Highschool Trip!

This year for the first time our homeschool group went on a high school trip. It really was quite fun. We visited our nation's capital, Washington D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Here is some pictures from our awesome time. 

All of the students. We had ten students and six adults along. We had a blast on the field trip just hanging out and even the touring was fun. :) 

Me, Lexi, and Katelyn (Smiles)

Arlington National cemetery.  Around 300,000 veterans are buried there.

 The Eternal Flame burns at the grave of former President John F. Kennedy. 

 The Changing of the Guard. So stiff, proper, and ceremonial!  

 The huge, impressive capital building.

 

 Our group in front of the Capital building.

 Daddy, Jalisa and I. It was really awesome having  Daddy along on the trip. :)

 The beautiful dome inside the Capital building.

 The ornate interior of the Library of Congress.

My dearest Lexi and Katelyn! :) 

 My dad on my sister's lovely hot pink phone! (hehe)

 We had a tour of a government building by Welby Lehman, who works there. It was very interesting!

An old factory turned bookstore and restaurant. There were lots of beautiful buildings in Baltimore! 

Me with my lovely friends! Such fun!They really are the best. :)

The Baltimore Aquarium was also very cool. :) 

A dolphin show!

We watched a 4-D show. Yeah, it was...um...4-D! Water sprays, jabs in the backs, snakes around my feet, and all! It was VERY entertaining. I felt so tense, just waiting for what was coming next! hehe

The view from the Top of the World, a tall building in Baltimore. 

Me and my dear sister! :)

Lexi and her dad.

The view of the beautiful inner harbor!

All and all we had a great time!

Delicous Iced Coffee

This iced coffee is really, really good. Nice and sweet and thick and rich. Ahh. Just right. 

So, here you go!

Iced Coffee 

2 1/2 cups waters

1/2 cup hot chocolate mix

Heaping 1/3 cup of instant coffee (Adjust to taste)

3/4 cup sugar

Heat until dissolved. Add 2 cups French vanilla creamer and 6 cups milk. Serve over crushed ice. (It's a lot better over ice because it is best really cold) Makes a little less than a gallon. 

Quiz Retreat & Chorus Tour 2012!

This year was the best year I ever had of quizzing and chorus. I learned lots of things during quizzing, and the chorus songs we had this year were awesome and the people were fun. So here are some final pictures of Quiz Retreat and Tour 2012!  

This is the whole chorus on tour. A couple people didn't come, but this is pretty much everybody. We have about seventy, it's fun having such a big chorus. We stayed at Penn York Retreat Center, so we had a gym!  (Awesome) We usually stay in one or two churches, but this year the retreat center was great. We played basketball and speed v-ball all the time and had lots of fun. We had four programs, two of them in New York and two in Pennsylvania. 

Oh, quiz retreat. :) I learned so much during the quiz season this year! With my totally cool teammates, Laura and Lexi, and my inspiring coach, Laura's mom Mary, they made my third year quizzing the best yet. I got to know lots of new people too, and that is always great.  

Here are some things I learned: 

1. Never judge by first impressions. :) 

2. Being a good sport is so much more important than winning! And also, being a good sport is so much more fulfilling, because when you lose, (you will sometimes) you can be happy for the other teams! We didn't get a trophy this year, but winning isn't everything. We had so much fun anyway. 

3. If a person tells you someone else is a jerk or cocky or whatever, don't believe them. Wait and see for yourself. They probably aren't. (Smiles)     

4. There are more nice people in the world that you think there is. :) 

Team huddles were one my favorite parts about my team. :) Having a team to support you makes everything so much more fun and stress-free. After all those hours of studying, it's easy to give in to the pressure and be competitive and really want to win. But that just isn't the most important thing! We talked about how God is in control of everything and that everything single thing that happens has been planned since creation. Why stress? God knows. :) 

Bottom line? 

God is Control,

Winning isn't Everything, 

But being a Good Sport is! 

Oh, yes. And how could I forget the crazy jokes? Smiles and laughter were a BIG part of our team. Laughing makes everything so fun. We had all these jokes that made us laugh. Laughing draws a team together. Especially a team consisting solely of GIRLS! We were a very girly team. That was really, really fun and special. 

Okay, I'll stop my ramblings...here are some pictures. We didn't win a trophy but we got a chocolate bunny! (Even though we got third in the bunny quiz hehe)  

I gotta explain the beaver cards. Laura had this thing about drawing beavers, kind of an unofficial team mascot, so she gave us beaver cards. Yeah, that little beaver is pretty cute, huh? :)  

And yes, we look silly, but we were having fun...(Smiles)

 

 So that is Tour and Quiz Retreat 2012! Looking forward to next year! :) 

 

Oh, sugar cookies!

These are the most beautiful sugar cookies! Smooth icing...bright colors...distinct lines...and sugar. Sweet. Literally. For more such wondrous cookies, visit the sight of the creator of these cookies, The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle. 

 These little guys...are just too cute!

Quizzing...then and now! :)

Wow. Things change. :) Quizzing in 2010, 2011 and 2012. My teams changed but I had so much fun every year! Collage credits to my cousin Lexi. And yes, it was a little humbling to put that 2010 picture on my blog. I look a little...well, just a little strange. Oh well, I guess that's how you look after a long, hard day of quizzing.  :) Update on Quiz Retreat and Chorus Tour 2012 coming soon!  

The Letters-No.5

This letter was a little time consuming, but easy to make. I cut strips out of pieces of paper from Michael's, just random strips that weren't all the same size. The color theme was black, white, grey, pink, and purple. I had some solids and some patterns. I put the metal piece (also from Michael's) in the middle with a pink paper center, and then fastened the strips around it. I used sticker squares to fasten the strips on, but I needed to cut the stickers to size. I wrote the "M" in the middle with a calligraphy pen.