Things that happened on Monday...

1. Our new heating and AC system got installed. Yay? ;) (Very thankful for the AC, just not thrilled with the unexpected expense, lol.)

2. The boys had their last day of Options for this year. They were stoked, primarily because it meant they got pizza for lunch, lol. At the end of the year awards, they did pretty well and are pleased with themselves:

Noah...

• got a certificate of recognition for his participation in the Stock Market Game through his Ameritowne class;
• received a certificate for accomplishment in his chimes class;
• earned a National Physical Fitness Award for his performance in the five testing areas (this is a national program...you have to score at that level in all five areas to earn it, so he got to the "national" level in all five areas--mile run, shuttle run, sit ups, push ups and v-sit and reach...the three levels are Participant, National and Presidential)...he got National last year, too, so was happy; and,
• won first place in his Investigative Science class science fair. (Yes, he recycled his project from our NCHA science fair. But, he had to add all sorts of "structure" to it, and the boy puts together a mean trifold board...he's, um, anal like that. ;) He was worried that his oral presentation was lacking since he refused to write out a script ahead of time, but he truly knew his material.)

Asher... 

• received a certificate for accomplishment in his chimes class (he and Noah are in the same class);
• received a certificate for accomplishment in his keyboarding (piano) class;
• earned a special music achievement award for outstanding attitude across all of his music teacher's music classes (keyboarding, chimes and handbells); 
• earned a Participant level for the Physical Fitness awards (if not for the sit ups, he'd have had a National, but that's fine); and,
• won second place in that same science fair! (The science fair, btw, followed a pretty standard format with weight being given to different aspects, like the oral presentation (which Asher *did* prepare for), the research paper, the presentation board, etc. There were, I believe, five judges overall for the couple dozen projects.)

Micah... 

• earned himself one of only two Presidential Physical Fitness awards out of the entire student body (100ish kids?) (In all fairness, he's the only six year old who tested since they don't generally start until second grade but Micah was in the 2-3rd grade PE class so just went along with them...and, we're pretty sure that whomever his partner was who kept track of his time in the mile run was, um, generous, lol...but, hey, he's super thrilled.) ;)

3. We handed out all our end of the year teacher gifts. (Check 'em out...I'm rather proud of myself.)

4. Then we headed to the park with a bunch of friends from Options and let the kids run and play for a couple hours. Whew. ;) 

A happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone's been having a lovely Mother's Day...whether you're a mother, are celebrating your mother or are just feeling motherly. ;) Mine's been pretty darn lovely:

(Sorry, btw, I'm not going to explain in the same order as the pictures. You can figure it out, though.)

It started with being instructed to sleep in. I had to be instructed because I generally wake up an hour or two earlier than everyone else. :) (I couldn't handle staying in bed, though, and ended up surfing the web on Nathan's iPad and then sorting through my closet, lol.) 

I was then "surprised" by my sweet Micah bringing me some Jammy Scones and tea that he and Nathan had been up early making. Micah learned the recipe in his cooking class and they were delicious! Micah then also presented me with his card (the one on the far right in the picture of the cards) and a black paracord keyfob that he'd made. 

After that, Nathan gave me my new awesome Darth Vader purse (that I've already received compliments on!) along with a nifty wine bottle opener thing, some Star Wars earrings and a bag of beef jerky. (I LOVE beef jerky. He knows me so well, lol.)

Around this time, the other boys woke up finally and gifted me with their cards (Noah's is the bullseye). Noah also made me a paracord bracelet that ended up matching my outfit for the day quite well. :)

We then took a few pictures in the back yard and headed out to shop for a new dishwasher. Because, ya know, having finally scheduled the HVAC system replacement for early next week, the house figured we needed another reminder about the joys of home ownership...hence our dishwasher finally started pleading with us to let it die in the last few days. Fun times. ;) (Btw, bleh...shopping for a dishwasher is *definitely* not as much fun as shopping for new shoes, lol. Then again, I do enjoy clean dishes.)

So. Now we're enjoying a lazy evening at home...happy sigh. ;)

Lookie!

Lest you think it's all about running and homeschooling around here, look what I did this morning!

I'm still no where near as good or consistent as the boys, but I'm making progress... ;) 

Yesterday's field trip.

Together with about 30 others with our homeschool group, the boys and I toured the Rawhide Energy Station north of Fort Collins yesterday. It was pretty cool actually. I had no idea the plant was even there, let alone how efficiently the plant operates. We started out with a very thorough presentation and Q&A session then divided into two groups to tour the facility. The boys were rather impressed by the sheer size of things and by the fact that they got to wear headsets under their hard hats so that they could hear the tour leader speak. 

Though my boys apparently already knew how coal turbines work, they still found the field trip educational. They were particularly fascinated by:

• the fish living in the reservoir that they use for cooling the purified water that runs through the turbine process. Apparently, they stocked the reservoir with some sort of algae-eating carp about 30 years ago. They're still there and are now about 5 feet long. (They're hybrids, so don't reproduce.)...
• the method of dumping the coal from the train cars. The cars actually stay coupled to the train and just get rotated about 160 degrees to dump the coal. Micah informed me that this is just like how lego train couplings work, lol...
• the process for cleaning the air before re-released into the atmosphere. The engineer leading our group went into detail about the processes for removing both sulphur and mercury...and,
• the fact that this one plant provides most of the power for the cities of Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Estes Park. This, Noah realized, means that this plant provides the power to charge his iPod. He therefore loves it. ;)

For security reasons, I wasn't allowed to take any pictures, but I stopped on our way out to snap this one by the entrance:

Yup, another beautiful homeschooling day here in Fort Collins... 

Other stuff.

1. Last Saturday, Asher tried out for his karate school's Demo Team. They perform at promotion nights and a few other events throughout the year. They do routines set to music and get to use weapons. He was stoked. ;) After the hour or so of try outs, Asher was invited to join the team and will now have Demo Team practices once a week on top of his normal twice a week karate classes. (I'm sure it didn't hurt that the team leader is thrilled to have someone who can do the splits, lol!) He'll also become a member of the Black Belt Club, which entitles him to participate in special weekly classes like specific weapon and form training. And, he'll get more specific instruction on the stuff he currently knows (more attention to detail). He's pretty darn excited and we think it'll be a great experience for him. 

2. On Sunday, after my half marathon, Noah and Asher participated in their first fun run of the summer. They both did great but got past me toward the finish line. ;) (I didn't see them until Micah shouted "there went Asher!" and the like. So. I saw them cross the finish line but didn't get any good pictures.) Micah chose not to run but still managed to snag a cookie at the finish line:

(Yes, you're seeing that photo correctly. Noah ran in his blue jeans. We tried to talk him out of it, but the boy is stubborn, lol.)

3. Monday, while the boys were at their second to last day of Options, I went and got a haircut:

4. That night, the boys had their spring program at Options. Noah and Asher played the chimes:

Asher also performed with his keyboarding/piano class, and Micah took the stage with his Great Pretenders class:

Yup, that's Micah behind the Darth Vader mask. They were demonstrating one of the ways they've worked on telling stories throughout the year...in this case, using masks. ;)

5. Oh, and here's a closer look at my cool half marathon medal:

(And, yes, I still haven't quite gotten the hang of styling my new haircut, lol. Regardless, loving the shorter length and think it's just in time for summer!)

6. Speaking of summer, our darn AC system died. Drat. It's not unexpected or anything, considering that it's original to the house, so is over 20 years old. Sigh. So, we've spent time over the past week getting bids and doing our research. Should start replacement stuff this week or next. Awesome. Guess it's a good thing we dodged the braces bullet for this year, lol.

7. Micah earned his next karate belt on Tuesday. He's now up to orange belt with blue stripe and is pretty pleased with himself:

He's also pretty darn sweaty, lol. 

And I think that mostly catches us up for now. :) Happy middle of the week to you!