Game Night

On Saturday we had a Game Night at the our church. We had about 35 homeschooling friends. Here are some pictures from the evening.

Playing Poison-- l to r: Kim, Rachel?, Jessica, Arielle, Josiah, Ashley, and Shiloh

Ah...this is the turning-over-the-tarp-while-everybody-is-still-on-it game. Matt had to watch because his arm was hurt.

Rachel, Annetta, Arielle, Shiloh, Ashley, Philip, Rachel, Lydia, Emily, Kim

The adults and Aaron and Josiah

Separators

I went this morning and get 4 blue separators stuck between my teeth, preporatory to getting braces.

Kelly Hill Times

And now it's time for the part of the show where I have to try to remember something cool (or not) and write about it. So anyhow. The Florida relatives, namely, Grandpa Bob, Grandma Suzy, Uncle Victor, Aunt Joanne, and Julia, visited us last week. The the last 3 split their vacation between us and Uncle Victor's parents in PA, so we didn't get to see them that much. I was able to ask Uncle Victor how to pronounce Imre Nagy's name. It's "Ee-m(a)day Nudge." I think. I had been wondering about that since I learned about him in my social studies. His little time in history seems very interesting, more so because Uncle Victor's parents left Hungary right around that time. So there's your little history lesson for the day, but you can't count it unless you read the Wikki article which I so thoughtfully provided for you (*sound of me giving myself a hand in the background*).

Back to where I was, though: So they came, ate with us a couple times, took us out to eat, took Jessica to get her ears pierced, and left. One interesting side note is that I got my hair cut in March, and I managed to keep it a secret from everyone but Grandpa Bob, so it was fun seeing how long it took Grandma Suzy to register it (I know, I know, you noticed it right away but decided to ponder it in your heart before mentioning it...whatever). Poor Jessica didn't know until Saturday afternoon that they were all coming to our church the next morning, specifically to hear her play offertory. She was nervous, she said. I don't think she made any mistakes, though. Basically, their visit passed without incident, but that's just my take on it. To get the whole story, you'd need to talk to one of them.

Anyhow, we, within the space of a week, attended two Easter dinners-one with each side of the family. Daddy's side had more food, and more people, but Mommy's side was a lot more personal, because I knew everyone there. It makes a difference when you can strike up a casual conversation with a relative, rather than trying to figure out who in the world so-and-so is, and, more importantly, how (or if!) they are related to you. But I did talk to various persons, and I had a good time at both.

On Wednesday, a couple of us (namely Annetta and me) went to our friends' house to work on sewing our Scottish/Celtic dresses that we are making. There was some logistical work involved: "Oh, you don't need this pattern piece, because we're using a different pattern for the chemise. And we don't need this piece either, because you're not making the hat? You are making the hat? Which dress are you making it? Without the hat? Oh, the one without the hat! Aha!" And so forth.

Last night was, of course, CAP. It was at the Armory, and we did PT. There was a brand-new cadet there, and so we in-flights (those of us who are still on the receiving an learning end of everything) had fun teaching her basic drill movements while Staff had a Staff Meeting. She caught on fairly well, and we taught her a lot of it and told her to practice at home. Those About Faces will get you every time...

Well, I do believe that is all for this time! Leave me a comment and tell me about your life, okay?
-Erika

*Credits for "Front Leaning Rest Position:" David Morris, from his article Tools of the Trade on http://www.cadetstuff.org/.

Photos of us and our cats

Ahem. These pictures, I will admit are of a rather lousy quality, but the next chance I get, I shall black and white them and post them again.

The picture of me bears an explanation. Which follows: I gt my hair cut about a month ago, but I haven't uploaded any pictures of it for one, simple reason-- I was keeping it a secret from The Florida Relatives, and if I posted it, it would no longer be a secret.

Above, the two front-porch gossips are exchanging the latest :)

Easter With My Mom's Side

So we waited until the FL folks came up to have our Easter dinner. It was at the South Stockton Church, down in the basement.

Clockwise from far left: Grandma Suzy, Uncle Victor, Aunt Joanne, Aunt Martha, Uncle Steve, Annetta, Hosanna, Julia, and Grandma Olson

Yes, that is Grandpa Bob you see cleaning up the tables!

The *Little Girls* with Grandma Olson's head :) (and the little blond head is Joanna)

Jessica and Hosanna

Hosanna lost her two front teeth recently! She looks very, um, er, scary as she goes about her daily life.











Grandpa Bob and Jessica went to Claire's Botique on Monday, and this is the result. She said it didn't hurt as much as she thought it would.










Anyhow, I'm going to try and get some pictures of us and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Suzy, and I shall post them.

Visit from our Relatives

Our relatives who live in Florida came up to visit us. I took some pictures of us and my mom's sister and her family today. The photo above is of Lydia, Julia, Joanna, and Hosanna working on their hay fort.












Here they are, still working on the roof.



















And this is the finished product. You can't really see, but there are two little houses, connected by an inter-haybale tunnel.



















The adults...Daddy, Uncle Victor, Aunt Joanne (Mamma's sister), and Mamma. There wasn't even a flash, and she still had to shut her eyes, phooey.













Little lawn mower.

Hosanna and Elizabeth's Birthday

Hosanna just turned 9, and our neighbor just turned 13. So, "the girls" planned a birthday meal, with a theme of cats. I took some pictures, especially to show her dad and sister who are in the Ukraine on a trip with their church.

Anyhow, this is "cat food," or cereal coated with some sort of molasses type coating.

This is the kitty litter desert. It's crumbled up cake with pudding and tootsie rolls. Too realistic.

Close-up of the same...
Hosanna
The "cake" with candles

What We've Been Doing...

Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing." ~Randy K. Milholland

Greetings peoples,

Once again it's time for an edition of The Kelly Hill Times.
Anyhow, the first item to tell you about would be Easter Sunday. Because 6 children were in some way involved in the Sunrise Service, we were told to arrive at the church at 0630 hours. We were, too. (We've gotten better at being on time. Used to be that whenever we chanced to be early for the morning worship service, we could just tell that other parishioners were thinking, "Man, are they ever late for Sunday School!") But anyhow. We assumed that the reason our fellow program-presenters weren't there too was because they had those three little kids to get up and dress. But they did show up, as did 69 attendees. The service went off quite well, barring an explosion over the sound system (oopsie!!). The Sunday School's presentation was with puppets, little "bodies," and a CD of VeggieTales songs. The morning service went quite fine. The choir presented a cantata entitled "Alleluia! He is Risen," narrated by Mr. Kennedy. It was hilarious in the sound system, because Mr. Arnold was in rare form, shooting people with rubber bands (before the service), whistling down the stairs (during the service) to alert Mr. Carlson, and in general making jokes and stuff. When Mr. Arnold and Mr. Carlson are both in the Sound System in good moods, well, 'nuff said.

Next. Friday night, several of us homeschooled teens met together at the our friends' home for a Game Night. It was a pretty slow evening, but we still managed to stay there until 2215 hours (10:15 PM) or so. We played Uno, Slapjack, Dutch Blitz, Mafia, and the all-time un-favorite Knots. We even had some snacks, too! We are hoping that the next Game Night can be at the church, with running games. Some of the other girls are even planning a Celtic ball, and they had out dress patterns at the Game Night, trying to decide on dresses and outfits to sew, for it. If we do it, you can be sure I'll have my camera along and I will take pictures.

AWANA was last night. It went well. Every time they play the taped accompaniment music to the AWANA Theme Song (taped by Mrs. Berndt), they have to make some joke about needing to sing loud enough for her to hear. Groan. But the games went well, actually. Only two kids lost shoes, and only one kid fumbled the baton.

Ahhh...more news. I just got back from assisting our neighbors and long long long long time friends move woodchips from a gigantic pile in front of the barn into the barn for bedding for the creatures. We worked for quite a while. Because the dad and eldest daughter were in the Ukraine, we couldn't use the tractor, so it was all done with buckets. We named the buckets, of course, to break the monotony. We had Hillary, Barack, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, John Edwards, John McCain, Bill, Al, etc. The routine was: Grab two full buckets from Reuben, who was filling them. Stagger through the mud into the barn, and hand the buckets to the mom, who dumped them around in the creature pen. Grab two empty pails, walk back through the barn, stagger back through the mud, and hand them to the son. Repeat for long time.

So there you have it for this time, folks. I have been given an eviction notice by a wanting-to-get-on-the-computer person, so I believe I shall call it quits. Watch out for the next KHT, though. It may have pictures, taken by our European Bucky Blacktop.

-Erika