Maifest 2014

 Bonnie with her chaperone, David Severance (Also known as Father Christmas)

 Bonnie with all of the Bavarian participants for this year's Maifest.

 The Idleweiss Dance Class entertaining the crowd with the May Pole dance before the parade.

 The Alpen Horn players from the Enzian Inn start off the parade.  (It is impossible to see these guys without singing "Riccolla" in your head.)

 The Distinguished Young Woman of Leavenworth cart.  

Bonnie rode with Mady Harris the 2013 DYWL

 Mady handed over the title of Distinguished Young Woman of Leavenworth to Bonnie.  

Bonnie then gave her speech welcoming the crowd to Leavenworth.

 Bonnie with Cindy Pucket (2014 Royal Lady of Leavenworth), Mady Harris, and Carolyn Wilson (Leavenworth's Mayor Pro-Temp)

Winding Down the Year

School is winding down...I wish life was....sigh...

Two more weeks and we can close the book on this school year.  Already, I have begun making plans for next year, however, when I think I have it all planned out something comes up and makes me reconsider my plans.  This is what I know, Bonnie will attend a second year at Wenatchee Valley College and finish the requirements for an Associates of Art degree.  The one hiccup is that I learned she will most likely have to take the Washington State history class to receive her high school diploma, so we will have to figure out how to accomplish that.  I don't think they have a course at the college for it.  Brian will attend Cascade High School next year.  He has resigned himself to that fact and seems to be dealing better with each day.  My dilemma is what to do with Bryce.  This year has helped me focus on what areas we need to concentrate on next year.  I had decided to purchase the Institute for Excellence in Writing and make writing our main area of focus. We would use Apologia General Science.  I already have the book.  More importantly, I have the book on mp3 which is important for Bryce since reading is a struggle for him.  For history we will continue to work our way through history.  We left off this year with President Grover Cleveland, so we will pick up with him and work our way through current events.  For math Bryce is planning on finishing up 7th grade math during the summer so that he can start Pre-Algebra next year.

All of that sounds great, but last weekend another home school mom told me about a co-op in Wenatchee and encouraged me to look into it.  I have heard about one of the co-op teachers ever since we moved here, and how awesome he is. Now I am thinking this might be the best route for Bryce next year.  The co-op meets once a week in the mornings.  I could sign Bryce up for an English class that focuses on writing, a spelling class that uses a curriculum that I already own, and a Pre-Algebra class.  (They use Saxon.)  The benefits of the co-op is that Bryce will be accountable to another teacher, have a group of kids to meet with, and it will help him make that transition to high school when the time comes.  The cons are $$$.  So....it is a matter I need to pray over this summer. 

Let's just say that in two weeks you might just hear this gal let out a sigh of relief.  This year can't end soon enough.

Apple Blossom

Today Bonnie performed her first duty as the Distinguished Young Woman of Leavenworth by walking in the Apple Blossom Parade in Wenatchee with Leavenworth's Autumn Leaf Festival Float and Royal Ladies.

 The parade started at 11 am this morning.  Floats had to be on sight at 8 am.  Fortunately, Bonnie didn't have to be there that early.  We did arrive an hour early which gave us time to walk around and visit the other floats.  Bonnie found her dream car while we meandered around. 

 Bonnie with her chaperone, David Severance, also known as, Father Christmas at the Leavenworth Christmas Lighting Festivals.

 Bonnie with Leavenworth's new Royal Lady, Cindy Puckett.

Bonnie with the Royal Bavarians.

While waiting for the parade to start, all the royalty from all the floats gathered together and started line dancing.  It was a lot of fun to watch.  At one point, the got all of the girls to gather around the Leavenworth float and do our traditional dance, The Chicken Dance!

 After the dancing everyone got on their floats and then it was time to wait some more.  Our float was number 87.  They said it takes about a minute a float to get in position and go so if you do the math that means it takes over an hour after the parade starts before our float would even head out the gate. 

 Bonnie receiving some last minute instructions on how to chicken dance.  Bonnie and the Royal Bavarians chicken danced all the way down the three mile parade route.

Finally off!

I really didn't get to see the parade.  Bonnie wanted me to hang out with her until they left and since the parade had already been going for an hour there was no way for me to run down to watch it .  I did hang around the gate to watch the final entries that left after Bonnie.  Then headed to the car to wait for Bonnie's chaperone to deliver her back to me.

She and I had a lot of fun today. 

Guess what?  We get to do it all over again next week.