Our April weeks leading up to Easter were filled with new experiences. The 5th graders went on an overnight field trip to Camp Hanes, and this was Luke's first sleep away adventure. Mark chaperoned, and the boys had an awesome time on their environmental education trip. Camp Hanes is a YMCA camp in the mountains of NC, and there were many neat things about this place. The kids loved the "Air-nasium", which is a huge, outdoor facility with basketball courts and recreation opportunities:
The students had a jam packed schedule of learning and fun for their two day adventure. Here they are, searching for critters in their Water Ecology class:
Survival class was also a hit. The kid built a lean-to and learned many important outdoor safety and survival tips:
Here's Luke's group at Animal Interdependence class. What a gorgeous "classroom"!
The campers ate in the dining hall, and Mark reported that it was impressive to watch the kids do all the work serving and cleaning up after meals. There were almost 200 Oak Ridge students and parents, and the food was actually quite good!
After a night of not much sleep (but plenty of fun) in their cabins, it was time for Day 2. Team Building was first on the itinerary:
Canoeing was next. This picture concerned me a little, as these boys look completely clueless 😂:
However, they look more confident in this photo, and all went well on the lake:
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| Luke and Nikolas. |
The last Camp Hanes adventure was zip lining. The zip line went over the lake and was "AWESOME!" per Mark and Luke:
Someone fell right to sleep on the way home that afternoon, and slept until the next morning. All that fun can wear you out!
Camp Hanes proved to be an amazing time for the ORES 5th graders, with lots of special bonding and memories before graduation in June. We love these special kids!
Meanwhile, while Bubbie was away, Leah had adventures of her own. This little girl is quite the fisherman! Gawa and Mimi arrived in town while the boys were at Camp Hanes, and Gawa and Leah had great success fishing at our neighborhood lake:
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| This sweet girl is SO patient, and it pays off!! |
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| Catch #2 of the day! |
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| Third one!! |
Leah was so proud of her "bass thumb", which is a small mark on a fisherman's thumb from holding a bass. She showed it to her class at school, and wasted no time racing down to the lake again the next day:
Even after the boys came home, there was more fishing. So much fun!
We wrapped up our year-long Chess Club adventure in April, also, which culminated in a 7 week tournament that Mark led (with almost 100 students competing). We have over 125 students attend Chess Club on Wednesday mornings before school, and our family arrives by 6:45 each week to set up. I wanted to capture this cute part of our routine, as the kids pull the Chess bins out of the storage closet each week and Luke gives Leah a ride on the cart. This is Luke's 4th year in Chess Club (and Leah's 3rd year!), and it's been a big part of our extracurricular time at school:
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| Nikolas and Luke: Chess Competitors since 2015 😄 |
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| These three Renaissance Girls play on the same soccer team together, too! |
On April 6, we remembered a special little boy who passed away one year ago after a brave battle against osteosarcoma. Last year, Conner's death and memorial service were a heartbreaking part of our April, and our entire Oak Ridge community was affected by this tragedy. Luke wrote this card last year at the service as his special message to Lego-loving Conner:
This year, we showed our support by building Lego/Duplo hearts and posting our photo to be shared on social media and with Conner's family. We hope they know how much they are loved, and how this precious little boy touched our lives:
In April, Luke also started a new adventure as part of the ORES Morning Show. Here he is, as anchor on the television program that is broadcast at school each day. He loves this, and is a natural fit for this role... (His teachers often say on report cards, "Luke loves sharing what he knows!"...)
Leah had a yet another fun April adventure, when she was asked by her preschool teacher to come back and read a book to the students. It was a special treat to have an early dismissal from school to go back to First Lutheran and be a reader, and we loved seeing her sweet preschool teachers:
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| Leah's K4 Teacher, Mrs. Puryear. |
This may be more appropriately titled "April Antics", but the top fundraiser for our school's Kids Heart Challenge this spring had the honor of sliming our amazing P.E. teacher at a special assembly. Luke was the 5th grade winner, and this was a hilarious and awesome event at school. He was SO excited to pour a bucket of slime on dear Mrs. Anderson!
Last, but certainly not least, it's ALWAYS an adventure when grandparents visit. Bean and Poppy's April weekend at our house was filled with celebrations (Luke's first communion and birthday), snuggle time, arcade and bowling at Sparetime, and lots of fun at home:
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| "Bunny Bowling" at Sparetime! |
Three cheers for ALL of our April Adventures!
