Rebekah's 8th Grade Portraits

I took Bekah to get her eighth grade portrait on Sunday.

Um, when did she get so grown up?

 I was completely blown away by how mature she is.

 Absolutely gorgeous!!

A surprise from Mrs. Roberta's Collection

The girls and I got home from running errands on Saturday and found this on our doorstep.

It was two angels from Mrs. Roberta's collection, left for us by her daughters with the sweetest note.  It included the photo of the girls with Mrs. Roberta, labeled on the back by Mrs. Roberta.

The girls instantly loved them.  Lydia had just seen a similar angel in the store and it reminded her of Mrs. Roberta.  And Bekah had recently decided that she was going to collect these figures.

So now the girls have a start to their collections, with a memory of Mrs. Roberta to go with it.

Report Cards!

 The report cards are in!  Boy are we glad that this nine weeks is over!  It's been a busy and tough season!!  Lydia's had a rough nine weeks, but after Spring Break, we are starting this next nine weeks strong!  And Bekah has been working on her vision therapy in the evenings (and once a week at the doctor's office) and working on maintaining honor roll.

Lydia made two A's, two B's and two C's.

Here is the breakdown of Lydia's grades:

Language Arts: 79 C

Math: 89 B

Science: 72 C

Social Studies 82 C

Chorus: 100 A

Theatre: 99 A

Rebekah made all A's and one B.

 

Here is the breakdown of Rebekah's grades:

Language Arts: 86 B

Math: 95 A

Science: 91 A

Social Studies: 94 A

Band: 99 A

General Intermission (Heritage Helpers): 100 A

Registering for High School

This kid...

registered for her high school classes today.

Yes.

That just happened.

How did my baby get so grown up?  Crazy, crazy stuff!!

We met with the high school guidance counselor today and were pleasantly surprised to find that Bekah was recommended for honors classes for every subject except Science.  Even Math!

So Bekah registered for the following:

Algebra I

Biology

Honors Language Arts

AP Human Geography

Lifetime Wellness (PE/Health)

Spanish I

Bekah has chosen a Humanities/Fine Arts focus.  She has mapped out the next four years and plans to take four years of Spanish, Visual Art II (skipping Art I, which she can exempt herself from by submitting her artwork), Visual Art III, along with her core courses in math, science, personal finance, etc.

The guidance counselor told her that if her standard classes were too easy, that she needed to speak up so that she could be bumped to honors.  I had one confident girl leaving the session today!

She's going to rock this whole high school thing!

Space Center Videos

We took a few videos of the girls at the US Space and Rocket Center.  They had a rock climbing call that both the girls totally conquered. 

Here's Lydia:


Here's Rebekah:


And here is Bekah on the Space Shot with John and Evie. 

Final Spring Break Excursion: US Space & Science Center

Today we went to the US Space and Science Center in Huntsville, AL.  We have been talking about going for years.  David and the girls have definitely never been.  I seem to vaguely recall going there on a field trip, but I definitely don't remember anything about it.

The Boyes had planned a trip with their friend, the McLellans, so we asked if we could join their group.

Here's the whole crew that went (minus Jon and David, who were taking the photos).

 Our obligatory family photo as we entered...

and here are the dads checking out the cool stuff in the museum.

Lydia was really nervous about the whole thing and was not looking forward to it at all.  I think she thought it was going to be about scary space aliens or something.  It took her actually arriving there to realize that it was more of a fun museum. 

 We kept referencing Bekah's astronaut birthday party while we were there.  Such a fun day!  How much would Bekah have loved all this then?

They had some really fun interactive things where you could see constellations and check out space suits and training video games.

They also had this fun rock-climbing wall that the old kids tried.  (I got a video of the girls climbing that you can check out in another post.)

 David was really loving all the military and Airforce information they had on site. He has loved airplanes since he was a child and could name them all.

 

 Check out this capsule in which they sent monkeys to space!!

There were lots of interactive tools there.  While the younger kids played outside, Bekah was building her own space module for the International Space Station.

 Outside, they had a few rides.  Bekah was all about riding them.

 Lydia, not so much.  But Lydia took charge of wrangling all the kiddos.

 Bekah rode the SpaceShot with Jon and Lauren.  Too fun!

 The last building we checked out had a rocket going the entire length of the building.  It was huge!

 There were more interactive things for everyone to check out in there as well.

 And this space pod was a huge hit with everyone.  David spotted it first, but the kids all had fun playing with the switches and buttons.

 I'm so glad that we finally got to visit here.  I can't believe we have lived this close for so long and haven't been sooner!

Spring Break Continues: The Hermitage

Today, we continued our Spring Break adventures with a trip to the Hermitage.

It has been many, many years since we have been to the Hermitage.  In fact, I'm not even sure Lydia was born yet. So today, we set off to learn more about our seventh president, Andrew Jackson. 

 We checked out the museum first.  It had several artifacts and personal belongings of the Jacksons, including this carriage. And then we walked the grounds.  We were given a headset with narrative about what we were seeing, so we could do a self-guided tour.

 We finally made it to the main home where the Jacksons lived.  This was the newer, renovated Hermitage that was updated after the death of Mrs. Jackson.  On the grounds next to the house is the family cemetery.  The main focus is the huge double grave of Andrew and Rachel Jackson.

 

And just to the side of their graves is the grave of their former slave, Alfred, who was the son of the cook and who chose to live with the Jacksons, even after slavery was abolished.

 We got to view some of the slave quarters.

 And we also toured the original Hermitage.  This is the home that Andrew and Rachel lived in first.  It was later turned into slave quarters once the bigger house was built.

 Inside, they had some artifacts that had been found on the property, including evidence of hiding places under the floors for the slaves to keep their belongings.

 Learning about Andrew Jackson was interesting.  He was a complicated man who didn't really gain our admiration upon learning about his stance on slavery and the Native Americans.  However, he fiercely loved his wife - even if she was still married when he ran off with her.  Like I said...complicated.

 But the grounds were beautiful, and it was nice being there as a family.

Afterward, we chose to avoid traffic and hit the mall instead.  We grabbed some dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

And then just goofed off and did some shopping.

Super fun day with the family!