Thanksgiving Break 2014 and Toys for Tots 5K

We had a great Thanksgiving Break.  I have had this feeling that keeps me thinking . . . what if this is our last Thanksgiving with Mom.  Tomorrow isn't promised, and we have no idea what a year will bring, so I have decided to live up each holiday, moment, etc.  This may all be made up in my mind, but it is still a feeling/thought I have.

We went to spend several days with my niece, nephew, brother, and sister-in-law.

On Tuesday, after we arrived, we enjoyed a great dinner and went shopping for all the groceries needed for our Thanksgiving lunch.  We also picked up the last of the Science Fair project materials.

On Wednesday, we decided we weren't going anywhere until both Science Fair projects were completed.  Both needed to do the experiment portion, but they had the majority of the write-up finished.  By the time we left for lunch, they had done their experiments, finished their typing, and printed off their pages to put on their boards.  We then went to lunch and ran several errands and picked up a few Christmas gifts.  We also picked up the turkey, ham, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and rolls, which we ordered from Luby's.  We find ordering the larger pieces makes things so much easier.  We ended our day with my niece making two pie crusts almost from scratch and then the two pie fillings.  My niece loves to bake, and I love to watch and help.  This time, I helped, but Mom helped even more.  I loved watching the two of them.  My niece loves Pumpkin Pudding Pie, which she learned in 1st grade from her teacher when they made it in class.  She also tried Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Pie, but in the end, it did not turn out.  We will try it again another day.

The kids did a great job helping to cook Thanksgiving lunch.  I realized days later that I never took any Thanksgiving Day pics.  Here is one of my nephew with the green bean casserole that he made.

On Friday morning, our first task was to go to Walmart to get the pics I had printed.  We needed them for their Science Fair projects.

Here is their finished work:

On Friday evening, my nephew was to volunteer with his Young Marine group to put out chairs, usher, and pick-up chairs at the San Antonio's Holiday River Parade & Lighting Ceremony.  My brother signed up my niece, Mom, and me to help.  This got us free lunch from a food truck, free viewing of the parade, and free dinner.  They will also get to attend a dinner in a few weeks put on from the sponsored for their gratitude toward volunteers.  While we worked hard to set-up hundreds of chairs, it was great helping people, meeting new people, and watching the parade.  It was a fun evening!

 These are just a few of the parade pics.

One of my favorite scenes was looking over to see Mom and my niece watching the parade together.  My niece had the program and was reading about the floats/companies as they entered our viewing area.

This morning, we woke up and got dressed as fast as possible to be at the Toys for Tots 5K by 8:00.  We made it just after 8.  Whew!  My nephew and his Young Marines group led the opening ceremony with the flags and National Anthem.  They also helped with the water station.  My niece agreed to do the Fun Run with me.  Yea!  It wound up being a 4K, and there were no more than 25 runners/walkers.  It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced.  All the 5Ks I've done have had thousands of people.  This one had 25 max!  We were the only walkers, so we only did one of the two laps. I hated the thought of everyone being finished and us still out there.  My niece was great, seemed to enjoy it, and was happy to stop after one lap.  My niece and nephew have both agreed to do a Color Run with me at some point.

We celebrated at Starbucks with Frappuccino and Hot Chocolate.

It was a great break, and I absolutely hated leaving.

Science Fair 2014

This afternoon was our annual campus Science Fair.  At my school, all student sin GT (Gifted and Talented) Science and Pre-AP Science are required to complete a Science Fair project.  I ask our teachers to get the students started in October, have due dates for the different parts throughout the fall, and then take up the projects a few days before our campus Science Fair.  We had around 10-14 different categories this year.  The judges tried to give 1st-3rd for each category, but that wasn't possible for all categories.  We can send 20 projects to the next level where they compete with students from the surrounding counties.  That will occur on February 15th. 

It makes for a long afternoon/evening for me.  We have so many projects with no place to display them, so we organize them in the cafeteria for judges, who I reserve, to judge after school.  This can last anywhere from 3:30-7:00.  (I provide snacks and drinks for our volunteer judges.) This year, the judges were finished by 6:30, and then two helped me move all the projects to the teachers' rooms or the library b/c the cafeteria has to be cleared out by morning.  We put all those earning ribbons on display in the library to be taken home by Friday afternoon. 

We had some neat projects, but I'm so tired, I can't remember specifics.

Science Fair

I am so very proud of my niece and her 1st place win in the Earth Science category of her campus Science Fair! 

Participating in the Science Fair was voluntary, and she was eager from the beginning.  She thought about various questions she had and categories to study, and she settled on testing water samples.  Because we don't live near one another, we used a dance competition weekend to get it done.  She gathered all the water samples, and I gathered our testing materials.  We worked for several hours in a hotel kitchen area--getting organized, testing the samples, typing on the laptop, organizing her thoughts, etc.  She knew what questions she had and where she wanted to take the project.  A sweet friend gave me some guiding questions to make sure we included, and my niece tackled everything head on.  I was quite impressed with her knowledge and thinking.  Once everything was typed and ready, pictures taken, we went and got the project board and supplies to make it look great.  She finished the board at home the following week.

1st Place!  Awesome for doing it all in a hotel!

Good luck at District!