A Long Time Ago...

Ask Harry how he has spent Spring Break and he will tell you that he has spent most of it going to school. That is not entirely true, but it does carry a flavor of the truth. On Tuesday, he shadowed at his new school for next year, Eagle Ridge Academy. I am happy to say that he thought it was a good school and that he is looking forward to going next year. He is still a little turned off by the uniforms you have to wear, but I think that will go away in time. He did tell me that he saw many kids with their shirts not tucked in and he plans to NOT tuck in his shirt too! Ahh..the small rebellions of kids...

Yesterday, Harry and Bella spent the morning at a one room school house learning what it was like to attend school as a pioneer child in the late 1800's. Bella was very excited to wear her "Laura Ingalls" costume that her Grandmother made her for last Halloween. Harry wore one of the vests they had available at the school for boys to dress up in. The kids had so much fun! It took place at the Gibbs Museum in St. Paul. The teacher was "Miss Lake". She taught the kids lots of things in short amount of time. The children learned how to stand up properly by their desk when they answered a question, how to make recite a reading from the board, and they had a reading lesson on the front bench in school by grade. The science lesson for the day was outside and they learned about making maple sugar from maple trees with sap. At the end of the program the children did a spelling bee for the parents. One thing I noticed is that Bella seemed to have a much harder time hearing with the bonnet on her head. It covered her implants and I'm sure it cut down on the sound getting to her. Also, the one room schoolhouse didn't have very good acoustics. Still, she loved it. I was thankful that it wasn't where she really went to school!

Minnesota has been having a bit of May this week. Temps have been in the mid to upper 70's. On Wednesday the kids and I went to the park and they played. It was so nice to read a book outside in shorts and a t-shirt! I think it's going to be a warm summer...

Splish, Splash, no water for the bath...

Here is a link to an article about a recent endeavor Becca and some classmates participated in. Read all about it! It was in the local paper.

www.chaskaherald.com/sites/chaskaherald.com/print_edition/jpg/pnt-03-18-10-p06.jpg

Be Prepared...

I must preface this post by saying that I am an emotional person. I cry at Extreme Home Makeover, Hallmark commercials, and sappy Lifetime movies. That being said, I wasn't prepared for being emotional last night as Harry bridged from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. I mean after all, Boy Scouts is far from being sappy. And yet, when the lights went down and they started to beat the drum in the "Arrow of Light" ceremony, the tears started to stream from my eyes. It was very official and ceremonial. Real arrows were handed to the boys and then plaques were given to them by their leaders as a gift so they could mount their new arrows. I was super glad about the plaque because I was unsure what we would do with the arrow. An arrow in Harry's room without a purpose could lead to bodily harm.

After the "Arrow of Light" ceremony, the boys had to walk across a wooden bridge to symbolize their move on to Boy Scouts. I had to walk on the bridge with Harry and halfway across, I had to take off his cub scout neck scarf, while two boy scouts stood on either side of him and put on his new boyscout shoulder tags (I'm sure there is an official term for these, but I'm not sure what it is). Erick had to travel at the last minute to Boston, so I was left to handle this emotional moment on my own. Becca was not feeling well, so Bella was left to take pictures of the event. She was so cute with the huge camera, trying her best to capture memories. I have included one of her pictures and I will leave it to you to figure out which one she took.

After it was all said and done, all I could think was there is no way I'm making it through high school graduations.

Well, I'd Like to Visit the Moon...

Today was History Day for Bella. All of the kids in her class chose a topic to research a few weeks ago and today they put them up in the class for parents/family to come visit. We had been working on a space unit the last month (in homeschool) and Bella was really interested in the moon, so she chose to do her research on Neil Armstrong. She did a very nice job! She drew a picture of the moon and she also used a book to write down interesting facts about Neil Armstrong. I even learned something from her research. Apparently, the famous quote of Neil Armstrong, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," was supposed to be, "one small step for a man", but the "a" got lost in the transmission. Bella worked very hard to copy words out of her book. Over the last few months, copying has become a little easier for her, but the process of looking up and down and not losing her place or forgetting various letters in words is still a struggle.

Some of the kids dressed up in costumes to add some flair to their research. Harry made her a "space suit" out of a white shirt which was just like the one he wore for Destination Imagination. Bella was so proud of her shirt! Two other children in her class studied Neil Armstrong also. One of them had a full orange NASA suit that he had received for Christmas. Bella was pretty impressed by his suit, but she still liked her shirt the best!

Time Flies

Wow, February kind of flew by! Can't believe that March is here is already, but happy with the hope of warm temperatures.

Let's see what have the Rowes' been up to the past few weeks?

Last Friday was the carnival at Harry's school. It was quite the event. Games and food everywhere! One thing that seems to have changed in the carnival scene since I went to school: a trend toward a more "store like" atmosphere. Sure, there were the little prizes given out at the various games, but the really good prizes? Those were at the "ticket store". Kids could trade 10-50 tickets in for items such as giant nerd glasses, Scooby Doo dogs on a leash, and superballs the size of your hand that were filled with glitter and lit up. Not sure if you can read too much into the ticket store, but it does seem to reflect a little on the "instant gratification" and the "bigger is better" mentality of our society.

My time has been spent at the gym lately. I am happy to say that I am still working on my New Year's resolution. I am bound and determined to get in shape. I turn 40 in a year and kind of feel like if I don't do it now, it may never happen. Over the last month and a half I have discovered how much time and energy getting in shape takes. Not fun, but hopefully worth it in the end.

Also in my spare time (insert laugh here), I am helping to start a Venturing Crew with Becca's best friend's father. Venturing is a part of Scouts that is for girls and boys 14 and up and focuses on leadership. Learning as I go, but it seems like a good program for Becca to develop important life skills. Will share more as it goes along. We have a first meeting next Friday to share more information with girls and boys interested in joining.

Bella has spent the last week delivering all the girl scout cookies she sold. She has been a trooper, but has discovered that selling them was easier than the delivery process. Also, she gave up dessert for Lent so she is disappointed that she has to wait another month before she can enjoy the ones we bought. Also, regarding Lent...Becca gave up her Ipod touch, and Harry gave up his Wii again. In our house the Easter Bunny always brings something related to what you gave up, which seems to encourage my children. For better or worse, I guess...

Well, I'm off to continue clean up in the backyard. The 40 degree temps have been nice, but have also uncovered the dog poop that was easy to ignore under the snow the last few months. YUCK! And I can't even have my favorite Shamrock shake at McDonald's to motivate me!

You Bring the Boom Boom into my Heart...

So this past few weeks I have found myself with a variety of panic attacks. First, I got a call from school telling me that Becca sliced her palm during art with a woodworking tool. Yes, she needed stitches, but only a few. Second, I celebrated my birthday. This brought me one year closer to the scary and often feared year of 40. Thirdly, I was had to attend registration night for Becca at a HIGH SCHOOL. Now, I guess it goes with my ever increasing age, but going to the high school registration night just about put me over the edge. Wasn't I just in high school? Oh no, I guess that was 30 years ago...

The news came a few weeks ago that Becca did not get approved to open enroll to Chanhassen. They only accepted siblings of those already attending the school. So we will plan on Chaska High School, with a small chance that there may be a few more people allowed to enroll this summer based on their final numbers. Yesterday, Becca took a placement test for Spanish to see if she could get into a higher level than Spanish 1 due to the Spanish she has studied at World Learner School. We were happy to find out that she qualified for Spanish 2!

The pictures I put in this post are from Bella's birthday party with friends. It was a bowling birthday party and she had a lot of fun. It was called cosmic bowling and the lights were turned off the whole time and everything glowed in the dark.

Harry spent Valentine's Day with Erick at an event for boy scouts. It was called Polar Cubs and it was outside the whole day. Temps were in mid 20's so it wasn't terrible out, but Erick did say it was pretty cold. There was broomball, sledding, and some survival tasks. Erick probably would have been warmer, but he was gung-ho on the first activity of the day; broomball, and he split his pants open. He is still pretty sore from the day!

Music to My Ears

For those of you wondering if people with cochlear implants can enjoy music, I post this video for you. It is Bella singing in her Church Choir this past Sunday on Valentines Day. She is front and center in the blue shirt and blue/black polka dotted skirt. She LOVES music and singing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_25ruGnrRM