Random mentionables

Renae played basketball for the first time this year.  She was able to have some playing time and really enjoyed it.  This was one night that we convince Grandpa to come watch her play.

Feb. 2018

At the end of March, Lyn & I flew away for a few days.  We landed in Tampa and rented an air bnb apartment.  It was about 10 min from Madiera Beach.  Our days were pretty low key and we stayed up way later then normal and had slow mornings.  We did go to a Phillies spring training game, but otherwise just explored different beaches, downtown St. Pete, and some touristy areas.  We were there in the height of spring break, so after 3 days, we were ready to get away from all the people.  It was one of the first times since our honeymoon that we didn't see any relatives, or attend any meetings, or have any kids with us!

Sunset over Gulf of Mexico

March is a busy birthday month at our house.  Here are the 3 with March birthdays.  We celebrated when Darryn & Ericka were home for Easter.

Darryn - 23; Ericka - 21; Dwight - 18

And here is the youngest member of the family, in case you have forgotten about him.  

Dexter

Hunting "Firsts" in 2018

Back in Jan/Feb was Canadian Goose season.  Renae was able to go with Lyn one day after school and she bagged her first goose.

 

This was the whole group's bounty.  Limit is 2 each.

Renae modeling face paint

There was a youth hunt day after the regular season was over so 3 dads took these kids out one Saturday and Devan got his first goose.  They all limited out.

Morgan, Chandler, Cody & Devan

(Don't be fooled by the 2 decoys on the left)

And in April, Devan bagged his first turkey.  He & Lyn were able to call it in and his story is that it took the turkey a half hour to come 30 yards into shooting range.  He was strutting his stuff to what he thought was a pretty female calling him.

10" beard, 1 1/4" spurs, 19 lb. 11 oz.

 

Math League

Well, this is Devan's year for awards!  Devan has been participating in Math League at school this year.  Both public and private schools participate in the same league.  There are 11 regions in the state and the 8th grade GMS team got 2nd in their region.  (they compete against other 8th graders)  Not only that, but Devan tied for 3rd place in the region with his individual score.  What is Math League?  I'm not totally sure.... parents aren't allowed to be at the meets.  They basically have these math problems to solve and they get scored by how many they get right both individually and as a team.  They say it's a pretty big deal to get far enough to get an award.

Devan with his award and his math teacher, Mr. Chaffinch.

The team got one big trophy and individual medals.

Dwight also participated in this in 8th grade and had pretty high scores and got to go to the award ceremony as well, but with honorable mention.  What was really interesting to see was that the kids who had the very highest individual scores in the state were almost all from Asian or Middle Eastern descent.  Good job, Devan!

Sweet Sixteen

The girl wanted donuts!  Dunkin Donut boston cream donuts.  I got an assortment to please everyone.  Easiest cake ever!

She has been waiting for this day.  She can now start learning to drive.  Happy Birthday, Renae.

Fire Prevention Essay

So every year at GMS, the kids grades K-8 have been required to participate in the State of DE Fire Prevention Poster & Essay Contest.  It's usually done with a bit of "this again?" type of attitude.  The younger grades make posters and middle school writes essays.  Each grade has a different topic that they are supposed to write about.  This was Devan's last year to have to do this.  The topic for 8th grade was "How to escape from a building that's not your home."

We found out in Dec. that Devan's essay was selected as one of the top 3 for 8th grade in Sussex Co.  They had a dinner in honor of the event, but we didn't go to it for various reasons.  Low and behold, out of the 3 he got first place.  So.... he then got invited to another dinner which all the first place winners in the state were invited to.

We took Devan, dragging him by his toenails, because we thought it was important for him to go.  It was a nice dinner with a little speech from the lieutenant governor and some important firemen.  Then they had the awards of giving 1st, 2nd, & 3rd per grade.  Devan got 2nd place and had to go stand up front on an awards podium.

After that they went into the firehouse and had more pics.

They were also given an envelope along with the cool award which had some cash peaking through a window.... a $5 bill.  On the way to the car, we were jokingly talking about whether there was more 5's hiding behind it.  When he opened the envelope, out fell $75!!!  All of a sudden, having to go to the awards dinner & ceremony wasn't so bad!!  Good job, Devan!

Christmas Break

Every year over Christmas break, this happens......

I usually like to clean up the trash as we go.  This year I was told to "stay sitting." This is a picture of the aftermath.

This also happens every year, 3 days after Christmas......

Happy 14th, Devan

This year something happened that I don't remember ever happening before.  We had such cold weather for a long enough period of time and we had the best hard clear ice for skating on the ponds (even though we had a 1/2 inch skiff of snow to scrap away.)  It was during Christmas break and some cousins were here and the kids brought the New Year in by skating in the moonlight.  Oh.... and they also hooked up a cool disco light as well.  Great memories!

Renae, Jewel, Sarah, Melanie, Ericka, and DANIEL

It was nice while it lasted.... which was about 5 days once it was thick enough..... and then we got a 6 inch snow followed by a thaw.

Random Stuff

In looking through photos, I found a few random things that missed getting put on the blog.  Here is one from a fishing trip that Lyn, Darryn & Devan went on late summer.  They went out 60 miles in the ocean to catch mahi, mahi.  They caught a bunch of smaller ones but Devan got the biggest.

46" Mahi, Mahi

Dwight has been playing around with a forge, thanks to some supplies and things he got from his Uncle Brian.

His friend Ryan is assisting.

So far, no finished products.

Mostly just playing with fire.....

And speaking of fire.......... this happened........

The big 5-0