All Aboard! Russia

Nate has been working on his PEG (personal exploration game) for his Challenge class since about December. He needed to pick a topic that he wanted to learn more about and he chose Russia! He spent weeks doing research, complete with bibliography. The kids needed to design an original board game with trivia. The final project is due this week and Nate will present it to his homeroom class. In a few weeks he gets to have it on display at "Challenge Night" where all the kids in the program throughout the district display their works of art. He has worked so hard on this and it turned out great. His game is designed after the Trans-Siberian Railroad that travels across Russia from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.

Here are some interesting things we learned about Russia:
*Russia has 11 time zones!!!
*Russians sweeten their tea with jam.
*Russia is almost twice as big as Canada.
*Russian children go to school 6 days a week.
*Grandfather Frost brings gifts to children at Christmas which is celebrated in January.
*"Babooshka" means grandmother.

Check out the playing pieces! Little nesting dolls or Matroishka dolls! I found these little keychains online and just took out the chain.

Pine Wood Derby

Last weekend was the Cub Scout Pine Wood Derby. The boys are given a block of wood and need to make cars out of them (with lots of adult help). They offer you patterns, but Nate chose to design his own. When the men were putting it on the track to race it, they couldn't figure out which way the car went. I was the only one near them and I told them how it went. Yeah, I was wrong! I had it going down like a limo, but it really was some sort of truck. He actually came in 15th out of about 35 cars. Not too bad considering it went down backwards!

Aidan got to make a car also even though he isn't a scout. He came in 3rd place in the sibling category!!! There were only 4 cars :)

Take 2 = Success!!!

Well, it's gone! The homestudy and other documents are on their way to our coordinator. No problem getting the apostilles done this time. When I took the papers back to the Notary to be signed, she said, "Well, look at that. I DIDN'T sign. The paper didn't have a line for me to sign on. They always have a line." I knew it had to be our fault that the Notary forgot to sign her name even though that is what they are paid to do.

Anyway, everything worked out and we are getting so close. I am almost afraid to write this, but we could possibly have a travel date in May!!!!!! I'm trying to not get too excited and just sit tight. Keep your fingers crossed and the prayers coming. :)

Can't Anything Be Easy???

As you know, Brad and I needed to get a new home study together. We had 6 documents that needed to be notarized and then apostilled in Harrisburg. Our new home study agency notarized the first 4 and the other 2 we needed to get done on our own. We went last night to have them notarized and watched the girl stamp, seal, and fill in spaces. Of course we never checked being that is was a 2 page document and we thought she completed it all. Brad goes 2 hours out to Harrisburg only to find out they can't apostille it because the NOTARY NEVER SIGNED IT!!!!! Unbelievable! Hopefully Brad can find time to go out again next week. I was anxious to have this completed and off to our coordinator. In reality, it really only set us back about 4 days...but still....CAN'T ANYTHING BE EASY????

Fisher Park Fun

Today we went to Fisher Park to enjoy this beautiful weather. We took the kids' bikes and Brad and I walked. I think Brad is trying to lose weight ;) We went down to the waterfall and skipped some rocks. Here are some pictures.

Here's Aidan playing around by the water. Check out the nice slanted rock he was standing on...

...and in he went into the 40 degree water! He caught himself on the wall and was hanging there with a scared look. I don't think he was scared of falling further, but rather of what I was going to say to him :)

Still In Mourning

What can I say...Aidan is our drama queen! He had a beta fish named Sharky that passed on to fishy heaven over 2 years ago! Aidan STILL talks about him and cries. The first 5 times we were so comforting and understanding and thought "wow, he really loved that little blue fish that he barely even looked at". As year two came and the tears would very conveniently come right at bedtime, our understand level had diminished a bit.

Last night I caught Aidan sitting on the steps with his scrapbook (sometimes I scrapbook with the boys and Aidan made a memorial page to Sharky when he died.) Aidan was looking at that page trying to hold back tears. As soon as I acknowledged what he was doing, the tears started. It was impressive how I mustered up sympathy for him and gave him ideas that might make him feel better. Of course he felt better and went about his dinner...UNTIL... Nate started to get some attention. Well, the sadness started up again. He did decide to follow one of my ideas to write a letter to Sharky and add it to his scrapbook. It really is sweet and he did a great job! Here is the letter to the dear departed Sharky:

In case you can't read it:
Dear Sharky, I really, really miss you. I know you miss me too. I love you a lot even though you aren't with me. Love, Aidan

Just on a side note, Aidan has had two other fish since then. Bruiser is still alive and Aidan BARELY EVEN LOOKS AT HIM!!!