Daisy Update

Time for an update on Daisy Jenna! She has had a fun and very exciting year with her troop and there is lots of news to share. As you can see, her Daisy flower is complete! Here is a summary of the last three petals that she earned:

The rose petal stands for "Make the World a Better Place" and to earn it the girls visited Hidden Oaks nature preserve where they learned all about nature. They took a hike, saw some deer, did a scavenger hunt, and planted flowers. Here she is with her whole troop.

The purple petal stands for "Respect Myself and Others". The girls went to Living Yoga and learned all about good nutrition. Jenna came home showing me all her new yoga moves and has been trying to convince me to enroll her in a class. They also learned about ballet from a troop mom.

The girls earned their last petal by doing a variety of service projects. The spring green petal represents "Considerate and Caring" so giving back to the community was the perfect way for them to earn it. They made Valentine's for veterans, fleece blankets for a children's hospital, birthday bags (everything needed to throw a birthday party) for area shelters, and bookmarks for nursing homes.

Jenna earned her Yoga and Nature Center patch. Two more for the back of her tunic! She also recently participated in her first World Thinking Day Celebration. The troop did activities, games, and projects with global themes to honor their sister Girl Scouts in other countries. She earned a Trefoil pin (in first picture above) to symbolize her participation.

Jenna's troop decided to sell Girl Scout cookies for the first time this year! I was very excited and couldn't wait to send Jenna around to the neighbors. Turns out that Jenna was a bit shy and didn't really like delivering the pitch for people to buy from her. She sold to our family and a few close neighbors and then declared herself done selling! Jenna sold 59 boxes and has absolutely no interest in delivering her cookies. She did take them to our neighbors, but after that she again declared herself done with the cookies. Her troop as a whole did great selling 803 boxes and raising over $500 for the troop! Thanks to everyone who bought cookies!

It's been a full year, but wait! There is still more fun to come! Later this month, the troop is touring the police station and participating in the Ms. Manners program. Jenna will also be going on a special outing with her Dad called "Me and My Guy". They will be doing silly relay races, obstacle courses, dizzy bat races, kickball, and blindfold soccer. This summer she is going to a Daisy day camp! It's a half-day program for one week and she's really looking forward to it! She'll also be bridging to Brownies!!

Winter Blast

Here are a few pictures from the snow storm that hit our area earlier this month. As you can imagine, my kids loved all the snow and were thrilled to get two days off from school!

Tom was out of town when the snow fell so I am very thankful to my wonderful neighbor, Dale, who helped me with all of my snow!



Saddle up, Nicholas! I love this picture.

Busy Marissa

Our little Marissa is quite the busy bee these days! Every morning she asks what's on the agenda for the day and is quite unhappy if my response is not "school" or "soccer". A quiet day at home is okay (here and there), but she's much happier if she has somewhere to go. Here's what she has been up to lately:

Marissa has "graduated" to the My Own Time II class that she takes at the community center. She now goes twice a week for an hour and fifteen minutes. Going to school is by far her favorite activity and she's dressed with her backpack on way before it's time to go. She loves it and has become very attached to her teachers, Miss Anne (in above picture) and Miss Kim. This little class has been a good baby step toward real preschool which she will start in the fall. She's very excited to be learning to write her name and loves to make the letter "M".

Marissa did take a swimming class not that long ago and as I've already blogged, she wasn't thrilled about it. So we decided to move on to gymnastics which she really enjoyed. She loved to wear her "gymnastics suit" and was happy to be in the class with her best friend, Brianna. She still can't do a somersault, but that's okay!

Now it's on to soccer which she goes to on Friday mornings. So far she seems to be liking it. There are 18 kids in her class and I have NO idea how the coaches keep everyone happy and moving in the same direction. Since we're at the community center so much we visit the library often. Marissa heads straight for the book shelf with Dora and Diego books. She also likes to go to storytime. Her favorite part is the craft that they do after reading books.

Marissa also enjoys playdates with her little girlfriends. Here is a picture of her with her friend, Caitlyn, from a recent get together. It's so cute to see her forming little friendships. So, as you can see, our little Marissa is busy and loves being so!

Team Crush!

Jacob has wrapped up his second season of competitive basketball. We had a lively bunch of fans in the stands which made for some extra fun. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the games and usually came home with a sore throat from cheering so much!

Team Crush had a great season and made it to the final tournament. They ended up winning the consolation bracket and coming in third place overall. Jacob scored the winning point in one of these games when he was fouled and placed on the free throw line. The score was tied 20 to 20 with 6 seconds left on the clock (so no pressure, right?). He missed the first shot, but the second one went in! Crush wins!

One of the moms on the team gave each of the kids a can of Orange Crush in honor of their great season (see picture above). Jacob has now moved on to another season of recreational basketball on Team Duke. Stay tuned. :)