Day 4

What's your favorite childhood memory?

Times like these you really have to focus on the good in your life. My family at home is in an unexplained and sudden state of unwraveling, and I am just glad that I've got my brothers and sister, and my own little family started here to depend on and keep me sane. I don't think I have the emotions or energy to spare sorting through my childhood to come up with my favorite memory, but here is a picture of little ol' me, on my fourth birthday in July 1992. We had just moved from Canada to California not too long before, and we were celebrating my birthday in Sunnyvale.

I'm looking forward to tomorrows prompt, so I'll be back with a more substantial post then! I may have something wedding related for you later today, also. Happy Fourth of July, friends!  :) 

S.

State High

My high school, State College Area High, made this pretty cool and definitely impressive lip dub video! The only not cool part is that Kyle and I, class of 2006, didn't recognize any of the students, a sign that we are truly old. I did spot my father in law (5:13), though (and my freshman/sophomore year locker)! He teaches chemistry; my sister was in his class, years before Kyle and I ever started dating. It was also fun seeing several former hang out spots and familiar places. Band hallway, choir room, auditorium...I spent a lot of time at that school. Oh, nostalgia. I really loved high school. Well done, State High.

Childhood Bin

All through kindergarten to senior year of high school, my mom kept school pictures and select projects and gave us a big bin of our things when we graduated. Get ready for a glimpse into my school years (not exactly in order)...

paper bag puppet on drugs?

kindergarten 

if this is what I thought they looked like, no wonder I was afraid of leprechauns 

kindergarten with teacher

I used to run fast? nice

do you like my "fireworks?"

girl scouts was kind of lame

made the paper for the second grade egg drop! (me in the center)

I did a lot of acting (outside of school)...

CA school was bilingual. 

I had a phase where I drew a lot of coyotes and desert scenes.

second grade

fourth grade. should be called "Nature in Wild California (and also some other places)"

my favorite animal was wolves? I do not remember that.

trip to Niagara Falls with the fam

oy

fifth grade project

I was cool.

"keep reading Harry Potter!"

fast forward to high school

 

I guess after sixth grade things got less interesting and adorable to keep. Or just less cute and more embarrassing for me to share with the world. Anyway, I hope you had fun!

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Balloons on the Brain

I've had balloons on the brain for a little while now. Hot air, helium, water, animal, 99 luftballoons, all kinds! And all because I saw this cute necklace:

I went up in a hot air balloon once during a trip in Canada, with my sister, uncle and his brother (plus a nice group of strangers), and it was the best. We landed diagonally about some bushes. I'd love to do it again. Also, where I spent ages 4-13 (Tracy, CA), every 4th of July at 6am we went out to the park by the library for the hot air balloon launch (about ten balloons) and Lion's Club pancake breakfast. Probably my favorite holiday tradition.

Did anyone else read The Twenty-One Balloons when you were young? I remember it being a fun book that I really liked. Now I'm wondering if it's still on a bookshelf at home because I want to read it again.

"William Waterman Sherman, the protagonist of the Newbery Medal book The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois, has been teaching arithmetic to boys for forty years in San Francisco: “Forty years of spitballs. Forty years of glue on my seat.” So at the age of sixty-six, he retires, builds a hot-air balloon, and sets off to sail around the world. But as he soon discovers, being airborne produces other problems besides spitballs. Seagulls start to eat on his balloon and create a huge hole. After he plummets into the sea, he finds shelter on an island beach. This is not just any island, but the remarkable island of Krakatoa, built on the wealth of massive diamond mines. The island seems like paradise: the residences have constructed amazing homes, each one organized around the architecture of a different county, and filled them with conveniences. Their beds, for instance, have sheets that mechanically change every day and get washed, dried, and pressed. After a life of service, the professor might well have lived a life of luxury. But as is always true, timing is everything—because he has landed three days before a volcano erupts on the island of Krakatoa. Science, invention, fantasy, science fiction, and action all come together in a book that moves from one amazing plot detail to another."

                                - Summary from childrensbookalmanac.com 

My Wednesday Wedding post tomorrow also features balloons (lots of 'em), so stay tuned for that. It's a fun one! Here's a preview...

- From the desk of Mrs. Sarah McPherson