Artwork Masterpieces

 Alex had 2 pieces of artwork chosen for display at an open house through the school district.  It was a great honor and the artwork was really well done (Dog in upper right hand corner and vases in lower right). We all felt special as they opened one of the Deere homes for the open house!

Alex with her art teacher, Mrs. Gillespie

We celebrated with Maddie while she was honored for her artwork. All 3rd graders in Moline are asked to draw a picture for the Moline water dept / public works. This year's theme was "What do you know about H2O". One child is chosen from each school and then one child from the 10 is chosen as the overall honoree. The top choice has their artwork placed as the cover in the annual water report that goes out to all residences. Maddie was the one chosen from Roosevelt! While she didn't have her artwork chosen for the report, she was so excited to be honored (as were we).

Meeting the Blue Angels

Just when we thought we couldn't top our last trip to the QC Airshow in 2012, we were in for a treat today!  It was Mother's Day and the one thing I wanted (aside from Hart Household Peace) was for the family to go watch the Blue Angels during the airshow. 

It was very overcast and we wondered if the Blue Angels would even fly.  The kids played four-square and listened to music while we waited.  We were so excited to see Fat Albert fly overhead!  The Blue Angels show had started!!!

We knew (from previous years) that they would come together as a full team of 5 and do a few fly-overs before heading back to the airport.  We raced back to try to see them landing.  Unfortunately, we JUST missed them landing (by minutes!). By the time that we parked and walked to the fence, the pilots had disembarked and were walking towards us.

They announced that they would be out in a few minutes for some pictures, questions & autographs.  What a special surprise - one that we never expected!

We asked one of the pilots which way they would be taking off (to head back home).  He showed us, so we found a place to park where we could see the end of the runway. Unfortunately, once they started taxiing, we realized they were heading the other way!  It was still neat to see.  The whole show was wonderful!! A memory we won't soon forget...

Running the Arsenal & Seeing a Big Peanut on Wheels!

The kids were invited to a "Kid's Run" a few weeks ago.  Surprisingly, they were all pretty excited about doing this!  It was held at the Rock Island Arsenal (largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the US!) which is just down the road from our house.  We awoke to a steamy morning and headed to the Arsenal for the run. 

Aside from Kaitee, none of the kids had ever "run in a race".  This wasn't a quick little run either - all of the kids were in the 9-14 age range, which meant they would all run 2 miles!

Will - checking out a rocket

Kaitee & Alex

Will

Maddie

We saw them all run by us after the start (already 1/4 mile into the race) then lost sight of them for a while (the course took them straight down the road and back).  We were shocked to see Will coming through in the top 10 of the runners (he's 9, most others that far ahead were 13-14 yr olds).  Another 5 minutes and Alex and Maddie came through (top 20?).  Kaitee was near the end and was struggling with the heat.  After sitting for a minute with Matt, they finished strong! 

We are so proud of all of them!  They are excited about getting involved in more races and (eventually) cross country and track at the middle school level.

Here they are with their medals...

We headed to Fazoli's for lunch and found the Planter's Nutmobile in the HyVee parking lot.  We took some pictures before eating and then stopped back when we saw the Planter's Peanut "mascot" outside.  We heard later that evening that we were on the news because of this stop!

Celebrating Kaitee - Track & Birthday

Kaitee is an official Teenager!!!  Our first go around with a teenager in the family.  We are optimistic...

She came home in February and said that she had signed up for Track - she really missed running, she said.  We discussed it and decided to give it a try this year.  She ran long distance (1/2 mile and 1 mile) during the track meets that she attended.  Due to the size of the team, Kaitee was not able to participate in every meet.  It was rather nice as (we quickly found out) most track meets last for HOURS.  She enjoyed her time practicing, racing and getting to know more people.  She tended to be a crowd favorite as she was usually a 1/2 lap behind the other racers and took time to smile and wave at the people clapping for her!  She never broke stride (or walked) and always finished with a smile.  During the City Meet (her last meet), she was able to try relay for the first time.  She was pretty nervous and practice in the in-field for a while.  In the end, she did awesome! 

We have started to call her our "Smoking Gun" because she runs (most of the time) with her pointer & middle fingers pointed out, like a gun.  Not sure where that habit started, but it has stuck with her!

Last week, we had a family party for her birthday with some friends included.  She chose Happy Joes pizza.  We brought some of her friends home after school and then headed to Happy Joes for dinner and fun.  We finished the night by bringing home her "Bestie" (who couldn't be with us after school) for a few more hours.  It was a very crazy and, dare I say, obnoxious, night.  My nerves were rather frayed by the end of our time at Happy Joes.  I am sure that the staff was happy to see us all leave! 

Kaitee LOVES Mike & Ike's and received quite a few boxes from her friends and Grammy/Grandad.