National Honor Society

Breanna was inducted into the National Honor Society recently.

 

The 4 Pillars of the National Honor Society which must be exhibited in order to be accepted into the elite groups are:

 

Leadership

Scholarship

Service

Character

 

 

 

NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY PLEDGE

I pledge to maintain my high scholastic standing,
To hold as fundamental and worthy
An untarnished character,
To endeavor intelligently and courageously
To be a leader,
And to give of myself freely in service to others.
In so doing, I shall prove myself worthy
Of a place in the National Honor Society. 

 

 

A picture of a few friends after the ceremony.

 

 

 

 Dads and their girls.....

 

 

Thanks Maya for taking our picture!

 

 

Maddy finding her place at the Farm Show 2013

Maddy was very busy at the farm show this year. It is so fun to watch her in this environment, this is an area that Maddy has a passion for. From the time that she could pick up a pencil she would draw animals. When she started reading she gravitated to animal and science books. She researches and develops PowerPoint presentations in her spare time about animals. In her world there is no other TV channel than Animal Planet. She is a little entrepreneur, always working. She is the neighborhood pet sitter and fills her calendar with her "jobs."

 

 

Maddy with her show bunny. This is Almond, she is a Chocolate colored Polish Rabbit.  She might be having babies in the near future. Let her (us)  know if you would like to purchase one in the future. Maddy is working on her plan now for her 4-H project...and she came up with the name for her little rabbitry "Madelyn's Urban bunnies"

 

 Lori's daughter Julie helping Maddy with her showmanship skills.

 

Lori, Maddy's 4-H leader giving her a walk through of all the different breeds of rabbits at the Farm Show.

 

Here is Maddy a couple days later teaching Nana and Papa about the different breeds at the Farm Show, while including other people in the conversation as they walked around the cages.

 

She volunteered to sell programs at the information desk one day. She was hustling some programs and would yell " Get your programs for $1, $1 programs support 4-H" Who can turn down a passionate little girl selling programs? Not many people actually, she went through a ton of them and people were giving her donations without taking a program just because they liked her enthusiasm.

 

 



Several days Maddy worked in the rabbit area. 

 

So we took a break and grabbed some healthy food like fried mozzarella cubes, milkshakes and fries. We stopped by this area near the food court it was the veterinarian department for Penn State. Maddy talked with Ms.Deborah  a Veterinarian. They spent at least 45 minutes talking eye ball to eye ball after they looked at the x-rays. Maddy was very engaged and asked great questions.  They talked about foal and rabbit reproduction among other topics.

 

  

Here, Maddy is giving her PowerPoint presentation on rabbits. She worked on this over Christmas break just for fun so it was neat for her to be able to present it in a large crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

She made a Jeopardy game at the end of her presentation. She asked volunteers to come up on stage and answer her questions.  Everyone was rewarded with candy. 

 

We had a blast at the farm show. One day we were there for over 12 hours and when I told Maddy it was time to go she said "It's time to go already" she had no idea how much time had passed.

We were sad to see it end!

Maddy has a rabbit show coming up Feb 2nd...so be on the lookout for pictures!

 

New Year, New York & New Art

 

Breanna had some friends over for New Years Eve. What a great group of kids. We so enjoyed having them here. 

 

Getting the party food table ready...

 This tray was a hit and it was so fun to make! Chocolate dipped Oreos and Strawberries. Now wouldn't this be sweet with Red & pink for Valentines Day?



 

Meanwhile we had our own little party upstairs! Maddy made these little pinatas, one for each number of the new year 2,0,1,3.  She hung them up each hour as a countdown to midnight. 3,2,1,0 and the kids would wack at them with a wooden spoon until the candy would fall out. (a good use of leftover Halloween candy.)  It was rather creative and the kids had a blast.
 

 



We had a great time hanging out with friends and the kids.  We laughed so much our belly's ached. It was a very fast evening!

 Breanna went to NYC with The School of the Arts, her production lab/fashion design class with Mr. Ricky Andries.  A local fashion designer in Camp Hill, PA. The group went to the fashion district as well as Times Square.

Here is an article in the Susquehanna Newsletter about the School of the Arts.  Breanna was pictured in both articles.

This is a dress that Breanna designed and is making under Mr. Andries' guidence in The School of the Arts.

Here is some other Art work she has recently completed...well, she always sees something that needs to be done. So for an artist, it is never done.

 

 



Guys' Weekend in DC

 

Ok, it doesn't happen often but the guys are taking over the blog for this post. So here we go...

 

Logan and I had an overnight trip to Washington DC a few weeks ago.  The purpose of the trip was to get away as father and son to talk about biblical manhood and to challenge Logan in a few areas of his life as he is getting older.

We visited many sights and monuments around Washington and attended the Redskins vs. Giants game on Monday night. (Thanks to our friend Eric for scoring some great seats)  We had a great time, did a lot of talking and made some wonderful memories.  Here are some highlights from the trip.

 

 

We began Sunday night by reading a verse out of the bible:

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father."

Colossians 3:17

This verse would serve as our foundation for the weekend.  We had a great discussion around how our actions, words, deeds, everything are to be done in a way that glorifies God and honors Him.  We talked practically about how we can live out this verse on a daily basis with our friends, family, classmates and teachers.  Logan was very thoughtful about how he can honor God by honoring those around him.  He has a very tender heart that allows him to easily think of ways to serve and love others.  He made some great suggestions on how to honor God in deed as we were in DC. 

He suggested he could give up his seat on the metro to someone who didn't have one.  He also talked about thanking people who otherwise may not be thanked for doing their jobs.  He said this would honor God by showing love to the people God had created.

 

We also looked at the fruit that our lives should produce as we live in a way that honors God:

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22-23

Logan was able to make the connection between honoring God with our words and actions and how that would produce the fruit of the spirit.

 

As we visited the monuments and sights around Washington we talked a lot about the fruit of the spirit and how they are displayed through action. 

We visited the Vietnam wall, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.  We talked about sacrifice and how Jesus laid down His life for us so that we could have a relationship with Him.  These memorials served to remind us that ordinary men laid down their life for our country and our freedom.  In light of that, how much more did Jesus do by laying down his life for our souls.

We visited Arlington National Cemetery as well.  As we walked passed thousands of tombstones we had the chance to talk about sacrifice, faithfulness, love, and self-control.  We were able to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.  This was a special ceremony that served to demonstrate the ultimate in honor, faithfulness and self-control.  The guards who faithfully walk 21 paces back and forth in front of the tomb and pause 21 seconds at each turn for a fellow soldier they never knew was powerful.  Seeing this ceremony allowed Logan and I to talk about integrity and discipline.  It was a powerful demonstration that will surely stick in both of our minds.

 

We had a great day together followed by a fun night at the football game.  Logan got to attend his first NFL game and see many of his favorite players up close.  A friend of ours got great tickets for us and we were able to go down on the field before the game.  Even the football game served as a reminder of honoring God with our word and deeds.  We talked about teammates holding each other accountable and how they would practice for months before playing a game on the weekend. 
 

We looked at Proverbs 27:17 - "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."

We discussed the importance of relationships with other Christians and how those relationships would serve to encourage, challenge and sharpen our relationship with the Lord.  Accountability is important in the life of a man and it is fundamental in the life of a man whose desire is to be a man of God.

It was a great weekend and one that I will treasure for a long time.  I am proud of the young man Logan is becoming and I look forward to continuing to guide him in to biblical manhood.

 

Here are a few highlights from the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures of the monuments we visited.  Logan really liked the Vietnam wall and statues since his grandaddy is a Vietnam Veteran.  He also enjoyed learning about Lincoln and the Gettysburg address that took place right down the road from where we live now. 

 

Logan is a tough kid who loves sports, and doing "boy" stuff. At the same time he is also very tender and affectionate. As a result, this is how we spent most of our time walking around the Mall area.


After the Mall we ate lunch and then headed over to Arlington.  This was my first visit to the cemetery.  It was a bit overwhelming; the emotions of gratitude, pride and patriotism.  There are over 400,000 service members, statesmen and presidents buried there.

  

 Logan really wanted to see "F. Kennedy's" grave.  Not sure why he kept leaving John off but we went to see it anyway.

The Highlight of the Arlinton Vist was the Tomb of the Unknowns.

 

I bought Logan a coin for the Tomb of the Unknowns to serve as a reminder of the fruit we talked about: faithfulness, self-control and love.

 

After spending the day walking around DC we headed over to the stadium to see the game.

We had tremendous seats and the usher let us go down onto the field before the game so Logan could get up close with the players.  It took him a few minutes to settle in and enjoy it.  It was his first time in an NFL stadium and it overwhelmed him quite a bit when we first walked in.  Once he took it all in he was good to go and had a great time.

 



 

 

 

 Walking up to the Stadium and then down onto the field!

 

 

Santana Moss, Logan's favorite player and the receivers warming up.

 

Moss!

 

Logan's uncle Rob let him borrow a Chris Cooley jersey to wear to the game.  When the ends came out for warm-ups Chris came over and gave Logan a wink and a smile.

 

 London Fletcher and the linebackers warming up

 

When you are the only kid on the sidelines you get a lot of attention.  The ushers, and adults were making sure he could see and one of the officials, Tony Steratore, stopped by to say hello as well.

 

He also hung out next to this NFL photographer.  They guy was very nice and told Logan all about his camera and let him pick out some players for him to take pictures of.

 

 

We got to see the Redskins marching band, the Sean Taylor memorial and a few celebrities along the sideline.  Former Giant player, Michael Strahan and Yankees pitcher, CC Sabathia both hung out on the sidelines next to us before the game.

 

 The Skins take the field!

 

 He didn't even make it out of the parking lot.

 

A great weekend for us both!