4-H Cloverbud Day

That is a lot of little ones, huh?  And they were all so excited to be a part of Cloverbud Day!  Cloverbuds are 5 to 8 year olds (some younger siblings, too) who aren't quite old enough to be a full-fledged 4-H member yet.  Most of their 4-H participation revolves around that of older 4-H siblings, except for being pulled out of monthly club meetings to do a fun craft or project.  Cloverbud Day is the one day of the year that is all about them, so there was no way we were going to miss it!

 

Held this past Saturday morning out at the Radium Springs Community Center, Cady was excited to see her friends Lela, Max, Willie Joe and Grant there because her other friends, Mckynze and Kaci weren't able to make it.  They started out with the County Officer Team leading them in some games and songs.  Below, Lily is leading them in "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee".  Cady is in pink, with Aiden, Andy, Willie Joe and Preston to her left and Max and Grant to her right:

 

Then, they got to go from table to table, checking out the projects 4-H has to offer when they turn 9, and doing a hands-on make-it-and-take-it project.  This was at the Scrapbooking table and she got to decorate a 4-H notebook:

 It was Colton who was helping with that table, actually! That is the other great thing about Cloverbud Day is that he was able to get some Leadership in 3 of his 5 projects, and that looks great in a 4-H record book!  I even gave him the choice of whether he wanted to help or to stay home with Daddy and he enthusiastically answered that he wanted to go and help!  Here he is helping Andy and Grant make their notebooks:

 There was another table with scrapbooked notebooks, this time smaller ones and these that they made were donated to Operation Military Kids.  Here are Preston, Cady and Willie Joe hard at work:

 Colton and Jimmie also helped with the rifle table:

 Here they are helping Cady learn how to hold and aim a rifle (a toy one that shot corks):

 Here is Jimmie helping another little girl:

 They did great!

Colton also helped with the archery table:

 Below, Cady works on decorating a tile to hang on her wall:

 She even got and ice cream sundae!!

 There were projects outside, too, like rabbits and goats:

 At the end, they called them each up one by one and gave them a certificate and a 4-H water bottle. 

 She had a great time, and so did Colton!  They were both a little worn-out by the time we went home, but they were able to relax and get a little rest before we were onto the next thing of our busy weekend! 

With this post, though, I am happy to say I am officially caught up on my blog!!  What a busy month we have had! Things are going well, though and the kids and I are getting settled into our new schedule.  Soccer has begun, though, and the first games are this weekend, the busy-ness starts again!  We are ready thought - Bring It!!  :-)



Minute to Win it: A Back to School Party

 Last Friday, there was a Back to School Party for the 1st through 5th graders at our church.  It was based on the television game show, Minute to Win It.  As they arrived, each kiddo had to put their name on a ticket and those tickets were placed in a bowl.  Ms. Alisa drew names out of there to determine who was playing the next game.  Then, whoever was drawn had to draw out of another container to see which game/challenge they got. 

Colton was the very first name drawn!  His game was actually one of the least exciting games - putting a cereal box together like a puzzle - in a minute or less.He almost did it - had just a few puzzle pieces left to place when time was up.

 Other games included "fixing" half-vanilla and half-chocolate sandwich cookies by matching them up like Duke is doing:

 Making a chocolate unicorn with chocolate snack cakes like Matthew is doing (with help from Ms. Alisa):

 Jagger had to try and stack wooden blocks on a paper plate ontop of his head:

 Kynz's game was to roll a marble down a table and get it to stick on a strip of double-sided sticky tape at the end.  She got three to stick, I think:

 Teddy had to roll hula hoops and try to have them land around a bottle of soda.  Love this picture after he got one:

 Here are Colton and Jagger watching and cheering everyone on:

 Mckaela and Abbi:

 Kynz and Cady:

Duke and Jackson: 

 Jackson's game was to stack reams of office paper like a pyramid and he enlisted the help of his brother, Jagger, to do it:

 

Emily had to flick a paper football through cups stacked as uprights:

 Finally, toward the end of the night, Cady's name was called.  Her game was a little challenging to Ms. Alisa told her she could pick a helper and she chose Mckynze.  They had to first, stack cups with index cards in between:

 Then, they had to yank out an index card so the cups stacked ontop of one another as they fell.  It didn't quite work, as you can see from the picture on the right, but they had fun trying:

 Mckaela was also one of the last called and she had to throw tennis balls and catch them in a colander tied to her head:

 She started with a couple of misses, but then she caught 3 in a row!  I love our pastor, Dr. Hollingsworth in the background in the picture on the right.  He was so enthusiastic and excited when the kids met their challenge:

 Matthew was cracking Michael up!  I think they share the same sense of humor! ;-)

 Abbi did great trying to unravel two spools of streamers:

 It was a fun time!  A great way to unwind at the end of the first week of school.  Thank you to Ms. Alisa for putting all of it together!! Can't wait until the next one!

First Day(s) of School!

I can't believe the kids are already back in school!!  Thier first day was last Wednesday when Cady began 2nd grade and Colton started 5th - last year in elementary!! It is amazing how fast the time goes!  We are so not ready for middle school, so I plan to cherish every moment of this year and pray time slows down just a bit!

On the very first day, we continued our tradition of family breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  That meant they had to wake up about 30 minutes earlier than normal, but they were excited so it wasn't any trouble getting them up and going. 

They started with a friendly game of checkers while waiting for our food to arrive:

Ready to dig in to their pancakes and bacon:

First day of school pics out on the front porch in the rocking chairs:

They were happy and excited when we dropped them off at school that morning and they were still happy and excited when I picked them up that afternoon.  They both seem to like their teachers and each has at least one really good friend with them in class.

On Thursday morning, the 2nd day of school, I took more traditional back to school photos at the house and in front of the lantana, like we do every year.  We leave so early for Cracker Barrel that the sun isn't all the way out and the pictures aren't that great.  So, the past couple of years, I have been waiting for the 2nd day to do those.

 It is going to be a great year!  I have to admit, though, that I am already counting the days to Fall Break! ;-)