Finished Pottery Wheel products!

Today we got to pick up our plates from the Pottery Wheel. Claire was super excited and said that she was proud of herself for how good it turned out! She is very excited to do this again when Shannon and Grandma Rachel come to visit!

Claire did a plate she can eat off of, I did more of a bowl/dish that I can use as a candy dish for Christmas! 

Pottery class!

Claire and I had a free Saturday afternoon so I signed us up to take a pottery class. This was so much fun! We got to each make our own plate, got to paint it, and will get to pick them up in about 2 weeks!

We each had our own pottery wheel and were taught how to form the clay into a plate.

Once we had our plates into the shape we liked, we were able to pick out multiple colors of paints and paint our plates.

I went with a Christmas color theme, while Claire chose something that would match well in our kitchen.  The coolest part is we can eat off these plates, they can go into the microwave, dishwasher, and even the oven! We had so much fun doing this and are excited to do this again when Grandma Rachel and Aunt Shannon come to visit!

 

8th grade Cotillion

Claire joined the Cotillion Twist and Shout Chapter for the year. This is a monthly class that teaches etiquette and dance with the opposite gender. There is a strict dress code and the boys and girls have to introduce themselves to each other properly and then rotate dance partners 4-5 times throughout the night. Jeff and I were chaperones for the first class and we were very impressed with all of the effort and excitement we saw, along with lots of nervous young adults. Great to see these amazing kids come out of their comfort zone and learn how to best treat people and interact in society, along with learning how to properly dance together.

 

October swim meet- first 1000 meter swim!

At the October swim meet, Claire had a 500 on Saturday morning and then had to return Sunday to swim her first ever 1000! She rocked them both and even ended up coming in 4th out of the eight 13 year olds who swam it! She came in with a time of 12 minutes 10 seconds!

Her coach, Coach Rick, was very impressed with her effort and told us he was planning on training her to swim the mile soon!

 After all the hard work and swimming 8 events, Madelyn, Claire, and Abigail stopped for a treat at Jeremiah's before heading home for the weekend!

Mother/Daughter weekend at Camp Cho-Yeh!

Claire and I went to a Christian camp this past weekend for a mother/daughter weekend, a time to just focus on each other and grow closer in our relationship and go closer to Christ. We had beautiful weather and got to try so many new things! What a blessing it was to spend this time with Claire!

Our cabin housed 18 people and had an attached bathroom with showers. 

This is the treehouse. Next to it is a big tube slide that you go down on a sled. We had fun screaming all the way down and racing to see who could come out the bottom first and who went the farthest when we shot out the bottom! I usually came out first but Claire definitely went farther than I did!

One of Claire's favorite activities...carpet ball! We played this more times than I can count!

Behind us is the trail we had to take through the woods to get to the worship hall. The worship hall is where we met to have a time of worship and a time to hear from 4 different speakers. They were all excellent and we left with some very great advice!

Zipline was super fun. Too bad the wait was long, otherwise we would have gone more than once!

Claire made it to the top of this rope wall and rang the bell! When she got down, her arms were very tired!

We had to take a break from all the busy activities to stop in the trading post to get some Blue Bell ice cream! 

Claire gave it a shot at the one wheel. It was super hard to balance but after a few tries holding onto me, she was able to get around a bit on her own. I also tried it but was too unsteady to let go of Claire!

Claire loved this swing! She started out on her bottom, but by the time we were done, she was trying all kinds of tricks on it! 

I had to give it a try too! The breeze was a nice way to cool off a bit on a balmy 96 degree day!

Saturday evening we got to have a special time of sharing our letters with our daughters and they got to share their letters with us. Then we went to center field and had smores

and a silent disco party!

At the end of the trip, Claire insisted on taking all the luggage to the truck. What an incredible weekend watching God at work! So blessed to have such an amazing child of God to take care of!