Mark's Hero - Grandpa Woodward!

Tonight we went to TMA's open house. We viewed each of the children's classrooms and their work for the year. Jocelyn was very excited to show us the book of poetry she wrote. She dedicated the book "To my three brothers for not letting me have a sister!" Her first poem was about Brent and how she and Brent were "magnets" for each other. Jocelyn also made three varieties of Irish scones to put at her Ireland display - traditional raisin, sugary blueberry, and chocolate chip (trust a child to insist you have to have a chocolate variety!). The scones were gone before the open house closed, so Jocelyn was happy they were such a big hit with the visitors to the classroom. Blake threw us a curve ball by listing his "Who am I?" favorite color as "ORANGE" not "RED". We could not understand that one! He is a total RED personality and has been since he was a baby. Mark's classroom was full of great projects they have been creating all year, including the Rancho de Francisco project he made with Christopher Vaglienty, the soda bottle ecosystem he is building with Katie Fairbanks and Elliott Stahr, the Steve Jobs "Great Californian" report he did this past month, and his "My Hero" project - John Woodward (his grandfather). He wrote a beautiful tribute to his Grandpa Woodward about how his Grandpa "stops danger from happening", writes great chemistry lessons, and teaches Mark all about chemistry and cool explosions. Mark wrote that he hopes his Grandpa lives to be 100 so he can continue to teach Mark all he knows about chemistry. Attached are a few photos from Mark's classroom including the "John Woodward" Hero writing (notice the bald-head and the laptop computer in Grandpa's hand.)

This is Mark in his 4th grade classroom.

These are the photos of Mark's hero "John Woodward" his grandfather!

Mark and his 4th grade teacher Mrs. Karen Heilig.

Mark wrote the California letter "S" for Silicon Valley. He drew the schematics of a hard drive motherboard!

Blake in his kindergarten room underneath his flower paragraph.

Jocelyn with her 2nd grade teacher Ms. Dawn Bleskey. They are standing in front of Jocelyn's Ireland project.

New Trampoline

We welcomed Memorial Day weekend with a wonderful early Christmas present from Santa Claus! Jocelyn wrote to Santa last Sunday asking for a trampoline, and the letter must have traveled via overnight delivery because by Tuesday evening, we had a trampoline! Actually, Wendy helped pack the home of a family in the ward, Tori and Alan Crummack, and they offered us their practically new trampoline. Knowing how badly the children wanted a trampoline and knowing that our bed is tired of being their trampoline, especially at 10:30pm, we decided to kill our grass, peeve the neighbors, and attempt to wear-out the kids each night by taking the trampoline for a Summer Test Drive. That means that by August 31st, if Wendy is absolutely fed up with the fighting, injuries and yard damage that are by-products of trampoline ownership, we happily donate the trampoline to a deserving family of rambunctious children and we attempt to regrow our lawn. Otherwise, we continue to use the trampoline as a "time-out"space for Brent when he has testosterone bursts.