Other Beach Games...

While taking short breaks from shark tooth hunting we did do other fun things on the beach!

Mote Aquarium

On Tuesday morning we had the only rain of the entire week. We decided to drive 75 minutes north to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens, or if it was still raining, the aquarium. With 10 minutes to go in the trip we realized the backpack, complete with all wallets and credit cards, was back at the house. We turned around and went back and then went to the Mote Aquarium, in Sarasota. We actually had a great afternoon there. It wasn't too big and there were a lot of helpful volunteers to explain what you were looking at. My favorite were the jellyfish and Emily LOVED the manatee. He was quite a ham, almost as if he was trained to pose for pictures in the tank!

 catching the rays!

this handsomely ugly guy would swim around, pose at the glass, and repeat. He was amazing

Shark Tooth Hunters

We were back in Venice, Florida last week for our annual vacation at Jean and Bill's house. Emily was beyond excited and her goal was to find at least 200 shark teeth to make her overall, 3 year total, 1,000! Last month Rick and Emily made a sifter table that would help in their hunting! It was transported in my suitcase as it comes apart!

Anyway, they started hunting within minutes of arriving at the beach last Sunday. There was one minor hiccup....less than an hour into their hunt Rick cut his foot on a rock and had to go to urgent care (as luck would have it only 2 miles away) to get it taken care of. He spent 3 hours there but luckily (I guess) it couldnt' be stitched so they taped it together and he was back with us by 2pm. I will spare you all any posts with photos of the toe and all the lengths he went to to tape it, wrap it, bag it, so he could still shark tooth hunt. Even I got in on the action this year. It is quite addictive! And also really fun!

 before the toe incident 

 notice the bag on foot...this was not a good method

 sifting thru all the shells 

 2 of the best from the first 2 days

Girls on the Run

4, 3, 2, 1, Girls on the Run is so much fun!

I have been hearing about GOTR for many years now. I can't believe Emily is old enough to participate in this amazing program. The is a nation wide program that, since it's beginning, had served over 1 million girls! It is about running but it is more about helping girls to be strong, confident, responsible, caring girls. I am lucky enough to be a coach and we meet twice a week for 90 minutes each time. At the end of the season the girls run a 5k and all of our work is to get them ready to do that!

We have 15 girls at Webster (the max for each team) and our group is great. There are 6, 5th graders, all who have done GOTR before, and 9, 3rd graders. 

Emily loves it. I love it!

LAX

Emily signed up to play lacrosse this spring. To our surprise a ton of her pals are also playing too. We don't know a lot (really nothing) about this game. Ricky and Doug never played so even Rick is a novice. There were only 3 practices before the first game but the girls did great! The coaches are allowed to be on the field with the girls so that is very helpful! There are A LOT of rules to this game but we are all learning them together. Emily has scored in both games so that gives her a confidence boost! We are looking forward to a fun season!!!!

 waiting for a pass

shooting and scoring!

Fun Meet

After our high from the science fair on Friday night Emily had her gymnastics fun meet on Saturday afternoon. She is in level 3 and if not for weaknesses on the bars she would be able to go to level 4! Anyway, the meet is fun to watch and she did well. She got one third place and 3, 4th place ribbons and of course she had FUN!

Science Fair Shocker

Every year I have asked Emily if she would like to partcipate in the science fair at Webster School. Each year she has said no. Scott Milne has had the same response from Sienna each year as well. This year, Scott asked the girls if they wanted to do it together (a very smart approach) and the answer was YES. The girls took this quite seriously, worked on the project over several days and practiced the presentation several times. When Friday night arrived the girls were ready!  There were many "dazzling" projects at the fair. Emily and Sienna's didn't have the flash of some others but the girls really knew their stuff! The third grade class has the most entries and Emily and Sienna won first prize for the third grade class. I was totally shocked! 

It must have been in the details and the presentation! and possibly the matching outfits??

Third grade entrants

Miss Martin awarding the WINNERS

Two happy girls