The girls switch positions in the field nearly every inning, so they get to try it all, which is nice. It’s fast pitch, but most are balls and there are a lot of walks. The girls’ skills aren’t well developed, but the games are fun to watch and probably more fun to play. They all seem to have a great time and get along with each other well.

It’s fun to sit and talk to the other parents. I have really enjoyed cheering for Skye and her teammates.

Skye and I play catch in the yard nearly every day. She is very good at throwing and her catching has improved dramatically since the start of the season a few short weeks ago. It’s nice to see her progressing and refining her skills. It’s been a nice time for us to spend together doing something we both enjoy.

Slugger Skye

Skye is in scoring position

Skye trots home (BB RBI)

Skye on second base

Skye is ready in center field

Skye watches the pitch

Skye swings for the fences

The end of an inning

Fossils are the remainings of an animal covered in rock and dirt. Palaeontoligists are the people that dig up these amazing fossils and give them to the museum because the museum gives them money to find them.

Some popular places for a mammal to be dug up, are in a cave, a stream, or a good place where they can be covered without being ruined or eaten by a carnivore. That’s why a lot of palaeontoligists dig in those places. They can find fossils better.

Before they take them to the museum, they study them. When the palaeontoligists find big fossils, they take them apart and put them back together at the museum. It’s like a puzzle. If they are small fossils, they don’t take them apart. It’s a really cool process.

You know how you have a family tree with all your uncles, aunts, grandpas, grandmas, dad, mom, brothers, sisters, and cousins? It’s the same with apes. They have a family tree with their different species. We’re on the ape family tree because we are a species of apes. There are hundreds of species of apes. There’s neandertals, australopithecines, paranthropus, homo erectus, homo sapiens, homo antecessor, and a whole bunch of others. Our tree is full of ape species.

Most ape species come from Africa and climb trees. We apes, evolved through time. Instead of walking on four hands and climbing trees, we walk on two feet. It’s amazing how we can get new techniques as we evolve. We apes now have better speech and technology, thanks to evolution.

Skye was very safe. She listened intently as I briefed her on safety procedures, range rules and firearm operations. She primarily shot with my Ruger Mark III Hunter .22 pistol. When that got heavy she switched to my Glock G26 9mm, but she didn’t like the harder recoil.

Her shots early were high and to the right. After discussing techniques to improve her accuracy she was able to shoot a loose grouping around the center of the target. I was quite proud.

We had a great time. She says she wants to go again, which I think is terrific. She’s an excellent shooter.

Skye was very excited to shoot guns for the first time

Skye enjoyed loading magazines

Skye did a great job with both accuracy and safety

Skye had a great time with me at the range

Skye was thrilled one of her shots was in the bullseye

The 9mm Glock G26 was a bit much for Skye

I enjoyed shooting at my new club with Skye

Safe and ready to go

The Dyer Library here in Saco hosted a Harry Potter Extravaganza: a film premier party for the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Jenna was especially excited about it because she has been reading and enjoying the Harry Potter series. She just started the seventh and final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”

The Harry Potter Extravaganza was well done, and the girls had a good time. They had their fortunes told by Professor Trelawney, played games, colored Harry Potter pictures, and made wands. Hayley dressed as Hermione Granger, Jenna dressed up as Cho Chang, and Skye as Ron Weasley. The girls even convinced me to dress up as Professor McGonagall.

Cho, Ron, and Hermione

Professor Trelawney (in background) just told Jenna's fortune.

Coloring

Professor McGonagall, Professor Trelawney, and the head of the Slytherin house conducted a “sorting ceremony.” The kids each appeared in front of them, announced their character name, and were then sorted to the appropriate Hogwarts house. When Skye introduced herself, she said “Bloody hell, I’m Ron Weasley!” (in a British accent) Everyone laughed. She won two Cinemagic movie tickets for best costume, and decided she would bring Brent to see the upcoming Harry Potter film.

Skye being sorted into the Gryffindor house

Professor Trelawney, Professor McGonagall, and head of the Slytherin house conducting the sorting ceremony

Jenna as Cho Chang during the sorting ceremony

At one station the kids were instructed to estimate the number of jelly beans (“Bertie Bott’s Beans”) in three different jars. Hayley correctly guessed amount of beans (300) in the largest jar, and won the jar of beans. She’s quite the little math whiz! She was so excited. When she told Brent about it later, she said she “earned” the beans.

Hayley estimates the number of Bertie Bott's Beans in the jar.

Hayley and her prize

Skye enjoys the cauldron cakes, acid pops, licorice wands, and pumpkin juice.

We love the library, and usually go twice a week. The Dyer library does a great job with their programs. It’s nice that we can walk there, too. :-)

I was in the fourth-grade gifted and talented (G.T.) math and reading program every Monday this past year. The purpose of G.T. is to challenge the students who aren’t learning that much in math and reading. Mr. Reinhartsen (Mr. R) is my gifted and talented teacher. I enjoyed learning how to calculate the area of a circle and a triangle. To find the area of a triangle, you multiply the height times the width and then divide by two. To find the area of a circle, you first multiply the radius by itself. Then multiply that answer by pi. It’s very simple. Mr. Reinhartsen began putting me in fifth-grade math G.T. on Wednesdays in addition to my Monday G.T. because I’m especially good at math. It was fun to see my older friends from my previous 3rd/4th-grade multi-age class. I LOVE G.T.!

I learned a lot in science this school year. Some interesting topics I learned about were evaporation, condensation, precipitation, water, life cycles, and more. We did some experiments with water and saw what happened when we added salt and food coloring. We also observed the life cycle of a meal worm and learned that meal worms grow into beetles. It was very fascinating.

Daddy drove me to school with my float.

We read a book in my class called “Farmer Boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We then went on an “olden days” field trip to Old York Historical Society. Because the book was based in the 1800s, we dressed up in clothes from that time period. Mrs.Walton took lots of pictures of me in my cute outfit. My class and I got to see some of the games people played in the 1700s, such as playing hoops and spinning tops. We also walked on stilts, baked cookies, smashed sheep wool, and saw what a motel (tavern) and a school house looked like back then. I had a great time.

One lovely Tuesday afternoon I walked with my class to Dairy Queen. My friend Emily was my walking partner. I ordered a large chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard. Emily and I sat together on a bench and ate our ice cream. It tasted really good and felt refreshing in the hot sun. On our way back to school, Emily and I talked about ice cream. It was a wonderful day.

Dad and Mom started letting me occasionally walk or ride my scooter to school instead of riding the bus. I love scooting to school by myself! One sunny day as I was getting ready to scoot to school, Jenna came down and asked if she could walk to school with me. I told her she could come if it were okay with Mom. Jenna ran upstairs fast because she was so excited! Then Hayley came down and said, “Mom said I could come too!” As we walked I taught them the safety rules of traffic, and we sang and skipped. Hayley and Jenna took turns riding my scooter. When we arrived at Fairfield (Jenna’s and Hayley’s school) I kissed them on the head, said good-bye, and scooted to Burns school. I had so much fun.

Every day at lunch I couldn’t wait to see what we were having. My favorite meals in the cafeteria are nachos, tacos, mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce, and macaroni with beef. The lunches are really good, and I like them. If I could change one thing about lunch it would be amount of time to eat. We usually have twenty minutes to eat, but I would change that to forty minutes.

I have many good friends who I will always remember. Andrea has been my best friend for over two years now. She has always been there when I needed her. We have many good memories together and in my heart she will always be my best friend. Dean has been a good friend to me too. I enjoyed the times we spent playing together at recess and sitting together at lunch time. Brandon is a nice boy who taught me tricks on the scooter. We played Frisbee and tag together. Plus, he is cute.

Mrs. Walton helps Meredith carve her pumpkin.

My teacher, Mrs. Walton, was a very sweet and caring teacher. She had good control of the class and she made learning fun. I like that she gave us bubble gum on special occasions, although we were not allowed to chew it outside the classroom. Everybody in my class wants her for our fifth grade teacher–including me–but the time comes when you have to move along. I can’t wait until next year when I will meet new friends and get to know my new teacher. Good-bye fourth grade and hello fifth grade!

We talked about the requirements (flag, banner, six to ten items) and design. She did a lot of research on Arizona and the things that makes it unique and special. She made a list of possible items and revised it several times after I explained why certain items were neither unique nor special (e.g. high pollution).

She also learned to design on paper before construction. We went to the craft store to purchase Styrofoam and the hardware store for spray paint. She helped me select pictures online and then cut out the prints before laminating. Kirsten sewed the banner out of one of my old t-shirts and Skye wrote “ARIZONA” on each side. We all helped attach floral wire to each item. Skye placed the items on the float according to their importance.

We ordered the flag online. Skye picked it up from my mailbox on the way home from school last week.

The items:

• John McCain
• Wyatt Earp
• Observatory/dark skies
• Meteor Crater
• Petrified wood
• Cactus wren
• Copper
• Grand Canyon mules

It was a great opportunity for us to bond. Skye learned, I hope, to have a larger vision and to do everything with excellence. I think she’ll be able to use some of the techniques she learned in future projects. She was quite proud of the results, which makes me happy.

The back side of Arizona

Great Seal of the State of Arizona - 1912

Copper, a meteor, and John

Senator John McCain (R)

I drove Skye and her float to school

I like to go camping. It gives me the opportunity to make new friends. Once I made two new friends named Amber and Faith. We went fishing together. We all got big sticks and buoy string and tied them together. We used marsh mellows for the bait. I also like camping because you get to sleep in tents and roast marsh mellows and hot dogs on sticks.

Another thing I like about Maine is the weather. In the winter there is a lot of snow to build snowmen and go sledding. It is also not too cold. In the Summer it’s not too hot and it’s fun to play outside. I also like to play at the beach. I especially enjoy digging holes and riding my boogie board. I also like autumn because you can jump in piles of leaves and the temperature is just right. Not too hot and not too cold

Something else I like about Maine is the climate. In Kansas there was nothing as glamorous as anything in Maine. In Maine we have beautiful sights such as; mountains, beaches, oceans, forts, and lighthouses.

Those are the reasons I like Maine.

Jenna: What is your favorite zoo animal, and why?

Skye: Bat.

Jenna: What’s the hardest question you can think of?

Skye: The hardest question is the hardest question.

Jenna: What job do you think earns more money?

Skye: Doctors and nurses. People that help people.

Jenna: What’s the farthest place you’ve been from where you’re standing right now?

Skye: Kansas to here.

Jenna: How much do you love yourself?

Skye: A four. Sometimes I do bad things and I don’t think I do really well. I sometimes want to hate myself and kick myself.

Jenna: Where would you live and why?

Skye: On top of a mountain to see the view.

Jenna: Would you rather be a princess or a servant?

Skye: A servant.

Jenna: If you could own anything in the world, what would it be?

Skye: A pop-up machine I made up. You can read about it on the blog.

Jenna: What would you hate most in the world?

Skye: Mosquitos.

Jenna: What’s your favorite holiday, and why?

Skye: Easter, because you can go out in the fresh air and hunt for eggs.

Skye: If you could change your full name to anything, what would you change it to?

Brent: I wouldn’t.

Skye: If you could interview anyone else in the whole wide world, who would you interview, and why?

Brent: The intellectual, Christopher Hitchens. Because he’s brilliant and interesting.

Skye: Have you ever felt left out? How?

Brent: All the time. I feel left out by my family because I’m not a member of their church, the Mormons.

Skye: What would you rather do, live by the ocean, in the forest, or on top of a mountain, and why?

Brent: The ocean. I love the ocean because I love the salty smell, I love how pretty the water is, I love the sounds of the sea gulls, I love the beach…bikinis. Everything about the ocean is great.

Skye: If there was only one thing you could take pictures of, what would it be and why?

Brent: Naked women, because they’re all beautiful and they’re all different.

Skye: If you could be anything in the world, what would you be and why?

Brent: A bald eagle, because they can fly really high and they’re an apex predator.

Skye: What do you like better, electric games or board games?

Brent: I like board games but not boring games. Card games, perhaps. I like thinking games. Strategy games. I like flight simulators, too. And racing games.

Skye: Have you ever met a famous person?

Brent: I once met Donny Osmond at church.

Skye: If you had to leave somewhere and you could only bring three of your things, what would you take and why?

Brent: My camera. My computer. My family.

Skye: If there could be only one animal to live on the whole wide earth, what would you want it to be and why?

Brent: It’s a silly question. An African lion.