Father-Daughter Dance

The local Girl Scout service unit sponsors a Father-Daughter Dance each year, and it is always a huge success! This year, as you can see from the picture, the theme was tropical. We had a fun time getting the girls ready, and John said the dance was a blast. All the girls and dads had fun.

Fun with Grandpa

Over spring break, the girls had a chance to spend a great day at the Hart homestead hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa, and their cousins Megan, Colin, and Ryan. This was one of the highlights!

Virginia Tech

We are strong

And brave

And innocent

And unafraid

We are better than we think

And not yet quite what we want to be

We are alive to imagination

And open to possibility

We will continue

To invent the future

Through our blood and tears

Through all this sadness

We are the Hokies

We will prevail

We will prevail

We will prevail

We are Virginia Tech

Nikki Giovanni,

Poet, University Distinguished Professor

Delivered at the Convocation, afternoon of April 17, 2007

Spring Break Adventures

Last week was spring break for the girls, and it was a very fun and full week. We visited the Hart homestead for an afternoon, and the girls had a chance to play with their cousins, Megan, Colin, and Ryan, who were also off for break. Later that evening, we visited Priscilla, Adam, and Elijah for a little while.

On Easter, we spent the afternoon with John's parents and his cousin, Allie, who was on her college spring break from college and visiting for the weekend. Adam and the baby came, too, which was a nice treat, although it was unfortunate that Priscilla was sick and couldn't come. At least she had a nice restful afternoon! 8-)

Our biggest adventure was the camping trip we took to Stone Mountain Thursday and Friday. When I planned it, the weather was great. However, on Thursday night, it got down into the 30s and was pretty darn cold to be sleeping in a tent. I had swiped plenty of firewood from Daddy's stash, so we had some great fires and camp-style cooking, and we had a nice spot on the lake. Friday was a nice day--we enjoyed many of the natural and not-s0-natural attractions. We found 7 letterboxes, rode the train, played on some playgrounds...and then decided to wimp out on camping Friday night. Hey, it was going to be in the 20s, and we were only about 45 minutes from our warm house! Too tempting! We'll definitely be doing more camping this summer, though.

Baby Elijah

Proud Aunts!

He lives in a pineapple inside our fridge

SpongeBob Squarepants!

John's birthday was Sunday, but he's not eating cake right now, so the girls made a SpongeBob house instead of a cake. We had a healthy fruit salad as a birthday treat. So I guess cartoons are good for you, after all.

If a blog is posted in the blogosphere...

and no one is there to read it, does it still make a sound?

Is anyone out there reading this stuff? If so, please leave me a comment so I'll know! 8-)

Thanks.

Welcome, Elijah Hart Palmer!

Nice name, huh? 8-) I just heard from Adam, and the baby was born at 12:41 p.m. Priscilla and Elijah are both fine. He was 7 lb. 8 oz., and I'm not sure how long. He has a full head of dark hair--for now at least! They are at Regional. We are all thrilled!

Science Olympiad

Madeline was one of four 3rd graders chosen to participate on the school Science Olympiad team. The county competition was this past weekend, and she and her partner won 3rd place in one of their two events! There are about 12 elementary schools in the county, so that was very good. Our school, Kedron Elementary, placed 2nd in the county overall and qualified to go to state. Congratulations, Madeline!

Weekend Trip to Huntsville

We got out of town this weekend and drove over to Huntsville, Alabama, for the night. That's the home of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and Space Camp, and it was very interesting and entertaining. There was a "Mars" rock climbing wall for the girls, as well as a great IMAX movie about moon exploration. They have a Saturn V rocket on vertical display outside which is pretty impressive--you can see it for miles.

Brownies Visit 11 Alive

Madeline's Brownie troop had the opportunity to tour the 11 Alive studio yesterday evening. The girls' leader has worked for WXIA for many years, so our visit had a nice personal touch. Veronica also got to come along, since she's also a Brownie (with another troop). Madeline and Veronica are on the far left in the above picture.

Among other things, the girls got to see the behind-the-scenes workings of the control room, the weather center, and the news room. Everyone was very welcoming to them, and they had a chance to meet and speak with Karyn Greer, Wes Sarginson, Paul Ossman, and many others. They got to sit quietly in the back of the studio and watch the first 20 or so minutes of the 6 p.m. broadcast, which was very cool!

The girls' favorite thing was the weather center, because they got to play in front of the green screen that is used for the weather maps and other graphics. Each girl got to try their luck pointing in the correct direction on the map. It's trickier than it sounds, because your instinct, while watching the monitor, is to point in the opposite direction. One girl was wearing a green shirt, so she "disappeared" on the monitor--something all the girls had a nice giggle over, and then Paul Ossman came up wearing a green shirt and pointed at Atlanta through his belly, which the girls enjoyed!

It was a fun time!

On another Girl Scout-related note, thanks to everyone who ordered cookies. Madeline in particular loves to sell, and we all appreciate your support. They will arrive and be delivered at the beginning of March.

Chic-Fil-A Bowl

John and I went to the Chic-Fil-A Bowl (formerly known as the Peach Bowl) on December 30, and I'm just now getting around to posting a photo. We had a great time. We got lots of curious looks because of our competing sweatshirts (and we wore each other's hat to show family unity). Since John went to Virginia Tech and I attended UGA, we had always said that if they played each other, we would go. It was very convenient that the game happened to be in Atlanta. Georgia won in a very exciting second half (and an evenly matched game), but honestly it was more about the experience than the outcome.