More to come...

I still need to blog our trip to Washington and Easter fun but that will have to be another day(hopefully soon)

High Tech High International

My friend Laura is a teacher at HTHI and she needed drivers for a field trip so I volunteered. We went to Sophie's Center and got to work with adults with disabilities. We did all kinds of arts and crafts and it was fun to see the kids interact with all the people.

Allison has music buddies at HTHI and she loves it and since it is one of our community schools I thought I would pass along the following message...

Dear High Tech High , Alumni and Supporters,

As many of you know by now, High Tech High International is one of the top six finalists in the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge put on by the White House. Teams of students had to submit essays and videos on why their school is exemplary. Our students showed in their project why HTHI - and really all High Tech High schools - are an example of successful public education. This contest has really put the national spotlight on HTH education!

The professional team of observers for this final challenge was very impressed with how these students worked together so professionally to produce such quality work in the 20 hour time-limit they had to complete it. Their project is really a testament to HTH education. These students worked collaboratively for weeks to produce their qualifying project. After being supported to work in depth on this project, they became experts and were able to, by relying on each others' strengths to work successfully as a team, to produce their final video, which we will all now have the opportunity to view.

Please take a look at the rules below and vote, starting Thursday, April 21. It will take around 15 minutes or so to view all the videos, which is necessary for voting fairly. Please help support all these hard-working students - and all the HTH schools - by taking the time to cast your vote.

Please pass this on to anyone you know who would consider voting!!! Thank you for your time and support.

Sincerely,

Eve Sepulveda and Vicky Ross
Co-Presidents, HTHI Parent Association

Race to the Top Commencement Challenge Voting Rules

· On Thursday, April 21, 2011, public review and rating of the finalists in the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge will begin at:

http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement

· Rating of the schools will be based on a short essay and a three-minute video from each school, shown in random order.

· Visitors will rate the finalists on a scale of 1-5 (with 1 as the lowest rating and 5 as the highest). After a rating is submitted, the next school's work will be presented

· Each person is only allowed to rate the schools one time.

· The White House reserves can remove ratings if we suspect that voting is being manipulated to give one school an unfair advantage. This includes (but is not limited to) rating their school a '5' and all the other schools a '1'. (DO NOT DO THIS)

· Voting will end at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 29, 2011, so please vote ASAP

· At the end of the rating period, the three schools with the highest average ratings will be submitted to President Obama for final selection.

· The top 3 schools will be announced on Monday, May 2, 2011 with the winner being announced later that week.

Some New additions to our home

The girls wanted to paint some canvases so I drew a bird for Emma to paint and Allison did a still life of a dollies baby bottle.

I also painted some canvases for our bedroom. Ben painted our wall blue...I LOVE IT! We have since hung the canvases :)

I have had a couple friends arrange their books by color and I always think it looks good so I gave it a go. I couldn't do all the shelves because we have odd sized scrapbooks and things but I love the shelves I did do. So far the girls have been putting their books back in the right color section.

We also are the proud new owners of a piano. Alli wants to take lessons and maybe I can work on my sad piano skills.

I had to include all of Emma's cuteness. It's not a new addition to our home but our home wouldn't be the same without her.

Madeline

We went to Allison's schools annual fund raiser and came home with some fun goodies. Allison's favorite was the Madame Alexander Madeline doll. She even drew a picture of it which is one of my favorites. Both girls have loved having a doll house again and I love that Ben and I got a night out.

A little bit of everything...

Allison really wanted this doll so we set up a points system for her to earn her. She should have been able to complete it in less than a month...it took her almost 3 but she finally did it. Hooray! And she loves her doll very much.

Ben turned 30! This isn't the best picture but I didn't take to many ;) You can't see it but that is a banana cream pie in front of him, which is his favorite.

Emma is loving dance class!

Cute girls on St. Patrick's Day.

Sisterly Love....I savor these moments!

Emma LOVES to read books. Our voices get very tired but she is just so cute it is hard to say no.

St. Patrick's Day Festivities

Allison had to make a leprechaun trap for school. She was very firm on how she wanted it....there had to be a key inside for him to find to unlock the treasure chest filled with gold. I decided to make a "test" leprechaun to try her trap out. :)

We also went to the St. Patty's day parade with Sarah and Mindy.

Allison still didn't like all the horns. Emma loved all of the dogs!

Free Fun

Hello again! Yes I have been neglecting my blog...I knew it was super bad when my dad commented on my lack of posting. So... here is the first post of MANY.SDSU was having their campus open house and they had free kids activities. My friend Sarah filled us in on the details and we all headed over there together.
The kids had fun climbing and jumping. They did art work, planted flowers, even met some PBS characters. Allison even won a new book and Emma got some stickers. We were glad the rain held off until we were finished.

Dr. Seuss Festivities

Once again we celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday. It has been fun to share our party with new friends every year. Below are my favorite little "Things"!

The Decorations:

The Food:

Menu:

Pink Yink Ink Drink

Truffula Fruit

Fishes

Green Eggs and Ham

and Colorful Cupcakes

The girls colored and drew some pictures to help decorate. I made tie-died cupcakes and Emma had fun practicing her skill at Pin the Egg on the Platter.

We played Sneetch Ball and The Cat in the Hat Says. Allison's favorite part was holding a friends baby, she was so good with her.

Everyone wore their Seuss-iest clothes and had a turn being Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Once again we had lots of fun and we are so grateful for Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss Preparations

Well it's that time of year again...time for Dr. Seuss's birthday. Here are the hair bows I made today for all of us girls to wear on Wednesday. The middles are actually little buttons that they had at Target awhile ago in the $1 bins.

In case you have missed all the Dr. Seuss fun previously or just want another glimpse you can find it here and here.

Playing Catch-up!

Jog-A-Thon

Allison did a jog-a-thon to raise money for her school. She did 19 laps...Go Alli! The next day all the kids said their little legs hurt. Emma and I ran some laps too. Emma was in boots and I was in my cute flats, not exactly running shoes but it was still fun.

A Fabulous Surprise!

A couple weeks ago I came home to find these gorgeous flowers at my door. They were a Thank You from Allison's principal. I was truly touched and the flowers were some of my most favorites.

Creative Girls

A lady from our church gave the girls a bunch of old Zoo magazines. So they decided to cut them up and turn them into even better pictures. Allison was on a roll and I didn't know what to do with all of them so I decided to hang them on the closet door for awhile.

These are some of Allison's recent drawings that I really liked. The top left in a momma and baby manatee...the lines are sea weed with the school of little fish below. Top right is a minion from Despicable Me....."What?" (If you don't get the "what?" go watch the movie)

Bottom row you have a lion at the zoo and some ballerinas. I just love my little artist!