HSM3 and about the only thing that could top it...

Off first thing this morning for High School Musical 3 - the long awaited theater finale of the High School Musical series. We enjoyed the movie and the images popped off the screen. The favorite parts? hmmmm....true to form J picked the number with Troy and Chad dancing around a salvage yard in The Boys Are Back ...

















...and my little diva S picked the "I Want It All" number...




A good time was had by all at the movie and then it was on for something that could top a movie musical...a new puppy! Not ours - we have a friend that raises puppies for Canine Companions for Independence and little Anzio came to Vicki a couple of weeks ago. A cute boy and here he is so happy to have two little girls fussing over him. ok - he doesn't really look that happy but when he wasn't restrained for a photo he was happier. He'll stay with Vicki until he is about 15 months old and then go on to doggie college in Orlando...if all that goes well he'll be graduating as a service dog. You can watch him grow on ccimiracles.blogspot.com

We are still wading through pictures and recovering from post-Disney-vacation-lag...but will try and add some of those pics soon.

Postcrossing update - Sent to Washington State, Florida, and two to Finland; received from SanFrancisco, Anaheim, Finland and Paris...and from friends in Greece, Italy and Siesta Key!

Whatever happened to Field Trips?

Both of the girls had field trips today…I had to work….why is that? When did we get to an age where it was deemed we no longer needed a break from the everyday? I would contend that field trips need to be re-instated…

J had a 1st grade trip to a pumpkin patch. Ahhh, the outdoors, the dirt…a dream come true for J. A break from the school uniforms and into jeans and a striped polo shirt this morning for school, and off she went. They went on a hayride , did an obstacle course, went in the bouncy things, saw animals and came back with pumpkins that they will be painting next week in art class. Good times were had by all.

S had a PreK trip to a gold mine…yep, that’s right - the letter ‘G’ means gold and if ever there was a child that did not need to be encouraged about getting excited about gold, it is my S! She has a beautiful real gold pendant that was given to her by our good friends Katherine and Toula – it had been a charm on their mother’s charm bracelet and she and J now each have a pendant. S would wear that every day if I let her – but I don’t. On her field trip today she saw real gold and panned for pretty rocks. Here she is with her prize artifacts from today’s trip and her special gold pendant.

So, what is the field trip I would schedule for myself? Strolling through a museum, visiting a state park complete with waterfalls, apple orchards for fresh cider and pie… oh, yes, a field trip is just the thing for all ages.

I took the idea into my 11:00 meeting and no one canceled the meeting in favor of a field trip, so for the time being I will have to be satisfied with mental field trips – or as J so aptly reported, “Mom, I found out I can dream when I am not even asleep!”

Postcrossing update – sent one to Florida

And so it begins...

We got a real start on our postcrossing project today - went to WalMart and got our first batch of postcards, got our stickers for our map (green for outgoing, blue for incoming) hung the map and wrote the postcards. Now for some results...

J is posing with the postcard that is on its way to The Netherlands. She is wearing a Hong Kong dragon shirt anxiously awaiting the first time we have a postcard - coming or going - involving China. That shirt was purchased in Hong Kong when J was 6 months old and she has been wearing it since she was 2. She loves that it still fits...I think we have passed 'fits', but I appreciate the sentimental attachment.

S is showing off her first postcard to mail to Finland, she enjoys signing the cards herself and at 4 she enjoys adding a few extra letters to her name. No - she does not think she is wearing the traditional garb of Finland, she thinks a bathing suit is appropriate any time of the year. I had her add the skirt for the photo but if you look closely you'll see the ruffle of her bikini bottom peeking out.

So, tomorrow it is off to the post office and then we begin the process of waiting to see that someone receives our cards and of course, we get some!

Postcrossing

Thanks to my Virginia homeschooler friend, Traci, I have learned about Postcrossing and we are very excited about getting started sending and receiving Postcards from around the world. We signed up for our first five addresses tonight and will be sending postcards to Finland, The Netherlands, Washington State, Russia and Lithuania. While sending to within your own country is a non-default choice, we went ahead and checked it because there is so much within our own country to learn about AND the mailing time might be a little less so we should see our cards registered more quickly and move to the top of the list to receive.

Starting out

Once again, I have the idea that a blog will be fun and I should give it a try. We'll see how that goes...

I am a single mom with two girls, J - a 6 year old karate and sports enthusiast and S - a 4 yr old princess in training...hence the blog name Sparklez and Sportz.

As we are preparing for a vacation in two weeks - and I am counting the minutes down already - I wanted to be ready to post vacation pictures and document the high points.