Maybe a future teacher and her first student...



School is out in 8 days. Tori has created a summer plan and it is not what you are thinking-she has mapped out a learning plan to help Isabelle prepare for 1st grade and to challenge herself for 3rd. Seriously.

The Lesson Plan :)



Art Class



Yesterday she came home, had her snack and grabbed Isabelle to go downstairs for "homeschool". I was encouraging them to stop studying and go outside and play. :)

We made our 3rd annual Memorial Day visit to the National Cemetery here in Minneapolis. Every year something different strikes me and brings me to tears thinking of the sacrifice men and women and their families have made on behalf of this great country. Today as we exited the car a man played a trumpet salute over the grave of a friend, family member or fellow soldier and then saluted their gravestone. The sound pierced the sky and brought me to a halt. I would have loved to take a picture to capture the moment, but I didn't want to violate its sacredness. Thank you to the many men and women that have served and those who serve us now and grace and strength to their families who have sacrificed so much.









As we left I prayed for peace and praised God for a day when death and war would be no more. May your kingdom come, Father.

We love Bloomington Schools! Tori was one of the student mc's at her school assembly yesterday. Her school was given the Minnesota School of Excellence certification for being, well, excellent (Actually, I was pretty impressed...They said there are around 1000 public schools in Minnesota and only around 60 that have earned the "Minnesota School of Excellence" status). Anyway, Tori worked very hard to have her lines memorized and she did a great job speaking up loudly and full of expression. She was very nervous/ excited all week about it. Whoever was working with the kids did a great job pumping the kids up for their role in the program. Tori misunderstood that the Governor was coming (it was actually the Mayor) and she thought maybe even President Obama might stop by. ;) I love that she loves her school and that she is so proud of it. I love that she is confident enough to speak in front of others...she definitely did not get her confidence to speak in front of people from me. Congratulations Tori and all the rest of the Washburn Bears!!!

This one is for Becky. I can't keep up with the weekly picture posting, but I told her I would this week. ;) The category is hats. Check out some great pictures of dedicated photography bloggers here.

Some things you know when you marry a man. I knew Jamie played basketball and football. I knew he was a good card player, that he could sing, that he could dance. But then there are those new treasures that you learn about them along the way...like today, when I discovered Jamie is a mad kiter. He tagged along with the girls and I to one of my free community event adventures--Bloomington Kite Day. I am pretty sure he was mocking me and all the random things I have him do on the way there (blah, blah, blah--I know he loves them), but then we got the kites. They were giving away free kites to everyone there and then you just found a spot in the field and started to fly it. Jamie had his little plastic kite up higher than any other kite there. He swooped it away from a close collision with a tree branch and he successfully untangled his kite string from a neighboring flyer whose kite had wandered into his airspace. He even stepped in and saved it from tanking to the ground when he momentarily handed the controls over to Macie--granted he knocked Mace over in the process, but the kite did not crash.

The girls really enjoyed the kites, too. Tori was so excited about her new kite she did not want to risk breaking it by flying it too high, so she released it about two to three feet away from herself. Jamie told her the kite was depressed because it wanted to be free, but there was no way she would release it to his high-flying antics. Isabelle wanted a kite, but did not want to fly it. She didn't mind if someone else flew it but was in a mild panic watching Jamie unwind her kite to its last inch of string. Macie was enamored with the kite and wanted to fly it and didn't seem to want any help holding on to the string.

As for me, I am admittedly not a good kite flier. I don't know why--I just am not. Jamie handed his high flying kite over to me, so he and Macie could go get some more kites and, well, you can look at the pictures and see what happened.....Lucky for me, I have Jamie. :)








p.s. Jamie doesn't remember ever flying a kite before...Miller family, can this be true or is he just forgetful in his old age?????