Paint Night

Every year our church does two ladies retreats - one in the spring and one in the fall. This past September we did an If:Gathering by holding an If:Local event. This was a women's retreat that was actually held globally via a live event and streaming. We watched the videos of that earlier event at our retreat. The teaching was excellent. 

A result of that meeting, however, were monthly If:Table events. These are fun activities that we do to stay connected or get connected with other ladies in our church. Our church is not that large in all actuality or compared to many city churches. However, we do meet in a old, small country church. Folks are seated in the main sanctuary, the balcony, and then the cafe/fellowship area which doubles as our overflow space. As a result, you can actually miss seeing people. Many of us have cringed when we introduced ourselves to a "new" person only to find out they have been coming not just for months, but potentially years! This is one reason I enjoy the If:Table events. 

In October and November we did a Paint Night at our church. These are very popular these days but most are held in local restaurants or bars. While I have no problem with that, I was also very much looking forward to enjoying one at my church (yes, I have gone to a Paint Nite held in a different location). 

The event was so popular that the tickets for October were sold out so we added another one in November which is the one I attended. Our final project is the first photo I shared above and yes, that is my painting. 

The first time they did this, they had a potluck dinner but found it took up so much time to eat and then set up, that they were there really late. For our event in November, we did a dessert potluck. It was great to socialize with some ladies from church and eat some yummy goodies. Then we started working on our projects. I like my final painting from this event much better than I did from the first event I went to.

We had quite a few ladies come out. I'm not sure how many were there, but I think about 25-30. I know they plan to do other events for If:Table, but I'm hoping they do another Paint Night soon!

Snow Much Fun

Today there was the Spruce Mountain Sled-In in the next town over from where we live. My hubby is the coordinator of the event. Aside from the vintage snow machines that came to do radar runs, there was a HUGE sliding hill with three runs down it, sleigh rides pulled by more snow machines, a snow shoe race, and a snow sculpture contest. There were food vendors, raffles, and a huge bonfire as well. And it was sunny! We've had very few sunny days it seems this winter. 

My 4-H Club entered the snow sculpture contest. Last year was the first year for this event and no one entered the contest. There were cash prizes! This year I was happy when my 4-H club agreed to enter. We had no idea until today how many other people we would be competing against. For the first hour we worked, we thought we were the only ones! However, eventually three other groups showed up. Everyone worked hard on their sculptures and the above photo was our final entry.

We made the 4-H four leaf clover and a GPS unit since that is our focus this year. The name of our club is the 4-H Adventure Seekers. This year we are focusing on a GPS/GIS project. We'll see what the following years bring. 

Our snowy GPS unit

I was extremely impressed by all the work the kids did. We had about a foot of powdery snow on the ground. We had to create our own mounds of snow to make our sculpture. The kids hauled a ton of it and packed it down and created a 3-D model of the 4-H clover. I'm beyond bursting at all the help we had and all the work that was put in. I had hoped it would only take a couple hours, but it took almost three full hours to make the above. 

This photo just shows the shear size of our sculpture. I took this on full zoom on my phone from the top of the hill near the center of activities. The 4-wheeler on tracks was hauling kids back up to the top of the sliding hill. 

We did place second which means we finally have some much needed funds for our club. The kids worked hard - super hard - and I'm very proud of the club I'm involved with. 

Fun Fine Arts

We've been having a year full of outside activities that fall under the "Fine Arts" heading for learning. We've been going to see some wonderful plays, attending art classes, and we have tickets to the symphony later this spring.

We are truly blessed to have a local Opera House host school shows four times a year. They are typically very well done. We've been attending them for about the last three years and in that time we've only seen two where we though, "Eh, that wasn't all that great." Typically we leave raving about the show and discussing all we liked. Today was one of those days.

We attended a play called "The Civil War." Above are the five actors who portrayed multiple characters in the show. The gentleman at the far left portrayed about five generals for the Union, a father, and numerous Union soldiers as well as Confederate soldiers all while singing and dancing too!

Here is a YouTube montage of the play. The show is done by TheaterWorksUSA. They travel all over and put on the production. This troupe of actors was heading to New Hampshire after performing two shows today. The actors in the montage below are different than the ones who did the play today.

My favorite part was that all my boys enjoyed it and learned something about the Civil War they didn't already know. As an added bonus, we were able to visit a bit with friends we don't see as much since we've moved. A good day all the way around.

Blasting

Our 4H group is currently working on our educational display for the summer fair season. Our broad topic was "Backyard Ballistics." We've since narrowed it down to one aspect of that. However, in the meantime we've had fun trying our various "ballistic" type experiments.

This past week after our regular meeting had concluded, we all headed outside to try out the very fun "Diet Coke/Mentos" experiment. We actually decided to test various types of soda as well as the regular mint flavored Mentos vs. the fruit flavored ones.

The clear winner was a generic Diet Cola and Mint Mentos (five to be exact)....

It blew about ten feet in the air. We are lucky enough to have one Dad who has the day off and comes to our meetings. He happily did this experiment for the kids to observe. Saved us from having soda soaked kiddos.

We tried a number of different sodas, but none blew as high as the first (and best).

We had orange....

Caffeine-free Diet Coke...

And even a hefty 3-liter of Ginger Ale...

All in all the kids had a fantastic time (and so did we!).

And just for fun...check out this video of another Coke/Mentos experiment... 

Way Cool!

I saw this video on a friend's blog. It's super cool. I watched it twice. Enjoy.

Loopie Friends

The boys and I recently spent a weekend in Massachusetts. The catalyst for the adventure was the opportunity to meet up with some "loopie" friends. That is - people I have never met in person but only know via an on-line Yahoo groups. Kind of cool huh? Unless you are in law enforcement. Then you probably think I'm crazy.

Cynthia is the one who started it all happening. She causally mentioned a couple months ago that her family would be heading out to the east coast for a family vacation. They live out west. Cynthia started the Yahoo Group I belong to and I knew this would be neat opportunity to meet in person - so I asked her what she thought. She jumped at it and soon there were a handful of families who wanted to try to put something together.

This past Friday it all come together.

The day started out in an interesting manner. I was staying north of Boston with a friend. She was also going in to Boston on Friday for a field trip with her homeschool group and was meeting them at the T-station. I told her she could not leave me alone until I was heading in the right direction with the boys. I knew I would have to transfer trains and I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing.

I had just bought my T-tickets when I heard someone say, "Lisa?" I turned and looked at a lady I had never ever seen before in my life. She promptly said, "It's Renee!" Renee is one of the loopie friends I was heading to meet! I didn't realize she lived very close to my friend. At the last minute she decided to take the T rather than drive in to Boston and we managed to run in to each other right there at the T-station. I told my friend she was off the hook & Renee and I and our kiddos all got to enjoy (can one enjoy a T-ride???) the ride to Boston getting to know each other.

Once there we made our way to the Museum of Science and the rest of the ladies started arriving. It was a lot of fun to finally see real live people rather than photos on blogs or hearing a "voice" via e-mail. My only wish was to have more "mom-time" to talk. It was hard with all the kiddos in tow to get a chance to really talk with the other moms. I managed to sneak in some time but not near as much as I had hoped.

Oh, I suppose you'd all like to see some photos right? They aren't the best but they are the only ones I have.

Left to right...Laura from CT, Jeannine from NH, Jodi from NH, moi, Deb from NNY, Renee from MA, and Cynthia from Montana

This photo was taken as Christy had already gone in to the museum when we did the one above.

Left to right...Deb from NNY, Cynthia from Montana, Laura from CT, moi, and Christy from ME

I have photos of my boys at the Museum of Science playing and also at the Higgins Armory Museum that we visited on Saturday over at my "homeschool log" blog.

Casting Crowns

Way back in early December I may have mentioned that I was going to be able to see Casting Crowns (CC) in concert. I was psyched since they are one of my absolutely favorite CCM bands (that’s contemporary Christian music).  Miss H’s mom had gifted us two tickets to the concert as part of her Christmas gift to us. I was blown away. Not just because she bought us tickets, but she bought us VIP tickets. She even bought them without fully realizing what VIP would get us. We soon found out and we were able to experience it this post Sunday. It was so worth it.

After some miscommunication by various volunteers we finally made our way to the “VIP” area. Remember when my hubby and I saw Newboys back in November? We had “gold member” tickets then that allowed for a “meet and greet.” We were allowed in early, ushered to a holding room, and then taken through another room to meet with the band. We were even each given a CD that the band could sign.

Jen and Robin waiting to backstage. 
Yes, I know it’s out of focus. Hubby is leaning out of the photo but my camera picked up on his jacket to focus on. 
It’s the only photo I had of the two of them so here it is.

CC had the same deal for their VIP - kind of. We finally found our way  literally backstage and were ushered into a section of seating that was behind the stage. We had a bit of a wait. Then CC’s road manager came out to talk for a bit. The poor gal. She’s actually Mark Hall’s wife (lead singer of CC). She first told us she was their road manager – minor applause for her. Then she mentioned how she was married to Mark – wild applause.


Shortly after this Mark Hall himself came out. What a great guy. Seriously. He’s a youth pastor and he’s very personable. He had us laughing and just seemed to really be enjoying himself.



Kutlass was also singing. They came out first as a group to chat with us as well. They all shared a bit about themselves with us and just welcomed us to the concert. They seemed very down to earth.


I do apologize for the quality of some of these photos. I was so far up behind the stage and it was so dark that it was difficult to get good photos. I was using a “night” setting on the camera so I do catch “ghosts” of movement.

Then the whole CC band came out. Again, they each talked to us and told us who they were, what they played, and what they do at home. I found it interesting that they typically only travel Thursday through Saturday. This allows them to be home for Sundays since all of them play for the worship at their own church – including CC! They did make mention about how unusual it was for them to be gone on a Sunday.

This shows how far back I was – this was taken without any zoom. 

This really didn’t last very long – maybe 10-15 minutes tops. By this time the concert was getting ready to start so we made our way to our seats. Oh, did I mention that the tickets – that Robin bought before the local radio stations even started advertising the concert – gave us front row center seats! They were seriously the best seats I have ever had for a concert. Thanks once more, Robin!

The opening band was called “Caleb.” I had stumbled on a blog a month or so ago and found out that “Caleb” is none other than Steven Curtis Chapman’s sons – Caleb and Will Chapman! And that blog...it was Mary Chapman's.

It was neat to see them in concert and to see CC giving them a chance to get established in the music industry. This is actually the second time hubby and I have seen CC in concert. The very first time was about six years ago when they were the first act of a concert with Chris Tomlin and Steven Curtis Chapman! It’s come full circle now I think.

Caleb did have the words of his songs projected up on screens if folks wanted to sing along. He talked about one song he wrote for some friends who were hurting after the loss of a loved one. Then he mentioned about their family tragedy and the loss of his sister – Maria Sue. This family has certainly gone through quite a bit with loosing her.

The next act was Kutlass. All I can say is – WOW! I have heard some of their songs before so I knew their sound. Of course, it is always far more powerful live. And this song - amazing - this is what they opened their set with and it was an amazing song to hear them sing.

I thought I had taken more photos of them while they performed. Apparently I was too busy singing. I had a few others but they were too blurry to use. I’ll mention here – I took 72 photos at the concert. I deleted the really bad ones and still had about 60 to pick from. Most were of CC. So I'll start with photos of all the band members....

Mark Hall – lead singer of Casting Crowns
  Megan Garrett – piano and vocals
  Brian Scoggin – drums

Juan DeVevo – guitar and vocals

Be sure to read his blog post. He mentions something really neat that happened in Portland. I remember the two men he was talking about. They were just a few spots down from where we were sitting.

Chris Huffman – bass and vocals

Hector Cervantes – lead guitar and vocals

  Melodee DeVevo – vocals and violin

Anyone local...be sure to ask Jen about the hand thing. ;-) Well, okay, I’ll share it here since this is getting really long anyway!

After the show was all over, we ended up getting in line for autographs. We first went through a line for Kutlass. Then we did the line for CC. The CC group was amazing – not that Kutlass wasn’t – but everyone in the CC band reached out to shake our hand, ask our name, greeted us personally. It was very nice. Jen was two people back from me. While riding home we were, of course, chatting about the concert and Jen mentioned how “the violin player” wouldn’t shake her hand. She told, "I'm sorry. I can't shake hands." However, I was pretty sure I had shaken her hand. Jen sent a text to another friend who had been in line behind us. Sure enough, she had shaken Melodee’s hand as well. We still aren’t quite sure why she wouldn’t shake Jen’s, but we all thought it hilarious. We also used copious amounts of hand sanitizer - just in case.

Overall we had a fantastic time. Here are a few more photos of the night.

I took this while Mark was singing “East to West.”

My friend Jen and I. She took the photo!
  Hubby and I. 
Yup – we’re old now and wear ear plugs during concerts. 
I think it actually makes them sound better as it cuts out a lot of the extra noise.

We had a fantastic night. The only downer…it was a Sunday night concert and we never got home until 1am. That made for a very early Monday morning!

B13 was also here. This is probably the first concert he remembers going to.  Hubby and I did take N8 and B13 to a concert to see Chris Rice but they were young. I think B13 was only about eight or so at the time. It was a short concert by Chris Rice followed by a Portland Pirates ice hockey game. They enjoyed the game immensely - the concert? Not so much. I have no photos of B13 since he went with the youth group. Maybe he'll talk about it on his blog. If so, I'll link it up later.

Cheap Fun

One of my favorite features of Google Reader is that I can "star" a post that I like. It is then saved in my "starred items" area & I can scroll through to find it again or even do a search for it.

Back in March I saw a really neat idea on Her Cup Overfloweth about making a roadway using painters tape & a Sharpie marker. I saved it knowing that my boys would love this idea but I needed to pick up some painters tape.

Just a few days ago I noticed we still happened to have some hanging in the shop leftover from our trailer renovation. I managed to snag it down from the hook it was on (have I ever mentioned I'm short? LOL) & set up a roadway in our living room.

The best for me? My middle son, N, said, "Mom, I love this. Do you want to know why? Because you made it for us." That made my day.

PS: The boys are scrounging for boxes out of our recyclables & added to their town as I type.

Fun at the Park (aka A Sunny Day)

On a rare sunny day here in Maine (no, I haven't moved but the sunny days have been few & far between this spring. Forecast for this week - ALL week - you guessed it: rain.) I took my boys to a local park to play for a bit. They are always up for a park day whether we have friends to play with or not.

Just last year the town that this park is in redid the whole thing. Before it was a very old wooden structure without much for the kids to do but pick up splinters in their hands.

However, now they can play at being pirates....

speeding superheroes trying for lift-off....

or just looking cute for the camera for mom.