Katy and Margaret had their piano recital today. They are now with the advanced set of students.
Category: trip
Categories
Margaret Gets Glasses
Elizabeth took Margaret to the eye doctor about a week ago. We found out that she has a pretty sever astigmatism. She needed glasses. Today we picked up her glasses. She is very excited about them. I think they make her look like she belongs in a lab with a bunch of beakers around. Check out the pretty flowers on the side view.
Categories
Town Council
Margaret was nominated from her school to lead the pledge of allegiance at a Town Council meeting. She did splendidly.
Here is the message from her principal informing us of the event:
The Town asked us to nominate outstanding students to open a Town Council meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Margaret has been nominated as an outstanding student from Van Meter School.
Comments listed about Margaret: As a fifth grader at Van Meter School, Margaret is a role model for other students. She is helpful, kind and gets along with everyone. She is not only outstanding academically, but she demonstrates outstanding character and compassion. Margaret was also part of the Lego Robotics Team that investigated and worked to problem solve local traffic conditions. Margaret also does a great job as a noon time P.E. monitor.
Can you believe Margaret is 11? As seems to always be, Margaret’s birthday fell during ski week. We were in Tahoe, so we went ice skating in the afternoon then had a nice dinner with the Walden’s that night. (We also had a dinner with Elizabeth’s family the next Friday). A low key birthday. Now we need to start planning parties with the kids friends.
Another school play. This time Margaret was actually in it. (She did crew last year). I don’t quite understand why they have to copy things, this was a copy of Gilligan’s Island merged with Jungle Book. They like to take classic rock songs as well and change the words. This was one of the better plays, but 5th graders in Los Gatos are not like Fame.
Just a few pictures of the kids playing in the snow.
Another year for the FLL Team. The Exploded Robots this year. Again, I think the kids did better than they scored in the tournament. For example, they got docked for not being excited about science and engineering. However, when Elizabeth asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up, the answers were, “Chemistry”, “Engineer”, and the like.
This year, Margaret talked to the Town Council for the project. The kids met “Citizen Ray”. I think that this was the real value of the program, learning how things work, but that kind of stuff doesn’t seem to count in the tournament. Oh well, I guess our kids will just have to learn stuff and be happy with that.
Today was the Halloween parade at the kids school. It is very exciting. The most exciting thing for me was that I finally got to use my new camera a bit.
I finally got off my keester and took the kids backpacking. We have been on lots of hikes with the kids and they do really well, I figured it was time to try a little backpacking. (I had taken Katy many years ago).
We got up Saturday morning and drove to the valley (Margaret had never been there) to pick up our backcountry permits and have the rangers help us make the final decision on where to go that night. We picked Sunrise Lakes in Yosemite.
So, Sam, Margaret, and I set off with overloaded backpacks to climb a 1000ft set of switchbacks. The kids did really well. Lots of stops on the climb up. We made it to the first lake and decided that was enough for us the first day. It was fairly crowded there were 5 or so other groups at this fairly small lake. The next day, we did a little bit of day hiking without the big packs and had a good time just lounging around not doing a whole lot. Then the next day we hiked out without stopping. It was easier with lighter packs and going downhill.
After we got back to the car, I took the kids up to see Tuolumne Meadows. I had to make them stop playing with their Nintendo’s so they could look at the scenery. In the end a great time was had by all. We will have to do this more often. Katy is lobbying for a camping trip without all the hiking. I guess we should do that relatively soon.
By the way, the picture above is Sam and Margaret pumping water for us next to our campsite.
We went to pick up the girls at camp. Sam is pretty well convinced that he will be going there next year. Once I get the pictures from Katy and Margaret, I’ll post them here as well. I don’t know if Katy washed her feet while she was there.