon cookies (that just melted in your mouth), black-eyed susans and decadent chocolate cupcakes. The teas of the day were Lady Londonberry Tea and St. Paul's London Breakfast Tea. You could take part in croquet on the main lawn and in the gazebo make gumdrop flowers. It was truely a wonderful day one that we remember and one that we will look forward to for next year. If any of you would like the recipes for these items, leave a comment and I will post the recipes for all.

Tea Party Activities

Decorating her Victorian fashion doll
Sitting for her silhouette
Having tea with Gran
Playing croquet
Making gumdrop flowers

Tea Party Friends

Kinlee and Laura Beth enjoying their dress up tea party.
Laura Beth, Kinlee and Rachel Grace enjoy dress up
Laura Beth and Houston
Brooke, Payton, Presley and Laura Beth
Laura Beth and Kinlee