Monkey Morgan

At the birthday party, Morgan read a bunch of monkey stuff she made up.  I got it on video but I think with a bunch of background noise and her laughing it will be easier for you to just read it.  Keep in mind my little monkey is the author of the following:

Monkeying Around
Monkey around, monkey around
All we want to do is monkey around, monkey around
We also want to go bananas, to go bananas
And that's what we will do forever!

Monkey Saying
I love being a monkey.  It is the best animal ever!  We eat bananas, we live in the jungle, we have lots of siblings.  I have seven.  Two sisters and four brothers.  I have one brother that I put real hair gel in his hair once.  My cousin Yoshi has 9 brothers and sisters all together....... (it goes on with their colors and names.  Basically she is talking about are her stuffed monkeys and Shelby's stuffed animals).


Monkey Pledge
I pledge allegiance to the monkeys of the Africa and to the banana which they eat.  One jungle over monkeys with liberty and bananas for all!  Yeah, Yeah, waohoy!

Monkey Jokes!!!
Q:  What is invisible and smells like bananas?
A:  A monkey fart!!  Ha! Ha!

Q:  What did the monkey say to the other monkey?
A:  Did you eat bananas?  Because you are going bananas!

Last Day of 3rd & 1st Grades!

The girls' last day of school was yesterday.  They both had great years and it's hard to believe how fast it went!  I caused them pain and requested a picture before we left for school.  I do like the backdrop my weeping cheery tree provides and I don't want to wear it out.  But it is the only place in our front yard to avoid the morning sun in the eyeballs.

When I picked them up they gave their teachers their thank you gifts and I got my end of the year picture.  Back to school night pictures on the left and last day pictures on the right.

 One of Morgan's favorite things was the Punctuation People.  Mrs. Crow had a book and she gave it to Morgan before we left.  She was so excited.  Here the people are on the bulletin board.

Meet Questioning Quinn, Exclamation Ella, Period Pete & Comma Claire

I picked one item each from the tons of papers they brought home that I thought were funny.  From Morgan:
Dear Mommy,
I would like a rabbit.  Reason one you don't have to give it water because they have a water bottle.  Reason two it is easy to clean its cage because they don't poop a lot.  I want a rabbit for a pet so bad.  Sincerely, Morgan
On the back of the paper she drew a picture of a rabbit in its cage complete with water bottle and a straw.
From Shelby:
At the top of the paper it said WISE PEOPLE (reflected through words and actions)
My mom is a very wise person.  My mom almost always goes shopping which is mostly for me.  She makes sure I do the right things.  She also loves me for who I am, and what I do.  She says, "You shouldn't waste your time in front of the TV every day."  That shows me that she knows that I should experience more important events in my life.  She stands on the blacktop after school, and makes sure I come to HER and not to a stranger.  Wisdom shows that someone knows a lot and makes good decisions.  My mom is almost like a princess!
Then she drew a princess like you would see on Mario and wrote next to it- Oh my goodness, these sleeves are almost too puffy!

Once again they are starting their summer break at grandmas house while Nate and I are in Oklahoma.  When we get home they both will be busy with theater and softball.  Hopefully some swimming lessons in between.  Congratulations to my new 4th & 2nd graders!  Now starts the long wait to see who next years teachers will be and who ends up in your class.  Ready, set, GO!

Meeting Cora

Well I made it to Oklahoma and I said I hoped to catch up with some blog posting while I am here.  So I will start with our first visit with baby Cora.  She is the sweet little thing born to our friends & old babysitter Jenn & Seth.

Shelby didn't care for the poopy diaper and we had to remind her that Jenn had changed lots of hers.

As we were leaving we were blessed to have such a clear view across the flat IL fields to this beautiful sunset.  It was a beautiful reminder of Who is in control in light of all the recent madness surrounding us.  It was also a good reminder to take the time to enjoy the beautiful things around you.  It wasn't two minutes later when we looked and the sun had completely slipped below the cloud.

Hyperbole

I have a lot of catching up to do on the Blog again.  Maybe I will get that done with some free time in Oklahoma when I'm not at the ball park.  Before I head to bed I wanted to post a quick one about my funny #1.  The girls brought a lot of papers home from school today.  Nate was looking through them and came across something Shelby had done.  She made a Figurative Language Flip Book.  I hadn't taken the time to look it over yet so I listened as he read them out loud.  Since I was listening with one ear, he had to repeat this one:  Hyperbole - an exaggeration that stretches the truth.  These are the examples she wrote (keep in mind the definition):

My mothers smile is so warm and bright it could melt an iceberg.

Her patience is so mello and kindhearted I can't even describe it.

Her cleaning is done so fast and thoroughly she could clean the whole world!

Her wisdom never ends and is so intelligent she is the smartest in the world!

Her laughter is so groovy it's better than music down the street.

Her love is the best thing about her.

Oh Shelby Girl!  How do you truly think of me???

Region 24 Champs......AGAIN!!!

That is 3 exclamation points for 3 years and counting.  Nate earned another coach of the year award as his team earned their 3rd consecutive trip to the Jr. College World Series in Enid, Oklahoma.  I finally got to see them win their regional tournament.  Rain and extra games have always pushed the championship game to Monday and I can never go.  Finally a tournament with no rain and they got the job done.

the dog pile

 receiving his 4th consecutive MWAC Conference Coach of the Year Award

receiving his 4th consecutive Region 24 Coach of the Year Award

 congratulatory hugs

 the coaches with Gordo

he was the stat keeper the first 3 years

never got to the world series

he recently returned to fill in the vacated role & help Nate out 

 

 Congrats to the HCC Hawks.  They head to Oklahoma on Thursday and play their first game on Sunday.

Shelby's 9th Birthday!

On Saturday, May 4th, Shelby turned 9 years old!  Can not believe how fast 9 years have gone by.  Our 9 year old girl is into dinosaurs, dragons, and lizards.  Never saw that coming!  Her party theme is dinosaurs.  Her birthday originally was packed full but due to the on-going crummy spring weather, a few outdoor events were cancelled.  9 am softball practice (thank God) and her 2 pm soccer game.  She did have the privilege to read her Young Author book at Barnes and Noble bookstore.  (Next blog post).  Morgan had a birthday party for a classmate so Shelby played with her new legos and I took a nap while we waited in the parking lot for the party to finish up.  We had her choice of Tobin's Pizza on Friday night and we had cake Saturday evening. When we got home from running all over, she played basketball with her dad.  Here are some pictures.

 early morning flower delivery from Papa & Nonny Moe

 gift from Morgan

a cardboard house she had seen

new home for the plastic lizards

 small key chain of a triceratops I picked up in Jan when we visited Sue at the Field Museum

 she saw this in a Madison Mall over spring break

I had my dad buy it for me when we went into a store

she was surprised!

 dinosaur & dragon homemade stationary

 dinosaurs made out of metal parts

she found these at Hobby Lobby in the "Dad's" stuff

 new pogo stick!

 She got a few other small things.  I also ordered a tire swing for the swing set for her birthday.

 I had to wait until Monday after school to get a nice birthday picture.

The dinosaur/monkey party is happening this weekend.  Happy 9th Birthday Shelby Maddux!

Chick It Out

The 3rd grade classes at Oakdale (as well as other schools in the district) recently had the fun and exciting experience of hands on learning about turning an egg in an incubator into a chick.  I'm sure there is some kind of scientific term for that.  The eggs come from a local farm and the program is sponsored by 4H.  Each class had an incubator and 12 eggs.  2 of her class' eggs did not hatch.  Every 3rd grade student was given a bright yellow shirt that they wore every Tuesday in the month of April.

don't mind the wrinkles - I took it out of the wash to take a pic

 she took a sharpie to school to get classmates' autographs

Shelby came out of school crying on the last Friday of the program.  She knew when she went back to school on Monday the chicks would have returned to the farm.  Her teacher was kind to send me a picture and a short video.

Shelby, Calvin and Cy.  You can see the little yellow fuzzy guy over by Cy's knee (green t-shirt).  I love how their legs formed a pen for the little critter.  

Here is a 30 sec video.  They named their chick Hyper.

Dino Car

Shelby participated in the AWANA Grand Prix on April 5th.  No doubt her car design would be a dinosaur.  And none other than her #1 fave, the Triceratops.  Since we have zero woodworking skills in this house, she requested the help of Ashley's boyfriend Erik.  Shelby told him what she wanted and he went to work.  He did a great job turning a rectangular block of wood into a triceratops.  She chose green and purple paint.

 When we went to AWANA on the Wednesday night before the race, she had to take her car to be weighed and measured.  Once it was approved, they wrapped the car in a paper towel and put it in a container.  The next time she could touch it was for her first heat on Friday night.  Here she is posing for a picture before she had to hand it over for safe keeping.

 Our church does a really good job at making Race Night a fun time for all.  The track is really cool and they have everything connected to the computer so it is digital.  Shelby's car # was 3.  It is kind of stressful because unless you have a race track sitting around, you have no idea how the car is going to race until it's first time down the track.  Each car races 4 times.  One race per color of the lanes on the track.  Shelby's car finished 1st once, 2nd twice, and 3rd once.  It finished each race and did good.

 Her car was not the fastest, but it did win 2nd place for design! She was so excited.  You may have heard her scream.  She loves her car so much, she chose to bring her car home instead of leave it on display in a case in the church hallway.  There were some really cool car designs.  As you can see from the above picture.  The car next to Shelby's is an ice cream cone, then a sub sandwich.

 Nonny Moe came to town to watch.  Ashley came too.  Fun times.  Thanks Erik for all your help!