Debate Tournament

Shannon participated in her second debate tournament today. As a beginner she was on the novice track at the Candy Cane Tournament. David went with her and helped judge several rounds.

At the end of the day when all the ballots were counted, Shannon and her partner Jacob won SECOND place! They had won all four of their rounds.

We are so excited for her and believe she will be moving up to varsity level soon.

Congratulations, Shannon!



Jacob & Shannon show off their camo Santa hats. (The resolution this year involves military policy.)



After finding her seat, Shannon is still surprised.



Shannon with her coach Katie


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Basketball Season

John & Shannon have joined a local Christian basketball league sponsored by the Golden State Warriors. John's team just finished playing against one of his best friends and his team. We found out today they both have a #31 jersey.







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Grand Prix

Every two years our AWANA club has a Grand Prix. The kids buy their car kits. They plan. They design. They create. After all their hard work, it's always a blast to view the amazing craftsmanship and creativity from the families on race day.

This year, David helped John and Shannon with their cars, but he also assisted the Cunningham family with the initial design and cutting for their three entries.

Shannon shows off the car she made in honor of

her pet rabbit Olivia.

Bethany displays her hot dog car.

Here's Jessica's book shelf car.

We loved Emilia's penguin car, especially since

we're from the Penguins Swim Team!

There's John's cell phone car next to Shannon's bunny/carrot car.

We also liked Priscilla's sneaker car and Emily's iPhone car.

Since the Wards always add some electronic touch

to their creations, Emily's phone actually had a ringer

which went off during the devotional.

"Would someone turn off their cell phone, please?"

Joshua chose to not have an entry this year, but gladly played

the spectator, nonetheless.

Ariel's puppy car won 2nd place for design in

younger group's contest.

Jessica's book shelf car won 3rd place for design!

As soon as we got home, the kids and David started brainstorming the various cars they can make for the next Grand Prix. We'll have to save the list and pull it out in 2 years.

Onion Science

While cleaning out the refrigerator this afternoon

to prepare for new groceries,

we found a bag of diced onions that had been in there way too long.

The "use by" date was 2/14/10--almost a month ago! Oops!

On top of that we accidentally left the bag on the counter

while we put all the new food away and made dinner.

As we cleaned up later,

we discovered the now-warm bag

of decomposing matter.

It was expanding so much

that the bag was about to explode.

Not to miss such a fun opportunity,

we took the bag out back to "do the deed."

We even filmed it for you...

Gingerbread

It's been a couple years since we made our gingerbread houses, so Liz organized a house-building event with Home Schoolers Loving God on December 18. The morning started with Liz and Shannon baking up the pieces for Shannon's house and plenty of ginger people to share.

One of the joys of gingerbread is the delight on the young children's faces as they explore--and sample--their "building supplies."

Liz spent most of the afternoon making up batches of royal icing, the glue that holds everything together.

The boys and other teens were assistants for the kids and had as much fun designing house decor as any of the actual builders.

Shannon and Emily had a blast building and decorating their houses, the the real fun came when they started devouring their creations.

Joshua and the other teens did a fantastic job organizing games for the younger children while the adults assembled the houses at the beginning of the event and then cleaned up at the end. Perhaps he will serve as an AWANA Games Leader in the future!

April & May

It's been a loooong time since we updated the blog! Too long. In the next few posts, we'll show some picture highlights of the events that have been keeping us so busy. Enjoy!

April 14 - David took the kids up to the mountains for a Wham-O photo shoot in the snow.

April 18 - The children played the piano during a short concert for the residents at the Bethesda Retirement Center here in Hayward. The audience was thrilled that with the music and the visiting time.

May 1 - Liz made a short weekend trip up to Portland for more SWR training with Wanda Sanseri.

May 5 - The children posed at the restaurant where we enjoyed dinner in honor of Grandma Nancy's 82nd birthday.

May 8 - We attended a San Francisco Symphony concert for youth. Afterwards the children posed in front of the city capitol building.

Before leaving the city, we stopped at the Japanese Tea Gardens to enjoy the beauty of the day and for some photo time.

May 14 - Joshua was completely "out of it" after having four wisdom teeth extracted. He doesn't even remember leaving the doctor's office.

May 21 - Shannon and friends smiled while waiting for their turn to be called up on the stage to receive their AWANA certificates and awards. They did a great job this year working through their handbooks and learning verses.

May 22 - The kids finished up some clay projects that were to be fired that week in the kiln.

May 25 - Memorial Day afternoon was spent at the Southgate Swim Club where the kids got more sun and had a blast playing in the water. Here is a rare shot of Shannon and Joshua joining forces to play "chicken" in the water.

Shannon's future job options

My daughter has many talents.  Lately she has been exploring different things that she enjoys, which could always turn into pursuits for the future.  

While I attended a workshop at a local Apple Store, Shannon practiced being a Mac Genius as she assisted a young boy who was playing a Lego Mac game.

There is a strong likelihood she could also be a Curves trainer or at least an excellent exercise buddy for someone!  She has recently started working out at Curves with me, and you could not ask for a better exercise buddy.  She knocks on my door at 6:30 a.m. asking if I'm ready to leave.  

Joshua's Day at Wham-O

So what is a homeschooler to do when his teacher (mom) has to go into San Francisco for the day for a doctor's appointment?  He goes to work with Dad!  Yep, Joshua spent most of the day at Dad's office finding out what David does all day.  However, most of Joshua's time was spent in the shop, not on the computer doing any of the design work.  He was a great help as he prepared parts for a prototype.

If you have to go to work with your Dad, a toy company is a pretty fun place to spend the day!