Last Day of School

Today was the boys last day of school and we attended the honor day ceremony. The boys did very well and now they are home for the summer. It should be fun to have a rest until we jump back in come August.
These are the awards the boys received:

Stephen: Honor Roll blue ribbon, Outstanding Reading Achievement, Accelerated Reader most points in class, Most Words Read (854,014 words), Language Arts Award, Art Award, Spelling Award, Mathmatics Award.

Ethan: 1st grade Honor Role Blue ribbon, Mastery of Skills Award, Language Arts Award.

The boys did well this year and we are so pleased on how hard they worked. Christopher also finished his preschool and did well on the skills there. We are hopefully looking to enroll him in Kindergarten this year as opposed to waiting till next year.

We are certainly blessed to have such great boys in our home. GREAT JOB, GUYS!

No Rain for Race Day

April was a busy month now that the boys have started baseball and Stephen was playing dodgeball. During the month of April we had planned to enter the YMCA 5K and Fun Run but were concerned about rain, since that has been the order of the day as of late. Great for grass and garden but bad for outside fun. Thankfully a sunny day was forcast and we all entered the race that morning. Bob and I did the 5K walk and Stephen and Ethan did the fun run. It was a chilly morning but great for racing. There were many people there and it proved to be a fast race this year. For our first 5K Bob and I did well. If you want to see race results check out the YMCA Bloomington website. Stephen and Ethan did very well. Their race was .9 miles and was run cross country fashion. Stephen came in first over all and Ethan second. We were very excited for them.

After the race, they had fun things for the children to do for the health festival. They had a jumping area and a rock wall to climb. They also had a cartoonist there that was teaching the children to draw their own cartoon. Ethan, Stephen and Chris were all over that and we had to pull them away in the end. Bob and I even tried our hand at the rock wall. Bob, Stephen, and Ethan all reached the top to hit the buzzer. I got about half way up. Even Christopher tried to get in on the fun as well.

All in all it was a great day and are looking forward to the next run this month. Stephen has decided he wants to try a 5k race. We hope this catches on so the boys will be in track as they mature.

Go for it Stephen!

Ethan making it to the top!!!

I can't believe I tried it.

The Pace Family Meets Star Wars

We had the rare treat to be able to meet Star Wars characters at WonderLab. The children were able to ride on a real hover craft that had been built by a science student. They were also able to play in a space cave. It was a lot of fun to see the characters walking around and talking. The costumes were absolutely real, which was very neat. It was a group of people who are garrison 501 of an Indiana Star Wars re-enactment group.

We had a load of fun together as we played at WonderLab and were able to experience the Star Wars exhibits.

The Passing of Our Beloved Beretta

We are sad to announce the passing of our dog Beretta. She was very sick and we finally needed to put her down. Thankfully we were all able to be with her as she quietly slipped from this life into the next. We will miss you.

I Got Tagged (Thanks Marthea)

Well, I just got tagged by my wonderful sister Marthea, so I must oblige. Especially, since she is complaining about the fact I haven't updated my blog in a while. I must confess, I have been very busy as of late with my Computers in Education class. I am having a great time though. I've learned Excel, PowerPoint, Comic Life, Stellarium, and other websites where I can get freeware that is utilized in education. It is a busy class but the projects are a lot of fun. This will be the last class I need to take until 2014. By that time, hopefully I will be an employed teacher and working on my masters. Heintje can't be the only Master in the family.

My five addictions

• 1. My nuclear and extended family. Need I say more, family is what it is all about.
• 2. Orton-Gillingham: Teaching children to read that have been written off by everyone else brings me great satisfaction. I talk about this incessantly to the point I think everyone is sick to death from hearing about it.
• 3. Ancient history: No matter how hard I try, ancient Egypt, Israel, and Native Americans keep sucking me back in. Politics is probably a close second.
• 4. Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate: It is the bane of my existence and I wish I could just leave it alone but it is OH SO GOOOOOOD!
• 5. TV: Thankfully now we have a stationary bike in front of the TV, so I can do something constructive when I watch. I limit my time in front of the tube but I could totally see myself vegging for a whole day if I let myself. Those documentaries and history programs just kill me and I can't get enough, as well as most any sci-fi, fantasy, or adventure movie. Reading fiction in a wide variety of genres is a close second. If I'm not doing one, I'm likely doing the other. (I am so pathetic)

I hope this satisfies the requirement. Should I tag others???? Probably not, since the people I would tag, have already been tagged by Marthea. I think only family reads my blog anyway. I will try to get another family oriented post up soon. The problem is, we have forgotten to take the camera on the latest adventures we have had. The boys are playing basketball and we went skiing at Paoli Peaks last Saturday, which was a blast!!! The boys did very well and skied for almost three hours. I figured they would get sick of it within twenty minutes and want to go in. Nothin' doing, they stayed out and finally made it to the actual bunny hill. Stephen wanted to go out on the slopes but we had to be back to feed the missionaries and didn't have time. So one day we will go again and Stephen can try it.

December Highlights

Here is a picture from our trip to St. Louis that I didn't get in. Finally we found something that would wear our crazy boys out. They had a really great time playing inside this hamster wheel and went back to it several times throughout the day. Like I said before, the science museum was a lot of fun.

We also at the beginning of this month had our first snow. There was just enough on the gound that the boys could sled outside. They also tried out their little snow boards as well. Even little Christopher got into the snowboarding frenzy. I would have gone outside with them but I have been experiencing a lot of illness

these days with a succession of sinus infections. We have been getting a load of winter weather so hopefully I will be getting out and enjoying the winter weather sometime soon.

Of course December wouldn't be complete without the annual school Christmas program. Ethan and Stephen were in it this year together. It was fun watching the program. The picture quality is poor because we were so far away in the bleachers.

December is also the month of Ethan's birthday. He desired a Christmas tree

cake so I tried to make one for him. We also did chocolate cupcakes for those who didn't want the white tree cake. Now I know why cake decorators get the big bucks. We had a great time with family and friends as we celebrated Ethan turning seven years old. He was so excited and happy for his special day.

Fall Break

For fall break we went to St. Louis and took the children to see loads of things. On Thursday, we went to the zoo, where we all viewed the wonderful collection of animals there. Then on Friday we saw and went up into the Arch. The children all loved going up, although Ethan did express his fear of elevators just a bit. They enjoyed the museum there as well. After that we went to the science museum and had a great time viewing all the exhibits. The children by the end of the day were exhausted! The next day on Saturday we went to Cahokia and Bob and I introduced the children to Native American history. We walked on the great mound and hiked all around the grounds. We also went inside the interpretive center to view the exhibits on early Native American life. I am always very moved whenever we go there. While we were there at Cahokia, a large group was touring the center at the same time. It turned out they were a group from Utah seeing church sites and had just been to Nauvoo. So we talked with them a little about history and the Book of Mormon. It is so funny to meet up with other members of the church in unexpected places. After Cahokia we drove home. It is always fun to go other places and do other things every so often. Bob and I love introducing the boys to new and interesting things as they grow up. Here are some pictures of our travels and one of Christopher cutting up a pumpkin for Halloween. The children collected quite a bit of candy on Halloween and had a great time.