Hope everyone had a Happy Father's Day(for all those Dad's out there). Allison and Scott took Tom to see Toy Story 3(me too!). We had a choice of 3D or IMAX 3D. The IMAX was sold out, so we watched it in 3D which was fine. We all loved the movie. Afterwards the kids took Tom to lunch. He did not have much time to spend with all of us on Sunday as Tom had to head out to Charlottesville VA. for work.
He and Scott had just returned from Indiana on Friday. They had a fun week visiting with the Seitz family. They even enjoyed a trip down to Kentucky to tour Mammoth cave with nephew Eric, a day at the Indy Children's Museum and a stopover at Kings Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati on the way home. They kept Cookie with them and sounds like she enjoyed visiting with her doggie cousins. Especially Mark and Linda's dog Rambo since it sounds like they are very similar.
Meanwhile, Allison and I were home trying to get Allison through her last full week of school and homework, not to mention squeezing in a few field hockey games. I could not believe how much work the teachers assigned at the end of the school year. Allison had to write a paper on the history of the piano and present a power point presentation on her favorite musician for music class, along with her piano recital and a test, she had to perform a scene from Midsummers Night Dream for English, complete an extensive math packet(Algebra II to prepare for next year), not to mention a few County Assessments, and even complete half of her final exam in Spanish. My favorite was when her English teacher had to take off due to a death in his family, (sadly Allison believes it was his mother). Unfortunately, their English final was scheduled for Friday, and by WEds the class had not yet received a study guide. Since they only meet every other day, there were no more classes scheduled before the final exam. They hadn't even taken their English County Assessment which was originally scheduled two weeks earlier. Allison sent her teacher an email and by 10pm Weds night, the teacher emailed a study guide back to the class. He requested the kids fill out a worksheet with 50 vocabulary words to define and complete a two page essay. Turns out that it was a take home final. I was happy that Allison was able to get it done. The kids were given the English County Assessment only during class and that was all the time they had on Friday. What a week that was! And she still had Finals to study for over the weekend! It all seemed to pay off though when she brought home Student of the Month!
We took a little break at the Dog Fest with Cookie on Saturday. Scott was off to a birthday party so Allison and I braved the heat with our little puppy at the Fairgrounds. Unfortunately the festival was on the infield of the racetrack so it was pretty toasty. Cookie decided she really liked lying down in the kiddie pools to cool off. She also did a wonderful job trying out the agility course where dogs run through tubes and climb ramps. We even put her in the costume contest in her hot dog outfit. We didn't win, but I think it was mainly due to the fact that the Governor's wife was judging. It's not likely that a democratic judge would choose a republican candidate! Cookie just enjoyed visiting with all the gabillion different types of dogs and eating her doggie snow cone and cooling off in the pool. Allison and I enjoyed all the freebie stuff.
We also enjoyed a brief piano presentation from Allison on Saturday as she finished her yearly private lessons. She missed the year end recital with her school as we were in Indy that weekend for the wedding, so her teacher asked her to come play for one of the younger classes. Now it's time for summer camp piano lessons! And Scott will be starting summer camps as well. He is looking forward to a busy summer of play! He is feeling very sad now that his best friend moved from across the street. They had him over to their new house briefly to check it out last weekend, but they are currently away on a two week vacation to Ireland with their entire family. So my hope is Scott will be completely worn out at camp and won't miss him too much.
Allison and I also spent Friday night helping out with our previous volunteer program for The American Cancer Society. In February, our entire family made luminary bags for the Relay for Life all night cancer walk/run. The luminary bags were dedicated to those fighting cancer or those that passed away from cancer. We had punched star shapes in all the bags, and then the names of those with cancer are placed on the bags along with colored ribbons representing their type of cancer. Our family prepared several hundred bags back in February and Allison and I assisted with the sale of more bags on Friday night. We spent 4 hours at the event, from 4-8pm when she had to leave for her piano lesson. We were very busy helping sell out all the bags, including bags for Cats and Dogs with cancer! They ran out of room on the track for all the bags, and they had to double up the rows. Sadly we missed the lighting of all the bags at 930 that night(Allison and I were just too tired to go back). We did enjoy the opening ceremony when they released a flock of doves. And we took a stroll around the track to admire all our hard work. Allison and I were surprised to spot a bag decorated in memory for Allison's 3rd grade art teacher from Resurrection St Paul. And we made a bag in honor of Tom's Uncle Peter who is currently fighting lung cancer. We all have certainly been touched by someone who has had cancer. The sale of bags and the fund raiser I was told raised over $127,000 for the Cancer Society, up by $30,000 from last year. Last count we sold over 2000 bags for the event. The coordinator for the luminary bags was so impressed with Allison and myself she is hoping we come back next year. (Sounds like a great program for the Scouts!)
Wish us luck getting through finals this upcoming week!