Plans, Links, and Photos

I just love random posts like this. :)

Plans:
Today: We're going to a concert... um... somewhere... at 7:30 :) Knut has FLL this afternoon. We're doing school. That's about it.
Tomorrow (Saturday): Knut and I get to go to the Bill Jack worldview conference!!! I'm really looking forward to it. In addition to the actual 'conference' part, I'll get to see Kalei and play Ninja!!! (Have you noticed yet that I looove Ninja?)
Sunday: May Day. CCC has a tradition of putting May baskets with candy, flowers, and a gospel message at various doors in our neighborhood. The Claytons won't be here, so Knut, Cecily, and Thor will probably be the ones to do it. :) And of course, we have church in the morning.
Next week is pretty empty so far! National Day of prayer on Thursday... a LITES meeting on Saturday... the Travis Petersons arrive on Saturday... and then life becomes hectic. :)

Links:
http://familychrysalis.blogspot.com/ This is my aunt's blog. She, my uncle Travis, and their four kids (Camryn, Ethan, Sloan, and Isaac) will be coming out here for a week! They're arriving on May 7th.
http://weekinfemininedress.blogspot.com/ Week In Feminine Dress is happening this week, but I decided not to participate. You can go look at the other girls' posts, though! I am not doing WIFD this time because: #1, I've been helping Papa over at Shady Oaks this week, and that means wearing work clothes. (work clothes = pants when you're painting a ceiling) :) #2, this week has been really busy! I would not have been able to post on Wednesday, and I probably won't be able to post on Saturday.
http://brightlightsofallon.blogspot.com/2011/04/humility-42611.html Our latest Bright Lights meeting. We had group photos taken... my smile is somewhat strained because I was standing on my toes trying to be tall. :D (all short people will understand) You'll notice that I am much shorter in the 3rd picture than in the 1st and 2nd pictures. :D
Another thing that this post mentions is the birthday cards/flowers for Allison. There is an interesting story behind that! I was on the WIFD blog on Monday, looking at Allison's post when I noticed that she mentioned that her birthday was sometime this week. Hmmm!!! I was going to comment and ask her when it was, but conveniently, someone else had already done so. Allison responded to that comment and said that it was on Thursday. A-ha! I looked through my contact list and found that I had the email addresses of 3 other girls in Bright Lights. I emailed them to ask if they had any ideas. Rachel suggested that we have a card for everyone to sign. She also talked to Jessica, whose email address I did not have, and Jessica offered to bring flowers. Kalei contributed permanent markers (ours are all out of ink) to sign with as well as some ideas as to how we could get signatures without Allison's knowing. So: the plan was to have Cecily and me bring the giant cards, Jessica bring flowers, and Kalei bring permanent markers. I emailed Karen (Allison's sister) to get her help so that we could have the card on the table by the door for girls to sign as they came in. Karen usually opens the door for everyone while Allison is down in the basement getting ready for the meeting. Well, Karen didn't get my email. I didn't send it until Tuesday morning. If this was just a regular meeting, it probably would have been fine... Karen would have opened the door for everyone as usual, Allison would have been conveniently out of the way in the basement. :D :D However: Karen was busy setting up her video equipment upstairs in her room (she's making a slideshow of this semester of Bright Lights, including some interviews) and wasn't opening the door... Allison was. So Cecily and I were trying to stand in front of these HUGE cards (about 3' long) and not let Allison see them. We couldn't go downstairs without her seeing them. She did see me lugging these big pieces of cardboard/posterboard, and I think she was about to ask what they were when her mom called her. We raced downstairs and hid the cards (with Mrs. Whisler's help). Cecily posted herself on the stairs to warn us if Allison was coming downstairs, and as the girls came downstairs we had them sign the card. Allison didn't come down until it was about time for the meeting to begin, so I think we got all of the girls' signatures except for a few latecomers (which included Kalei, so we used some other markers and pens that we managed to find) :) before the meeting started. We got the rest while Allison was pouring tea. When she finished, McKensie stood on a chair to wish Allison a happy birthday, tell us to bring out the cards and flowers, and start us singing the Bright Lights birthday song. :)
http://hanniesthoughts.blogspot.com/ This is the blog of my great friend Hanna. She moved away awhile ago, but we still keep in touch through blogging and emailing. I really appreciate her sweetness, consideration, and heart for the Lord. She has encouraged me and upheld our family in prayer several times in the past few years when we were going through difficult times with job/church/health situations, and I am very blessed to have her as a friend!

Photos:

 I always love seeing all the glasses lined up on the counter and not being able to fit completely in one row. :)

 The couple pictures I actually got from Cherry Pie Day... we're waiting for the representatives to get to the auditorium to make their speeches.

 From SB136... we are still sooo amazed about what God did there! Kalei and Shelby Swogger, with whom I got to go to Cherry Pie Day, actually got to be in the room where the hearing was, so they were telling me about it while we were touring the capitol.

Cherry Pie Day

Yesterday was Illinois homeschool Legislative Day, otherwise known as Cherry Pie Day. On Cherry Pie Day, homeschoolers from all over Illinois come to Springfield to give cherry pies to the members of our legislature and thank them for our freedom. It is really fun, and very powerful to the legislative members! Last year (I didn't get to go, but I heard it from several people who did go) there were 5,000 people from the teachers' union at the capitol yelling 'Raise our taxes! Raise our taxes!' and at the same time there were homeschoolers handing out cherry pies and saying 'thank you for leaving us alone'. :) No teachers' union there this time. :) It was awesome! :) I was the only one of our family who got to go... Mom was not up to driving a bunch of little ones to Springfield and back without Papa (who needed to work today), especially not with gas at $4 a gallon. :P So I got a ride with the Phillips', who were also taking Kalei and Shelby Swogger (great friends from Bright Lights and Lyceum). We had lots of fun! During the 2 hour drive to Springfield, Kalei and Shelby tormented me by singing songs from movies I haven't seen until we started playing cards. :) When we arrived at Springfield, we registered our pies (between the 3 families we represented, we brought 6 pies) and then stood around talking for awhile. After about half an hour(?) everyone gathered around the Lincoln statue outside and sang the national anthem, then after a prayer, delivered the cherry pies. Neither of the two representatives that we were assigned to were in, so we just gave them to their secretaries. :) After that, we toured the capitol for awhile, then drove to the reception and played Ninja. :)

Our Yard

Once again, sideways pictures from Papa's iPhone.

Thor is 'boating' around in the backyard on a sled. Gloria and Bjorn were out there, too.

It's been raining a lot lately. You've probably guessed that already.

Geocaching Pictures

I cannot get these pictures right side up!!! So here they are, sideways. :)

Photos by Papa (except the one of him, which I took) with his iPhone. Apparently any editing I do with pictures taken from the iPhone disappears when I post them on blogger. Strange.

Blessed Easter!

Hope you all had a blessed Easter, remembering that the real reason isn't bunnies or chocolate eggs, but Christ's resurrection!

What did we do on Resurrection Sunday afternoon? We went geocaching! :)
(pictures coming soon)

Holy Week

Holy Week tends to be a busy week for our family, with plenty of rehearsals and music practice for Easter. This year is no exception. And of course, rehearsals aren't the only things going on. Although we usually have spring break during Holy Week, we've missed so many days (mostly because of field trips, like when we went to the Capitol) that we are doing school all week. With everything going on, it can be difficult to focus on the real meaning of Easter: Christ's resurrection. I'm often tempted to skip my evening devotions because I'm 'too busy'. But when I do it anyway, I always come away refreshed, and wonder why I could ever have wanted to skip it!

Bright Lights Tea

Yesterday was the April Bright Lights discipleship meeting, which we got to host! Papa is a tea party expert, so he dressed up in a tuxedo and was the 'butler'. He gave a little talk on proper tea etiquette and history, served the tea, and also performed some music. He was awesome! Thank you Papa! :)

Papa and Mom were accepted today as the new music directors for Zion Lutheran church here in Mascoutah.

Today at 3:00 is the choir concert! It's going to be held at Zion, with a reception afterwards.

Grandpa and Grandma Davis have been working hard at Shady Oaks this week to get it fixed up before they have to leave again. They will probably be moving in the day that we finish school... May 20th.

Bright Lights

The topic tonight was Meekness. We talked about how it can be dificult to show meekness... especially towards siblings. :) In my small group, we looked up Psalm 25:9, Psalm 37:11, Psalm 149:4, Isaiah 29:1, Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 11:29, 1 Peter 3:4, and 1 Peter 3:15; all of which talk about meekness.

Listening to the lesson

 I love silly expressions. :D

 Taylor, Heather, Brooke, and McKensie

 Sarah, Sophie, Jenna, Karen, and Amber listening to the lesson

 I'm not the only one taking pictures... Karen caught me off guard a couple of times and I will probably have some really weird pictures on the Bright Lights blog. :D

Kalei sharing about her prayer ministry

Drama performance

(Sorry this post is a little late) :(

I cannot believe it is over! Weeks of rehearsing, memorizing, and driving siblings nuts by reciting random lines from the play...  and suddenly, it's done! I wish we could have a whole bunch of performances... go on tour or something! :) I'm not ready to be finished with Run, Robber, Run yet. And of course Knut wants to do Don't Kick the Turkeys again. The performance did go pretty well, though. Several people who had been having trouble with their lines got it put together at the last minute. :) We did have a couple problems with costumes... 'Mr. Alden's' wig was missing for the performance, so Sarah just tucked her ponytail into the collar of her coat and spray painted it grayish. :) Speaking of 'Mr. Alden', 'he' did a great job! Sarah had been doing really well in the rehearsals, but during the real play she was absolutely AMAZING!!! When she got hit in the face with a pie, Kalei and I were almost falling over each other laughing as we were trying to exit. Kalei did manage to look properly shocked and scared while she hit Alden with the pie and ran out. She was actually 'trying' to hit me!!! :O
Casey, or 'Miss Prudhomme', was sooo good, too!

ALDEN: "What... what is THIS??!!"
MISS PRUDHOMME (entering) "Alden, what are you doing? Alden, answer me!!! What is that on your face?"
ALDEN: "Tastes like pie."
MISS PRUDHOMME: "It tastes like pie. Is that all you can say?"
ALDEN: "all I did was walk in... and BANGO! I got hit in the face!"
MISS PRUDHOMME: "Bango??"
ALDEN: "I didn't even get to see who hit me!"
MISS PRUDHOMME: "Mr. Alden, in the entire history of Caldwell, there has NEVER been a head disciplinarian hit in the face with a PIE!!!"

That's my favorite scene in he entire play. :D
Papa videotaped Run, Robber, Run, but the memory card was full before he could do Don't Kick the Turkeys. :( However, we will be getting a DVD of the entire performance. Maybe I can upload from that.
This Friday is the last week of Lyceum!!! For drama, we'll be watching parts of the DVD and having a party in class.
Drama class was sooooo fun this semester!!! Thank you SOOOO much for teaching it, Ms. Jo!!!

We have a lot going on this week!
Tonight Cecily and I have Bright Lights.
Tomorrow... nothing on the calendar; only school! Wow!
Thursday is Geography Night. Our display won't be as wonderful as last year since we've hardly started working on it yet. I don't think that many of us will even be in costume. :( We'll do our best. :)
Friday is the last Lyceum, and Cecily is going to a sleepover.
Saturday is the Bright Lights discipleship tea which we are hosting.

Sunday is the choir concert, with a reception afterwards at the church. It's also Palm Sunday... wow!!!

Holy week will actually be less busy for us! :) We'll dye eggs on Good Friday as usual, and Mom's playing for the Easter Vigil at Zion, and we have school all week, but other than that there isn't much going on! :)

Drama performance... please come! :)

Our Lyceum drama class will have a performance at 1:30 tomorrow (Saturday). The performance will be at St. Matthew's UMC in Belleville. Please come! :)

Happy birthday Cecily!

I'm sorry this is one day late. :( Knut and I had drama rehearsal today. The performance is on Saturday!!! When we got home, everyone cleaned the basement until dinner. Grandpa and Grandma Davis will be coming tomorrow!

 We made two cakes for Cecily's and Marlie's party. We only ate one at the party, so Mom froze this one to bring out on Cecily's real birthday. The only problem was the 'and Marlie' part. :D

 I LOVE the look on Baby's face! She stole a strawberry from off the cake and had half-eaten it before anyone noticed. She was quite pleased with herself.

Knut likes cake.

More great expressions. :)

 "More, please!"

 What a strange family. :)

 Cecily inside her 'house' of gifts (strange Peterson tradition) :)

 Knut has a very unique way of posing for a picture.

Rosemary helping Cecily open her cards

Geocaching

After church this morning, we went geocaching! Papa just got a new iPhone (which he LOVES!!) :) and it has a GPS on it, so he set up a geocaching account! We have been geocaching once before with the Woolevers, but this was the first time with our own account. We found four caches: two by a cemetery, one in a parking lot, and one by the side of the road. :)

 Ready to start geocaching! And yes, I look extremely weird. :)

 This is where we found the first cache...

 (It was a very windy day; can you tell?) ;)

 The second cache...

 Silver Creek Preserve: we didn't get this cache since it was underwater. :)



Busy day #2

Knut and I left for our drama rehearsal at 8:25 this morning. We're doing three plays: Run Robber Run (which I am in), Don't Kick the Turkeys(which Knut is in), and The Beauty Operator. We were rehearsing them in that order, and were supposed to be finished at 1:30, but Knut's play (Don't Kick the Turkeys) went longer than was expected and we ended up staying until after 3:00! We were going to be taking some of Cecily's party guests (Mary, Sarah, and Grace Tucker) with us when we left, but they ended up taking us since the party had already started and Mom needed to be home for it!

My play (Run, Robber, Run) went first, so I had to wait around for hours for the other plays to finish. I played Ninja. :) And I took pictures of everyone else in ridiculous positions. :)

 Meanwhile, at home, Mom and Cecily were frantically cleaning house to get ready for the party. Thor was helping Papa, Gloria and Bjorn were "helping clean". When the party started, Marlie, who was having the birthday party jointly with Cecily, wasn't there... she was sick! Several other people that Cecily and Marlie had invited weren't able to make it, so only the McPeak family and Grace Tucker were there for the whole party! Fifteen minutes before the party ended,Mrs. Tucker brought Mary, Sarah, their brother Mark, Knut, and me home. So I didn't get any pictures of the party at all... the only pictures I got were of playing Ninja! :)

Busy Day

We had quite a busy day today, and tomorrow will be even more busy! We went to Lyceum this morning, and went shopping afterwards. This is the eighth week already; only two more weeks to go! :( We got home just before 4:00, and in a little while Papa, Knut, and I went to clean up at one of the houses he has been working at. We got back at about 6:50, and then had dinner. I iced the cakes for Cecily's birthday tomorrow, with her help. After I finished cleaning up after us, we had a quick Bible time and then it was time for the little ones to go to bed!

In case you didn't know, today was April Fool's Day! :) Knut and I had a few pranks to pull at Lyceum. The best one was when we put a piece of paper in Thor's sandwich when we were packing lunch. He ate half the sandwich (and half the paper!) before Mom noticed the paper and tipped him off! :D When Cecily and I were in our room, Cecily waited until I left for a minute and then put soap on the handles of my dresser! Then she kept trying to get me to close my drawer. She said it 'was getting in the way'. :) When I finally did and got soap all over my hands, she fled. :) Tonight when he went to bed, Thor put a noisy remote control car under Knut's bed and drove it around from his bunk after Knut got into bed. :)
April Fool's Day is fun. :) :) :)

Tomorrow Knut and I have a drama rehearsal in the morning, and Cecily's party is in the afternoon. Mom, Cecily, Thor, Gloria, and Bjorn will clean the house tomorrow morning while Knut and I are at drama, and when we come back we will be bringing at least two party guests with us; possibly three. I will try to get in a post tomorrow night, with pictures! :)