States

This was a very busy week at school.  The teachers were trying to make up for the missed days from the hurricane and the kids all had a lot of tests and quizzes.  Caroline had three on one day and two on another.  The boys had a lot, too.  Each afternoon was a little intense with the studying and prepping.  To help out her score in one class, Caroline earned extra points by baking chocolate chip cookies.  Her teacher's husband was traveling with a team to NC to help with the hurricane aftermath.  They were bringing homemade cookies and brownies with them to pass out.  The nice part about getting all the tests out of the way was that no one had homework over their Fall Break.  The board has not yet decided if we have to make up the missed days from the hurricane, so Fall Break went as scheduled.  We had Friday and Monday (tomorrow) off.  

Henry finished out his cross country season this week.  On Tuesday, he participated in the Palmetto Classic.  He ran well.  All the JV kids ran together - boys and girls - so Henry was able to keep a steady pace with two of his teammates for the whole race.  One teammate emerged from the woods with a bloody nose and blood all over his shirt.  He had taken a fall, but still finished the race.    

His final race was this Saturday - SCACS State Competition.  (South Carolina Association of Christian Schools)  Henry had two personal goals this season.  One was to finish a race without stopping to walk.  He had accomplished that at Oconee a few weeks ago.  His other goal was to get under 30 minutes by season's end.  He accomplished that at States.  He came in at 29:18.  

Our girls team came in first place and our boys team came in second, so it was a very good day for the school.  One of the girls on our team is only in 5th grade but she is an incredible runner.  She came in 2nd place among all the girls.  

Google made a collage of Henry.  

The night before the final race, the team had a pasta dinner.  It was at the house of Josiah's classmate and she had requested that Josiah draw her a fruit fly.  Josiah mentioned he had drawn a turtle and other animal for kids in his class.  This girl requested a fruit fly, but not an apple with wings.  Josiah drew this for her.  

Josiah spent his first day of Fall Break making a Willy Wonka video.  It was when Willy Wonka first walks out of the chocolate factory with that sort of limp.  Josiah even did the fall and somersault.  It always amazes me to see the final edits of all the snippets filmed.  He has a clear vision of what he wants his videos to look like in the end.  

All three kids were able to go to a friend's house on Saturday night. They had a good time playing wiffle ball, volleyball, and watching a movie outside.  It got cold Saturday night and though they were under blankets, our kids were cold!  We have definitely reached fall around here and it is a true fall with jackets and everything.   

I tried to get a picture of the kids on our fallen tree.  The men with the chainsaws are supposed to come tomorrow morning to break it down and haul it out of the yard.  

We have one more day of Fall Break to enjoy before getting back to it.