May Day, Odysseus and Olympiad

Oh, there's so much to tell you!  Now that I've figured out how to get the photos off of my new camera onto the computer and the old camera's editing software, and then how to get them onto the blog; and now that I have a blog template and background that I enjoy being around, I'm all fired up and ready to go!  So kids: put yourself to bed...Mommy's goin' AWOL!

I have had a ton of extra stuff in my already crowded brain this month.  Our neighbors went to Hawaii and it was my job to try to keep their fish alive (I lost a Tetra, dang!).  One of them, an Oscar, really missed his 9-year old buddy, and I was afraid it was going to die of loneliness...so I brought Taylor over to feed him and he perked right up and survived the week.  Phew!

 

 

Photo by Carie Weisenbach-Folz

Our school had a May Day celebration, which means a lot of flower-crown making and potlucks.  Between all my kids, it's an all-day celebration with all the grades and the teachers doing their own unique dances around the May Pole.  There was even a live band!  It was a lot of fun.

Then Korah's class performed The Wanderings of Odysseus.  Here is Korah as one of Penelope's suitors, trying to string Odysseus' bow:

She failed.  And then was silently slaughtered (I guess they thought if they didn't have a line to recite, the rest should be pantomimed.  One of the corpses rose from the dead and played an improptu "catch me if you can" ...it was hilarious!).  They all did an amazing job.  I was really impressed with everyone!

Next, Micah's school sponsored a Family Zoo Day, the car had to be taken to the shop so all my normal taxi driving was turned into exciting Tri-Met adventures, Micah visited his Kindergarten for next year (Morgen's this year), Taylor turned NINE on Friday, Korah went to the Olympiad with her fifth grade class and of course, Sunday was Mother's Day!  We decided to postpone celebrating Taylors birthday until Sunday when we'd all be together.

Saturday we all drove over to Camp Namanu in Sandy to watch Korah and her 5th grade class perform in the Olympiad.  This is a really cool camp experience that ties together the fifth graders' study of Ancient Greece and an awareness of their physical form and abilities.  It looked like a lot of fun.

Korah's perfect Javelin throw (see it up there?)

 

"Wrestling" with a classmate.  The object is to keep the circle of your form (arms, mostly) while attempting to push your opponent out of the circle on the ground.  You can lose by being pushed out, or by allowing the circle of your form to be broken.  It takes a lot of concentration!

Then I gave my camera to an ant, who took this picture for me:

 

In the closing ceremonies, the City States (Korah was in Athens) gathered and their "Priest/ess" gave them a gold medal and told them what physical attributes she was impressed with during the games.

 

Then the King of Athens told Korah all the character attributes he had noticed in her over the last day.  She had made fast friends with the girl on her left, and he was impressed with her attitude and congeniality.  This was a proud moment, indeed!

 

Korah is a fantastic runner!  And a really amazing kid, if I do say so myself.

I found a great article from the Oregonian about the Olympiad at Camp Namanu here if you'd like to read more about it.  I took a whole role of film, too, which I am quite excited about.  If any of them turn out any good, I'll have to show them off some day...