Latin Convention

Zachary and Ryan are finishing up an online Latin class with Karen Karppinen at Lone Pine Classical School. This is their second year of Latin with Ms. Karppinen, and we all are very pleased with the classes.
 
Each spring, Ms. K invites her students to travel to Colorado (where she lives) to participate in a Latin Convention organized by Colorado's Junior Classical League. This year, Joe, Zachary, Ryan, and I flew into Denver and then drove up to Estes Park so the boys could participate. The convention was held at the YMCA campground just outside of Estes Park. The elevation was about 8,000 feet, so we drank plenty of water to stay hydrated to prevent headaches.

Some of the competitions at the convention were not academic. Zachary and Ryan both competed in the fun pool relay events. Here, Ryan competes in an event where each participant was required to read a newspaper aloud as he/she swam.

Joe assisted with timing the pool events.

Ryan, Zachary, and two of their Latin 200 classmates participated in the Lower Division Certamen (quiz bowl) competition. Here they are relaxing before the round of questioning began.

Ms. K has posted more pictures of the Convention as well as results of the individual and team competitions for 2010 at her website.

Before we went to Colorado, Zachary and Ryan learned that they each had received Gold Medals again this year on the National Latin Exam. (They took the Latin II exam this year.) Zachary scored a Perfect Paper for the second year in a row. Congratulations to both of you!!

When the convention ended at noon on Friday, the Lone Pine students, their parents, and Ms. Karppinen traveled into Rocky Mountain National Park. It was early April and still snowy, but the snow plows had the roads completely cleared.

We drove to Bear Lake and hiked around the area. The elevation here was around 9,500 feet.

In some spots, there was still three feet of snow on the ground.

We all enjoyed meeting Ms. Karppinen and the other Lone Pine students and their parents on our trip. It was a great group!

Tomorrow I will post more photos of our sightseeing adventures while in Colorado.

The Little Match Girl Ballet

The Little Match Girl is Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale of a poor young girl who is sent out on a cold, raw evening to sell match sticks to earn income for her family. The hustling crowds ignore her, and she takes shelter and tries to stave off the cold by lighting her matches since her father will beat her if she returns home with no sales. In the glow of the light from each match, she sees visions. Eventually she sees her grandmother, who carries her soul to heaven when she dies.

One of our local dance studios performed this ballet right before Christmas last year, and Catherine danced the part of one of the Candy Canes.

After her performance, Catherine was presented with a bouquet of roses from her dad.

Several friends and family members attended the performance.

After the show, we celebrated with tropical smoothies.

We were very proud of our ballerina!

Sleeping Beauty

Catherine, Elizabeth, and I attended the Moscow Festival Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty last night. We enjoyed it very much.

I didn't take these pictures, but I want to include them so you can see how lovely it was.

Update

I spent part of this past Saturday converting my blog to this new template. It was relatively painless, even for a non-technological person like me. (I did have some assistance from my dear husband.) Many thanks to Lena at Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates for providing a vast collection of FREE templates to choose from! She also custom designs templates for a fee.

Assistance with my new signature came from Ryan Bumpers. Many thanks to him!

It has been many months since I've blogged, but I want to remedy that. As soon as we finish school for the spring, I plan to update with some old photos as well as begin publishing new information. I am excited to be getting started.

Peter Pan

(BOOK 31 of the 52 week Challenge)




The girls and I just read this book aloud. I had forgotten how rich the language is in this children's classic. The version we read (pictured) was beautifully illustrated. We have the movie (2003 non-animated version) on its way from Netflix.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

(BOOK 30 of the 52 week Challenge)



Catherine, Elizabeth, and I recently read this together and then topped it off with another viewing of the movie. I never get tired of this story.

Our Town

(BOOK 29 of the 52 week Challenge)



Zachary, Ryan, Catherine, and I just read this play of Thornton Wilder's which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938. After we finished the book, we watched the excellent Masterpiece Theater production which starred Paul Newman as the Stage Manager. We greatly enjoyed both.