School's Out!

 Friday was our last official day of school for the 2019-2020 school year!  As always, there are some things that we'll continue through the summer, but once we have officially declared the year over, we can take the day to do something fun and not feel at all guilty about it!

 We had our traditional food flags--sorry I am not sure how to put these all in one pic on the desktop!

We've been doing these a long time!

This summer is going to look quite a bit different than recent years.  Camps have been postponed and the fair is not going to happen as planned.  Alice isn't signed up for any kinds of classes at all!  Jack is going to be swimming again and hopefully will be working some, too.  We're definitely disappointed to miss out on some of these things, but on the bright side, we're hoping that we'll have more time for the pool and some day trips, too!

Katherine Applegate

 The Zarrow Award presentation has been a tradition in our family for years.  I went to my first one in 1998 and when we moved back to Oklahoma I traveled back to Tulsa most years to go with friends.  In 2013, I took the kids for the first time.  The winner that year was Jim Murphy.

 In 2014, the winner was Jack Gantos.

 I'm not sure why I didn't have the kids take a picture together...

 2015 was Sharon Draper

 2016 was Gordon Korman

 2017 was Laurie Halse Anderson

 2018 was Pam Munoz Ryan

 2019 Was Rita Williams Garcia

 We often go with friends and make a whole evening of it with dinner before and dessert afterward, and fun conversation in the line waiting to get our books signed.  So we were really excited when it was announced that the 2020 winner was Katherine Applegate, who wrote The One and Only Ivan, which is a big favorite here.

 Alice loved the story so much she used the picture book version as the basis for her dramatic reading entry at the Communication Rally a couple of years ago.

 We were disappointed that the presentation was on Zoom instead of in person this year, so we threw our own party!

 She's written tons of books, but we based ours on The One and Only Ivan.

 We had canvas cookies, since Ivan is an artist.

 Some of his subjects to snack on...

 And lots of other yummy things from the book!

   

We watched it live on YouTube while we ate!

 She included pictures of Ivan in her talk--that's him on the left.

 The mall where he lived

 Ivan in captivity at the mall

 Ivan living at the zoo with other gorillas!

The sequel, The One and Only Bob, comes out Tuesday and our copy should be here by 5 pm, so we'll be starting it right away!

Week Six

 Last Tuesday we had the best time at Lake Bixhoma!  It was hot and sunny and the water felt great!

 If pools don't open this summer we're definitely going to be here a bunch!

 Wednesday my calendar was very appropriate!

 That night we had a frog visitor.  I hope we have a bunch of frogs like we did last spring and summer!

 Thursday we went to fill the Blessing Box since it was YFR's week to maintain it.

 It was also William Shakespeare's birthday so we participated in a Bard-Day Party hosted by Maryrose Wood through Your Morning Basket.

 All week we listened to Grace Lin read from Where The Mountain Meets the Moon, which we had gotten a copy of when she came for Books to Treasure almost 9 years ago!

 While we listened, I worked on a puzzle!

 Sunday evening we went on a picnic (a friend posted a recipe for Schlotzsky's bread and it is sooo good and easy!) and the weather was beautiful again!

Last night we had our first 4H meeting on Zoom!  Technically things will be open here at the end of the week, but I'm not sure how that's going to change things for us too much at this point as gatherings of over 10 are still restricted.  Some of the kids' activities are over for the year now anyway, so I guess we'll slowly ease back into things.  After being home this long it's definitely going to be a big adjustment getting back to going out on a regular basis!

Scavenger Hunt Vacation

 We were supposed to leave for Branson last Thursday for a trip to see Jay's aunt and have some fun.  Obviously that didn't happen, so we tried to come up with something fun to do.  Friday we went on a scavenger hunt for Tulsa landmarks.

 Our first stop was the Tulsa mural.  Kind of small and disappointing to not be able to get very close, but I get that they don't want it vandalized.  There are actually some much larger murals downtown that would be fun to do a scavenger hunt with.

 Then we made a quick stop at the Center of the Universe!

 Buck Atom's is on 11th Street.  I haven't been inside, but it looks like they have some neat things!

 We hit another Route 66 spot next.

 East Meets West

 Woodward Park was beautiful!

 The Golden Driller

We stopped for some Brownie's for lunch!

 

Our last two stops were at ORU.  First, the Praying Hands.

 

Thanks to Joe, the ORU security guard who told us where to go to get the Prayer Tower in the background since the campus was closed and we couldn't get very close.

Not the fun time we had planned, but we had a good time anyway.  This morning an Elisabeth Elliot quote popped up in my Facebook memories that seemed appropriate for these times:

"It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than resentful over what is withheld.  One attitude or the other becomes a way of life."