Pledges for Piano Practice

Sarah is currently raising money for our local music teacher's association chapter. She is taking pledges this week and then will be practicing furiously next week. We wanted to put this on our blog in case anyone out there wants to help!

Here is a note that she wrote:
I'm working really hard trying to raise money for our Music Teacher's Association this week. I'm trying to collect pledges of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters for each minute of piano practice that I do next week. If you would rather, you can make a one-time gift rather than a pledge per minute. Just so you know, I practice about 250 minutes in a normal week. Will you join me as I try to raise money for the association?

And here is a little further information regarding the project:

Thank you for your support of the 2012 MRC Practice-A-Thon. MRC teachers and students are making practice a priority during the week of March 4-10. Our mission is to strengthen our practice habits while supporting Mt. Rainier Chapter's High School Seniors in its efforts to raise money for the Senior Scholarship Fund. This fund is being used to aid students to continue their musical studies beyond high school. The pledge money that is collected will also help to fund the Muriel Carnes Tuition Grant Award, which provides temporary financial help for students so that their music studies might continue in times of needy circumstances.

We Have a Doctor in the House!

Ruth decided to help heal her friends of all their sicknesses. :)

Catching Up

I was pulling pictures off of Garth's camera yesterday, so need to catch up with a few blog posts. In early January we enjoyed my brother and his family who visited us from Alaska. Even though it was cold and a pretty windy, we took the kids to the park one day for some fresh air. They have a fun, unique swing there that all of them wanted to try.

A Trip to the Aquarium

Before baby arrives, I wanted to do one more field trip with the kids. We had never been to the aquarium here before and I found a great deal on Groupon, so we decided now was the time for a trip! We had such a great time and the amount of things to see was just right for my kids' attention span, so we decided to upgrade to the annual membership. The kids enjoyed the touch pools the most. In fact, we went back there 3 times during our trip through the aquarium. Ruth loved the bubbles in the water and the other three enjoyed touching the various sea animals in the pools. The aquarium employees on duty there were very helpful in explaining what the various sea creatures were and even took some of them out of the water into a smaller tub where the kids could see them better.

When we got home, the two older kids wrote reports on something new they had learned that day and drew pictures to go along with it. I highly recommend the aquarium to anybody that lives in this area!

By the end, Ruth was e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d.

Here are a few pictures of the touch pools.

Having fun at the aquarium!

Watching the diver in the tank, feeding the fish.

Jellyfish!

The seal pulled itself up and decided to get some sun right in front of us!